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Before the Comprehensive Plan Map App existed, if someone had questions or concerns about the plan he or she would need to attend a public meeting, a Portland City Council meeting or a Planning and Sustainability Commission meeting to provide public testimony.

鈥淭his is a pretty high bar to participation, and often leads to us talking to the same individuals or groups repeatedly,鈥� said Kevin Martin, technical services manager for Portland鈥檚 Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

The original version of the Map App was launched in October 2013. This past August, version 3 went live. It鈥檚 more streamlined and modern to improve ease of use by citizens.

Martin said that the Map App, since inception, has been 鈥�pretty successful,鈥� gaining approximately 100,000 page views and 4,000 individual comments by 20,000 to 30,000 people. He said that the new version has been doing 鈥渆specially well,鈥� producing as many as 5,000 visits a day.

鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that we鈥檙e also reaching a broader demographic,鈥� he said.

Another goal is for the updated app to make the planning process more understandable. Martin said that a lot of effort is put into the 鈥淎bout鈥� page and into content that explains in as simple a way as possible how land use, infrastructure and zoning proposals move from internal concepts to City Council adoption, what happens with feedback and what the planning jargon means to the average Portlander.

Martin hopes the Map App helps get Portlanders interested and invested in the 2035 Comprehensive Plan.

鈥淭he Comprehensive Plan may not sound very exciting, but it is really the vision for the future of Portland,鈥� he said. 鈥淕iven the challenges we now face as a growing, destination city, we need input from all Portlanders to help make the kind of tough decisions to get us to a more equitable, sustainable and livable future. The Map App is just one tool for participating in the Comprehensive Plan, but it has a very low barrier to entry for those who have access to a computer or a smartphone.鈥�

While Martin considers version 3 a success, he said the city will continue to do more.

鈥淲e have a list of improvements that we will be trying to tackle over the next six months,鈥� he said.