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50 <br /> Pri i des for 1 pr o Action <br /> Support a community owned process that the community is "a part of, not the victim of." <br /> / . // 1 '1� ',lI ' 11 �>>� '7 l UI `, 1t1 f ut i) ( (1( /( t)'Jr1( , t <br /> The priorities identified in this report should be considered the platform for development in Rogers Road. <br /> Rather than a step-by-step guide to development, this planning process established a guiding list of crisp <br /> and clear priorities for the future. <br /> One of the main concerns we heard throughout the process was "Even if we do all this work, how are we <br /> going to ensure that the powers that be (local governments and developers) will listen?". Decades of <br /> broken promises and countless, so-called community processes have left an accountability gap between <br /> the residents of Rogers Road and the Towns and County. Rebuilding trust will come through sustained <br /> efforts to increase accountability. <br /> As resident Marian Peppers puts it, "Tell the town to fix it. Just fix it." <br /> During our process, we learned about a concurrent meeting among campaigning county commissioners <br /> regarding future development of the Greene Tract. Neither RENA leaders nor residents were asked for <br /> input; their perspectives were not engaged in discussion. This is the kind of failure of coordinated <br /> communication processes that leads to breakdown. To ensure planning that is effective for all concerned, <br /> residents of Rogers Road should be involved in all related conversations out of the gate. The absence of <br /> community members builds further distrust between residents and local municipalities. Conversations <br /> involving decision-making bodies would aid in building a bridge of trust between local municipalities and <br /> Rogers Road residents, with the ultimate goal of "win-win." Any future action should reflect direct and <br /> immediate integration of perspectives of RENA leaders and residents. <br /> 1a 1)11111 1r1U_,/ , r11 H11, <br /> Community-First planning came through honest and tense dialogue with the long term and historic <br /> residents or Rogers Road. The community is dynamic, with diverse opinions that work to create <br /> complicated plans. At the end of the process, we could not say with one voice, for example, "Rogers Road <br /> wants a small scale commercial development to happen in the Greene Tract." The process did not, at this <br /> stage, produce consensus but it did engage points of view that may otherwise have been buried under <br /> external assumptions about "the" community's point of view. <br /> 33 <br />