Inviting a coastal community to reimagine a critical corridor together
About this project
Client
City of Encinitas—El Camino Specific Plan
Services
Public Participation, Community Outreach, Marketing Campaigns, Creative
The opportunity
The City of Encinitas was faced with the need to update and reimagine what’s possible for future development within the El Camino Real Corridor Specific Plan. El Camino Real is the City’s most vibrant commercial corridor and serves as a major thoroughfare within the community. In the future, the City’s General Plan envisions transforming El Camino Real into a more connected, walkable area that supports a mixture of uses, including retail, office and even neighborhood-friendly housing in the right locations.
The approach
JPW was hired to prepare a public involvement strategy to guide the early steps in the plan development process. The first step in the process was to determine what internal decisions had already been made about the specific plan, the public’s role in the process using the IAP2 Spectrum, and what success would look like for the overall outreach program. The goals of the strategy were to engage the community to better understand the needs, values and priorities of El Camino Real Specific Plan stakeholders. Since this was the City’s first attempt at engaging the community on the project, it was important for the launch to go smoothly and for the messaging to clearly demonstrate the importance of the plan and its potential to reshape the corridor and surrounding community.
JPW and the City project team used key messages from the plan to develop a video script utilizing drone and b-roll video footage along with animated graphics that would signal the launch of the outreach process at a City Council meeting. The team also prepared a community survey designed to seek input about the future vision for the El Camino Corridor.
The solution
Project brand development
Key message development
Collateral and graphics development (Frequently Asked Questions, website content and news articles)
Project overview videos (long version for City Council; short version for public)
Community survey and report
Outreach to key stakeholders (local chamber and businesses)
This approach was very well received from the community and helped successfully launch the plan’s public involvement efforts. It also resulted in a high level of engagement from stakeholders, leading to curation of an eblast interest list of nearly 500 people; community survey results from nearly 700 people; and more than 700 video views (and counting) on the City’s YouTube channel.