Our role in planning for Open Space & Mountain Park lands just west of town...

1. Learning the interests of those who live near Open Space
2. Bringing those interets to the planning process
3. Searching for mutually beneficial solutions


Thursday, October 22, 2009

Its on, the CCG has our first meeting

On Wednesday 10/21 the West TSA CCG met for the first time with a kickoff meeting. The meeting went smoothly and I was struck by the vast knowledge, experience and good will in the room. The agenda:
1. Public Participation
2. Member Introduction
3. Hopes, Needs and Commitments
4. CCG Operation
5. Proposed Meeting Schedule for November - December
6. Homework

We're planning for two meetings a month plus field trips into the West TSA.

We're about to begin the fifth step of the CCG process, Collaborative Learning. Here's a link to stages of the whole process:

http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/images/departments/openspace/images_wtsa/wtsa-ccg3.jpg

We have decided that appointing an alternate in each area can only help our neighborhood representation. We chose the runners up from the initial caucus voting. Please join us in welcoming your new Neighborhood Alternates:
Central - Shelly Dunbar - Shelley.westtsa@gmail.com
North - Joe Zamudi0 - Joe.westtsa@gmail.com
Our current alternate, Guy, will be the South alternate.

Next up:
Tonight the neighborhood Reps, including your new alternates, will hold our first meeting to hear neighborhood feedback. Details are in the posts below.
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Saturday, October 10, 2009

TALK to US:

We are hosting a West TSA Neighborhood listening session on Thursday 10/22 at the Municipal Building (Broadway & Canyon) from 6:30pm-8:30pm so we can hear which topics are most important to you and so you can hear your neighbors ideas.

We’ve assembled the questionnaire below to start discussion and so folks who can’t make the listening session can still comment.

We have also created emails so you can contact us directly. While we live in different parts of town, we’re collaborating to find solutions that help all adjacent neighborhoods. That said none of us is focusing only on our North/Central/South and that residents should feel free to approach any of us.

You may contact all of us at: west.tsa.neighborhood.reps@gmail.com

Neighborhood Caucus
Collaborative Group Process
Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Western Trail Study Area
Request for Ideas

We are writing to follow-up on the Open Space and Mountain Parks Western Trail Study Area Meeting that you attended on September 15. More specifically, we are writing to ask you to help shape the issues that your neighborhood representatives will bring to the Community Collaborative Group process. Our charge is to work with other CCG participants to develop a comprehensive plan for managing the City's mountain backdrop in ways that advance the interests of the Neighborhood Caucus, the larger community, and the natural environment.

Based on input we received at the meeting, it's clear that caucus participants would like to see us develop and advocate for policies that provide the best balance of the many competing interests of the caucus members and the larger community. In addition to neighborhood protection and access issues, caucus members also made it clear that they were interested in the bigger picture.

More specifically, they expressed a clear desire to move beyond unnecessary either/or choices between either environmental protection or recreation. Instead, they wanted us to, wherever possible, look for creative both/and solutions which advance both conservation and protection interests.

Request for Ideas
As we prepare for CCG discussions, we wanted your help in assembling a detailed catalogue of issues that you would like the CCG address and, more importantly, your specific suggestions for addressing each issue. Here, it is obviously true that it will be easier for us to persuade the larger CCG to adopt recommendations that are broadly attractive to all OSMP constituents. We, therefore, urge you to try to anticipate what opponents might say about your proposals and adjust your suggestions in ways that increase their attractiveness and address concerns that others are likely to have.

Questionnaire
To gather your ideas, we are using an open-ended questionnaire that recognizes the conventional, closed-ended (checkbox) surveys can't really do justice to the complex issues that need to be addressed. Such surveys also do a very poor job of tapping the community's creative problem solving capabilities. We have developed both a Quick Questionnaire (for folks who have just a few minutes to give us their ideas) and a More Detailed Questionnaire (for those willing to take the time to help develop proposals that are likely to stand a good chance of implementation).

Quick Question:
What neighborhood impacts, access issues, or opportunities do you think need to be addressed? Where?

More Detailed Questions:
If you have time and energy, we would also invite you to write a couple of paragraphs that tell us four things for each issue that you think needs to be addressed:
  • What is the problem that you would like to see corrected and/or the opportunity that you would like to see pursued?
  • How important is it that CCG address this? (Here answers could range FROM: This issue critically important -- failure to address it will lead to serious adverse consequences (please specify) TO: This would be nice to address if time, money, and energy permit.
  • Your suggestions for addressing the issue (remember that prospects for implementing your ideas will be much greater if you can craft them in ways which maximize support and minimize opposition).
  • Who we can contact for more information.
We are interested in a number of possible strategies for improving Open Space and Mountain Parks management including:
  • Strategies for limiting adverse impacts on Open Space neighbors,
  • Strategies for providing equitable and adequate access to Boulder residents,
  • Strategies for providing access to user groups that may be currently underserved,
  • Strategies for managing inevitable demands for increased Open Space visitation in ways which provide access while minimizing adverse environmental and neighborhood impacts, and
  • General ideas for improving the visitor experience and/or enhancing the environment.
For More Information
You may contact all of us at: west.tsa.neighborhood.reps@gmail.com
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