Citizen Participation
In the Environment Act, the basic principle is to design the physical living environment together with residents, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders. Municipalities require a plan for active involvement and coordination with local residents during (re)developments. But when, how and to what extent do you involve local residents? How do you reach (the right) people? And how do you do that in an inclusive way?
Taking to the streets
For Veldboom Vastgoed, we conducted citizen participation research at three locations in the Netherlands in 2021. With this we mapped the DNA of neighborhoods: their strengths, strengths and dreams for the future. We spoke to local residents in an approachable way and learned from them what is going on in the neighborhood. What short-term and long-term concerns there are, how they want to be involved in the new development and how we keep them involved. We compiled all our steps, tools and lessons learned for involving local residents in (re)developments into a practical overview: The Citizen Participation Handbook.
