Context-sensitive design by name implies that a project will be designed with the context of the project in mind. Context-Sensitive solutions can add a greater focus on the needs of a community, i.e. establishing a framework for future economic growth, protecting or enhancing a cultural heritage or environmentally sensitive element within the community, or enabling better or alternative access to parts of the community that had otherwise been isolated or that would negatively impact a certain area if certain work was undertaken (e.g. bypassing a sensitive historic area rather than going through the middle of it, etc.)

Project alternatives should be developed based upon the most accurate understanding of a community as possible, which is why defining the community is an important first step to understanding and achieving community values through community input.

While a community may be defined based on proximity to a project, or city, county, or neighborhood delineations; a broader definition acknowledges that a community may be based on common characteristics or interests, such as religion, ethnicity, income strata or concern for the economic viability of a region.

When defining a community, ask questions that will help to describe the community in terms of physicality, like geographic boundaries, but also about the intrinsic characteristics that are valued by its members and which make the community unique:

• What are the elements of the “community” with which you are working?
• What are its social and geographic boundaries?
• What people or groups consider themselves part of the community?
• What activities constitute community life?
• What capacity does the community have to address local issues?

Community Characteristics

Context-Sensitive Solutions for transportation projects takes the wider community into account.  No longer does a street just provide a vehicular passageway through the community, but it also provides access to the larger community; the schools, the parks, the libraries, the shops and restaurants, the historic sites, the neighborhoods, etc.  And in this respect, this same street has now taken on a much more important role within the community.  How it looks and “feels” now is as important as how it functions.

 

A general understanding of a community’s characteristics provide basic information about a community, such as its geographic boundaries, landscape, demographics, economic conditions and trends, and natural resources. 

 

Community/project stakeholders should be given the opportunity to identify other community characteristics that will offer a view of a community as a “sense of place.” This information will give insight as to public attitudes, values, perceptions, and interests.  Community characteristics include:

• Community Boundaries
• Community Capacity and Activism
• Community Interaction and Information Flow
• Demographic Information
• Economic Conditions
• Education
• Environmental Awareness and Values
• Governance
• Infrastructure and Public Services
• Local Identity
• Local Leisure and Recreation
• Natural Resources and Landscapes
• Property Ownership, Management, and Planning
• Public Safety and Health
• Religious and Spiritual Practices
• Perceived Needs and Desires

 

It is in looking at a community’s characteristics that you will begin to see a community’s values in its traditions and history, religious and spiritual practices, the way information travels, and how decisions are made — the very local identity that makes each community unique.