Participation, Inclusion, and Voice in Neighborhood Planning

Abstract

Citizen participation, what this chapter refers to broadly as public engagement, serves an ideological as well as a practical purpose in planning. It is situated in Des Moines, Iowa, a mid-sized Midwestern American city with an established program of neighborhood planning. The study follows three years of neighborhood planning to consider how the three dimensions of engagement work on the ground. These neighborhood planning efforts were carried out through a partnership between the Department of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University and the Neighborhood Planning Division of the City of Des Moines. Historically, Beaverdale is one of the most civically engaged neighborhoods in Des Moines, and the city's neighborhood planners had little concern about generating active engagement in the neighborhood planning process. The issues facing the Capitol East neighborhood were more complicated than in Beaverdale and the Capital East Neighborhood Association had fewer resources.