The stages of the PLUS Network Planning Cycle were explored over four days at the Durban conference. For a description of the Planning Cycle click here. For the other stages see:

Awareness and Scoping - Stage 1 (Day 1)
Exploring possibilities and Developing strategies - Stages 3 & 4 (Day 3)
Implementing and Monitoring/Feedback - Stages 5 & 6 (Day 4)

Visioning and Goals:

Explores where the city wants to be in 100 years, based on shared values, strengths, and assets.
May involve large-scale public participation or multi-sectoral teams or a combination of the two.

Presentations and discussions centred on the stories of three cities which have large-scale visioning processes underway: Durban, Metro Vancouver, Portland.

Three Cities, Three Vision Processes

Nomfundo Mbokazi and Michelle Hartley, two Grade 11 studens from Danville Girls High School, told the story of Imagine Durban, including their experience of organizing a heritage week in their school that came about from their long-term visioning experience. There was a large local contingent for this presentation, including many youth, and much of the discussion centred on the Imagine Durban process and core issues including safety, relationship to other planning process, and involvement of Councillors.

Chris Dearth described how Portland, Oregon, USA, is aligning its plans and initiatives to the visions articulated by their citizens through the Vision PDX process, and described the establishment of a Vision to Action Committee responsible for implementation. Delegates were very interested in the use of Google Earth technology that really enabled people to visualize a city. The fact-based mapping technologies provided a strong foundation for Portland's participatory process and enhanced the outcomes.

Bill Morrell described how Metro Vancouver used the World Urban Forum, held in Vancouver in 2006, to generate interest and support and to get them back on track with developing their sustainability vision and framework. He outlined the extensive public and stakeholder process now underway associated with developing a regional sustainability framework and a regional growth strategy.

Visions and Action

Lively discussion followed each of the presentations. Themes included:

• The importance of adapting visioning processes to suit local contexts and local development dynamics;
• The challenge of aligning visions and reality, and what to do when practical issues like limited funds of lack of technical knowledge intrude;
• Wondering whether visioning processes are truly representative, and how to assess 'enough' participation.

For powerpoint presentations, click here