Community planning in North East Valley

Abstract

Community planning is when a community makes decisions about issues that matter to them. There are diverse views on the role, function and process of community planning, depending on who is driving it. From the formal planning perspective, community planning is initiated by formal institutions so communities can have an input on decision making processes and improve the quality of state services. On the other hand, community planning from the communities' perspectives, is initiated by themselves to allow a transformation of community members from being service users to active citizens. Literature on community planning suggests that outcomes include a deeper level of democracy, a shift from traditional forms of government to a multi-stakeholder governance approach, greater attention to social justice and a more fair distribution of power. This research seeks to explore the approach to community planning in Dunedin’s North East Valley (NEV), a mixed income and ethnically diverse neighborhood. The NEV Community Development Project has been operating since the 1990s with a goal of creating a better place for the children of the community through community development. The NEV Community Project has gained recognition from community members as well as from the DCC, which have acknowledged the value of having an active community working alongside with them. Based on interviews, workshops and participant observation, this research identifies the barriers to community planning and how this kind of processes can be supported. Initial findings indicate that barriers to community planning are related to difficulty in engaging community members and a lack of flexibility in the formal planning process. The conclusions of this study should help to find ways to better support community planning, both from inside and outside the communities.