Neighborhood workshops and visioning sessions are effective tools for engaging residents. These tools help residents to become partners in the process of planning for and creating new homes, such as the crafting of the master plan or town plan. By understanding intentions, sharing hopes and fears, and contributing to outcomes, residents can have more confidence and comfort in possible changes to their neighborhood or community moving forward. New strategies should consider creative and artistic approaches, including those that involve youth.
Developers of projects that engage with local residents early and often during the planning and design of new homes before proposing specific plans for a site, will help to air concerns and hopes of those who live near the proposed site. These early conversations also help residents to engage with a site concept early, without the pressures of a formal review process.