The Client: The Regional Planning Commission (RPC) serves as the Economic Development District for Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa Parishes and provides a platform for local governments, citizens and other partners to collaboratively address regional land use, transportation, and economic and environmental issues.
The Project: The Regional Planning Commission’s Public Participation Guide and Citizen Participation and Community Outreach Project consisted of two main components. 1) A Public Participation Guide that represents the RPC as a regional policy and decision-making body and informs the public and regional elected leaders about the mission and responsibilities of the RPC. 2) A public participation outreach effort to generate public awareness of RPC projects and programs, and provide residents in targeted areas the opportunity to offer input in the planning process that guides the development of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
The Estopinal Group designed and developed Connecting People + Places, a user-friendly citizen and local official’s guide to the Regional Planning Commission. TEG researched and developed content that identifies and explains the roles, responsibilities and functions of the RPC as a transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency. Connecting People + Places is distributed to community stakeholders as the definitive guide to the RPC and its activities.
Upon completion of the guide, TEG developed and implemented a comprehensive community outreach initiative to generate public awareness of the RPC’s functions, projects and programs. The public participation meetings served as forums for establishing lines of communication between the RPC and citizens, and offered residents the opportunity to provide input in the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) and the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP). Additionally, TEG developed and conducted a targeted survey to be distributed at the community meetings and online, and compiled results for use in the development of the MTP and TIP.
TEG Areas of Responsibility
- Education and Information
Work Products: RPC Public Participation Guide, RPC and Associated Programs Informational Public Presentation, Media Messaging to Compliment Education Outreach and Community Meetings - Research
Work Products: Target Population Identification, Neighborhood Association and Minority Representation Organization Database - Survey Development
Work Products: Transportation Survey, Survey Logistics and Result Maximization - Implementation
Work Products: Four (4) Public Meetings, Survey Distribution to Target Populations, Online RPC Education Presentation, Written Report Detailing Data Analysis, Findings, and Recommendations, Written Report Detailing Community Meetings and Outcomes