Abstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how citizen participation can be incorporated into the planning process, and how this input can be effectively utilized in the preparation and implementation of a collaborative community plan. To do this, a vast amount of both secondary and primary research occurred to investigate the success of input strategies in other planning efforts. Several of these strategies were then selected and incorporated into a collaborative citizen planning model for the community of Madeira, Ohio. The outcome of this process begins to offer suggestions as to how success may be achieved using participation strategies. In addition, the decisions and thought process that affected the design of this project helps address how planning can be more responsive to the demands of citizens in communities across the country.Citizen participation, as defined by the Associated Press, refers to "a lifelong process by which people participate democratically in decision making and planning that affects their daily life." Using this as focus, citizen participants are nothing new to the planning profession. In fact, the involvement of citizens was evident as early as the Chicago Plan at the turn of the 20th century. The role of this participation has continually shifted since that time, in large response to the minimum input standards that were set forth by the federal government. With these requirements, much of the citizen activity of the mid 1900s was referred to as "token participation," referring to the levels necessary to barely satisfy these standards. As a result, much of this input had little impact on the eventual policy making process.In recent years, pressures of government to be more responsive to the residents which it represents have grown. Consequently, communities have increasingly turned to citizen input strategies by which they can justify the policies and programs which are selected. However, executing this input into realistic programs has remained difficult. Therefore, the background research and model test which is presented in this thesis offers strategies to communities seeking to overcome this barrier. Thus, although each community's situation is unique, this effort describes the thought process and selection criteria which any citizen planning project should consider.
