It’s true, a picture can be worth a thousand words, but those “words” can hurt you or help you when it comes to bond referendums and informing your community. At CMBA, we are involved in numerous bond referendums each year. With each one of these elections, we discuss what kinds of images and drawings to share with the media and the public. Each client is different. There’s not one formula that is right for all. Given our depth of experience, we offer these suggestions:
Our recommendation is that your drawings and your communications reflect that. Certainly you need to do enough work to identify needs and costs, but we suggest site plans and floor plans be block diagrams. Written and verbal communications should make it clear that these are solutions to be further refined based on public and staff input.
Cost-effective Solutions.
Usually in a bond referendum, the District does not want to expend a large amount of resources on the initial stages of design for plans the public may not endorse. You don’t want to consume staff hours meeting over every detail of a project you may not be able to build.Our recommendation is that your drawings and your communications reflect that. Certainly you need to do enough work to identify needs and costs, but we suggest site plans and floor plans be block diagrams. Written and verbal communications should make it clear that these are solutions to be further refined based on public and staff input.