Citizens shaping the spaces around them

How a carefully layered participatory planning process gave community residents a voice in municipal spending.

Deciding how to spend money on neighbourhood infrastructure improvements is no mean feat. Which projects get the money over others, or do you divide the spend evenly across all potential ventures? Assuming a split according to greatest needs, how do you prioritize those needs? And the execution of such a large taxpayer spend  undoubtedly comes with public scrutiny and opinion. In Hamilton Ontario, municipal officials consequently turned to a team of planning and public participation experts at Civicplan to engage citizens over a nine-month period, making sure the following budget rollout would truly meet the needs and expectations of Ward One’s local residents.

Read the full case study at the Ontario Professional Planners Institute.