April 2025 Open House
In April 2025, the Planning Department hosted open houses at three St. Louis County Public Libraries; Meramec Valley Branch in Fenton, Grants View Branch in the Affton-Concord area, and Florissant Valley Branch in Florissant. The April Open Houses were a forum for gathering feedback on more concrete policy recommendations, theming, and the website format.
The open houses were set up with five tables, each dedicated to one of the five key policy buckets and staffed by a planner who could answer questions and navigate the website on a large screen. A general seating area was provided where a presentation covering the plan as a whole was given at regular intervals and played continuously in the background.
The team utilized the note-taking software Miro, allowing us to create virtual sticky notes to place on static images of the website. Notes were either added directly to the webpage by planners at each station or first written physically by attendees and then later digitalized.
With every note taken, the Miro board filled up with new information that shaped or reshaped how the Project Team approached or understood a policy or the website. The number of sticky notes we received was a positive reflection on the attendees interest, thoughtfulness, and engagement.
Similarities and Key Themes
Comprehensive Dialogue
Conversations were long-lasting and thoughtful, with strong back-and-forth dialogue between Planners and attendees. Many conversations covered broad planning topics instead of simply sticking with policy bucket-specific questions the stations had been designed to facilitate. Additionally, the number of attendees allowed Planners to hold much longer one-on-one conversations with attendees.
Concern into Confidence
Thanks to the ability for the Planners to dedicate more time to listen and respond to each attendee’s inquiries, concern turned into confidence. Conversations evolved from ones in which attendees entered in with questions, concerns, and doubts to ones ending confidently and more assured in the reasonings and efficacy of the comprehensive plan.
Abundance of Collaborators
Lastly, Planners received a wealth of information regarding other similar projects of importance in the region, organizations with like-minded goals, and potential collaborators to work on furthering the success of the County.
