Stakeholder interviews conducted as part of public involvement plan development should provide a set of community issues, values, and constraints concerning the project. Results from such interviews may not necessarily provide a complete picture of all community values and interests. Most good public involvement plans call for broad community outreach at an early point in the project to ensure mutual understanding between the agency and the stakeholders of the full set of concerns associated with the project. Upon further examination, it may be determined that some of the identified issues cannot be dealt with in the current project development process; they may need to be referred to other agencies that can take appropriate action, shifted to another planning or project development process better suited to address them, or postponed for consideration at a later stage of project development. Those identified issues that do pertain to the project at hand should be incorporated into the problem definition and documented as input to the evaluation framework in the next step.
Outreach should be focused on understanding community attitudes about the nature of transportation problems or issues associated with the identified project. Specific concerns about safety or mobility, about land use or land development are of interest. Outreach should also focus on finding out the specific values associated with the local context. Importance of adverse effects (noise, cut-through traffic, speed of traffic, on-street parking, circulation, access to parks, schools, businesses) should be expressed. Individuals or groups may note a concern or issue that might seem irrelevant to the project, but agency staff should strive to maintain an open mind and to listen to what is being said. Often the issue will surface at some point in the project if left unaddressed.
Typical techniques for broad outreach to the public for the purpose of issue identification include newsletters with response forms, websites with electronic comment options, information telephone lines, surveys, elected official briefings, open houses, and advisory groups.
Source: NCHRP Report 480: A Guide to Best Practices for Achieving Context Sensitive Solutions p. 27
Published: 2002
