The Riverfront Park Development Plan in Wenatchee, Washington required an innovative community outreach strategy to engage a broad cross-section of this diverse community. Knowing that there are a number of barriers to in-person attendance for events, we worked with our clients to develop a multi-faceted strategy of engagement. In addition to in-person open houses located directly in the park, we developed bi-lingual online surveys in English and Spanish that allowed for broader access to the community to collect ideas and to vote on design alternatives. This resulted in over 200 in-person respondents, and another 800 online visitors, yielding valuable insight related to the main issues and wishes of the community on the future of the park.

Beyond specific park improvements to increase amenities, the community identified a key goal to provide a separation of trail users to avoid conflicts between walkers and cyclists. The Plan report documents included a number of new trail typologies illustrated using plans and 3-D graphics to show the design ideas. To aid in further understanding of the experience of these new trail configurations, we worked with the client to develop an animated 3D video, showing the various trail and park improvements from the perspective of a pedestrian and cyclist, as a way to further engage and develop a complete understanding of the proposed future enhancements to the park, and confirm we had listened and were responsive to the main community issues.