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What’s this all about?
It's a weeklong public planning process called a "charrette," in which citizens, officials, and teams of experts will produce guidelines for future growth compatible with Post Falls' long-range goals. Among those goals: Environmentally responsible growth in patterns that accommodate new residents in real neighborhoods and that encourage businesses that provide economic opportunity across all income levels.
Why are we doing it?
Post Falls is growing at a pace that's outstripping old models for serving citizens and for regulating potentially harmful impacts of development. We want healthy growth and the opportunities it can bring to all citizens. But we need to protect the assets - including assets connected with the river and the prairie - that make Post Falls so attractive. The key question is: Who will make the decisions that determine how Post Falls grows? Will those decisions be made one parcel at a time by outside developers, or will they be made by the community through a process such as the one we're about to undertake? While we can't predict the future in detail, we can create an environment of predictability that enables individual citizens, developers, and business leaders to work together in making confident decisions.
Who's in charge?
Ultimately, the people of Post Falls are in charge. The charrette being covered in detail daily by this website is a public event. Everyone is welcome to participate. As a matter of fact, successful outcomes depend on high levels of citizen engagement. All of our city departments and elected officials will participate. We have hired a team of national consultants from the PlaceMakers group to advise us and to facilitate the charrette. But we own the process, and we're in charge of its products. This is a made-in-Post Falls production.
What results do we expect?
During the charrette, we will explore a new approach to zoning - a SmartCode for Smart Growth - especially for Post Falls neighborhoods, business districts, and outlying areas. Designers will produce illustrations of how neighborhoods, roads, and civic spaces might look under the new code. And because we will have everyone at the table at once -- from engineers to town planners to elected officials, all working with continuous citizen input -- we expect to move quickly from those renderings of a possible Post Falls future to guidelines and ordinances that make them possible.
You can find a complete charrette schedule here, a fuller explanation of the charrette process here, and information about the PlaceMakers group here.
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Planning
