MAPS - Community Engagement Review
On November 16th we gathered and reviewed the MAPS for Maywood Park projects. Owners were given 20 stickers to 'vote' on what they liked. The room was buzzing with people discussing new possibilities, what they like, what they don't like, and what the future may hold. The image on the left is a result of that activity.
Why stickers? Why Project Boards? Why did the Board take this approach?
Aesthetics can be very personal. We wanted owner feedback but in a forum that would be fun, easy, and approachable.
Does the image on the right look familiar?
The concept of Project Boards & Sticker Voting was borrowed from the community engagement event sponsored by DowntownOKC Inc for improvements to Kerr Park. This strategy is a regular practice used by city and urban planning professionals engaged in placemaking initiatives. We have adopted this strategy and its underpinning philosophy that 'community knows best'.
We also sent an online survey to owners who couldn't be there in person. The online survey contained the same images and rules for input. Results from the online survey can be found at this link. A combined tally of both the in-person and online input methods gives clear guidance on what a majority of our owners want and don't want. A summary of the combined responses can be found in Appendix II of the MAPS for Maywood Lofts Plan, found here.
What do the results tell us?
How does this help us?
Where do we go from here?
The polling indicates strong favor in a number of areas. Some project elements received little to no support.
Part of determining what we should do involves figuring out what we should not do. The project elements that received few or even zero votes will no longer be considered for implementation. For example, turning the Clubroom into a 'kid zone' or a 'rent the ballroom venue' is not going to happen.
Owners lean together in their agreement on certain general trends. For example, there were 3 different styles of hallway aesthetics embedded in the voting process - traditional, contemporary, and modern/post-modern. Categorically, hallway images decidedly 'traditional' and 'modern' received few votes. Neutral and minimal was favored over loud color and stark contrasts. Polling in favor of contemporary aesthetics provides direction that should help make more granular decisions later in the process.
Specific elements like exercise equipment, keyfob upgrades, and entertainment system upgrades polled strongly. Few people voted for a foosball table but strongly and equally favored a ping-pong and a pool table.
We are estimating and considering the most desired improvements. In a high, medium, and low cost bracket for each project we will estimate the total and per-owner assessments. This is a high level, budgetary estimate. This will be privately and confidentially distributed for your feedback. We call this the 'Budget Guidance Form'. After receiving this form back from the owners the Board can determine the Association's the financial appetite for each project, then make adjustments accordingly.
Your input from the 'Budget Guidance Form' is not a formal vote. Your input in this phase is needed to develop a reasonable, final project budget proposal to be formally voted on for each project by all of the owners at a later date. Rest assured there are many stage-gate checkpoints along the way before assessment determinations will be made.
Thank you all again for your support in this process. If you have questions please do not hesitate to reach out.
