The city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is committed to developing a robust public participation model that includes deliberative planning and visioning processes. The city requested EPA Smart Growth Implementation Assistance to develop strategies for community engagement, especially with ethnically diverse, low-income populations that have had limited or no previous involvement in community planning and design.

Creative outreach and participation strategies that focus more on pictures than words were tested in two visioning workshops for the El Paseo corridor, a 1.7-mile corridor that extends southeast from Main Street in downtown Las Cruces to the New Mexico State University campus.

The Public Involvement Plan and Toolkit (2011) includes many of the outreach and participation tools the project used to begin developing a vision for the El Paseo corridor. City staff in any community seeking to increase community participation could use these materials.

Find more smart growth and equitable development resources.

• Public Involvement Plan and Toolkit for Las Cruces (PDF)(34 pp, 13 MB)