Community: Sacramento (Sacramento County) Population: 453,781

Summary:

Greenfair Village is a redevelopment project in a 30-acre section of Sacramento. In the summer and early fall of 2006, the organizing partners of the project, which included New Faze Development, Pacific Municipal Partners and a Project Advisory Committee (PAC) conducted a series of public engagement opportunities throughout the community. In total, 140 area residents attended the evening meetings and reports were compiled for each session. In these workshops, the aforementioned stakeholders, particularly the PAC presented attendees with a set of “Development Principles” that were then to be used by residents in their discussions about the final design of the project.

Design “elements” discussed by the participants ranged from “parks, open space,” “pathways and linkages,” streets, and various housing options. Responses from the residents helped to form the final design of the project. In particular residents expressed opinions on housing density and traffic planning. Through the entire process a website was developed and utilized as a “sounding board” and organizational foundation for the civic engagement campaign, alerting residents to meeting times/dates as well as informing them of the project’s progress.

Resource to Learn More:

Go to http://www.migtownsquare.com/Content/10044/preview.html

Case story provided by Common Sense California (www.commonsenseca.org). Sacramento is a grantee of Common Sense California’s 2008 Citizen Engagement Grant Program.