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23 <br /> several months to identify major stakeholders, sub-neighborhood representatives, and neighbors who <br /> could bring an array of visions and opinions into dialogue with one another. We ultimately invited 19 <br /> people to participate in ongoing meetings together and asked them to take the ongoing questions back <br /> into their sub-neighborhoods to more intensively reach stakeholders who may not attend. We then <br /> conducted over a dozen additional interviews to incorporate perspectives of residents who were not able <br /> to be part of the stakeholder team. Because of Rogers <br /> s <br /> Road's long history of neighborhood leadership and �/, / �j �� ;��� <br /> action, our process engages the strengths and struggles of �� t,rl <br /> history first and continually. Creative communication 1 <br /> strategies area central part of our work: we find ways to ( „m„„„ql�„„y„,p �i� ro� <br /> reach people the ways they best receive contact. We �� <br /> 11111,11,111101111:„1111111111,f <br /> develop clear "gives and gets” strategy framework. We � 111111-111111111111111111,1:1,4111111111111 1„, ' u q111.11110111,11111 <br /> plc <br /> believe that discussing the benefits and challenges openly � ��'1110,11111.1.„1111011111111111111111111""111Y191 sff^4 <br /> is the best way for communities to mobilize for movement Vii'%� <br /> l'111119111111.1.1111,„1,44 <br /> forward, and we believe in building this infrastructure in a ,//, /// tJ f � <br /> way that it can be utilized well beyond our active role. <br /> Neighbors workshopping summary recommendations <br /> This is not the first effort at a plan for the Rogers Road at an early meeting. <br /> neighborhood. As mentioned above, the neighborhood <br /> has long experienced marginalization from the political and planning process. Conventional decision- <br /> making has been for and about neighbors rather than with and by neighbors. We entered into this <br /> process well aware of the history of racial exclusion, and always with the nagging fear that the results of <br /> our efforts would be more of the same exclusion. In spite of that fear, we were willing to complete this <br /> Community-First planning effort because of the following: <br /> • The assurance that sewer infrastructure would continue to move forward for Historic Rogers Road <br /> residents, and that a community effort was an important step in preparation for development speculation <br /> that might result with this new infrastructure <br /> • The understanding that this effort would help guide future conversations about land use planning and <br /> development approvals, especially in the Greene Tract and on the Chapel Hill side of the neighborhood, <br /> given the recent change to an ETJ and concerns about future zoning decisions in Chapel Hill without prior <br /> input <br /> • The desire to "get ahead” of the rising development pressure, given the growing concern in the <br /> neighborhood about what is happening all around the fringes of Rogers Road, especially the significant rise <br /> of new subdivision and townhouse developments on Homestead and Eubanks Rd <br /> • The hope that we could create a guiding document together that would be immediately useful for us as <br /> residents and community partners <br /> Part of how we approach planning is to engage differences and to value a diversity of community <br /> opinions, not to try to get rid of it or find absolute consensus. The materials and recommendations in this <br /> document do not "represent” all of Rogers Road. This process has engaged a wonderfully diverse set of <br /> neighbors in ongoing dialogue and sought to create a document that elaborates on shared visions; it <br /> includes differences and nuances that have enriched the discussions. <br /> 6 <br />