Agenda 12-12-23; 8-h - Approval of the Orange County Transportation Services Public Involvement Plan

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31 PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT PLAN • Identify where and when teleconferences would be helpful to provide broader access to community meetings as well as widen the level of community involvement. They help save time, money and resources spent on traveling to various locations. • Identify games, contests, and other hands-on activities help generate "buzz" about transportation projects. • Implement and use a "one call" system that catalogs telephone numbers within a specified area and is programmed to call with a pre-recorded reminder of upcoming community meetings, times, and locations. Knowledge gained from the community on transportation issues (e.g. problems and possible solutions) helps guide the decision-making process. These issues on proposed project can be generally categorized as potential: • Environmental impacts, including concerns about increased traffic and air quality. • Social impacts, including the integrity of existing community, cultural or recreational sites. • Conflicts over the detriments/benefits of the project, like travel mode. Becoming familiar with the dynamics of each transportation project is both a challenge and an opportunity to deliver the best infrastructure improvement for the community and travelers it will serve. The best way to achieve this is for project team members to be experts on the proposed concept and design while being open and available to hearing the concerns of the community. As transportation professionals, the department staff are aware of industry practices that guide the decisions on project concepts and designs. In cases where addressing community concerns would conflict with safety, standards, policies or cost-efficiencies, the community would still benefit from knowing that their comments and concerns are taken seriously and incorporated into the decision-making process; were willing to discuss and evaluate them; and that as a steward of taxpayer dollars, the staff must also consider local, state, federal, and industry parameters to guide our decisions. Successful transportation projects, plans and programs are the result of meaningful community engagement and truly reflect the communities and residents they were designed to serve. It is at these times that the department will always find ways to inform the community of the results of their input. These could include: • Verbiage in project fact sheet/information letter on decision. • Separate flyer on community impact on project decision. • Visual/graphic/display board notifying community of decision made on their behalf. Report Date 25