In our everyday lives, we interact with people who look, act, and think like us. In the course of our jobs as planners, we interact with the public—that entire collection of human variability that exists in communities. To engage effectively, we are required to get outside our comfort zone and reach out to the entire collection of residents that make a complete community. This workshop held at the National Regional Transportation Conference (June 2019, Columbus, OH) presented in an interactive format how a planner can develop a community engagement strategy based upon the five I’s of public involvement—Identify, Invite, Inform, Involve, and Improve. Workshop participants were briefed on the concepts of environmental justice, recent public involvement tools and strategies, and then interact in groups to develop a public participation plan for a community scenario.

1. Community Engagement
for
Complete Communities
Jeff Moore, AICP
Neel-Schaffer, Inc.
Patti Clare, AICP
Neel-Schaffer, Inc.

2. Learning Objectives
•Understand the importance of Community Engagement.
•Identify the elements of a Community Engagement Strategy.
•Be able to Develop a Community Engagement Strategy.

3. AGENDA
• Introductions
• Name
• Agency
• What do you want to learn from this workshop?
• Overview of Community Engagement
• The 5 I’s of Public Involvement
• Identify – Invite – Inform- Involve--Improve
• Interactive Group Activity #1 & Group Reporting
• Break
• Interactive Group Activity #2 & Group Reporting
• Review

4. Community Engagement: Why is it important?
Community Engagement is
sometimes relegated to being the
“garnish” of the full meal of a
project or plan development.
• Builds understanding & trust.
• Provides valuable input into
the decision-making.
• Meets legal requirements.

5.  IDENTIFY: Who is the audience?
 INVITE: How do we get them to the table?
 INFORM: What do they need to know?
 INVOLVE: How can they provide meaningful input?
 IMPROVE: How can we do ALL this better?
The 5 I’s of Public Involvement

6. The Members of the Community: Who are They?
 The Public, Stakeholders & Community Leaders
 Challengers & Champions
 Crazy Makers (or Some of Them)

7. IDENTIFY
Communities are Diverse.
Make sure that the
engagement addresses that
diversity, especially for those
who have been historically left
out of the decision-making.

8. This title declares it to be the
policy of the United States that
discrimination on the ground
of race, color, or national
origin shall not occur in
connection with programs and
activities receiving Federal
financial assistance and
authorizes and directs the
appropriate Federal
departments and agencies to
take action to carry out this
policy.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

9. What is
the Environmental Justice Executive Order?
Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to
Address Environmental Justice in Minority
Populations and Low-Income Populations (1994)

10. 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Metro
Areas
Central
Cities
Suburbs Rural
EJ Populations: Who & Where?

11. What are the three fundamental
Environmental Justice principles?
1) To avoid, minimize, or mitigate
disproportionately high and adverse human health
and environmental effects, including social and
economic effects, on minority populations and
low-income populations

12. What are the three fundamental
Environmental Justice principles?
2) To prevent the denial of, reduction in, or
significant delay in the receipt of benefits by
minority and low-income populations
3) To ensure the full and fair participation by
all potentially affected communities in the
decision-making process.

13. INVITE
• Fliers or Posters
• Postcards
• Social Media
• Traditional Media
• Electronic Message Boards
• Church Bulletins/Community
Newsletters
• Trinkets/Take-Aways
WE NEED YOUR INPUT!
Imagine the Clarksville Urbanized Area in the year 2045.
How will our transportation choices connect us to each other
and the world?
With this question in mind, the Clarksville Urbanized Area
Metropolitan Planning Organization (CUAMPO) is seeking your
opinion on our transportation system and the challenges and
opportunities facing it between today and the year 2045. The
CUAMPO needs your thoughts and invites you to participate in
a short survey. The results of this survey will be used in the
development of the 2045 Clarksville Urbanized Area
Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
From February 19, 2018 to March 23, 2018, CUAMPO will be gathering your
input through a community wide survey. Please access the survey at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ClarksvilleMTP

14. INFORM
• Media Advisories
• Presentations to Civic Groups
• Brochures
• Website
• Videos

15. INVOLVE
• Interactive Meetings
• Surveys (On-site, Mail, Telephone, Electronic)
• Interviews
• Visioning Sessions or Charrettes

16. IMPROVE
• Quantity or total number of participants
• Range of diversity of participants
• Quality of how the input was collected & the variety of
methods used
• Quality of the information collected & used in decision-
making
• Influence of the input on the decisions made &
implementation
onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/nchrp_rpt_905.pdf

17. US 68
CORRIDOR
BROWN & GREEN
COUNTIES
17 miles of a two-
lane highway
connecting
Greensburg to
Brownsville and I-66

18. US 68
CORRIDOR
Issues & Concerns
•High Crash Locations
•Narrow Railroad Underpass
(MP 16.9)
•Need for Connector & second
Green River Bridge in
Greensburg
•Historic Properties including
the Pink Ridge Baptist Church,
Downtown Greensburg, and
the Sulphur Well Resort Hotel
•Minority Neighborhood in
south Greensburg
•Sulfur Creek & Green River
Watershed
•Green Glade Preserve
•Copper Belly Water Snake
•Edgar’s Sunflower

19. US 68
CORRIDOR:
Concerned Parties
•Brownsville MPO
•Green County elected
Officials
•Sulphur Well Volunteer
Fire Department
•North Brown
Elementary School
•Green County High
School
•Pink Ridge Baptist
Church
•L&N Railroad
•State & Federal
Agencies

20. Workshop Instructions------
BEWARE OF THE BLACK SWAN!

21. GROUP ACTIVITY #1
REPORT
OUT

22. BREAK
10 MINUTES

23. •
• Just 250 feet to the north of the Franklin
Road/University Boulevard Intersection is
the t-intersection of Franklin Road and Elm
Street
• This intersection and the nearby Elm Street
intersection have been the site of several
crashes critical rate factor of 3.7
• WCU is a regional university and attracts
students --60 percent of these students
come from rural communities,
• WCU want design elements be incorporated
within the roundabout that creates a
signature gateway to the university.
• “Restaurant Row”
• Two residential neighborhoods Cedar Ridge
Neighborhood and Loving Hill Neighborhood
• Greensburg GO Transit System has two
routes (Green Line and Yellow Line) Transfer
point between the Green and Yellow lines.

24. •
• Preferred alternative from planning study:
roundabout for the intersection of
Franklin Road/University
Boulevard/Loving Way and to prohibit left
turn traffic into and out of Elm Street.
• Design-Build project within the coming
two years to be constructed within four
months of breaking ground from May to
August
• Franklin Road (US 31) Minor Arterial -
29,000 ADT;
• Connects the main campus of West
Central University (WCU) and Downtown
Greensburg to the Beltline Mall shopping
district, the WCU South Campus, and large
student housing apartment complex.
• University Boulevard (US 231) -- 17,000
ADT
• Loving Way --8,000 ADT.

25. GROUP ACTIVITY #2
REPORT
OUT

26. REVIEW
•Understand the importance of Community Engagement.
•Identify the elements of a Community Engagement Strategy.
•Be able to Develop a Community Engagement Strategy.

27. Patti Clare, AICP
Senior Planner
Patti.Clare@neel-schaffer.com
Jeff Moore, AICP
Senior Transportation Planner
Jeff.moore@neel-schaffer.com
TRB Public Involvement Committee Website
https://sites.google.com/site/trbcommitteeada60/