Use the right technology to better engage your community
Community Remarks™ is an easy-to-use comment map on a website to facilitate dialog about land use such as redevelopment opportunities, the preservation of historic structures, community character, and zoning. Use it as an asset map, informal preference survey, and feedback platform to reach a larger audience and provide a fun platform for citizens to communicate about their neighborhood.
“The Community Comments tool has been a great way for AATA to gather community feedback quickly and systematically. Because all of our services have a geographic component, the ability to PLOT comments has been extremely valuable – comments come to us ‘pre-sorted’ by location. It is also nice for those making the comments, because they can see what others have said about the areas they care about.”
Michael Benham,
Ann Arbor Transit Authority
Special Assistant for Strategic Planning
Citizens can help you create more livable communities; they are begging for a way to share their insight about their neighborhoods with planners. Now, a collaboration map application expands your project website’s capabilities.
You want to provide the flexibility for people to submit their ideas without jumping through hoops, right? Let’s face it, we love instant results! Citizens will be able to see their remarks live but you will be notified instantly in case something offensive is submitted.
You want to highlight a community’s assets: development, historic districts, and main streets. The public wants to show you what works and what doesn’t in their community. An interactive map makes it possible.
Photographs provide context and can be very helpful in showing location-based information. Image files in gif, png, and jpeg can be uploaded and viewed inside the map balloon as well as enlarged to full size.
Each comment can be voted up or down allowing good ideas to rise to the top. Comments are arranged on the page based on the number of votes it has received allowing you to differentiate feedback.
Comments are collected around map topics you setup. For instance, your map could have a recommendations section, redevelopment section, and historic district section to collect specific types of information.
Now is the time to do more with available technology.
- Garner valuable feedback
- Increase turnout at public meetings
- Aid in the development of plan-making
- Attract media coverage
- Be user-friendly and hip
- Let us support the technical details
Real-time Commenting