Using technology to boost participatory planning

The use of technology to help with public engagement in the planning process has seen a big boost during the COVID pandemic. While physical distancing requirements have limited traditional models of engagement, such as PICs or open houses, it has also exposed how, in many ways, these methods are no longer the best and only ways to effectively engage residents in shaping the future of their communities.

Effective use of engagement tech is about more than doing the same in a digital space. If the best we can do is hold a video chat in lieu of an in-person meeting or post a PowerPoint presentation on a website, we are not seizing the full potential of technology. At its best, engagement tech can be used to reshape the planning process, not just how we engage. There are examples of how technology can take engagement to another level and, in some cases, flip the script on the traditional planner-citizen dynamic. Engagement tech is giving citizens a whole host of new ways to not only participate in traditional planning processes, but to help shape and initiate those processes themselves.

Click here to read the full article from Y Magazine of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute