{"id":221362,"date":"2019-04-03T23:55:54","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T06:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=221362"},"modified":"2019-04-04T12:23:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T19:23:34","slug":"arcgis-hub-gets-mixed-use-community-involved-in-retail-decision-making","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/arcgis-hub-gets-mixed-use-community-involved-in-retail-decision-making","title":{"rendered":"ArcGIS Hub Gets Mixed-Use Community Involved in Retail Decision-Making"},"author":1432,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10562,1041,19602],"tags":[1451,301,289372,1161,701],"arcnews_issues":[327822],"class_list":["post-221362","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-hub","category-collaboration","category-open-data","tag-citizen-engagement","tag-community","tag-community-planning","tag-retail","tag-smart-communities","arcnews_issues-spring-2019","arcnews_sections-collaborations"],"acf":{"short_description":"An ArcGIS Hub-based community engagement platform gets Kentlands residents more connected to commercial decisions made in their development.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The Kentlands development in Gaithersburg, Maryland, located north of Washington, DC, offers residents a high density of services, restaurants, and entertainment. Inspired by the New Urbanism design movement of the 1980s, the Kentlands aims to promote environmentally friendly habits. It is a walkable, mixed-use community that combines pedestrian-friendly streets and live-work buildings.\r\n\r\nFrom a residential perspective, the Kentlands (also referred to simply as Kentlands) has been a success, with more than 8,000 inhabitants living in the development and its sister community, Lakelands. But the town has had challenges on the retail side, including assembling an ideal group of businesses that will have long-term success.\r\n\r\nAccording to Kevin McMaster, principal at Esri partner SymGEO and a proud resident of the community, \u201cKentlands has been struggling to find the right mix of retail for the neighborhood. As a result, the community felt disconnected from the commercial decisions made around [it] and [residents] voiced frustration at several public meetings.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn line with the initiative to energize Kentlands\u2019 retail businesses and boost economic development, SymGEO\u2014a Maryland-based company that specializes in geospatial data analytics\u2014developed Downtown: Energize! Kentlands. The web-based community engagement platform, built on ArcGIS Hub, is designed to inform the public about future plans for Kentlands and provide a feedback mechanism for residents to express what kinds of retail offerings they would like to see."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":221392,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cThe site serves two purposes for the public: to share plans for existing and planned retail and to give the option to voice an opinion on what is needed,\u201d explained McMaster. \u201cBy keeping the content fresh and relevant, the public benefits from a site that grows with the community and gives [residents] a sense of ownership in the direction of the community.\u201d\r\n

Features and Functions for Productive Engagement<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nSymGEO chose ArcGIS Hub to create Downtown: Energize! Kentlands because, as McMaster explained, it is \u201cthe only platform that can easily access the geospatial information that is critical for informing the public on existing and planned retail and a plethora of other local issues.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe site combines a number of components of the ArcGIS technology suite, including Survey123 for ArcGIS, GeoForm template, Collector for ArcGIS, Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS, and Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS for the retail locator. It also features a fun and visually stunning \u201cCan you picture your business here?\u201d 3D web scene that uses Esri CityEngine textured models derived from building footprints and lidar information processed in ArcGIS Pro. The web scene allows site visitors to virtually fly through the neighborhood.\r\n\r\nThe surveys on the site, which were created using the form-based questions in Survey123, have garnered the most excitement from the public, according to McMaster.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe site has provided the voice that people have been missing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has helped relieve considerable frustration.\u201d\r\n\r\nEmploying ArcGIS Hub was a substantial improvement over the town\u2019s older methods of gathering public opinion, McMaster said. Previous solutions involved a series of Facebook pages, disconnected websites, and social media posts, which made it difficult to track progress and find information. Additionally, social media comments were quickly lost, and there was no permanent record of posts and comments.\r\n\r\nBy implementing ArcGIS Hub, McMaster can now track evolving word clouds, with keywords pulled from the filled-out Survey123 forms, to understand residents\u2019 opinions and impressions about the neighborhood.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe summary word cloud is an excellent snapshot of the residents\u2019 ideas on what retail is needed, as well as the general feeling about Kentlands,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nA database of commercial properties, hosted in ArcGIS Online as a feature service, fuels an Explore Existing Retail app on the hub site as well. The database includes each business\u2019s name, its square footage, the business type, its web URL (if available), and whether or not the property is occupied. McMaster got much of this information from parcel data, the three large commercial property owners in the area, and assessor data from the City of Gaithersburg. He then filled in the blanks by gathering additional data in the field using Collector and GeoForm template. The hub app is dynamic and connected directly to these data sources, so site visitors will always find the latest information."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":221402,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Moreover, the flexibility of ArcGIS Hub allows McMaster to continually add new features to the site and improve its capabilities. For example, he recently populated the commercial database with local business data and expanded it to include all sections of the neighborhood. McMaster also incorporated a community calendar that shows all the local happenings. Residents can search the Downtown: Energize! Kentlands site for all retail offerings in Kentlands, and planners can see immediately calculable summary statistics\u2014such as the number of businesses per business category and\/or locale\u2014to aid in doing gap analyses for future retail offerings.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe goal of informing the public has been easily accomplished by keeping the spatial data up-to-date as new retail is announced or observed,\u201d McMaster said.\r\n\r\nUse of ArcGIS Hub for Downtown: Energize! Kentlands has also made it quicker and easier to gather community feedback.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe time saved by the site is most easily quantified by the ease in which a community survey was set up and distributed,\u201d said McMaster. \u201cWhat would have had to have been done either as part of a community event, mailer, or some other mechanism was now done with Survey123 apps on the hub site quickly and easily.\u201d\r\n

Open Data and the Future<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nResidents\u2019 support for this new community engagement platform has been strong and generally positive. McMaster said that Downtown: Energize! Kentlands was recently mentioned at a public meeting as an example of how people can voice their opinions and have the results aggregated and given to key retail decision-makers. Local businesses have been supportive of the platform as well because the site enables users to search a list of existing businesses.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere is no other site that offers the comprehensive, updated list of all retail establishments, so it is great for people wanting to get a feel for what is available,\u201d said McMaster.\r\n\r\nTwo local development boards, the Kentlands Downtown Working Group and the One Main Street Initiative, have taken an interest in Downtown: Energize! Kentlands. The groups are so enthusiastic about the platform that they are now exploring options to have complementary sites built using ArcGIS Hub technology."},{"acf_fc_layout":"quote","image":"","text":"The site has provided the voice that people have been missing. It has helped relieve considerable frustration.","author_name":"Kevin McMaster","author_profession_organization":"Principal, SymGEO"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The use of open data in an area like Kentlands means members of the public can stay informed, connected, and up-to-date with what is happening in their community. McMaster encourages this trend toward open data.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe more open and transparent, the better,\u201d he said. \u201c[It is important] to show citizens that the work being done by local government is meaningful and can help inform community decisions.\u201d\r\n\r\nMcMaster, who developed the site pro bono, said he\u2019s at the stage where residents and local officials are just becoming familiar with GIS technology and its possibilities. They are seeing firsthand how GIS, together with open data, can help transform a community. He hopes other cities will adopt the platform as well.\r\n\r\n\u201cPersonally, I would love to have other small communities say this is exactly what they need. I think it provides [an interesting look] at how to help a community use new and innovative technology,\u201d he said. \u201cSo many cities have the tech and don\u2019t know they are sitting on it\u2014and that they can do this if they wanted to.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhether taking on an issue that\u2019s similar to retail development or addressing something else that residents want to see improved, McMaster believes it is very rewarding to get a community\u2019s residents engaged, excited, and energized about an idea and then facilitate action using this platform.\r\n\r\nFor more information on\u00a0Downtown: Energize! Kentlands, contact\u00a0McMaster at\u00a0kevin.mcmaster@symgeo.com<\/a>."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nArcGIS Hub Gets Mixed-Use Community Involved in Retail Decision-Making<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An ArcGIS Hub-based community engagement platform gets Kentlands residents more connected to commercial decisions made in their development.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/arcgis-hub-gets-mixed-use-community-involved-in-retail-decision-making\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ArcGIS Hub Gets Mixed-Use Community Involved in Retail Decision-Making\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An ArcGIS Hub-based community engagement platform gets Kentlands residents more 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