Public Engagement

Preparing for Future Growth: Using the Comprehensive Plan to Turn Community Vision into Strategic Action

September 11, 2026

By Lori Johnson, Senior Professional Community Planner I, WSB

A comprehensive plan helps a community anticipate growth instead of reacting to it.

It connects long-term vision with land use, infrastructure, housing, transportation, economic development, parks, facilities, and implementation.

A strong comprehensive plan is more than a required process. It turns a community’s vision into locally grounded decisions about growth, investment, infrastructure, housing, mobility, natural resources, economic development, and community character, while accounting for applicable state and regional frameworks.

Turn the Local Vision into Strategic Action

The planning process should begin with the community’s goals, desired growth pattern, and long term priorities. State, county, watershed, transportation, utility, and regional guidance can help inform decision making, but the plan’s central purpose remains translating local values into clear direction for growth and public investment.

Communities must connect local goals with land use, infrastructure, housing, mobility, economic development, and implementation. The plan should show where growth can be supported, which investments and regulatory changes are needed, and how coordinated policies can advance community defined outcomes.

1. Build a Community-Driven Vision for Growth

Ongoing engagement with residents, businesses, property owners, organizations, and officials helps define where change is appropriate, what growth should look like, and which community qualities should be protected.

• Use varied participation methods and remove barriers so more voices shape the plan.
• Use maps, scenarios, visuals, and plain language to explain choices and tradeoffs.
• Report what was heard and show how input shaped goals, policies, and priorities.

2. Identify Where and How Growth Should Occur

The future land use plan identifies growth areas, redevelopment opportunities, preservation priorities, and appropriate patterns for housing, employment, services, mixed-use centers, natural resources, and facilities.

• Where should new development, infill, redevelopment, and preservation occur?
• What uses, densities, intensities, and community qualities are appropriate in each area?
• What infrastructure, services, and phased investments are needed to support growth responsibly?

3. Bring WSB Disciplines Together Around One Growth Strategy

Comprehensive planning works best as an integrated process. WSB can align planning, engineering, transportation, water resources, environmental, parks, landscape architecture, engagement, economic development, redevelopment, funding, and development services around shared growth assumptions and priorities.

• Planning and engagement connect vision, land use, housing, and policy.
• Engineering, transportation, water, environmental, parks, and landscape specialists test capacity, access, resilience, and place quality.
• Economic development, redevelopment, funding, and development services position priority areas for investment.

4. Align Regulations and Development Processes with the Plan

After adoption, communities should align zoning, subdivision regulations, development standards, and review procedures with the plan’s intended development pattern and implementation priorities.

• Districts do not allow planned uses, densities, forms, or mixed-use patterns.
• Standards or procedures inhibit infill, redevelopment, housing choice, predictability, or current goals.
• New tools are needed for overlays, planned development, form-based design, or flexible redevelopment.

5. Use Economic Development Tools to Advance Priority Growth Areas

By identifying priority sites, infrastructure needs, market opportunities, and desired outcomes, the plan helps a community focus resources, guide private investment, and communicate where it is prepared to partner.

• Local incentives, grants, infrastructure funding, cleanup resources, and loan programs.
• Land assembly, site preparation, redevelopment authority, partnerships, and development agreements.
• Business retention, workforce partnerships, targeted industries, marketing, and site-readiness guidance.

6. Create an Actionable Roadmap

The plan should end with a realistic implementation program that sequences actions, assigns responsibility, connects funding and capital investment, and measures progress.

• Prioritize near-, mid-, and long-term actions by urgency, resources, and readiness.
• Assign responsibilities and link growth areas to capital plans, infrastructure, ordinances, funding, and development initiatives.
• Establish milestones, monitor progress, and update the program as conditions change.

From vision to investment

Future-ready planning requires community ownership, coordinated analysis, aligned regulations, strategic investment, and practical implementation. WSB brings these elements together so the comprehensive plan becomes a durable framework for sustainable growth and long-term success.

Making Visual Content Accessible: Alt Text and Descriptive Media

June 17, 2026

By: Chhavi Dhingra, Public Engagement Senior Manager, WSB

Part 3 of our series, Digital Accessibility in Practice: Moving Beyond Compliance.

The U.S. Department of Justice has extended compliance deadlines for digital accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Public entities serving populations of 50,000 or more now have until April 26, 2027 to comply, while smaller entities and special districts have until April 26, 2028. The technical standard remains WCAG 2.1 Level AA for web and mobile content.  

These extended timelines create space to strengthen workflows and build accessibility into everyday work. One of the most common gaps—and a key place to start—is alt text. Alt text is consistently one of the most common issues identified in accessibility audits. Missing or weak alt text often signals that accessibility has not yet been fully integrated into content workflows.  

At its core, alt text is a short written description that ensures the meaning of an image isn’t lost. Screen readers rely on it to convey what visuals communicate. At its simplest, it answers one question: If someone couldn’t see this image, what would they need to know? 

Common Alt Text Mistakes (We’ve All Made Them!)

Alt text often falls short  not because people don’t care, but because expectations vary. Here are a few common pitfalls and how to address them:   

1. Missing alt text

• This is still one of the most widespread accessibility problems. If there’s no alt text at all, screen reader users get nothing.  
• Suggestion: If an image conveys information, it needs alt text—every time. 

2. Too vague

• Alt text like “image,” “graphic,” or “map” doesn’t help anyone understand what’s being shown. 
• Suggestion: Be specific about what the image is communicating, not just what it is. 

3. Too much—or too little detail

• Trying to describe every detail can overwhelm users, while one‑word descriptions don’t provide enough context. 
• Suggestion: Focus on the key message. If the image is complex, provide a brief alt text and include a longer description in the body text or use slightly more descriptive captions. 

4. Repeating nearby text

• Alt text shouldn’t simply restate a caption or nearby paragraph word for word. 
• Suggestion: Complement the surrounding text rather than duplicating it. 

5. Decorative images treated as content

• Not every image needs alt text. Decorative elements—background patterns, dividers, logos, dates repeating on every page, or purely aesthetic photos—can create unnecessary noise for screen reader users. 
• Suggestion: Mark decorative images as decorative so they’re skipped entirely. 

Writing Better Alt Text: Practical Examples

Alt text doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to be clear, intentional, and useful. Here are some examples regularly seen as part of our work: 

1. Photos

• Less Effective: “People standing outside.”
• Better: “Community members gathered outside a project open house reviewing display boards.”

2. Icons

• Less Effective: “Envelope icon.”
• Better: “Email contact link.”
  Focus on function, not appearance.

3. Charts and graphs

• Less Effective: “Bar chart.”
• Better: “Bar chart showing transit ridership increasing from 2021 to 2024.”
  Share the takeaway, not every detail.

4. Maps

• Less Effective: “Map of project area.”
• Better: “Map showing the project corridor along I‑94 between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul.”
  Focus on orientation—not every street. Add a short summary if needed.

Beyond Images: Descriptive Media Matters

Accessibility extends beyond visuals:

1. Video Captions

• Any video with spoken content should include captions. Captions help people with hearing disabilities, and they also help viewers watching in noisy rooms, quiet offices, or on mute. Moving forward, include captions so content remains accessible in any environment.

2. Transcripts

• Providing transcripts for videos, webinars, and audio recordings allows people to read content instead of listening. Transcripts are also searchable and easy to reference later.

3. Audio description

• When important visual information isn’t explained out loud in a video, audio descriptions may be needed. Even simple narration choices—like describing what’s happening on screen—can reduce barriers.

Putting It Into Practice

Most tools already support accessibility features like alt text. Keep descriptions concise (around 125 characters), and review auto-generated text for accuracy.

Before publishing, ask:

• Do meaningful images include alt text?
• Does it explain why the image is there?
• Are videos captioned or transcribed?
• Are decorative visuals marked correctly?

Small adjustments can make a meaningful difference—and help ensure accessibility is part of the process, not added later.

At WSB, our Public Engagement team is equipped to help draft alt text for all kinds of graphics, maps, and visual materials across different engineering disciplines. We regularly work with project teams to translate technical visuals into clear, accessible descriptions and support compliance as materials move toward publication. 

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Follow along our new series, Digital Accessibility in Practice: Moving Beyond Compliance as we explore practical steps to make digital spaces truly inclusive. Part 1 is available here. Part 2 is available here.

From Vision to Action: How WSB Delivers Climate Plans That Work

April 17, 2026

By Mattie Anders, Sustainability Program Manager, WSB

As communities across the country work to address climate change, the challenge is no longer setting ambitious goals—it’s turning those goals into practical, actionable plans. Effective climate planning starts with a clear, data‑driven understanding of a community’s emissions, risks, and priorities—and that’s exactly how WSB approaches every project. Drawing from industry best practices, we begin by establishing a strong foundation: developing greenhouse gas inventories, identifying climate vulnerabilities, and aligning goals with state and regional targets. This analytical groundwork ensures that climate strategies are rooted in real conditions, not assumptions, and sets communities up to make informed, high-impact decisions. This approach has been successfully applied in local communities like Mahtomedi, St. Anthony Village, and Circle Pines, where WSB has supported the development of tailored, actionable climate and sustainability plans.

But data alone doesn’t create meaningful change – people do. WSB places a strong emphasis on intentional, right-sized engagement that brings residents, businesses, and stakeholders into the process in a way that is accessible and actionable. Transparent, inclusive engagement improves outcomes and builds long-term support for implementation, and we tailor our approach to meet each community where they are. Whether through targeted surveys, stakeholder workshops, or focused conversations, we ensure that local knowledge and priorities directly shape the plan, without overburdening staff or budgets.

Finally, WSB’s climate plans are designed to move beyond vision into implementation. We integrate climate strategies into existing city processes, like capital improvement planning, policy updates, and infrastructure investments, so sustainability becomes part of everyday decision-making, not a standalone effort. By pairing technical expertise with practical, community-focused solutions, we deliver plans that are not only ambitious, but achievable, helping communities take meaningful steps toward a more resilient, low-carbon future this Earth Day and beyond.

Building Accessibility into Everyday Practice

By: Chhavi Dhingra, Public Engagement Senior Manager, WSB

Part 2 of our series, Digital Accessibility in Practice: Moving Beyond Compliance, explores how accessibility works best when addressed in an upstream manner.

Document remediation using built-in accessibility checkers or more advanced tools such as CommonLook plays a key role in identifying issues and supporting quality control, particularly for legacy content. However, experience and broader trends indicate that accessibility is most effective when it is addressed from the outset. Accessibility should be viewed as a fundamental requirement in the creation and design process of digital content.

When accessibility considerations are integrated directly into native files the need for downstream remediation is significantly reduced. Native files include Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets.

Moving beyond compliance means adopting consistent and recommended approaches at the point of content creation, including:

• Adding proper document titles and author information to its properties
• Using proper heading styles to establish a clear and logical structure
• Writing alternative text that conveys purpose and context, not just appearance
• Using descriptive link text instead of generic phrases or long/complex URLs (Uniform Resource Locators)
• Designing tables with simple layouts and clearly defined headers
• Introducing acronyms by spelling them out at least once
• Ensure meaning is not conveyed by color alone and is supported by text or symbols
• Maintaining sufficient contrast between text and background colors
• Confirming that content can be navigated using a keyboard
• Using plain, concise language wherever possible
• Using the ‘Check for Accessibility’ feature and manually checking reading order of documents

These practices by no means restrict creativity. In fact, they improve clarity, reduce ambiguity, and result in content that works more consistently across formats and platforms.

From Compliance to Capability

Digital accessibility becomes sustainable when it is treated as part of everyday work rather than a specialized or corrective task. This shift requires awareness, shared responsibility, and a willingness to revisit long-standing practices. Importantly, digital accessibility is not about achieving perfection; it is about intention, consistency, and continuous improvement.

Organizations that invest in accessibility as a practice often realize broader benefits, including clearer communication, stronger documentation, improved usability, and more consistent user experiences. Compliance may be one outcome, but the greater value lies in creating digital content that more people can reliably access and use.

At WSB, we are continuing to strengthen our accessibility practices by collaborating with partners and clients to integrate accessibility. Whether into document creation, remediation, or web content. As this continues to evolve, we look forward to sharing additional insights and lessons learned from applying accessibility in practice.

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Follow along our new series, Digital Accessibility in Practice: Moving Beyond Compliance as we explore practical steps to make digital spaces truly inclusive. Part 1 is available here.

Accessibility Gaps in Everyday Practice

Part 1 of the Digital Accessibility in Practice: Moving Beyond Compliance series features everyday practice to bridge the gap between compliance and accessibility.

Digital accessibility refers to the practice of designing digital content that can be accessed and used by people with a wide range of abilities. Digital content includes documents, websites, tools, and media. Those who rely on assistive technologies such as screen readers, keyboard navigation, captions, or voice recognition software need this accessibility. At its core, accessibility ensures that information is perceivable, understandable, and usable by as many people as possible.

The more one works with digital accessibility, it becomes clear that it is a thoughtful, nuanced, and continually evolving discipline. Shaping how information is created, structured, and shared. Embedding accessibility in how we communicate through digital media requires shifting focus. From meeting minimum standards to considering accessibility from the very beginning.

While tools such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF software include robust accessibility features, they often go unutilized. Especially because those features are largely and rarely part of standard content-creation habits and are therefore easy to overlook.

Designing for Sighted Users Is Not Designing for Everyone

Several commonly used design choices often prioritize users who can visually interpret content and navigate with a mouse. Design choices include icons or emojis, color-coding information, splitting or merging tables. Moreover, enhanced layouts with complex graphics without a description in the body of text. What is less frequently considered is how this same content is experienced by someone using a screen reader, navigating exclusively by keyboard, or accessing content with low vision, color blindness, cognitive disabilities, or limited motor control.

Content that appears polished and visually engaging can still present significant challenges depending on how it is structured and navigated. Design choices that rely heavily on visual cues or mouse-based interaction may limit access for users who rely on assistive technologies. Common examples include:

• Images, charts, or icons without meaningful alternative (alt) text

• Headings that are visually styled but lack a logical structural hierarchy

• Tables that use merged or split cells, disrupting reading order

• Information conveyed through color alone, without supporting text or symbols

• Forms or interactive elements that cannot be completed using a keyboard alone

For individuals using screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive tools, these factors directly influence whether content is understandable and usable.

Common structural and interaction barriers 

Beyond individual design elements, digital accessibility challenges also arise from how content is written, organized, presented and programmed. Frequently observed issues across digital platforms include:

• Dense language, long sentences, and unexplained technical or institutional jargon

• Poor color contrast affecting users with low vision or color blindness

• Inconsistent or illogical use of heading levels, disrupting navigation

• Improperly tagged graphics or diagrams created in design tools

• Lack of visible focus indicators to show where a user is on a page

• Tasks or time-based interactions that do not allow sufficient flexibility or adjustment

At WSB, our work to address accessibility for digital communications is already underway. We are supporting our partners and clients through document accessibility reviews, remediation, and guidance on building accessibility into everyday document and web content creation.

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Follow along our new series, Digital Accessibility in Practice: Moving Beyond Compliance as we explore practical steps to make digital spaces truly inclusive. Part 2 of this series will focus on practical ways organizations can address these challenges by embedding accessibility into everyday content creation and workflows.

How Cities Can Gather and Use Public Input in Decision Making

July 28, 2025

By Jennifer Edison, Senior Project Manager, WSB

Published by League of Minnesota Cities in the July-August month’s issue of the Minnesota Cities Magazine. How Cities Can Gather and Use Public Input in Decision Making – League of Minnesota Cities

In recent years, city councils across the state have been evolving their decision-making processes as they face the challenging task of balancing an increase in public expectations with the needs and priorities of the community. As cities grow, residents demand improved services, infrastructure, and transparency. Often times, competing interests make it essential for city councils to manage these expectations while making sure that community needs are met.

Public involvement can often feel like a double-edged sword, bringing both positive benefits and potential drawbacks. With the right tools, city councils can use public engagement to positively impact improvement projects while also addressing challenges that arise.

Clear communication and transparency

Effective communication of goals, priorities, and the reasoning behind decisions enhances understanding and engagement with city council actions. This could include regular updates through newsletters, social media, and public meetings. Keeping residents informed about ongoing projects, budget allocations, and upcoming initiatives helps them stay engaged and aware of the council’s activities and budget constraints. Additionally, explaining the reasons for prioritizing certain projects over others helps the public understand the complexities of project planning. This transparency fosters greater support for council decisions.

Inclusive engagement processes

Inclusive engagement guarantees diverse voices are heard and considered in the decision-making process. Consider the following options during the engagement process:

Town hall meetings. These meetings allow residents to voice their opinions, ask questions, and engage directly with council members, fostering a sense of community and allowing the council to be responsive to public concerns.

Surveys. Conducting surveys enables the council to gather community input to help inform decision making and prioritize projects that reflect community needs and preferences.

Focus groups. Organizing focus groups from different community segments provides insights into specific issues.

Performance metrics. Using performance metrics to evaluate the impact of decisions and policies. By tracking key indicators and outcomes, the council identifies successful initiatives
and assesses effectiveness.

Feedback platforms. Implementing platforms for residents to provide feedback, such as an online portal or public comment period, highlights areas for improvement and helps the
council address concerns.

Setting realistic expectations

Educating the public about the city council’s limitations and challenges helps set realistic community expectations. Public workshops allow for conversations about project complexities, helping residents understand constraints and tradeoffs. Detailed budget reports provide transparency, making residents aware of financial realities and the rationale behind decisions.

Prioritizing core needs

Identifying the core needs of the community prioritizes essential services and infrastructure. Capital improvement plans often highlight these core projects and outline long-term funding strategies. Developing these plans addresses both immediate needs and future growth, ensuring community sustainability. Regularly reviewing and updating these plans helps reflect changing circumstances and priorities.

Collaborative decision making

Collaborative decision making involves engaging various stakeholders to find common ground and gain support for projects that benefit the entire community. This approach is particularly important for projects that directly impact access or property adjacent to residential neighborhoods or business districts. One effective strategy is to develop a committee of residents, business owners, and community leaders to provide ongoing input and recommendations. Involving stakeholders in the planning process gives them a sense of ownership and helps educate the complexities of construction.

Continuous improvement

While public opinion is important, it must be balanced with expert advice and evidence-based practices. Engaging the public early and frequently is critical for identifying key stakeholders. When soliciting public feedback, it is essential to genuinely consider it. However, there will be instances where feedback cannot be implemented due to technical guidelines or best practices. Fostering a process that allows the public to feel engaged should always be seen as a positive aspect of decision making.

Complying with ADA Requirements for Digital Documents and Web Tools

May 1, 2025
By Ryan Earp, Director of Public Engagement and Chhavi Dhingra, Public Engagement Sr Manager, WSB

In April 2024, the Department of Justice released a rule updating and reinforcing accessibility standards for state and local government websites and mobile apps under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This update is intended to guarantee that individuals with disabilities can have equal access to vital government services and information online. These new digital ADA requirements require all websites and mobile applications provided by state and local governments to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA standards. This means nearly all public documents, forms, and permits must be made fully accessible to people with disabilities. State and local governments with populations of 50,000 or more have until April 24, 2026, to comply with these requirements, while those with populations under 50,000 and special district governments have until April 26, 2027.

Summary of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Level AA standards:

• Visual Accessibility: Ensure sufficient contrast, headings and labels, resizable text, text spacing and text alternatives for images.
• Auditory Accessibility: Provide captions and/or audio descriptions for multimedia content.
• Keyboard Navigation: Make all functionality operable through a keyboard interface (not just via a mouse).
• Usability & Understandability: Offer clear navigation, predictable operation, and understandable text.
• Error Handling: Help users avoid and correct mistakes with clear instructions.
• Robustness & Compatibility: Maximize compatibility with assistive technologies.

Benefits for Residents and Cities

Implementing the new ADA digital requirements is not just a legal obligation—it’s a powerful opportunity for cities to foster inclusivity and equity. By making websites and mobile apps accessible, cities give residents with disabilities equal access to critical services, resources, and information. This strengthens civic engagement, improves public trust, and enhances the overall user experience for everyone. Embracing these standards signals a city’s commitment to serving all its residents with dignity and fairness, while also reducing legal risks and positioning the city as a leader in digital innovation and accessibility.

Addressing Digital Accessibility: Challenges and Support

While the new digital ADA requirements bring exciting opportunities for greater inclusion, implementing WCAG 2.1, Level AA compliance can be complex for cities. Many municipal websites contain content that spans decades, making it difficult to manage and maintain accessibility, and updating a broad range of digital content—such as websites, mobile apps, and public documents—can require significant time and resources. Municipalities must not only revise existing materials but also ensure that all future content aligns with accessibility standards. Training staff on these requirements is also essential for long-term success.

How WSB Can Help

WSB’s Public Engagement team, certified in ADA communications, is here to make this transition smooth and effective for you. We offer a comprehensive suite of services—from auditing websites and mobile apps, web-published documents, and multimedia content to remediating documents for accessibility and training staff on how to create accessible digital materials. Our team can support the development of inclusive and plain language communication strategies tailored to your community. These services are designed to help you quickly get on track to full compliance.
.Here is how we can help:

• Digital Accessibility Audits: Identify areas within your websites and mobile apps where your current communications might not be accessible.
• Content Organization and Archiving: Review, organize, and streamline your digital content by identifying what should be retained, updated, or archived. Provide user-friendly templates and best practices to ensure that all future documents are created with accessibility in mind.
• Accessible Document Creation/Conversion: Make all public-facing documents, including PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and Word files plain language, properly color contrasted and compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies.
• Accessible Social Media Messaging: Ensure your social media content includes alt text for images, closed captions for videos, and plain language messaging.
• Public Feedback Mechanisms: Establish opportunities like surveys and helplines for individuals with disabilities to offer feedback on accessibility.

Contact us today for a free initial accessibility assessment. We will assess your city’s website, mobile app (if any) and web-published documents, providing you with an inventory of accessibility needs helping you form the foundation of your action plan.

In addition to these offerings, WSB can support you in navigating compliance with evolving accessibility regulations and standards. By staying ahead of legislative changes, our team ensures that your digital presence aligns with the most current requirements. Leveraging cutting-edge tools and technologies, we aim to not only meet but exceed accessibility expectations, enhancing the overall user experience for all individuals. Together, we can build a more inclusive digital environment that resonates with diverse audiences and drives meaningful engagement.

*Level AA of the WCAG represents an intermediate level of accessibility, legally required for many websites. It improves upon the basic Level A requirements with an additional 20 criteria aimed at making content adaptable, readable, and easy to navigate for users with various disabilities.

Four Wins That Thoughtful Public Engagement Could Bring to Transportation Projects

June 13, 2024

By Chhavi Dhingra, Senior Manager of Public Engagement, WSB

Transport services play a vital role in meeting essential needs, such as facilitating economic activities such as trade and employment, and ensuring access to vital services like education, healthcare, and leisure. At the heart of all planning and design of such infrastructure lies the vital importance of prioritizing the consumer. Here engineers can play a crucial role in connecting transportation systems with the communities they serve.

There are four wins that early, thoughtful, intentional, and inclusive public engagement could bring to transportation projects.

1. Transparency fosters trust and progress: Helping people understand on a regular basis how and where taxpayers’ money is being spent, goes a long way in building trust and accountability and limits potential future issues that may interrupt the project’s completion.
2. Leaning in on local knowledge and user experience enriches project performance and impact: Improving project performance by gleaning local knowledge residing with community members and learning from past and present experiences of users of a transportation system can help identify and address problems early on and contribute to ensuring long-term success of projects.
3. Inclusion of multiple voices and perspectives enriches project outcomes and acceptability: Possibly one of the biggest wins that public engagement could bring is ensuring transportation projects deliver on their original promises of improved safety, accessibility, mobility, and well-being for all users and become means for communities to together become more prosperous and healthier. This requires a diverse mix of voices, perspectives, and expertise to be brought together to ensure that transportation projects (be it a new road, an improvement to an existing road/junction or the introduction of a new transit or carsharing facility), are accessible to everyone living/traveling to that area.
4. Well-designed engagement could capacitate and empower community leaders and representatives: Proving opportunities for training and skill development for community leaders as part of public engagement strategies, enables them to become catalysts for garnering wide support, removing bottlenecks, ensuring more efficient execution, and developing trusted partnerships between government and communities in projects.

How WSB Can Help

At WSB, we help bring these four wins (and more) when collaborating with clients on various transportation projects. We prioritize successful public engagement through a comprehensive approach. This includes establishing a clear project chain of command to ensure effective stakeholder coordination and information flow. We begin by conducting early stakeholder mapping and needs assessments and collaboratively setting goals with all project stakeholders. We then tailor our communication methods to best suit the audience, ensuring the use of plain language materials, inclusive formats adhering to Americans with Disabilities (ADA) standards, using multiple languages where necessary. Fact-checking, active listening, continuous feedback loops and proper documentation for transparency, are key to our process. We also proactively monitor potential risks to address them swiftly and maintain trust with the public. As we collaborate with our valued clients and partners to successfully deliver transportation projects, our public engagement approach continues to evolve to inform and shape us as professionals, and WSB as an organization that exists to build what is next in infrastructure—the places, spaces and systems that support our lives.

The Evolution of Public Engagement in Transportation Projects

June 13, 2024

By Chhavi Dhingra, Senior Public Engagement Manager, WSB

Transportation infrastructure and services serve as a means to various ends, such as facilitating trade, accessing jobs, education, healthcare, or social opportunities. It is essential to place people and goods at the core of all transportation planning and design efforts. As transportation engineers navigate the complexities of planning and designing, balancing considerations like traffic flow, safety, environmental concerns, accessibility, equity and integration of new technologies, they must bridge the gap between designs, materials like concrete and steel, and the people these projects aim to serve. Timely information sharing, inclusive engagement to gather diverse perspectives, and empowering community voices can ensure that transportation projects meet their intended goals and benefit everyone.

In today’s era, cities drive growth and progress, yet there is still much work needed to ensure equitable access to this growth. Underserved communities often face challenges of transportation insecurity like affordability, unreliable commutes, lack of access to transportation options to get where they need to, network connectivity, and issues of transportation-related safety and air and noise pollution. This inequity can lead to negative health impacts, exclusion from education, job, healthcare, commercial and social activities, economic inefficiencies, and urban degradation. In such situations, lack of involvement in transportation planning can further hinder these communities’ quality of life.

Fortunately, public engagement in transportation projects has been evolving and is no longer just a box to check on a project. Latest trends in global research and practice in infrastructure projects place high priority on civic engagement and social accountability, especially when responding to crises like climate change or the Covid-19 pandemic, where behavior change at community levels could result in a massive impact. Moreover, legislation like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which are allocating billions of dollars into transportation programs, systems, and infrastructure projects across the country, recognize this as well, and present a huge opportunity for equitable transportation policies and programs to be rolled out by state and local governments. Be it improving transit facilities and experience, re-imagining mobility modes and choices in downtown urban districts or developing infrastructure for vehicle electrification, Governments and communities are now recognizing the need for this pivot, and public engagement best practices demonstrating innovation and public participation are following suit.

Transportation projects are now required to factor in the inclusion of human and environmental factors as part of feasibility assessments. For example, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, requires that federal agencies assess the potential environmental effects of proposed activities in a publicly available report and that the assessment process includes opportunities for public engagement. Given NEPA’s inherently layered institutional design, the level of agency level discretion and the fact that Environmental justice (EJ) itself is an evolving concept, there is a promising opportunity for agencies to enable public engagement to spread its wings fully to bring in a stronger equity focus on transportation projects.

How WSB Can Help

At WSB, we bring diverse professional skills, including those in transportation engineering, planning, public policy, construction management, business administration, and marketing and communications, to bridge the gap between technical designs and the community. We are open-minded learners, constantly evolving our strategies and tactics in consultation with our clients and partners. By allowing public engagement to shape both individual growth and organizational direction, we ensure projects support the needs of the people they serve.

Lead Service Line Inventories: How to Engage with Communities

By Chhavi Dhingra, Sr Public Engagement Manager and Ryan Earp, Director of Public Engagement, WSB
April 15, 2024

State statute and federal Lead and Copper Rule Revisions require public water systems across Minnesota to identify the materials of all service connections in their distribution systems.

The mandate is clear: cities must identify and replace lead or galvanized steel water service lines to comply with state and federal regulations. Thanks to substantial funding from both state and federal sources, including the recent $240 million appropriation by the 2023 Minnesota Legislature and approx. $40 million a year in federal funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the financial resources are available to facilitate this essential task. The success of these initiatives now hinges on the capacities of cities to swiftly and effectively communicate, engage and collaborate with their residents to identify, and then eventually, replace water pipes in residences that are made of lead or contain lead parts. Cities find themselves in a race against time, with a Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) mandated deadline looming to inventory all water system lines by fall 2024. The challenge requires a strategic approach to target and then engage communities effectively.

As cities navigate the complexities of lead service line replacement, they do not have to do it alone. WSB, under its master contract with the MDH, is aiding cities to inventory properties and their water service line materials, perform engagement, communications, and public outreach services to cities for engaging with their residents, and creating and implement plans for pipeline replacement.

Based on our understanding and decades of experience of engaging with communities in Minnesota, we propose a four-part blueprint that cities could embrace to effectively engage with their residents on Lead Service Line Inventory and Replacement:

1. Meet residents where they are: While a fair share of resident homes and their water service line materials are being identified using a combination of historical documents and savvy GIS methods, there are still a large number of ‘unknowns’ i.e. properties where the service lines material are not known to be lead, galvanized requiring replacement, or a non-lead service line, and where there is no documented evidence to indicate the material classification. Traditional methods of communication such as postcards, door hangers, mailers and utility inserts remain indispensable tools for reaching out to such residents. Additionally, leveraging digital platforms, like plain-language and user-friendly websites which carry information and instructions for residents to self-inspect and report their service line material will help accelerate the outreach.
2. Offer spaces and support to help residents address their questions, fears and concerns: Open houses (virtual or in-person) play a vital role in fostering dialogue between residents and city officials. Creating such intentional opportunities for residents to voice their concerns, seek clarification, and actively participate in the process will help build trust and transparency in the city’s efforts. Personalized at-home visits and assistance in identifying service line materials, where residents are not able/willing to conduct the material test themselves, could boost resident participation and drive results.
3. Be heedful to the health equity lens: Cities must make extra efforts to connect with vulnerable populations, such as low-income communities and households with young children who could be at risk of being disproportionately affected by lead exposure. Ensuring that they are not overlooked or marginalized in the communication and replacement efforts, adopt data-driven outreach strategies and culturally sensitive messaging to help bridge the gap and address the unique needs of these populations.
4. Prioritize accessibility and inclusion: Ensuring that language barriers do not hinder access to vital information, providing interpretation and translation services wherever necessary, developing ADA compliant materials and events, could help residents meaningfully engage in the short -term inventory and long-term replacement processes.

In conclusion, the task of replacing lead service lines is not just a technical endeavor—it is a community effort. By prioritizing timely, effective, and inclusive communication, WSB is helping cities mobilize its residents, building trust, and ensuring a community wide effort to create sustainable water infrastructure that provides safe drinking water for all Americans.

Contact us for more information on our communication and engagement service offers for Lead Service Line Inventory.