Final AIM Norman workshop tonight at Kennedy Elementary

Andrea Hancock, The Norman Transcript, Okla.
·2 min read

Apr. 10—The final AIM Norman community workshop will be 6:30 to 8 p.m. tonight.

The series of workshops intend to collect the public's thoughts on the City of Norman Area and Infrastructure Master Plan — AIM Norman for short. The workshops allow residents to identify needs, concerns and ideas related to seven different elements of infrastructure in the city: Water, wastewater, stormwater, land use, housing, transportation and parks.

The workshop tonight, hosted at Kennedy Elementary, is a come-and-go event. It will feature a station for each separate element of the Master Plan.

"There's information as well as opportunities for people to provide ideas, reactions, thoughts [and] feedback to different parts of each one of these plans. All of that information will be used to inform the direction of each one of these master plans," said Inger Giuffrida, the co-chair of the AIM Norman Steering Committee.

Community volunteers, members of the steering committee, city staff and representatives from consulting firms involved with AIM Norman will all attend the workshop.

"We're there basically to ask questions, answer questions, just kind of engage in dialogue, really hear from members of the public with respect to their ideas vis-a-vis these aspects of the plans," Giuffrida said.

The workshops have been held since mid-February, and Giuffrida says her team has two big takeaways so far. One, that each of the seven elements is inextricably linked to the others, and two, that the number of residents who have wanted to get involved is inspiring.

"What an amazing community we have, with so many people that care about and are passionate about these issues," Giuffrida said. "There are so many people invested in making this plan the best that it can be for not only Norman today, but Norman in the future."

If you can't make it tonight, it's not your last opportunity to make your voice heard. AIM Norman features monthly surveys on aimnorman.com, and the consulting firms involved host community pop-up events periodically, for example at the upcoming Norman Music Festival.

"Survey results, listening sessions, pop-up events, these community workshops ... it all goes into the hopper to try to make sure that the plan takes into account as many different perspectives as possible," Giuffrida said.