Starting in Spring 2019, the City of Helena engaged CDR Associates to lead the Helena Open Lands Recreation Plan update. The CDR team interviewed 50 individuals from 23 organizations or affiliations, and reached out to nearly 80 individuals from 38 organizations or affiliations.
From these interviews key themes emerged. In Fall 2019, CDR engaged Halliday & Associates to design and facilitate three community workshops to gather input on key themes. More than 100 people participated in the workshops. In addition, an on-line survey generated more than 150 responses. The community input helped guide the City of Helena’s Open Lands Recreation Plan update.
The intent of the Helena Open Land Recreation Plan is to be an accessible, usable guide for current and future decision making and to guide not prescribe. The City of Helena envisions this plan to serve as a guide for current and future decisions. The City recognizes that uses and demands will continue to change over time. This plan sets out broad guidance and a collaborative process to equip the community’s stewardship of HOL.
The Parks Department brought the Final Draft of the Open Lands Management Plan, Recreation Chapter to the January 13th City Commission Meeting for consideration. We received direction at that meeting to bring back to the commission the specific public involvement process outlined in Chapter 7. A draft of the public involvement process (attached) was offered to us by several user groups who worked together to come to consensus on what the public involvement process should look like. The Parks Department reviewed the process and made some minor changes that are reflected in the document. The proposed public involvement process is a robust and usable guide to engage the public on major recreation projects on open lands. |