Post in Afton Minnesota Master Plan Drafting Wiki

Mar 26 15:32 UTC

Check out:
http://planforafton.editme.com/

Why:
http://planforafton.editme.com/why
Why are we doing this?
At the January 14, 2008 community workshop, residents were asked to list
what they felt were the greatest challenges facing the City of Afton.
Participants were allowed to vote on each others statements. The top
vote getter was the following statement:

Express our valid differences of opinion while maintaining civility to
one another.

The standard process for assembling a comprehensive plan does not always
lend itself well to public participation. Residents who may not be
actively involved, but nonetheless have passionate opinions and valuable
input, are typically asked to attend meetings at inconvenient hours. At
those meetings, the information they are given is limited, as is their
input. All too often the loudest voices triumph and many valuable
thoughts leave the room locked in the frustrated minds of the disaffected.

For this plan update, we have chosen an entirely different approach. The
two all-day workshops we have held thus far were designed to accommodate
the modern busy schedule. We created an environment that allowed for the
maximum amount of public input in a non-confrontational and completely
transparent way. Most participants thanked us for the effort and a few
even remarked that they had fun participating.

In Afton we are fortunate to have a group of residents that are highly
connected. Every participant in the process thus far has been able to
provide us with an email address, reaffirming to us that most Afton
residents have on-line access. We opted to take advantage of this and
continue the public engagement process on-line. By doing this, we hope
to accomplish the following:

*
Increase Community Involvement – We had a good turnout for both public
workshops and had quite a few new faces at each. Having the entire draft
plan on-line for this phase of the process is going to allow us to reach
even more residents and provide them with a quality opportunity to give
feedback and guidance.
*
Increase Transparency – We know we need to build confidence in what we
are doing. For governments, transparency equals confidence, particularly
because if we are not going in the right direction, you will let us know
and we can react to that. We know by putting this document on-line we
open ourselves up to vastly more criticism than if we were to sequester
it to a select group. We are not trying to avoid feedback, but solicit
it. We need you to be confident that this plan is responsive to you.
*
Tap Local Knowledge – A lot has changed since the last plan update ten
years ago. While as planners we have a unique background that we share
with the process, we do not have the local knowledge residents of Afton
posses. We have enjoyed hearing stories and learning new things about
Afton, but our ability to interact with everyone is limited. We hope
residents will not be shy in offering their insights through this format.
*
Build Community Support – At the end of the day, this planning process
accomplishes something valuable only if the final document has broad
community support. If it does, elected and appointed officials will have
clear guidance on a number of important issues. Then we can confidently
move forward to accomplish a shared vision.

If you know of someone who does not have on-line access but would like
an opportunity to participate in this phase of the process, please ask
them to contact Charles Marohn at 866-900-3064 so that we can provide
them with a mechanism to give feedback.
Thank you for your efforts! We promise your time will not be wasted.