City, TCU hoping for increased engagement for next round of Community Spaces meetings

The effort to continue vetting and fleshing out the Community Spaces Plan marches on this week as the next round of public forums gets underway Wednesday.

During the last round of meetings, TCU Consulting Services asked residents and stakeholders to "dream big" and throw out ideas for amenities they thought the community could benefit from having at the various parks and athletic facilities throughout the city.

The next eight meetings will take another look at each aspect of the Community Spaces Plan, from the ballfields and proposed green space at Wald Park to a possible Community Building at the current Gold's Gym facility.

TCU principal Ken Upchurch said the meetings will take what was discussed at the last round, put all of the ideas on the table and then see how community members rank and respond to them.

The meeting will take advantage of the city's real-time survey technology, and stakeholders can weigh in on the different items that have been discussed thus far.

Additionally, the meetings will be livestreamed on the city's Facebook page, and those watching the feed can participate in the real-time survey or Open Town Hall.

After the meeting, an identical survey will be posted for those who could not participate live, to provide additional data.

And while the livestream will allow those unable to attend the meeting to participate, Upchurch said he wanted to urge citizens and stakeholders to attend the meetings in person if at all possible.

Upchurch said the results of the live survey will be displayed at the end of the meeting, but will not be discussed.

Previous iterations of the the master meeting schedule labeled the third round of meetings as a "decision" meeting for the subcommittee, but Upchurch and city communications director Cinnamon McCulley both emphasized that the committee and TCU will not make the final decision — the council will.

Upchurch said that he thinks there has also been some misunderstanding about the idea of "thinking big," when there are limited resources.

Without getting the community to consider the project outside of a budget, Upchurch said there is a risk of stifling ideas that would have otherwise been suggested.

"We think the ability to think big is what drives community success," Upchurch said.

The meetings will take place in the city council chambers at City Hall.

To access the livestream, visit the city's Facebook page.

To access the real-time survey, click here just before each meeting starts.