With unprecedented growth expected for the foreseeable future, Charlotte needs a forward-looking, modern Future 2040 Plan that integrates equity and inclusivity. And they wanted to ensure extremely robust stakeholder and community engagement, using our toolbox of innovative methods and strategies for engaging under-represented groups in meaningful discussions.

The first phase was a Policy Audit to identify policy gaps element by element, an Existing Conditions Atlas that assessed the distribution of key infrastructure and amenities throughout the community, and a Growth Factors Report that assessed regional growth assumptions and allocations, comparing Charlotte to peer cities and parsing the specific types of housing and employment growth the City should expect. 

The second phase centered on a custom Growing Charlotte gameboard and online game. Community members considered the trade-offs of growth and offered input about how and where to accommodate it. That input led to three conceptual growth strategies to distribute growth more equitably—including performance measures with a variety of indicators. With more community input, the result is a community-based Preferred Growth Scenario and a policy framework to implement it.