Answer: Feasibility Testing
One of the biggest differences between the NCI charrette and other processes is the extra time taken in the plan development charrette sub-phase to test and investigate design concepts in order to bring them to a level at which they can be approved, engineered, and built.

Intensive, collaborative planning processes that last less than three days typically allow enough time to produce an agreed-upon plan but seldom allow enough time to conduct feasibility studies. All too often an abbreviated charrette results in a plan that must either undergo major revisions or never comes to fruition due to unexpected technical and/or political obstacles. A failed effort like this sows the seeds of distrust that can lead to community-led obstruction or apathy.

In Dynamic Planning, detailed testing of the preferred plan in the plan development sub-phase during second half of the charrette provides immediate feedback to the stakeholders regarding feasibility. This immediate feedback provides the information necessary to adjust the plan during its development, thereby reducing time spent pursuing fruitless alternatives. During the plan development phase, the charrette team members study engineering and environmental impacts and economic and market feasibility. They also create draft level implementation documents such as zoning plans and codes. A draft of the overall implementation action plan is also created. In addition, the team investigates elements of the plan such as school placement, public squares, parks and trails, street design, and building heights that are important to primary stakeholder groups. The elements that contribute to or have a major impact on the community must be clearly illustrated. The implementation documents and detailed studies created in the plan development phase help to gain stakeholder support by showing how the plan will benefit them and how it will be built.

Without the plan development and feasibility testing work, a preferred plan may not be based in reality. Planning processes that create untested “visions” may never come to fruition. These exercises can waste the valuable time and resources of the participants and create apathy toward the sponsoring organization. This plan development sub-phase is essential to the holistic approach of Dynamic Planning and therefore should not be undervalued or cut short by reducing the length of the charrette.

Excerpted from The Charrette Handbook, by Bill Lennertz and Aarin Lutzenhiser, published by APA Planners Press, 2006.