The Flagstaff Regional Plan 2045 will be created using the voices of native youth, the unhoused, and more.
The year 2045 may seem like a far off concept for us living in 2023. In 22 years, which may even seem like a lifetime to some, what kind of challenges will Flagstaff face as an evolving city? Over the past few decades, technology has developed at a historically unprecedented pace, and our evolving world is still whirling as we try to catch our breath between these technological changes. More recently, the rise of remote work and even autonomous vehicles have continued to alter the economic landscape of modernized society. Can we expect that climate change, population growth, and other changes will continue into 2045?
These are all questions and challenges that the Face The Future Flagstaff game hopes to address. Face The Future Flagstaff is a game designed to incorporate local opinions into the regional plan update as part of the project’s public engagement. The game, developed by Cascadia Partners, has been compared to RISK, The Game of Life, and Monopoly. The game encourages the collaboration between participants to navigate challenges in growth, climate impacts, funding, transit, and other issues to determine how residents would see the city grow if they made the decisions. The results of each game played will be digitized and turned into data that will help the city decide how to solve the problems of the future.
So just how does a board game make such an impact on city planning? Each game begins with a set of randomized challenges that the players must solve by making room for new residents and businesses, making decisions on how to allocate the city’s budget, and drawing new vital infrastructure projects to make the city a better place for all residents. As an example, one of the randomized challenge cards includes information on projected population increase and is assigned a certain number of residential ‘tokens’ that must be placed somewhere on the map. The tokens range from rural ~1 acre lots to compact and urban residential apartments. These tokens can be traded, stacked, or scattered based on the discussions had by each team of players. The same is done for different types of industries, jobs, parks, and civic buildings. The results often end up looking like a confetti-like collage of color-coded tokens strewn across the map.
Based on the opinions of each player, the results thus far vary widely from a downtown-centric concentrated style of development, to a more spread-out design by planning for further developments outside of the city and building up the peripheral communities like Doney Park, Kachina Village, and Belmont. The planning process aims to have a variety of demographics play the game in an effort to capture as many voices and opinions in the data net as possible. So far, we have seen representation from many marginalized groups; this includes the Flagstaff’s Spanish speaking community(translated versions of the game were created for this reason), Native American youth, young and old, and future plans to reach out to the unhoused in the city.
Currently, the game has been played by over 35 times with over 150 people, with further plans on expanding the game’s use. The City of Flagstaff is planning on expanding both public and private meetings in the upcoming weeks.
Updates can be found on the Flagstaff Regional Plan Update’s official website:
https://flagstaff-regional-plan-2045-flagstaff.hub.arcgis.com/
