Community engagement guidance for planning studies

Streamline the review of your planning study with a clear community engagement strategy and good documentation.

Before you begin

Review the WSDOT Community Engagement Plan. 

Plan for inclusive, culturally responsive community engagement

Familiarize yourself with the community engagement spectrum (PDF 1.3MB), the WSDOT community engagement guiding principles (PDF 1.3MB), and the environmental justice principles (PDF 1.3MB) outlined in the WSDOT Community Engagement Plan. These resources will help you define clear objectives and choose appropriate engagement strategies for your planning study.

Use WSDOT engage (a virtual community engagement portal) to gather input from users of the state transportation system and to exchange information on upcoming open houses.

Clarify decisions

Identify which decisions are genuinely open to meaningful community influence. Clarify project authority by identifying who makes decisions and how community input reaches those decision-makers. Explicitly name the decision-maker(s) and describe the direct pathway from community input to that person (people). Work backwards from direct milestones to time important engagement markers throughout planning.

Use this worksheet to help you work through decision mapping: Decision Mapping Worksheet fillable (PDF 78KB)

Map interested parties

It is important to identify who will be affected, directly or indirectly, by your planning study. Create a list of interested parties and community members to strategically engage with during your planning process.

Use mapping tools

These tools capture demographic and justice data for your study area and can provide useful context for inclusive engagement and environmental justice concerns. Census-based GIS tools can be used to make maps and graphics to describe the environmental and community demographics in your study area. 

• DOH Environmental Health Disparities Map
• WSDOT Community Planning Portal (external) or GIS Workbench (internal)

Follow state laws, federal laws, and WSDOT policies and standards

The community engagement strategy in your plan or study should align with state and federal laws. It must also be consistent with all WSDOT standards to be considered a Planning Best Practice example. 

Follow WSDOT agency communications standards

Work with your regional communications team to ensure consistency with WSDOT communications standards, including document accessibility, language requirements, and graphic design standards.

Clarify partner agreements

Articulate the responsibilities of local partners to implement planning study recommendations if funding becomes available. 

Identify WSDOT roles and responsibilities related to plan implementation

If potential funding sources are identified during the planning study, spell out who is responsible for applying for and then for using future funding, and how WSDOT will or will not be involved.

It is important that you adhere to the following directives:

• Keep a record of the comments you receive during the community engagement process for your planning study. Use a comment response spreadsheet or similar tool to show comment response (If you choose to include this information in your final planning document, it should be included as an appendix).
• When you brief the MPDD Director and your Regional Administrator for signatures, consolidate and summarize just the main themes from the comments received.

Remember, you must send a final copy of your planning study to the WSDOT Library before publishing it to the internet.