Q. What do you do when you've exhausted all of your means and still cannot get any substantial public input for the community's plan?
We, too, have the same problem, but we also find that when we get too many people attending a public hearing, it becomes unruly and little gets accomplished other than eventually angry comments about other citizens.
It seems that one way to approach the problem of getting responsible input is to have a series of separate published meetings with special invited constituent interests such as: real estate agents, developers, builders, homeowner associations, architects, landscape architects, engineers, school and school board reps, water association reps, planning commissions from other areas, county planners, fire volunteer/department reps, "chamber of commerce" reps, civic organization reps, city staff, city representatives (Aldermen), and garden club reps, bankers and loan officers, "historians," past planning commission members, or any group that you specifically want input from. Of course some of these could be grouped together.
The sign-in list alone should give your "public hearing" some credibility and some useful info on who you are planning for.
Don't forget to have some "coffee and cookies" for your "invited"
guests to also help break the tension and potential adversarial relationship, and to provide an opportunity for "small talk" in arriving at meaningful input, and a way of thanking the people who do show up.
If you have had other formally advertised meetings for the
public, that would count for the legal aspects of
Public Hearings even if no one showed up. These
informal gatherings would be a way to get meaningful informal input with less intimidation of "public hearings," and you would probably get more meaningful input from your guests. It is also an informal opportunity to show citizens what you do and a way to gain public support for your ideas.
A disgruntled guest can also be more easily dealt with in an informal setting to ease the tension, and for him to be easily out-numbered, or for him to really have an opportunity to express himself in a less than "public" setting. It may be that some real input can be gained from such an individual if he has a chance and time to talk about his problem. Also, he may be excluded from other special
invited guest meetings so as not to be disruptive in them.