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Annette Brecheisen From: Pleasanton City Clerk Subject: Priority list- Adopt and Implement Communication Plan (focus on improving community outreach and awareness) SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL Provided to the City Council From: Nancy After Distribution of Packet Sent:Tuesday, March 14, 2017 1:40 PM 2 - ,L.-/7 To: Mayor and City Council<citvcouncil @cityofpleasantonca.gov> Date V Cc:Adam Weinstein <AWeinstein @cityofpleasantonca.gov>; Gerry Beaudin <gbeaudin @citvofpleasantonca.gov> Subject: Priority list-Adopt and Implement Communication Plan (focus on improving community outreach and awareness) Hello, I wanted to lobby to request you prioritize one item that may otherwise be somewhat hidden for 2017. It is an item on Brian's list to adopt and implement a city communications plan (my emphasis for this item on improving communication with the PUBLIC vs.this item being internally focused). I am concerned that fewer members of the public seem to be aware of projects early on when we use our traditional communications techniques(postcards, city web site) This can result in project delays, cost overruns, developer and public frustrations, and less than optimal project designs. I know you all value having strong community engagement and hope you agree that we have an opportunity to improve this. The good news is that some other cities have tackled this and implemented very simple and cost effective strategies to insure strong community awareness of projects. I learned about these strategies at the recent League of Cities Planning Conference (and wish I was armed with this when our Planning Commissioned voted on our priorities several weeks ago as this would have been on my top 2 list). At the conference,speakers from cities such as Lafayette, Danville, Santa Barbara,Santa Rosa,and Carlsbad stressed some simple and inexpensive strategies they have employed to improve public awareness and buy-in for key city projects, infill projects, and almost any project. For example, these cities are using strategies such as posting billboards at a project site with photo of a project, providing links to projects via their web site, implementing story poles on many projects and or implementing new 3D technology to help public an decision makers really visualize a project. Some also require developers to have community input meeting prior to even filing an application with the city so that everyone understands potential issues early on and can try to mitigate them, saving everyone time. These cities found that the more they build early community input and awareness through having signage/visuals in the impacted community area with a way for the public to provide feedback,the more successful the project. Bottom line is that existing techniques are not good enough today and these cities are doing more to get into the community with simple signage and engagement so the public can get involved early if concerns. I would appreciate your support for this item on Brian's list(with an emphasis to improve PUBLIC outreach and communications for key projects). The scope of this priority could be narrow and done with minimal funding. I would personally be willing to help with this initiative as well if more support needed. Key steps would be: - Benchmark best practices from key cities regarding enhancing public outreach - Hold 1-2 public workshops to identify what is working well/what could be improved. Test new ideas. - Recommend and prioritize changes - Implement changes Nancy Allen 1