Terry Amsler is program director of the Institute for Local Government’s Public Engagement and Collaborative Governance program and can be reached at tamsler@ca-ilg.org. Greg Keidan, program coordinator of the Public Engagement and Collaborative Governance program, also contributed to this article.
More and more frequently, young people are being asked — and are asking — to play a larger role in discussions and decisions about local land use and other plans in their community. A growing number of California cities are involving youth in planning processes as local officials discover the capacity of young people to participate and the value of their insights.