Integrating Public Participation Tools and GIS Improves Decision Making

Exciting improvements in planning are possible when GIS tools are used in combination with public participation tools such as keypad polling. During a comprehensive plan update meeting in Hayden Colorado, flip charts were replaced with computerized systems and keypad voting tools to gather resident input on a proposed development and future growth. CommunityViz and GIS were used to analyze the impacts of growth and to create a visualization of what the proposed development would look like in the landscape. PowerPoint was used (see image at left) to create a visual preference survey for the public to vote on designs for homes, shops, signs, sidewalks and streets that they felt best matched the character of Hayden. In just one meeting, residents anonymously voiced their opinions about the proposed development, growth issues that most concerned them, how Hayden should look, and how to best manage Haydens' future growth.