New Lakewood Website Encourages Citizen Voices For Planning Board

LAKEWOOD, CO – As more Lakewood residents are becoming concerned with development in the city, Lakewood's Planning Director, Travis Parker, and the staff of the planning department have introduced a new way for residents to participate in public meetings.

The city's new public portal Lakewoodspeaks.org has been running for eight months, and Parker writes that it has been a success so far.

"Just as ride sharing apps like Uber have completely altered transportation, technology will undoubtedly have a similar impact on our public hearings," Parker wrote in an essay on the StrongTowns.org website.

What's different? Lakewood's planners invite electronic public participation for two weeks before the commission meets. This simple change allows citizens to view the proposed documents and submit public comment removed from the constraints of time and place. So, parents don't have to give up a Monday night to attend a planning board hearing about the proposed multi-unit building being built in their neighborhood, and commissioners can understand where the public stands on a new development or change.

How it works, Parker writes:

Citizens who visit the website participate much like they would in person, but with more options to educate themselves about the case. The website offers them recorded videos of the staff and applicant presentations, a PDF of the government staff report, various maps, and other materials related to the case. Citizens are able to ask questions of and receive responses from both staff and applicants — all from their mobile phone, tablet, or computer.

So far, the results are encouraging. In a followup article, Parker writes that participants are more likely to mirror the population in the City of Lakewood in two ways: Age and time-of-day they participate.

Even though most people who attend a plan commission meeting in person are 55 or older, the ages of the people who have participated online more accurately reflect the city's population. About one-third of Lakewood adults are under age 44, but only a sliver of people in that age bracket attend public hearings. but online, about one-third of participants identify themselves as between 25-44.

"The bottom line? In-person participation is not representative. Online participation is," Travis writes.

People who participate in the hearings online also do so at times not tethered to when the actual hearing is taking place, Travis points out. Just like people who watch their favorite television shows on Netflix at odd hours on their own schedule, Lakewoodspeaks.org allows residents to do their research about the development coming down the pike during the workday, in the morning or late at night.

"The evidence is clear: Removing the constraint of time makes participation more representative," he writes.

Transparency in public hearings makes citizens more receptive to change and allows them to understand what's happening in their local government, especially as development looms so large in Colorado residents' minds.

"The hard lesson for all communities appears to be that we are not doing a good job of allowing public participation in our decision making process," Travis writes. "Weekly in-person hearings have extremely limited engagement potential. Communities that are serious about improving transparency and citizen engagement need to embrace technology. The same technological tools that we use in our business and personal lives can be used to ensure representative participation in government decision making."

Read Travis's essays here and here.

Image via the City of Lakewood