Accelerating Community Engagement for Vital Infrastructure Projects

San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission

We worked in partnership with the California state agency San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). Collaboration with BCDC helped us scope the OurTownHall Stakeholder Discovery pilot so as to scale up BCDC’s public, survey-based CBO Directory Map and characterize CBOs with attribute tags such as mission and role in community, leadership and contact information, target demographic and geographic service area by using AI/ML. Google’s generative AI performed quite well for prediction of tags like services, area served, and assets for CBO websites. Amongst other mandates, BCDC leads sea level rise vulnerability and adaptation planning and regulation in the 9-county San Francisco Bay Area. 

Infrastructure Projects

Infrastructure projects take as much as 10 years to get approved, and often die off in the planning process. A significant part of this delay occurs due to community opposition or lack of involvement. OurTownHall can significantly reduce delays in project planning and implementation by accelerating partnerships and engagement with community leaders. 

For infrastructure projects that directly impact communities, there is a costly social risk for both communities and project developers. Projects directly impact the communities where they are sited and community opposition delays project implementation. Conflicts may persist during funding, certification, or construction phases, potentially triggering legal or legislative actions. Mobilized community stakeholders can significantly influence project outcomes before major capital is committed.

Today risk mitigation is done inefficiently - relying on informal networks and one-off communications, leading to frustration and mistrust of the community, and delays and cancellation for vital projects. 

By streamlining the processes of identifying and collaborating with key community organizations, especially those with reach to vulnerable populations, OurTownHall can ensure that diverse voices are represented and trusted relationships are established with community leaders.