03-03-1997 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

a. . .. .... *WOO • Community Benefits The course is designed to meet the needs of the participating communities. In particular, the 41111 course offers communities the following benefits: I. Additional resources. The course brings additional resources to the table—design assistance, financial assessment, planning expertise, data analysis—to supplement the efforts of city staff and policy-makers. 2. Tangible products. The course will generate products designed to assist communities in on-going planning, decision-making, and implementation. 3. Professional development. The course provides a neutral educational setting in which city representatives can compare experiences with other communities, explore intensively their focus issues, and draw on a diverse group of experts for guidance in developing and implementing policy. 4. Strategy options. The course will examine how the community focus issue might most usefully be understood and approached, leading to specific ideas for which strategies might best be returned to the host community for consideration. Course Mechanics The Community Team The course is intended to be practical, while educational. On one hand, the course seeks to add to the community's problem-solving capabilities a set of resources not usually available to cities. On the other hand, the course will explore how the focus issues can be understood and addressed in ways that can in turn be brought back to policy-makers and residents of a particular community. • Each community will accordingly be asked to assemble a community team to participate actively in studying the focus issue and to attend course work sessions. Team membership will depend upon the nature of the focus issue, but would likely include city staff, elected officials, citizen representatives, and members of the business community. Expected Community Commitment No commitment of financial resources is required for participation in the course. Communities should, however, plan to make funds available for the distribution of materials to city staff, elected officials, and citizens and for the preparation of visual materials (for example, slides, display boards, Or models) to support the community team's presentation to the other course participants. The largest community commitment will be in staff time. The course will require that staff: • meet with Design Center staff and resource team members; • gather standard city materials for analysis and synthesis (maps, plans, etc.); •provide access to public city data as appropriate to the focus issue; •participate in formal course sessions (12 day/week); • complete small, contained tasks as agreed upon during course sessions (taking no more than one day per week); • coordinate and assist with local public presentations as appropriate; and • assemble the community work team and facilitate communication among team members. Course Products • The Course will be designed to generate the kind of products appropriate to the particular focus issue. In one case, this might be design guidelines or criteria for a planned unit development. In another, it might be a draft ordinance. And in yet another, it could be a strategy for fuller community and political participation in implementing an identified policy.