Message from the President
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What a time to be a planner, employee, business owner, home schooler, parent, spouse, and the list goes on… In these unprecedented times of unknowns and uncertainty stress can be high for many reasons. Our message to you, in the midst of all of this, is that we are hard at work brainstorming new planning topics that this era invokes and want you to know just how much we miss our planning camaraderie! To reconnect and to keep reaching toward our mission of providing unbiased planning education to citizens, the planning communities, and our elected officials, we have modified our training approach to become your new Virtual Planning Educator. This may be a temporary adaptation, or it may become a permanent mix to the type of education we can offer Washington State. We will see what tomorrow brings.
Our fun and successful Hoppy Hours were just getting started and the Board of Directors was excited to conduct more of these great social get-togethers. It is disappointing to see this great idea closed for the moment. Maybe we will move those to an on-line venue too? Give us some feedback to make this happen.
For continued training, our sponsors have enthusiastically agreed to provide reimbursement for the upcoming PAW Webinar: Lessons Learned on Establishing a Digital Plan Review Program. Thank you to WCIA (Washington Cities Insurance Authority) and WCRP (Washington Counties Risk Pool) for your continued support. If you are interested in sponsoring a future PAW Webinar, please
contact us
. Do you have some ideas about great topics we could cover in these new webinars?
Contact us
and tell us what you are thinking, we would be happy to make it a reality.
PAW is hard at work making plans for our annual conference in Chelan this year. Sessions are being finalized and keynote speakers are being tracked down. This too may be a mixed virtual/person to person conference. While this is being nailed down, please put the new date on your calendar, October 28-30, 2020. We hope to “see” you there.
As ever, we encourage ideas from our membership. Please reach out to us if you have ideas for social outings (or virtual outings), training requests, or need help seeking a specialist for a project you are working on.
Remember, “Good planning doesn’t just happen…”
Take care, stay safe and healthy out there!
Cheers,
Marla S. Powers
PAW President, Conference Chair
Board Member since 2015
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Lessons Learned on Establishing a Digital Plan Review Program
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We are excited to offer you a new, unique webinar!
This webinar is geared for municipal employees looking to learn more about starting a digital plan review program, but should also be helpful for improving existing programs including best practices and helpful tips for digital plan review. Bluebeam Revu will be highlighted as an example of a digital plan review application.
Our speakers will be here to answer all of your questions at the end of the webinar via chat.
Cost:
$20
When:
May 1, 2020 @ 11am
Where:
Zoom
Moderator:
Alex Wenger, AICP,
City of Blaine
Speakers:
- Angela Haupt, CBO, City of Kirkland
- Micah Chappell, MBA, CBO, City of Seattle
- Mary Reinbold, Planner for Bonney Lake
- Dan Ireland, SCJ Alliance
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After you have registered here, you can expect a calendar invite with registration link and password (from
fawn@aminc.org
) to register for the Webinar through Zoom on the
27th of April
.
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WCIA is reimbursing members for up to
two registrations
per member for the upcoming
PAW Webinar - Lessons Learned on Establishing a Digital Plan Review Program.
Reimbursement funding is available upon program completion. Please submit your reimbursement request through WCIA’s website,
www.wciapool.org
,
click
Education & Training,
then click
Training Reimbursements.
For questions about reimbursement, please contact Member Services at
memberservices@wciapool.org
.
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WCRP members are eligible for one reimbursable scholarship per member county to cover the cost of registration. Please contact your county risk manager today to request a scholarship.
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Save the Date!
2020 Annual Conference at Campbell’s Resort in Lake Chelan October 28-30, 2020
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PAW is pleased to introduce our annual conference theme, “Sound Planning, Strong Economies”. This topic promises to be timely, targeted, and fun. Sessions are anticipated to include recreational economics e.g. ski resorts, public/private partnerships, trail development, agri-tourism, downtown revitalization stories, and economic development initiatives. The conference will also include our acclaimed Planners Skills Camp as a separate tract.
Save the Date for October 28-29th in Chelan
, registration will be opening soon!
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Friday September 25
th
in the Dayton/Walla Walla area
Proposed topic of focus involves recreational economics and trails
Friday November 6
th
location to be determined
Proposed topic of focus involves economic development
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WCIA members
are eligible for one reimbursed registration per member. WCIA members must register and pay PAW first. Then, after the Boot Camps reimbursement can be requested by going to this
link
prior to December 13, 2019.
RMSA Scholarship Program
: The Risk Management Service Agency (RMSA) provides scholarships to help its members attend pre-approved workshops and trainings. RMSA Scholarships are only available to current members of the RMSA.
Members must submit an application, prior to attending an event, for consideration of scholarship approval by RMSA staff. RMSA Scholarships provide reimbursement of registration costs only for trainings intended to improve risk management skills or reduce liability and property risk exposures and are available on a first-come-first-serve basis. To find out if your city or town is eligible, please contact
rmsa@awcnet.org
, (360) 753-4137.
WCRP members:
The WCRP will be offering 10 scholarships for the upcoming PAW Land Use Bootcamp. Scholarships will be awarded to WCRP members on a first come first serve basis and will reimburse the cost of registration only. We ask that you contact your county’s designated Risk Manager to request a scholarship.
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Thank you to Our Sponsors!
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Hoppy Hour! Please join a PAW Board member near you for a fun night of planning and hoppy beverages. One lucky attendee will go home with a Hoppy Hour t-shirt! Oh Ya! Whoop.
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Due to the current situation we will be putting on hold all future Hoppy Hours until further notice!
Thank you to all that have participated so far this year!
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Thanks to Kevin McCoy at SCJ Alliance for designing the PAW Hoppy Hour logo! Kevin is a creative designer and illustrator at SCJ Alliance by day and freelance artist/illustrator by night.
When he is not working, he loves spending time with his wife and finding new creative adventures. Keep rockin’ Kevin!
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Mary Reinbold is an Assistant Planner for the City of Bonney Lake. Originally from New Jersey, Mary moved to the Northwest as a Jesuit Volunteer after finishing her undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2003. She worked for various non-profit organizations focusing on services for people experiencing homelessness. It was during this work that Mary assisted in the development of an in-fill housing program for Transitions in Spokane, WA. Transitions capitalized on a new "cottage housing ordinance" and networked with planning faculty at Eastern Washington University to understand the development process, the ordinance, and learn about potential funding sources and road blocks. Viewing the role of a planner as something similar to social workers for government Mary enrolled in the Master's in Urban and Regional Planning at Eastern Washington University in fall of 2016.
Mary continued working full-time at Transitions' and celebrated the ground-breaking of Transitions' Home Yard Cottages shortly before completing her degree. Through networking at the PAW Annual Conference in Chelan, Mary met planners from around the state and applied to work with the City of Bonney Lake. Mary, her husband Matt, and their cat Sumimasen made the move to the west side of the state two years ago and currently live just south of Puyallup. Mary is an AICP Candidate, having utilized the fast-track testing opportunity to take the AICP exam just a year after graduating. This summer Mary will submit her essays to complete her AICP certification.
Mary joined the PAW Board after attending a Land Use Boot Camp in Spokane as a graduate student. She is in her third year of service and most appreciates the opportunity to learn from the planning experiences of other board members and the education and networking opportunities presented by PAW. "I've found PAW accessible and engaging from the very beginning. I appreciated the reduced pricing offered to students and members of PAW assisted me in preparing for the AICP exam. I also like that PAW offers education that's uniquely relevant to Washington State."
Mary most enjoys working with the public in her role as a planner. Inspired by those first interactions with planners, she sees her role as a planner to educate and assist the public in learning how they can successfully navigate government processes and policies through meaningful engagement and deeper understanding of the code. Mary's current work focuses on current planning but she is also a member of a team working to develop the Bonney Lake and Sumner Housing Action Plan. Mary also champions public outreach for code enforcement within the City of Bonney Lake. In her free-time Mary enjoys visiting breweries, road trips, and playing card games with her husband.
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Mary with the Bonney Lake Building Inspector Mark Nelson
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Lonely Planner: Public Service in the Era of Social Distancing
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By Emily Terrell, AICP, Principal, Sound Municipal Consultants
When I was approached by the PAW Board to write a timely article for this newsletter, I thought good Lord, what can I possibly say? I spent days thinking about how to wrap my head around the now which is so very different from the then of a month or so ago. Then it occurred to me that this new normal isn’t actually new to me.
I’ve worked alone or with remote partners from home for almost 12 years of the last 20 years of my planning career. I left the office in 2008. Then I was a municipal planning director who could clearly see the writing on the wall. My job, my department, was doomed by the Great Recession. I was offered a work from home position with an out of state planning firm and took it. Two years later, with the recession grinding on, I was among the last of the outside state personnel to get laid off. By then the AWC Jobnet page was consistently just a few lines long and the private sector was struggling. I was offered a couple of part time, gig style lifelines. I learned to be a hearing examiner. I learned to be an appraiser. I made do.
By 2015 I had a stable of small municipal clients. It’s grown from there. I could have, I suppose, attempted to jump back into my prior career track, but I had come to appreciate my freedom, autonomy and the ability to create my own destiny. I chose to stay on the fringe and do what I loved for many towns and cities rather than just one. It’s been harrowing and wonderful and rewarding and painful and all the things small business brings.
Along the way, I’ve learned a thing or two about working from home, often solo, but not always. I’ve learned how to juggle multiple projects and multiple clients while also being a mom, most of the time with a cat sitting on my keyboard and a dog on my foot. Right now, I have all that plus a husband working from home. The hardest part of this new normal for me is having my usually quiet, empty home/office be a hive of activity all the time with nowhere for any of us to go. I love my family, but it turns out I enjoyed them more when they used to come home at 5 pm. :/
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Creative Engagement During Coronavirus
CITY OF SAMMAMISH POPCORN WITH PLANNING
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Written by Miryam Laytner, City of Sammamish Planning Manager.
HOW THE IDEA CAME ABOUT
The idea for Popcorn with Planning evolved from the realization that a majority of our interaction with the community is usually through a formal process like preparing to submit a land use application or providing public comment on a project. We were missing opportunities to interact with our citizens on an informal level and engage with those who don’t usually participate in our formal processes. Our hope is that through Popcorn with Planning, our citizens will learn more about what’s happening in their community and help us as staff better understand the needs and concerns of the people we serve.
And so, Popcorn with Planning was born. Inspired by the success of a community workshop for our Urban Forest Management Plan, we decided that Popcorn with Planning should focus on topics that are relevant in people’s everyday lives. We engaged our Planning Commission and analyzed requests for project guidance to identify potential topics of interest. We then turned the potential topics into an online survey so that people could vote for the topics they were most interested in.
THE INITIAL CONCEPT
Each Popcorn with Planning session will start with a short presentation on one of the selected topics, followed by a Q&A session between staff and attendees. Because the City of Sammamish is home to many families with children, we were also planning to provide activity sheets and of course, freshly made popcorn. To reach the most people possible, we developed an outreach plan that included social media, the City's newsletter, and distributing postcards at the local farmer’s market and other community gathering places.
ADJUSTING FOR CORONAVIRUS
Just as we were starting to implement our outreach plan COVID-19 hit, requiring us to completely re-vamp our plans. We saw a lot of value in how Popcorn with Planning could bring the community and staff together and wanted to find a way to continue. Knowing most people were confined to their home, and that the majority of our community members had access to the internet, we started exploring different models and tools that would allow us to do Popcorn with Planning virtually.
The first step in that process was making people aware of Popcorn with Planning and the survey. So, when things had calmed down a bit, I filmed a short promo video in my kitchen and included a popcorn recipe in an effort to try to hold people’s interest. We then shared the video on the City’s social media channels and emailed it out to staff, the Planning Commission, and City Council so that they could share it as well.
For virtual Popcorn with Planning, we wanted to keep the primary components; a short presentation followed by a Q&A session. Fortunately, there are many different options that will allow us to do this. The first Popcorn with Planning session is scheduled for late May, with the topic to be determined after the survey closes on April 15
th. We’re currently evaluating the different online tools to decide which one will work best for us and we will also be exploring how to record the session so that people can watch it on their own.
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Short Courses on Local Planning – Video Training available
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PAW has a long history with the Short Course on Local Planning, establishing the course in 1977. Since the mid 1980’s, Commerce has organized the Short Course, holding 20-30 courses per year, all around the state, with guest attorneys and local planners.
In 2020, only two courses were held, the rest are on hold as we weather the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” directive from Governor Inslee in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, for those wishing to get your training in, the Short Course has a series of videos available on You-Tube to get the information on the website
https://www.commerce.wa.gov/serving-communities/growth-management/short-course/
. You can also download the study guide and the certificate.
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Online Public Engagement Resources - Laura Hodgson/Dave Andersen from Commerce (3/24/20)
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Inquiry:
I was wondering if we could contact MRSC and suggest they look into adding some additional information on public engagement. What they have is really helpful, but I think a little more information could go a long way. Here are some areas that would be helpful to add:
- Advantages/disadvantages of the various web-based video conferencing tools (including costs).
- Are there other online engagement tools that would be helpful? (Mural, MindMixer, etc.?)
- Options for communicating with hard to reach individuals (i.e., without internet and/or phone)
- Other non-video communication options (online surveys or phone surveys, noticing at stores, mailings, telephone town halls, local/regional news outlets, email noticing) – are these still recommended? Which are most effective?
Response:
Video/Teleconferencing for Public Meetings/Other Online Engagement Tools
The platforms in the table shown on pages 3-5 can be used both for internal meetings and for public meetings. There are options like Microsoft Teams that are generally best for internal organizational use, but we focus on these platforms that will clearly work for both internal and public meetings, and do not require any other subscription for use. The Microsoft conferencing options require that your organization have Office 365 subscriptions, which include the entire
Microsoft Office suite
and the conferencing application Teams.
Options for communicating with hard-to-reach individuals (no phone or internet)
- Community newspapers and local government print newsletters.
- Utility bill inserts.
- Meet with local faith community leadership to request their assistance in delivering public health information through their communication networks.
- Post notices on bulletin boards in open stores and park areas.
- Broadcast information through your public access TV channels and news organizations
- Community reader boards may be useful for posting brief messages.
- Where facilities have been closed, be sure to post alternative contact information and instructions for accessing services at entryways.
- Meals on wheels operations can offer a way to deliver information and make regular checks on the condition of vulnerable older adults.
Other Low-tech, low-cost options for soliciting feedback from residents
:
For public meetings
- Invite public comment via email for a fixed amount of time prior to the meeting. For example, commenting allowed from date the entire agenda packet is published until noon on the day of the meeting; your jurisdiction will want to vary this cut-off time to allow legislators time to read the comments. See this example from the City of Olympia. They are using software from EngagementHQ, but a local government can use a similar method without the software.
Written updates
- Establish a COVID-19 email list to send community updates to subscribers. Information that is pushed to subscribers via email is an effective way to reach them since they are more likely to open messages they chose to receive, and it saves them the effort of having to check for updates.
Audio updates
FYI:
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POETRY FOR HAPPY PLANNERS
Today I saw a site plan that I quite enjoyed
It was missing the north-arrow but it still complied
The applicant was a joy and even smiled as he walked
Until of course I told him he can’t build that on that block
He shook his cane in the air and snarled through his white beard
To all a good night he yelled to the office below as for me he said “nothing but coal” – C.D.
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Interested in writing an article for the next newsletter? If submitted by
June 15, 2020 we will mail you an official PAW T-shirt!
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Planning Association of Washington
1-877-460-5880
info@planningpaw.org
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