U.S. residents who want to influence land use planning or development can leverage state and national regulations that require public participation. Many U.S. residents also rely on public agencies that assist public participation. Israelis, however, have no such recourse and no culture of public participation on which to draw.

Through the Sustainable Development Program, however, residents and planners in the Israeli city of Haifa have begun to work together to explore how an inclusive public process could help revitalize Hadar, a low-income, Haifa neighborhood with historical significance. Through the project, the group has undertaken the groundbreaking task of developing cooperation among diverse parties involved in the strategic development of the neighborhood, including planners, residents and the city administrators. This inclusive public dialogue with decision makers is unheard of in Israel's 50-year history.

We began this program two years ago by working with the residents of Hadar. While residents lacked knowledge of the development process and were not familiar with the principals of mobilizing people for community change, they were passionate about creating a community based on sustainable principles and determined to influence the authorities' development policy to reflect their concerns. The motivated group of individuals undertook a long-term project to learn about the relevant issues and engage the municipality. Ten members of the group traveled to Boston in March 2002 to further continue learning about community process and innovative sustainable development programs. They returned enthusiastic and hopeful, ready to lead the project to the next level.

After the visit, the Hadar residents reached out to city and regional planners to engage them in a model public participation process that is unique in Israel. Community activists and government planners met twelve times in the last year in small groups or subcommittees to create concrete recommendations as well as a larger vision of how to improve their neighborhood. The exercise challenged the professionals to engage in a radically different approach to community development and land use planning. After three months, the government employees began to understand that they could step out of their normal roles and began to think creatively about solutions to community challenges.

For example, one of the groups focused on potential new uses for a courthouse building that the city plans to vacate in the near future. The courthouse is both a historic building and located near the main municipality building and a historic public garden. After a series of discussions, the subcommittee recommended that the city convert the building and surrounding grounds to a cultural center that would serve all of Haifa. The existing courthouse would become the central city library and adjacent buildings would be connected through a pedestrian platform that would exclude automobile traffic.

While the city has no obligation to implement the recommendations described above, or any of the suggestions the subcommittees developed, the 12-month dialogue between the planners and residents met two primary goals. The project: