AI-powered town hall gives thousands a voice in county planning

Key Takeaways

Warren County, Ky., the fastest growing county in the state, leveraged technology to receive input from thousands of its residents on what they want the future of the community to look like to build its comprehensive plan. 

Just shy of 150,000 people live in Warren County, which is on track to reach a population of 240,000 by 2050 — more than doubling its residents over the course of 40 years. In response to its population influx, the county set out to create a 25-year comprehensive plan, a much more “ambitious” endeavor than its traditional 10-year structure, according to Warren County Judge Doug Gorman. 

Learn more

Warren County’s BG2050 initiative was the 2026 NACo Achievement Award “Best in Category” winner in the Planning category.

Google case study on BG2025

“That type of growth is an unbelievable amount of pressure,” Gorman said. “How are we going to handle that? The 25-year plan — the majority of people, especially myself, who are involved in it probably won’t be [in county government] in 2050, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan for the future of our children, grandchildren and other people that are coming here … It gives us a road map for how we can be successful in the future.”

Looking to receive input from as many people as possible — of all ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds — the county partnered with a local innovation strategy firm, InnoEngine, and used Jigsaw, a Google artificial intelligence tool, to create a month-long, online dialogue around ways the county could improve over the next 25 years. 

“If you have a lot of growth coming, why don’t we try to find out what the community wants to do with that growth, rather than make these decisions in a vacuum?” Gorman said. “So, our whole intention was to get as many people as possible, to have as many diverse ideas as possible to find out what are the best things, and then also what kind of consensus we could build with that information.”

Through what Warren County is calling the “largest town hall in American history,” 7,890 residents shared 3,940 unique ideas for the community’s future and weighed in over one million times on other’s submitted ideas. All responses and votes were anonymous. Fewer than 200 people usually attend the county’s in-person public meetings and hearings, he noted. 

“I feel like this is maybe the truest form of democracy,” Gorman said. “We had an open forum [where] people could share their opinions … I didn’t know who said what, so I couldn’t make a decision based on who they were, their party affiliation, all those things. I had to judge these opinions on the merit of their ideas, which I love more than anything. I think it’s how it should be.”

The county created a social media campaign, worked with local media outlets and schools and built grassroots efforts to spread the word about the “What Could BG Be?” initiative, according to a county representative.

“To make sure participants were as representative as possible, volunteers canvassed local businesses, international grocery stores, soup kitchens, rural diners and flea markets,” they said. “They talked to bored people in the DMV line, farmers at the agricultural gala, Afghan Uber drivers, fans at a college basketball game and congregants at religious institutions. They reached longtime locals, recently arrived Burmese refugees and Bosnian-American families who had arrived in the 1990s.”

Ensuring people not only knew about the digital town hall, but also had access to technology to participate was key, according to Gorman. Library technology such as iPads were brought into areas with less access, he noted.

“The most important thing was the ease of how to get people to do it,” Gorman said. “We removed the barriers for access, so that every person had an opportunity to have their voice heard, and I do think that’s an important thing in government.”

The feedback from “What Could BG Be?” was divided into categories that will be further explored by subject matter experts. The topics include arts and culture, infrastructure and transportation, economic development, community identity, environment and sustainability, housing, education, healthcare, public safety and services, food and agriculture and equity and inclusion. 

“Those subject matter experts in this diverse group, they now are tackling that data,” Gorman said. “And making this game plan coming to the county of ‘How can we address this? How do we do this? What investments do we have to make? Who needs to be involved? How do we accomplish these large goals that the community wants?’”

The county doesn’t have the capacity or resources to implement every idea, but identifying its residents’ top priorities and then planning and building projects from there will benefit the whole community, Gorman noted. 

The town hall also helped affirm and refine some of the concepts the county has already started working toward, including the revitalization of its Riverfront Park, he noted. Warren County had already held numerous planning sessions regarding re-invigorating the riverfront area, but now having the data that residents view it as a top opportunity to improve quality of life, it’s moving “full steam ahead” with planning. And as a result of the feedback, the county is now exploring building an amphitheater in the space for outdoor live music. 

Counties across the country can leverage the same technology and create a similar initiative to best serve their residents’ needs, Gorman said. 

“I think counties are the most important form of government out there, because it is where the rubber meets the road,” Gorman said. “Your quality of life can be determined by the type of government you have in your county. We sometimes get tied up in state and federal things, but when it comes to a county, it is the most important voice you can have, and I think most counties want to hear the voices of the people they represent.”