The City of Poulsbo and the Hansville community could bring in planners to help guide them in the direction they need go for creating a desirable future. They could hire someone from the outside to take a look at the area and say, “Yep, these are the demographics and cultural trends that are taking place in your community and here’s what we’re going to do to plan out your future.” But why bring in someone from the outside when leaders need to go to the folks who matter the most — the people who will be living out the results of these visions and plans for years to come — the residents themselves.

It would be out of character for Hansville to NOT go to its neighbors to find out what they want. After a sign was posted in the community one April Fools Day a few years ago, promoting an amusement park built over the wetlands and high-rise condominiums on the waterfront, the community took a second look at what could really happen in their neck of the woods if they didn’t stop to think about it. The results of those initial thoughts have resulted in a comprehensive four-step process, which has included surveying the community about its desires and creating a 190-page document that explores the current trends of the area. The end result is expected to be an action plan that will be implemented to make sure Hansville grows the way the residents want it to. It’s obvious how much work has been put in to this process, as it slowly and methodically takes place. Hansville will surely find positive results, all because it went to its residents and simply asked — “What do you want?”

An effort very much applauded.

We’re happy to see Poulsbo following the same suit. After a bit of a conundrum during the summer about whether Poulsbo’s visioning process should be a government-driven process or not, it’s come down to who matters the most overall -— the constituents. With the city long range planning committee’s proposal Monday afternoon to survey the city about what the residents want, that seems to definitely be the step in the right direction in determining the destiny of Little Norway.

Hmmm. Hansville has a lot of community groups that get together and talk about issues of the day. And Poulsbo has nearly two dozen coffeeshops within town with customers that do the same. Maybe the two communities should get together for a chat over some joe and some surveys.