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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

BGR Report - Master Plan - Citizen Participation

Click here to read the BGR's report

Key points in the BGR that I personally agree with:

- Develop a participation system that connects neighborhoods directly to the City Planning Commission.

- Redraw the planning district boundaries (as necessary) to better reflect neighborhood boundaries and interconnections.

- Deploy planning staff in a strategic manner. (AMEN! HALLELUJAH!, especially if this means that neighborhoods get a planner who will know the neighborhoods and the people and understand hot button issues and hopes because there is an existing direct relationship - see the first bullet)

- On matters that affect two or more neighborhoods, bring the relevant neighborhoods together. (We're probably talking to each other already, but YES please bring the affected neighborhoods together!)

- Require an official response to neighborhood concerns. (Yes, please make this required. It happens sometimes. It would be great if it were consistently done.)

- Either extend the comment period for the draft master plan or remove the community participation program from the draft plan. (Yes... a new layer of semi-elected, unofficials scare the bejessus out of me! Let the CPC work directly with concerned citizens and neighborhood groups. I know they, CPC, know how to do this.)

Thanks very much but the one thing that we have PROVEN, REPEATEDLY is that we can quite effectively speak for ourselves.

Jenel Hazlett

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