TABLE OF CONTENTS What is meant by the term public participation? For that matter, what do the words mean separately? What is (or who are) the public? What constitutes participation? Where did the term originate? What is its contemporary meaning?
Virtually all government-sponsored activities have the potential to affect some aspect of the life or environment of the area within which they are to take place. Normally, this is openly stated as the basis of need for the proposed action (i.e., that something needs to be changed). Generally, public agencies are charged with the responsibility of acting on behalf of the constituency they serve or represent. Actions that require environmental impact assessment and statements are usually extensive and are likely to affect the community and the environment in a variety of ways, and these effects may be perceived as good, bad, or of no consequence. This perception is, however, personal to the extreme. One person s beautiful proposal is someone else s disaster waiting to happen. However, the need, or at least the desirability, for the project to be shaped in response to the requirements of the local community establishes the necessity for effective public participation. Without such participation, the project may take on a direction or emphasis that (although ostensibly directed toward public benefit) is counterproductive to the community s needs.
We have heard many times the epithet Taxation without representation, usually with the implication that it is unfair, unjust, uncalled for, not desirable, and generally not in the best interests...
