Deliberation and choice making as part of CPTED planning in the Old Wythe Neighborhood

Summary form only given. Sometimes process is more important than product, and this is nearly always true as part of CPTED planning. For example, the City of Miami Shores, Florida, would not have instituted its street closing program were it not for the leadership skills of two hopeful residents who organized a campaign for change and sought the input and involvement of every city resident. The reductions in crime that the program experienced were as much a result of the process of community organization as they were of the barricades themselves. This presentation considers another case, that of the Old Wythe Neighborhood in Hampton, Virginia. Like Miami Shores, its CPTED program was initiated by a few well-meaning leaders in the community. When they proposed closing more than 25 streets in the neighborhood, the City Council came under attack for not following its own neighborhood planning processes. The result was a process that included residents from every district in the neighborhood, plus representatives of surrounding neighborhoods, staff from various city departments and agencies, and a CPTED consultant. Over a six-month period, this group developed a workable plan for CPTED improvements to the neighborhood, approved by more than 80 percent of neighborhood residents. An interesting aspect of this process was the use of a choice making model that allowed the community to deliberate the pros and cons - and the tradeoffs - of various approaches to neighborhood improvement. The key considerations include: how choices are identified and refined, what happens during deliberation, and how the information gathered during the deliberative process gets converted into a plan and strategies for action. The Old Wythe case can be used to drive a training session about choice making as part of neighborhood CPTED planning.