Recently, the City Council approved the updated City of Portage Public Participation Plan. In the process of updating the plan, the City Administration implemented improvements to engage citizens in a transparent manner, making information easy to access for all interested members of the community.
- Public hearing notices are now published on the Community Development web page (portagemi.gov/173), in addition to the Legal Notices web page.
- Applications for new developments requiring Planning Commission approval and/or City Council approval are published on a new city web page (portagemi.gov/910) at the time they are initially received.
- Citizens may also sign up to receive automatic notifications (portagemi.gov/list.aspx) when public hearing notices or new applications are published.
The Public Participation Plan also requires developers of major new developments to meet with nearby neighbors before applying to the city and allows for written notification of public hearings for major new developments to extend up to 500 feet for projects with potentially significant impacts (instead of the legally required 300 feet).
We hope these new features will promote accountability, participation, and trust in government and increase citizen participation in the development process.