Meriden City Center Initiative

Public Involvement Process

	Summary

	Assessment & Design

	Implementation

	Summary of Public Input
Commercial Center Market Assessment
Environmental Impact Analysis
Harbor Brook Realignment
Preliminary Design of Transportation Improvements
Conceptual Land Use
Design Guidelines
Fiscal and Economic Impact Assessment
Appendix A: Property Acquisition Plan
Appendix B: Residential Relocation Strategy
Appendix C: Preliminary Opinion of Cost Summary

Summary

The Consensus Building Institute (CBI) was retained by MERG and BL Companies to develop and implement a process for engaging the input of Meriden’s citizens in the Phase II planning process for the Meriden City Center Initiative.

The Consensus Building Institute is a not-for-profit [501 c(3)] organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. CBI provides facilitation and mediation services to help public, private, and non-governmental organizations throughout the United States and internationally reach agreement on complex public policy matters. The assessment team consisted of Vice President Patrick Field and Senior Associate Stacie Nicole Smith. The facilitation was performed by Stacie Nicole Smith.

A community involvement action plan is most successful when it effectively engages a broad range of diverse stakeholders to help not only provide input into a master plan but to build support and ownership in that plan so it has the proponents, supporters, and leaders who can turn that plan into a reality. Such an action plan is more effective when it is built with, not for, the community.

Therefore, the public engagement process for Phase II of the Meriden City Center Initiative had two stages: Assessment and Design, and Implementation of a City Center Advisory Group.