California State Assembly: Public Review of the Lower Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan

In 2015, the California State Assembly adopted Bill 530, establishing a working group to develop the Lower Los Angeles (LA) River Revitalization Plan. The plan aimed to revitalize 19 miles of the river to provide recreational opportunities, restore natural areas, and address any potential health, safety, financial, and other issues.

Problem

As part of the drafting process, the working group and its consultant team needed to gather public input on design options and, later, on a draft document, particularly targeting area residents who will be affected by the revitalization.

Solution

Using Konveio, the team set up a public commenting process, providing the opportunity to easily explore the document and comment online in a unified location.

• Participants were encouraged to set up a username and password to enter the documents and view comments, making it easy for them to track their comments and for the team to follow up in case the participants had questions.
• Users left their comments directly on the text they related to, cutting down on the time it takes the moderators to track and analyze comments.
• One person on the team was responsible for receiving all comments through the Konveio app, significantly reducing the effort and time required for managing comments.
• To make the final analysis easier, the team moved comments received through other channels into their Konveio platform too, essentially making it the hub to manage and analyze all of the comments received.
• The consultant team used the Konveio CSV export feature, making organizing, formatting, and tracking comments easy and fast.
• The project included both English and Spanish versions of the plan to ensure inclusive participation opportunities.

Impact

Konveio helped streamline the commenting process and analysis while also reducing the challenges related to collecting, copying, and formatting public comments. The team estimates that they saved between 40 and 60 hours by using the app while receiving upwards of two hundred comments from the public. Since only one person received all of the comments and had a downloadable document, there was better quality control of comments received and incorporated.

“Konveio was a great way to track and receive comments from the public. This form of public comment submission should be the new status quo, providing clarity and transparency to all of the parties involved.”

— Gina P., Water Resources Engineer at Tetra Tech

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