All posts in the topic Afton Minnesota Master Plan Drafting Wiki (Short link)
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.
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