This week our reporter Tracy Brannstrom covered a Warren Planning Commission meeting which focused in part on what the commissioners could do to engage the public in their work.
Additionally, the commissioners continued work that was begun this summer to improve communications strategics in terms of letting folks know about current projects, goals, plans, etc.
As part of this strategizing, commissioners are looking at what they currently do, which is publish minutes of their meetings on the town website as PDFs. They’re considering how they could better disseminate the minutes, but also their work.
They’re talking about emailing residents about upcoming meeting topics, archiving video recordings on the town website and even transcribing meetings in real time using AI.
The public can always attend meetings in real time or via Zoom or watch on MRVTV, but is participation after the fact enough? That question was raised by commissioners as well as town staff. They’re asking how to get the public engaged with and interested in the work they’re doing.
And there’s the rub. Wrong or right, there’s a perception that planning is dull and mundane and about a lot of dotting of ‘I’s’ and crossing of ‘T’s’ and to a degree that is true. But planning is what determines how many dwellings per lot are allowed throughout the town, planning is what dictates which uses are allowed where, what areas are for residential development and what are for commercial and where are both types of development appropriate. It is planning that prevents an asbestos plant from being built near your house in the rural residential district.
It is planning and zoning bylaws that protect open fields by calling for grouping development at the edges of properties.
Planning is enormously important as our Valley and our state confront a housing crisis that’s been years in the making. To a degree, in our towns and throughout the state, we are going to have to zone our ways out of this. That work starts at the level of the local planning commissions – and it is already underway in many of our communities.
The Warren Planning Commission is right to be seeking community engagement. How we use the land is our most important responsibility.
