The Cart

Now, I don't mean to get all sentimental, but I had kind of a big day last week. The 29th was my very first public meeting as a planner.

I have been to public meetings, planning commission meetings, town hall meetings, city council meetings - but I attended them all as a member of the public. This was my first experience from the inside.

As I have mentioned before, my firm is working on a small area plan for the future BRT station at 3500 South and 5600 West. MAX, the 3500 South line, is already operational as a mixed traffic BRT route, with the dedicated right of way and stations under construction. The 5600 West line will be completed as a center running BRT route from 2700 South to 6400 South by 2015.

That means the intersection of 35th and 56th will be one of the best serviced intersections in the Wasatch Front with two high quality transit lines.

Our job is to help the cities along the 56th West route implement land use strategies now that will boost ridership when the line is in place. This meeting was the beginning of a dialogue between West Valley City and the residents of the area to discuss the what the future might look like.

The meeting took the form of a (mild) charette.* We spent the first hour giving the meeting attendees a crash course in transit oriented development planning and an overview of the area, with an explanation of what BRT is. That was followed by a brainstorming session. Everybody was given slips of paper and was asked to write down what they liked/disliked/wanted to see change/etc about the area. The answers ranged from "higher density" to "open space" to "better lighting." We then gave everybody green and red dot stickers so they could vote on the ideas they like or didn't like.

When we had a sense of what the public wanted, our pencil man extrodinare, Greg Haws, started sketching plan view renderings on fodder while the attendees gave suggestions.

We ended up with a couple of good scenario stars, one more office and retail heavy, one more residential heavy.

It was exciting to see maps I had made on the tables and the walls, to see the land use analysis I had done in the presentation. I have to admit, I got a thrill when someone asked a question and the table looked to me, cus I was an official.

There are some things we would have done differently in hindsight, but overall I think it was an effective meeting.

We have another one on the 19th of the month where we will be unveiling our fleshed out scenarios and looking for feedback. Feel free to come.

*Charette is the French word for cart (I think). Way back when, architecture students in France were much like any student today, procrastinators. At the end of the old tyme equivalent of the semester the professors would pull a cart around the school. When the cart came to you, you had to put your project on, completed or not. Students would then walk beside the cart and finish their projects, on the cart.

A modern charette is an intensive brainstorming and work session, where images are drawn up on the spot and at the end there are a series of somewhat fleshed out possible scenarios. A good example of this is the plan for the Cottonwood Mall redevelopment. The plan was created in a little over a week. Planners and architects stared with a blank slate, worked nine straight 18 hour days, and finished with the current plan.