Why involve the Public in something When we’re the “experts”? I want to talk to you about the importance of involving the public in transportation projects and how we do it. It might seem counter intuitive to let the “inexpert” into the process, but it is necessary for several reasons. Public Involvement 101/CVEN 456 & 766

Why Involve the public? It’s the law. People Expect it. It’s smart. Here are the basics of why we do it. The National Environmental Policy Act known as NEPA requires that projects involving federal funds have public involvement. Most states have similar state laws that require it for state funding. However, the most important being that it is right and smart. If we don’t, we could very well find ourselves headed down the wrong road with a long way to double back.

What is public involvement? Anyone who resides, works, has an interest in, or does business in a given area potentially affected by transportation decisions, including organized groups. Include minorities, low-income communities, older persons, individuals with chronic health problems, and others traditionally underserved by the transportation system. Involvement Encouraged, accessible and active participation in transportation planning and project development. First, let’s understand who the public is. Basically it is everyone who could or should possibly use our system and use the project or plan that we are discussing. So, pretty much everyone. Not just the people who live on the road and not just the people who read the newspaper, or the people who speak English, or the people who have a car, or important people. Second, let’s talk about what involvement is. It is active engagement of the people above so they can provide input by whatever means is convenient to them: in person, in writing, by email, on the internet, in print media, radio media, television media, etc.

Why involve the public in the business of transportation experts? The public is a rich source of ideas. The public is full of people who can contribute to improving the systems that serve them. Community members intimately know their region’s transportation issues and challenges. Community members are invested in seeing short- and long-term improvements come to fruition. Most of the public uses our systems and they know what they do and don’t like about it. Those who don’t use our systems really need an opportunity to tell us why they don’t and we should be interested in knowing. Knowing what we know as transportation engineers gives us the ability to figure out what it would take to implement or include public suggestions. Unless we just happen to live in the same place as a public group, we can’t possibly know the situation as well as they do. Their local expertise may be tempered by emotion, so it is our job to work through those emotions to the basis of their input. The community wants what is best for their community and will work with the engineers to make a project happen if they can see the benefits.

We know we have to. We know what it is. How do we? Meeting with Affected Property Owners Open House Town Hall Public Meeting Public Hearing We have to do it. We know what it is. How is it done? For active engagement with the public, nothing beats a meeting so I’m going to describe the most common types. Use these meetings to educate about the project and the project process. Meet close to the project in an appropriate venue.

Meeting with affected property owners (mapo) Projects requiring minor amounts of right of way Projects requiring temporary construction easements or detours Minor design revision after the project’s environmental document is approved What is a project requiring minor amounts of ROW? Off System Bridge Project. A shoulder project with only one area that needs more ROW or an easement. Something on a large project like an undiscovered utility or environmental issue. The best place for this is out on the project site or in the owner’s home, but you can do it in your office if that works. You may even do it through email or mail and over the phone. As long as you make some record of your contact you can do whatever works.

Open House Informal & flexible Come and go Individual Q&A with staff Small group discussions I like to use these early in the process when we have ideas and concepts, but no real design done yet. Displays are of the general area of the project and of the existing conditions. We let the public draw on them if they want and we talk in small groups or one-on-one. We have the general data that has indicated the need for the project and provide it in ways that we hope make sense to the public. We want to avoid looking like we’ve already made up our minds.

Town Hall Informal May or may not start with a presentation Let audience ask questions about a general topic such as “local transportation needs.” Could also be on a project This is good when you want to get a feel for a community’s general transportation priorities. I used these for things like kicking off the development of long range transportation plans. Find out what they think needs fixing and how important it is. Let them ask or say whatever they want and treat it all as good input. Use comment cards or sign-in sheets so you can tell who was there and correlate it to project locales. You may have a whole room of people say that one item is a priority for the county and find out they all live on one road.

Public meeting More formal Brief presentation, meet citizens at displays, Q&A Record attendance, but not verbatim discussion Modify format to fit project Go to this when you know more about what you might do. Generally present more than one alternative. Meet with people one-on-one after the presentation at displays and then reconvene for those who want to ask a “public” question or make a public statement. Talk about the project development process and make part of it education. Tailor the location and displays and format to the project.

Public hearing Most formal Brief presentation, meet citizens at displays, take public comment Attendance and transcript of everything said become part of project records Comments are addressed in the environmental document – Optional to address at the meeting Modify format to fit project Only kind of meeting actually required by NEPA. Most formal. Final local step in environmental assessment or environmental impact statement. Done when there is a preferred alternative. All proceedings and public statements are recorded and transcribed. Goes into the permanent record. Comments may or may not be addressed. Don’t have to, but sometimes it might cool down the meeting if you do. Want to discourage debate. Depending upon crowd size, may have to limit time for commenters. Various ways to collect statements, but always need a way for public to make a public statement.

displays? Depends on the meeting People relate differently to different types of visual information. Use what works best for your project to convey the information. Don’t make early concepts too detailed, because you don’t want to look like you’ve spent more time on it than you have. Do only enough to know it works. A lot of people can’t read a map. A 3D project like an interchange may require a 3D model.

Progression Concept alternatives Recommendation Narrow choices from clean slate to one that is best through a series of meetings.

Meeting progression Meeting with Affected Property Owners Open House Town Hall Public Meeting Public Hearing The top 3 can be in any order. The bottom 2 are usually your last steps. There can be multiples of each, but hopefully not the hearing.

Other important venues Meet with the city council or county commissioners court. Talk on the morning news show for radio or TV. Do a news release. Remember that rural areas may not have high speed internet. Disadvantaged users may not own a computer. Not everyone speaks English

Notice of meetings Print Media Websites Social Media Radio Announcements Email and or Mail Blasts Television Announcements Signs on the Route Over the past fifty years the best way to reach people keeps changing. The requirement under public meeting laws is a 72 hours posted notice. NEPA requires 30 day legal notice and opportunity for a hearing. How many read a paper? How many look at the legal notices in the classifieds? How many still do not have high-speed internet? How many never watch local television? Or listen to local radio? What about notices along the route?

Public involvement is part of the democratic process Sort of. Public involvement is very much a part of the democratic process of giving the people a say in a project. But you have to be careful. You can’t let the people who show up think they are voting on whether a project is going to happen. Be sure to involve the public enough and make them understand that their say counts or they will start doing it themselves and you will quickly lose control.

Information sources http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/public_involvement/project_develop ment/ http://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/division/environmental/compliance- toolkits/public-involvement.html