PlaceMatters.com Invites Communities to Host the Next Community Design & Decision Making Initiative

PlaceMatters.com

Community Design and Decision Making: Democracy and Planning in Action (CDDM), will represent the next benchmark event in planning - directly demonstrating how planning support systems can improve the democratic nature of decision making in the real world. PlaceMatters.com, tool and service providers, and partner organizations will work with the host community to build the capacity of that community to respond more effectively and more democratically to current and future planning challenges.

This initiative will apply innovative planning support systems and techniques to real planning problems in the host community. The goal of CDDM is to improve the way planning decisions are made and the quality of those decisions and to demonstrate how various tools and techniques might be integrated into the planning and decision making process. Through an unprecedented collaborative effort between tool providers, national experts in democracy and planning, and community members (local planners, stakeholders, general public and educational institutions), the host community will gain a clear understanding of their current decision support capacity and identify new decision support tools to ensure the integration of good information, comprehensive analysis and strong civic engagement for current and future planning projects.