Listen Better, Plan Better

Authentic Community Engagement as the Foundation of Successful Planning Project

By Logan Bridge

In the fast-paced world of community planning, there is a natural eagerness to get to results. When we are passionate about our work, we want to dive straight into the planning, implementation, and evaluation stages. We want to see the new park built, the housing policy enacted, or the resilience strategy launched because we know the transformational power of these projects.

But in the rush to deliver results, it can be easy to inadvertently fall back on assumptions and preconceived notions. When we move too quickly, we risk building a project on a foundation of what we think a community needs, rather than what the community knows it needs. At Broadview Planning (BvP), we’ve learned that the most effective way to reach the implementation stage and see real success is to begin with a fierce commitment to listening.

Authentic engagement isn’t a delay in the planning process, but the technical foundation that makes successful implementation possible.

When taking on big challenges with limited budgets, the pressure to show progress is real. But when a project team approaches a challenge with a fixed idea of the best outcome, engagement can start to feel like a rubber-stamp exercise. To be clear, professional expertise and years of experience are invaluable—providing critical frameworks and perspectives that can jumpstart a project. However, professional expertise without local context is an incomplete tool.

Why does a specific transit plan feel disruptive to a neighborhood? What are the underlying health equity concerns in a proposed development? If we rely on our assumptions to answer these questions, we are essentially guessing. In complex policy areas like land use and public health, guessing leads to projects that stall during the implementation phase because they haven't accounted for the lived reality of the stakeholders.

Designing How We Listen: Inclusive Community Engagement Strategies

One of the most important lessons we’ve encountered is that how we listen determines what we learn. It is easy to fall back on a standard town hall or survey model because it is familiar and expected. But traditional methods can leave out a portion of the affected voices.

The National Civic League notes that the long-term viability of public projects depends a great deal on the trust and relationships built during the process. When engagement is limited, that civic infrastructure remains weak. The reality is that some of the most impacted stakeholders, including those facing language barriers, digital divides, or a historical distrust of government, simply cannot be reached via an online survey or don’t feel welcome at a town hall. If we don’t design specific mechanisms to reach them, outreach remains incomplete.

Community Resilience Planning in Practice: Snohomish County

We recently navigated this balance during a project in Snohomish County. The goal was to increase awareness and resilience in a region prone to seasonal river flooding. While using traditional outreach methods like mailers and digital alerts to reach the general population, our initial analysis made it clear that a one-size-fits-all strategy would miss key segments of the community, leaving many people at risk.

To bridge this gap, we supplemented our broad outreach with a targeted, Spanish-language workshop. This wasn't just about translation; it was about intentional design through two key choices:

• Working with the Right Partner: We collaborated with a trusted community organization already working with Spanish speakers on stormwater management. Their endorsement provided the trust and credibility needed to foster a real dialogue.

• Authentic Communication: We used live interpretation, allowing participants to share their lived experiences and specific concerns in their native tongue. By creating a space where people felt heard and respected, we uncovered vital information—specific geographic vulnerabilities and communication gaps—that our initial assumptions and standard mailers never would have flagged.

Reducing Late-Stage Risk Through Early Community Engagement

In any project, new information will emerge. However, the most successful projects are those that limit the avoidable surprises. When a project team moves too quickly into implementation without deep listening, they can encounter critical community pushback or overlooked data late in the game.

It is a common frustration in our industry: finding out a project-changing detail when the budget is spent and the timeline is tight, even though that information was available from the start. By prioritizing listening early, we build the buy-in necessary for sustained success. When stakeholders see their input reflected in the policy foundation, the project gains the political and social capital needed to move from a report to a reality.

Planning Together for Successful Implementation

At Broadview Planning, we are community planners, public health professionals, and communication experts. We share our clients' eagerness to see projects cross the finish line. But we’ve learned that true efficiency isn't about moving fast—it's about moving together.

Learn more about how we support community planning and engagement services that move projects from vision to implementation.