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Chapter 3: Public Engagement
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PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
PUBLIC INPUT REGARDING PROJECT PRIORITIZATION WAS A FUNDAMENTAL COMPONENT OF THE PLANNING PROCESS.
The environmental analysis in the previous chapter was critical for determining physically feasible locations for sidewalk and greenway development. The public engagement process balances the evaluation of physical features with community preferences, desires, and priorities. This chapter provides an overview of community engagement efforts centered on a public workshop.
IN THIS CHAPTER:
A Public Workshop
B Results
Public Workshop
The Connect Danbury public workshop was held in the evening on Wednesday April 26, 2017 at the Danbury Public Library. Each property owner in the town received an invitation to the workshop in the mail. Additionally, the event was advertised on the town’s website. Approximately 25 citizens and stakeholders, including elected officials, attended the workshop.
The public workshops were conducted using an open-house format that allowed participants to attend at any time over a two-hour period. The workshops featured four main stations: Information and Learning, Visualization, Project Prioritization and General Comments. The planning team and Danbury staff were on-hand to facilitate discussion and answer questions.
Information and Learning
Display boards featuring the environmental opportunities/constraints map and photographic series (Chapter 2) allowed attendees to view the analysis and add to the list of considerations.
Visualization
The draft recommendations map illustrated multiple proposed routes broken up into multiple succinct projects. Project recommendations were accompanied by a series of four photo-realistic renderings depicting new pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure at key locations throughout town.
Project Prioritization Activity
A Project Prioritization board listed each pedestrian and multi-use project along with precedent images illustrating surface type. Citizens cast their “vote” for the three highest-priority projects using stickers to indicate their preference.
General comments
Comment cards provided workshop participants with the opportunity to leave general comments regarding the proposed routes.
Results
Overall feedback on proposed routes, projects, and surface types was positive. As a result of the workshop, alternate routes for the Scott Branch Greenway were added to provide greater flexibility to property owners.
Project Prioritization
The project prioritization activity revealed strong community consensus on the four highest-priority projects: 1) Scott Branch Greenway; 2) Main Street Sidewalks, South Side; 3) MST Connector trail; and 4) the Southern Gateway. The Scott Branch Greenway surpassed all other projects as the highest-priority. The three subsequent projects were prioritized equally by citizens.
Project prioritization
OJ E CT R P
GW-1 / Scott Branch Greenway SW-1 / Main St. Sidewalk South Side TR-1 / MST Connector Southern Gateway SW-2 / Main St. Sidewalk North Side GW-2 / Scott Branch Greenway Extension SP-1 / 7 Island-Crestview: 7 Island section SP-2 / 7 Island-Crestview: South Section SW-4 / MST Sidewalk Connector SW-5 / Library Sidewalk Connector TR-2 / River Rock Trail SW-3 / Meadow Rd. Sidewalk SW-6 / Crestview Sidewalk Connector TR-3 / Government Center Trails TR-4 / 7 Island-Crestview: North Section
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
PRIORITY VOTES
At the Public Workshop, citizens ranked their top priority projects. The results are displayed in the graph above.
