In order to develop an effective public involvement plan, it is important to integrate the plan with the decision processes and for it to be strategic. The aim of a plan is to the public:
what information they need in order to have meaningful input at each decision point;
what information is needed from them for the agency to do its work at each decision point;
what techniques will be used to achieve the required information exchange;
what staff and budget resources are needed to accomplish these activities.
Public involvement, like any other project activity such as survey, traffic data collection, and design, requires identification and scheduling of specific resources and skills tied to other project activities. For some projects, or at certain points of a project, public involvement activities and outcomes will be critical to a project’s success.
Developing a public involvement plan generally involves four steps:
Source: NCHRP Report 480: A Guide to Best Practices for Achieving Context Sensitive Solutions pg. 23
Published: 2002
