What is most satisfying for planners is not the planning per se, but seeing the plans turn into reality.
Compared with the plan itself, what makes planners more satisfied is to see the plan implemented. John Cook is a chief transportation planner at Bolton & Menk and a multimodal transportation system planner for the town of Matthews
Perhaps no one knows better than urban planning practitioners how far a plan is from formulation to implementation – planning is just the beginning, and from planning to implementation is a long and tortuous road, involving the intertwined influences of multiple factors and uncertain obstacles, which requires continuous efforts and adjustments from all parties to achieve the goal of compromise. However, it is precisely this distance and challenge that makes planning more meaningful and fulfilling. The author will take the implementation of the downtown planning project in Matthews Township, North Carolina, as an example, and explore how to overcome the challenges of public participation in the implementation of the plan, so as to realize the vision of residents, in order to provide international experience for the implementation of urban planning under the guidance of the concept of "people's city" in mainland China.
1 Introduction to the town of Matthews
The small town of Matthews is located in the southeast of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, USA, with a population of about 30,000 and a town area of 17 square miles (about 44 square kilometers), adjacent to Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina to the west and north (Figure 1). Historically, the town was a post station between the cities of Charlotte and Monroe, and the town center retains many of its early 20th-century buildings, 10 of which were listed on the National Register of Historic Places of Historic Places in 1996.
Figure 1 Jurisdiction of the town of Matthews
图源：Draft Envision Matthews Comprehensive Plan
Matthews has shown outstanding enthusiasm and initiative in urban planning and environmental optimization, attaches importance to the planning realization of citizens' demands, and has a mature and complete public participation system. For example, the town's official website provides documentary materials on the whole process of public participation in the planning, as a complete public participation case, providing a detailed reference blueprint. At the same time, as an ordinary suburban town, under the condition of limited regional attention and funds, the town has promoted the implementation of the project through local bonds, alleviating the difficulties in raising infrastructure funds, and its operational experience is worth learning. The author will talk about his personal learning and insights from the characteristics of the planning operation mode reflected in the implementation of the town's plan, as well as the challenges and efforts of public participation.
2. Plan the characteristics of the operation mode
2.1 Public demand leads the formulation of planning goals
Guided by the needs of residents, Matthews identifies the areas where planning needs to be developed and the priorities for planning implementation. In 2018, the Town of Matthews convened a special public meeting on "Our City, Our Vision" to gather the public's vision for Matthews' development (Figure 2). The meeting heard feedback and ideas from all partners and stakeholders in North Carolina, the Charlotte area, and Matthews Township, including the NC Department of Transportation, community schools, hospitals, transit agencies, developers, and citizens, resulting in a 12-point vision statement in 2019 that will guide the development of the community as a key focus area for the town and provide a guide to action and a statement of goals for subsequent planning (Figure 3).
Figure 2 The scene of the special public meeting "Our City, Our Vision".
Source: https://www.matthewsnc.gov/pview.aspx?id=20918&catid=564
Figure 3 12 community visions for the town of Matthews
In 2020, the staff of the Town of Matthews further sorted out the above 12 visions and compiled them into the Town of Matthews 2023-2028 Strategic Plan (hereinafter referred to as the "Strategic Plan"), which was reviewed and approved in 2022. As a result, each vision in the Strategic Plan has corresponding goals, initiatives and performance indicators to ensure that local governments are transparent, accountable and targeted in their efforts. The town launched the Draft Envision Matthews Comprehensive Plan in 2023, which uses the 12 visions in the Strategic Plan as a starting point and extensive public input to ensure that diverse community voices are represented in the development of the plan.
In order to better listen to public opinions, the project team has set up a separate public survey website as a platform for planning publicity and interactive opinions. Unlike most plans, which only publicize the results of public participation, Matthews has published a "lively" and even "full of opinions" of participation and discussion on the website, faithfully recording nearly 4,000 feedback comments and likes from 862 participants, visually demonstrating the perspectives and decision-making debates of different stakeholders on the same planning issue, as well as the final majority consensus reached in the opinion game (Figure 4). Public participation is continuing until the plan is issued (Figure 5).
Figure 4 Screenshot of Matthews Township Public Engagement website
Source: https://www.publicinput.com/t6852#tab-35903
Figure 5 Timeline of public engagement on the Draft Vision Matthews Comprehensive Plan
Pictured: Report by Matthews Town Planner Nadine Bennet at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Chapel Hill, NC, March 1, 2024
2.2 Local bonds promote the implementation of infrastructure planning
Guided by a shared vision, stakeholders in the Strategic Plan discussed together to prioritize project implementation. For example, residents of the town of Matthews expressed a strong desire to improve connectivity and walkability, increase parking in the city center, provide more park space and park facilities, and increase greenways and trails throughout the town, resulting in a "multi-modal transportation system" as the first vision of the project.
In order to achieve these goals, the Local Government Committee has decided that general obligation bond financing is the best way to move the project forward and minimize taxpayer costs. General liability bonds, also known as full faith and credit bonds or municipal bonds, are a type of local government bond secured by the issuer's ability to pay taxes. Such bonds require the consent of all taxpayers and a statement in the prospectus that the issuer has the right to levy taxes, tend to have lower interest rates than other types of debt, and are expected to have less impact on the taxpayer's final monthly costs on actual debt repayment terms.
In 2022, 57% of the citizens agreed to the Matthews Township Government to raise funds through the issuance of general liability bonds, following a referendum by the Town of Matthews. In the end, $34 million was raised to meet the funding needs of the project, of which $21 million was authorized to be used to issue transportation bonds to fund transportation improvements, which are expected to include parking improvements, streetscape and traffic improvements, road widening, new arterial roads, and sidewalk connectivity (Figure 6). The use of the funds will be subject to strict supervision and information disclosure. Matthews Township's bonds are primarily repaid through the town's annual property tax, the cost of which is shared between current and future owners over a period of approximately 20 years. If all $35 million of bonds were issued, the expected increase in the real estate tax rate would be about 3.7 cents per $100 of valuation.
Figure 6 Matthews Township Transportation Bond Funded Project Source: https://www.matthewsnc.gov/pview.aspx?id=21028
3. Challenges and Efforts: Rational Planning and Decision-making and the Game of Multiple Interests
The planning of Matthews Town was not all smooth sailing. Due to the in-depth participation of the public, there have been many difficult and interesting cases of consultation in the process, which are worthy of reflection on the experience and lessons learned.
3.1 Set up a pilot zone to dispel public doubts
In the complete street redevelopment of Trade street, the main east-west thoroughfare in the town's central area, the planning team recommended that diagonal parking along the line be adjusted to parallel parking to widen the sidewalks and add a central divider (Figures 7, 8). During the consultation process, businesses along the street strongly opposed the proposal of parallel parking and insisted on retaining the original diagonal parking in order to obtain more parking spaces. Although the proposal to widen the sidewalks is based on the public interest, since the majority of the public is not directly affected, the majority of the public, except for businesses along the route, are silent or abstain from voting on street improvement. In order to gain the support and understanding of the public, the town of Matthews has set up a pilot zone, which is a temporary outdoor dining space in the existing on-street parking area. In the era of the new crown epidemic, outdoor dining spaces are more flexible and popular with the public, and as a result, businesses along the route have gradually changed their views from resistance to acceptance, and have consciously urged the realization of the widening and renovation plan of the walking path.
Fig.7 Comparison of renderings before and after the reconstruction of Trade Street (the top is the current situation, the bottom is the plan)
Pictured: Matthews Town planner John Cook at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Chapel Hill, NC, March 1, 2024
Fig.8 Cross-sectional comparison of the road before and after the reconstruction of Trade Street (the upper part is the current situation, the lower part is the plan)
Source: Same as Figure 7
3.2 Explore the essence of the problem in the practical investigation
In the process of public online interaction, the addition of parking spaces has caused widespread discussion - most people complain that they cannot find parking spaces and need to add a large number of parking facilities in the central area, while others report that the public parking area near their home is often idle, and it is a waste of public space to set up a large number of parking spaces in the central area. To address the parking problem and understand the real demand and availability of parking, the Matthews planning team conducted round-the-clock parking count monitoring on weekdays and weekends. The actual investigation found that even on the busiest Saturday morning, parking at the farmer's market was plentiful, but people didn't know where to look. As a result, the planning team found that in order to alleviate the problem of parking difficulties in Matthews Town, it is not possible to blindly increase parking spaces, but to optimize the layout of parking spaces and sharing plans to help people understand the distribution of parking spaces is a more effective solution (Figures 9 and 10). Since then, the town of Matthews has proposed a monitoring plan to provide for a comprehensive monitoring of the town's parking situation at least once every six months to continuously optimize the parking environment.
Figure 9 Draft public parking area for Matthews
Source: Same as Figure 7
Figure 10 Shared parking program in Matthews Township
Source: Same as Figure 7
3.3 Pay attention to the publicity and education of urban planning
Urban planning needs to take into account a number of issues. For example, the improvement of traffic and parking problems can not be solved by only building more roads and increasing parking spaces, strengthening public guidance, doing a good job in public planning publicity and education, and providing more public information are also an important part of solving urban problems and promoting the achievement of urban goals.
Take, for example, the optimization of John Street, a north-south traffic artery in Matthews Town (Figure 11). The street connects Charlotte to the center of the town and carries a lot of traffic, and traffic jams are frequent. The public wondered why the planners didn't just widen the road to solve the traffic problem, but in fact, the planners were thinking about how to protect the historical and cultural area of the city center – if the road was widened, it would require the demolition of historic buildings and the destruction of the fabric of the town center, but if it was not explained to the public, the planning decisions would not be approved by the public and the plan could not be implemented. In order to better understand the public, the planning team invited an expert advisory team to explain the distribution of historic districts and cases from across the country to help the public better understand the importance of John Street in the town's historic preservation, and to introduce the history of the community through the addition of signage, road signs, etc., to arouse citizens' attention and resonance with the preservation of cultural heritage.
Figure 11 Public participation voting on the John Street Plan in Matthews Township
Source: Same as Figure 7
In addition to the above successful experiences, Matthews Town actually encountered many unresolved problems in the process of public participation in the planning. The first is the problem of inefficient decision-making brought about by democracy. Planners said that at the public hearing of the draft plan at the end of February 2024, they experienced nearly 20 minutes of "zoom-bombing", and the public's opinions were basically venting speeches, which greatly affected the atmosphere and decision-making enthusiasm of the follow-up meeting, forcing them to organize another public meeting that month to continue discussing the plan text. The second is the issue of coverage. African-Americans make up the second largest portion of the town's residents, but they are difficult to reach, meaning their opinions are hard to hear from planners. Although the planning team reached out to African-American community residents, they were reluctant to actively participate in public participation. How can planning and design cover the interests of these "silent majority"? This is also a question that needs to be considered and solved.
4 Reflection and insight
First, demand-oriented planning is more implementable. Matthews Town has provided us with a good example of "a people's city built by the people, a people's city for the people", where the will of citizens guides the direction of planning, investment and construction, and promotes project implementation and financial support. Although the whole process of public participation makes the planning process time-consuming and labor-intensive, it increases the public opinion base in the subsequent planning implementation process, makes the planning implementation less resistant, and the social acceptance and satisfaction expectations are higher.
The second is to control the scientific rationality of planning in the public voice. In the process of public participation, when the planning decision is different from the public's opinion, while respecting the public's opinion, it is necessary to make more scientific and rational planning decisions as much as possible by intervening in expert advisory groups, research and evaluation, and setting up pilot areas, and let the public understand the reasons behind the planning decisions and future results, which is conducive to promoting the public and planners to reach a consensus on the implementation goals. In addition, the most active groups in public participation often proceed from "personal interests", but this does not represent the broadest social interest, let alone the optimal solution to the problem. How to protect the interests of the silent majority of the public who have not defended their rights in public participation, avoid the loss of long-term public interests through active public participation, and effectively give full play to the justice and fairness of planning is worthy of our planners' deep thought.
Third, the planned public science education is very important for the development of planning benefits. If the planning content is not recognized by the public, even the best planning scheme will not be able to maximize the value and benefits, and even the uneven use of facilities will be idle. Therefore, it is necessary to provide information to the public through multiple channels and in an easy-to-understand way as much as possible to help them better understand the content of the plan, especially the infrastructure, disaster prevention facilities, and parking space layout that are closely related to residents, so as to maximize the effectiveness of the planning and design. UPI
注：本文有感于马修斯镇规划工作者纳丁·贝内特（Nadine Bennet）和约翰·库克（John Cook）于2024年3月1日在北卡罗来纳州教堂山分校城市和区域规划系所作的报告From Planning to Implementation: Linking Land Use and Transportation in a Fast-Growing Suburb《从规划到实施：在快速发展的郊区将土地利用与交通联系起来》。 本文其他主要参考文献及网址如下：
- 《马修斯镇2023—2028年战略规划》（Town of Matthews 2023-2028 Strategic Plan），详见 https://www.matthewsnc.gov/pview.aspx?id=20918；
- 《马修斯愿景调查》（Envision Matthews Survey）公众调查反馈，详见 https://publicinput.com/t6852；
- 《愿景马修斯综合规划草案》（Draft Envision Matthews Comprehensive Plan）公示草案第一版及公众反馈，详见 https://publicinput.com/t6852；
- 马修斯镇2022年债券公投（Town of Matthews 2022 Bond Referendum），详见 https://www.matthewsnc.gov/pview.aspx?id=21027。
Xie Ziang is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, and a joint Ph.D. student in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [email protected]
Editing, typesetting | Gu Chunxue
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