Who?

In most every story "who" has many dimensions: Who are the people involved? Who will make the decisions? Who is proposing the rezoning? Who opposes it? Who are some obvious people who will be affected? Who are the less obvious?

So start with a simple question: Who lives in Buckingham Village?

The Census Bureau is the place to find that information. Here's a table from the American FactFinder, showing data for the ZIP code where Buckingham Village is located. You can see that the table not only includes the area's demographics, but also information about income, education, housing characteristics, and many other variables.

Among other things, the report shows that in 2000 this area was much more diverse, racially and ethnically, than most of the U.S. In the data mining section of this module, we demonstrate a Web-based tool that will automatically turn this data into a graphic.

What?

Details matter. What specifically is being planned?

Official documents usually are the best source for this sort of information. There should be reports from the planning commission, zoning board or other bodies responsible for analyzing and making development recommendations. The image at right is the final report made to the Arlington County Board, the county's governing body, which had to approve the Buckingham project.

The report specifies the number of units involved, gives the names and addresses of the developers. It also commits the county to spending nearly $50 million to buy and maintain affordable housing units and to build new roads and parks in the area.

Another document on the county's Web site outlined the relocation plans for residents who will be affected by the project.

Linking to documents like these and then summarizing some of the key points can not only make your site more informative, it also can spark debate and discussion. This post on Buckingham HeraldTriblog, written about the Buckingham Village area, is a good example of using documents as a launching point.

When?

Another question with multiple dimensions: When will the decision be made? When will construction start? When will residents have to relocate? When will the development be finished?

One thing you could do is keep track of when government meetings occur. A good idea would be to get on the press release mailing lists of the government agencies in your area.

Most governmental bodies are required by state laws to give notice of meetings and to make agendas available in advance. You will want to be familiar with the open meetings and open records laws in your community. The Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri provides links to each state's open meetings laws.

 

The image at right is a picture of the news release subscription form used by Arlington County.

The county also maintains this calendar of meetings and events. (Note: It takes a little while for this to load.) You can customize it to include the meetings you want, as well as subscribe to e-mail updates. The county also provides RSS feeds of meeting agendas and minutes.

You might want to build and publish your own calendar of local events and meetings, as well.

Where?

Zoning is one of those stories that always has a "where" element attached to it. Readers want to know what area is being considered, where the building is, where is it relation to major geographic features, etc. You can easily add a map to your site.

In fact, maps have become one of the defining features of the Web, thanks largely to Google maps. Here is a basic Google map of Arlington. Once they are on the map page, users can enter an address in a search window and zoom instantly to a map of the area.

To use Google maps, you will need to register your Web site with Google. Google's instructions for doing this are fairly clear. And here is a tutorial to help get you started.

The uses for Google maps are limited only by your imagination and programming abilities. A good book for more ways to use Google maps is Google Maps Hacks: Tips and Tools for Geographic Searching and Remixing" by Rich Gibson and Schuyler Erie.