• Charlotte 2040 Virtual Open House
  • Envision Burlingame Website

Planetizen Lauds “Envision Burlingame,” “Charlotte Future 2040”

“The world is ready for more,” Planetizen says. More innovative, “more radical departures from the state quo” at the intersection of technology and planning, helping to bring communities into planning their own futures. 

Two of Planetizen's 2021 Top 10 Websites for Urban Planning list were developed by MIG.

Envision Burlingame was cited for presenting its newly approved, 300-page General Plan “in a way that makes the technical document more accessible to a variety of stakeholders…As you click through a map of the city, the website highlights each area and details the neighborhood's planning context, future vision, and specific goals related to land use and development. One notable feature: the website includes pop-up windows that highlight and define terms with meanings that may not be immediately obvious to the non-planner.”

Planetizen also noted that Burlingame’s community process “could serve as a useful guide for civic leaders who want to enhance public engagement in their own communities.”

The Charlotte Future 2040 Comprehensive Plan’s “Virtual Open House technology ensured that not all of pandemic-era public meetings took place in the antiseptic confines of a Zoom meeting.” This open house “shows how much can be done in these new digital spaces: here we see a salubrious and accessible digital space with all of the trappings of a conventional open house—the maps, boards, videos, comments, etc.” This open house moves the process out of City Hall, “an infamously exclusionary forum,” allowing “whole new swaths of the public to participate in planning processes and offer their local knowledge.” 

“The pandemic has forced new thinking and new action,” Planetizen concludes. “The need has never been greater.”