Neighborhood Focused Planning to Succeed Workshops

Written by Holly Galbus, RNeighbors volunteer & workshop participant

As Rochester’s growth continues, the city is taking a proactive approach to engage the community in the process of guiding that growth.

RNeighbors partnered with the Rochester Planning Department to provide neighborhood association leaders the opportunity to give input on Tuesday, December 8 during two community workshops on future city-wide land use plans.  The plans were presented by Brad Scheib, a consultant the city is working with on the creation of the comprehensive plan.

P2S—Planning to Succeed—is a long-range planning effort to update Rochester’s Comprehensive Plan.  The scenarios presented assume an estimated 50,000 new residents, 50,000 new jobs and 23,000 new housing units in the next 25 years.  In the past, growth has led to dispersed development patterns, out into the edges of the city.  A continuation of these trends is not supportive of key community priorities, so two alternative approaches have been designed and planners are now seeking input on these approaches.

“We really want to get as many people to come out as possible,” said Dave Dunn, Assistant Planning Director for the Rochester-Olmsted Planning Department.  “We are seeking diverse views from the community.”

Essentially, the alternative plans make use of nodes—compact developments—connected by corridors. Alternative 1 makes use of multiple nodes connected by multiple corridors, with no growth outside city limits. Alternative 2 utilizes two supernodes connected by one primary corridor, with limited growth outside city limits.

The workshops were interactive.  There were over nine different neighborhood associations in attendance. In addition to a traditional Q & A session following the presentation, an anonymous voting tool was utilized to poll audience response to a series of questions.  Respondents could choose an answer to indicate how strongly they felt about a particular topic, from “strongly support” to “strongly don’t support.”  A bar graph depicting results was displayed following voting.

Barb Hudson, President of Friends of Indian Heights Park neighborhood association, said the workshop was effective in explaining the alternative scenarios.

“I liked the visual depictions of proposed developments and getting to vote my preferences,” she said.

Barb added she liked the anonymous polling tool used, particularly seeing the instant voting results.

The presentation was repeated Dec. 10 and 16 at the Rochester Public Library and planners will continue to seek public input before finalizing the Comprehensive Plan in summer 2016.

To learn more, visit the Planning to Succeed website or contact Jeff Ellerbusch at the Rochester Olmsted Planning Department at 507-328-7100 or email.

Have a comment? Join us on Facebook!