A Peek into the Park Planning Process Part 3

Coming Together to Make Decisions –

Welcome to this week’s blog post! So far in this series we have covered how to pick a property, evaluate the assets, and imagine a park vision. Community involvement plays a critical role in all the steps of bringing parks to Columbia Valley… but what does community input and involvement look like for our community? In this post we will dive deeper into some possible ways CVPRD hopes to collaborate meaningfully with residents of Columbia Valley to bring the best outcomes possible.

One easy way to start gathering community input is through surveys. CVPRD has used google forms in the past to collect data from residents. Google forms is user-friendly, and the surveys are designed to be quick and easy. Surveys would be helpful to get an initial idea of what park elements people want to see. The more people who participate in the survey, the easier it will be for the commissioners to find trends and patterns in park requests. CVPRD wants to design parks that would be enjoyable for everybody. The more active resident participants the better the parks will turn out! However, we know that access to the internet can be a challenge and we want to do the best to accommodate all residents. 

The CVPRD looks forward to when we could hold regular in-person community meetings. However, the times right now are uncertain, and we must consider everyone’s safety. Luckily, the online world has become incredibly helpful in facilitating virtual meetings. As you may now, CVPRD holds two virtual meetings each month, which is a great place for community input and feedback. The Public Meetings page on our website has all the information on what days, times, and how to join. When it comes time to collaborate more on park decisions, it’s possible that we may hold additional online meetings which would be posted on the Home and Public Meetings pages. 

We are also looking into the possibility of holding socially distanced and masked outdoor meetings during better weather seasons. As sometimes we also find that it’s more comfortable to speak up and participate in-person rather than online. Announcements of these kinds of meetings will be posted on the website, on our Facebook page, and on flyers posted around town.  

There are many different modes and methods when it comes to community engagement. At the beginning there will be a lot of trial and error when it comes to the park planning process. The wonderful thing is that these are all learning experiences and over time we will be able to perfect the engagement and planning process for our community. We look forward to meeting with everyone in the future and collaborating to bring the best parks possible to Columbia Valley!