Taking it Online: The Virtual Public Meeting

Alpharetta, GA is taking its engagement online to advance a critical bicycle and pedestrian connection study.

Vision Alpha Link explores a potential 1.75-mile trail connection between the Alpha Loop and Big Creek Greenway in Alpharetta. The Alpha Link will provide a critical bicycle and pedestrian connection between these trail assets. It will also offer direct access to the North Point Area, a future GA-400 transit station, and other destinations and neighborhoods along the Alpha Loop and Big Creek Greenway. The overall goal for the Alpha Link is to help Alpharetta become a more vibrant, equitable, livable community.

While the City would have loved to meet the community in person to discuss the future “Alpha Link”, the MKSK/Toole Design Group team adapted an engagement strategy to prioritize the health and well-being of the Alpharetta community. The advent of COVID-19 has opened the door to examine what constitutes a “public meeting” and redefine a process no longer constrained to a cafeteria or conference room. What if rather than a single moment in time, a public meeting could operate as a continuum, seamlessly embedded into the arc of a project and accessible to all? The design and planning team collaborated with the City to unpack its essential components and transition them to simple, elegant and accessible home on the web. Through this process the team developed an innovative Virtual Public Meeting, complete with a series of interactive exercises designed to introduce participants to the purpose, process, and outcomes of the planning study, while asking them to share their ideas for the area’s expanding trail network.

The Virtual Public Meeting begins with a guided drone tour of the project site that provides context for the study and sheds light on the hidden beauty of this mostly inaccessible site. Visitors are invited to participate in a series of exercises designed to establish a shared vision for the project. An interactive mapping exercise explores the secondary connections users would like to connect to and spatializes the barriers that keep them from walking and biking in the district today. Lastly, an interactive poll asks participants to share what they love most about the City’s current trail system so that their beloved qualities are maintained and enhanced.

A simultaneous analog engagement approach included 1,500 postcards being mailed to area residents and a complementary signage campaign across the City’s parks, public spaces, and essential businesses. Respondents are invited to provide their feedback through a live polling software, accessed from their smartphones. These postcards and signs also direct community members to the Virtual Public Meeting. This unique mix of creative methods both digital and analog engagement bring community voices together to form a shared vision for Alpharetta. Visit www.VisionAlphaLink.com to learn more and explore the virtual exercises.