What We Heard

PRIMARY MODES OF ENGAGEMENT

Community Meetings

At the Phase 3 Community Meetings, attendees were presented with 73 Strategies on cards organized by the six Themes. Attendees worked in small groups to prioritize the Strategies, arranging their top five Strategies in order. They also wrote down Action ideas for implementation of the Strategies. For Growth Prioritization, attendees were asked to place sticker dots on a map of Madison, choosing areas in which they feel Madison could accommodate future housing growth.

Resident Panels

We are partnering with community-based organizations that have connections to Madison’s communities of color, lower income residents, and other residents whose voices are often missing from planning processes. Resident Panels completed the same activities as the Community Meetings attendees.

Website

The Imagine Madison website included a survey with essentially the same activity as the Community Meetings, but on an individual basis, rather than working in small groups. Users ranked their top five Strategies for each Theme, and then submitted Action ideas for implementation of the Strategies. They could also provide their preferences and ideas for how Madison should accommodate future growth.

"Affordable housing needs to be in areas that have transportation, amenities, and grocery stores."
-- Madison Resident

FEEDBACK SUMMARIES

PRIMARY MODES OF ENGAGEMENT

Community Meetings

During the Phase 2 Community Meetings, attendees were presented with a draft list of 60 Strategies on posters broken down by Theme. Attendees then placed a limited number of stickers on Strategies that they supported, or wrote new Strategy ideas directly on the posters.

Markets and Festivals

The Imagine Madison team headed out to events, festivals, and farmers' markets to talk with the community about Madison's future. This was an effort to get more community input on Goals, Strategies, and how Madison should grow.

Resident Panels

We are partnering with community-based organizations that have connections to Madison’s communities of color, lower income residents, and other residents whose voices are often missing from planning processes. Planning staff were not present during meetings of Resident Panels, as they were coordinated directly by the community organizations.

Website

The Imagine Madison website had a survey that allowed users to view the draft strategies by theme, click on strategies they supported to "like" with a "thumbs up," and submit additional strategies to the website that others could view and "like." This web module replicated the activities from the community meetings.   

On August 15, 2017 the Imagine Madison team hosted a special Community Discussions event at the Central Library. This event was designed based on feedback from participants in the Imagine Madison Resident Panel program, who expressed that more time was needed for in-depth group discussion as part of the Imagine Madison Comprehensive Plan Update process.

The Imagine Madison team invited a wide range of community groups to the event, and more than 20 different community groups were represented in some way. Participants were asked in advance to contribute possible topics of discussion for the event. Community groups were also invited to bring brochures or other handouts about their organization, programming, and services. View event summary.