The Visioning Process

The visioning process is a planning process consisting of four phases that are completed in a series of 10 meetings. The meetings are facilitated by a Trees Forever field coordinator.

Phase 1: Program Initiation

Phase 2: Needs Assessment and Goal Setting

Phase 3: Developing a Concept Plan

Phase 4: Developing an Implementation Plan

The goals for each phase, the meeting sequence, and the products of each phase are illustrated in the figure at the bottom of the page.

Phase 1: Program Initiation

During this planning phase, the facilitator organizes the community participants and clearly explains the planning process. Nominal group techniques are used to identify problem areas or issues and desired outcomes.

Phase 2: Needs Assessment and Goal Setting

The community committee conducts a needs assessment by taking inventory of the community’s natural resources, cultural and historical resources, and visual quality resources. Mapping and focused discussion are used to identify relevant resources, as well as opportunities and constraints for design.

At the same time, the design team, consisting of a landscape architect and student intern(s), assesses the local transportation systems by meeting with DOT personnel and city and county officials.

Based on these assessments, the committee sets goals for the concept plan.
The Visioning Process

Phase 3: Developing a Concept Plan

The purpose of this phase is to develop a conceptual landscape plan and define strategies for realizing the concept plan. The community committee, the design team, and the facilitator plan a one- to two-day design workshop called a “charrette,” during which community residents are invited to provide feedback to preliminary concepts presented by the design team.

Based on community input at the charrette, the design team develops a preliminary concept plan that is presented to the community committee. Once the committee has approved the plan, the design team makes final revisions and presents the concept plan to the community as a whole. The design team also prepares a feasibility report, which summarizes the expected costs associated with proposed phased development. The concept plan is packages as a series of presentation boards which, along with the feasibility study, are left with the community.

Phase 4: Developing an Implementation Plan

In this final phase the community committee determines strategies for achieving the vision developed with the design team in the community concept plan. The facilitator works with the committee to determine what actions are required to achieve each phase of the plan and what methods should be used to measure progress. The facilitator provides information about funding sources available and how to apply to these programs.

During this phase, the committee becomes the leader in involving the broader community volunteer group and for building support.

Download a PDF version of this chart.

Back

During meeting one, committee members are asked to draw a “landscape memory” and to complete the statement “My community world
be a better place if...”

The committee maps cultural, historical, natural, and visual assessments, which are overlaid to determine relationships among the community’s resources.

The committee members prioritize the goals
identified based on the needs assessment.

One product of the “charrette” is a preliminary community concept plan.

Community members give feedback to student interns during the charrette.

Community members view the final community concept plan during the public meeting.