Meeting Notes, 10/8 Building on What Exists Team

There are worries that CPP is going to be left in the dust with the Master Plan due to the presence of the Community Advisory Groups. These groups were a big surprise for those who attended the Summit. Strong feelings that this a citizen-lead process and it needs to become more organized, move forward strongly and quickly, and have the ability to impact the Master Plan. There are 5 working groups as well as the CAG; Khalil is going to work on the future visioning team, which will have something to do with citizen participation. First meeting is Oct. 19th.

However, it is important to remember that CPP and the Master Plan are separate entities. This is a problem due to the confusion and anger of a lot of citizens about the Master Plan. The main way communities/neighborhoods are going to be able to influence the MP is through asking them to attend community meetings. The MP is not mandated to create a citizen participation program- that language was removed from the charter change. The citizen participation program that they are designing is only for input for the master plan and possible review opportunities, not anything else.

It would be best to send out all CPP participants all of the blasts and information about all of the public processes so no one is surprised by any process or feels left out. If this is truly a citizen driven process than all information pertinent to the process should be shared with the participants. It’s a shame that the MP process is not more open, and we should be sure to maintain the openness of CPP. Also- perhaps when we start hosting info sessions again, participants can come and be presenters as well; that way we can have multiple faces on the project.

Working with ORDA on re-starting the 18 recovery target zones district meetings. Exploring the ideas of using the 18 district zones as pilot areas for CPP.

Worries that CPP is losing momentum and that the timeline is too stretched out to be effective. Suggestions that we have some much larger and explicit planning sessions 2 – 3 hrs long to really work on writing and solidifying the model. That way we could have dates where things are obviously going to happen which might spur people into working more diligently. Focus should definitely be on the model. When the draft is finished, we need to do something more active than just a review/comment process, since that seems to defeat the actual purpose of CPP.

The work of BWE and the Organizational Structure team are moving closer and closer together. It might be best for the teams to merge. Tilman will attend the next Org. Structure meeting, and figure out the best way for the teams to proceed.

Next Building on What Exists Meeting: November 12th, 5:45pm, 3500 Canal Street