FAMU FAMU Extension Pilots CommunityLeadership Program

Local land use planning and zoning directly affect many critical factors that shape communities, including affordable housing, access to good schools and quality of public safety. Local citizens, especially members of historically underserved groups, may feel removed from land use decisions in their communities.

Community Voices, Informed Choices (CIVIC), a partnership between Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and the University of Florida, uses deliberative forums as its primary activity. CIVIC recognized the importance of having a diversity of perspectives in land use decisions. Through CIVIC, a pilot program was launched to engage community leadership and the public in deliberative discussions about the best ways to use land based on different approaches with various gains and losses. These discussions reflected on economic, environmental and individual needs around land use in local communities. Forums were held in three historically black neighborhoods in Florida.

As a result, we learned that partnerships with community organizations and leaders are essential to successful forums In addition, cultural and historical realities are unique and of vital importance to the discussions of land use and land use changes in these communities

-Kimberly Davis, Emergency Management Specialist