Call for Municipal Partners

Urban planning is becoming increasingly complex, requiring municipalities to analyze vast amounts of data scattered across multiple reports, policies, and plans. Decision-makers often face challenges due to fragmented information, making it difficult to develop efficient, future-ready strategies. 

We believe that interactive community planning models have the potential to transform how we plan and manage our cities. However, we recognize that municipal teams are often occupied with daily operations. That’s why our goal is to develop the usability of these tools on their behalf, streamlining the process while providing training to ensure seamless integration into their workflows. 

Digital Community Planning Platform

Pilot Project

The Project 

As part of our ongoing research and commitment to innovation, we are launching a Community Planning Platform Pilot Project to help municipalities centralize data, streamline planning, and enable scenario-based decision-making.

Through this initiative, we aim to collaborate with a municipality to select a specific project area, such as a development site, city block, neighborhood, or village, where we will build a digital model. This interactive platform will integrate and centralize all relevant datasets, allowing municipalities to visualize, analyze, and predict urban dynamics in real time. By consolidating information into a single, data-driven platform, we eliminate the need to sift through multiple reports and documents, enabling more efficient, evidence-based decision-making. 

The project will leverage ArcGIS Urban to develop a spatial model tailored to the key urban challenges defined by the municipality - whether it’s housing, climate resilience, infrastructure planning, or another priority issue. Insights from the model will be presented through an interactive dashboard, equipping municipal teams with tools to support strategic planning, policy development, and long-term urban management. 

With our experience building digital twin models in other contexts, we are excited to bring this expertise to municipal partners through the pilot, demonstrating how this technology can support real-world planning and decision-making.

Project Focus Areas 

The Digital Community Planning Platform can integrate multiple urban planning themes, including: 

  • Housing & Development 

  • Climate Resilience 

  • Water & Infrastructure 

  • Mobility & Transportation 

  • Energy & Sustainability 

  • Public Health & Well-being 

  • Open Data & Engagement 

Additional themes may be explored based on municipal priorities. 

What We Are Looking For

We invite municipal governments and planning agencies interested in: 

  • Providing access to relevant municipal datasets (e.g., zoning, infrastructure, climate, housing). 

  • Collaborating on defining project objectives and pilot area selection. 

  • Testing and validating digital twin applications for local governance and urban planning. 

  • Engaging in knowledge-sharing and potential funding opportunities. 

How to Get Involved

Interested municipalities can submit a short Expression of Interest (EOI) including: 

1. Municipality Name & Contact Information 

2. Potential Pilot Area (if known) 

3. Urban Challenges of Interest (e.g., housing, climate, infrastructure) 

4. Available Data (if applicable) 

5. Any Existing Smart City Initiatives 

Deadline for Submissions: September 30, 2026 
Submit EOIs to: blom@republicurbanism.com 

Next Steps 

Following the EOI review, selected municipalities will be invited to participate in a informational co-design session to refine the scope and implementation plan. 

Be at the forefront of municipal innovation by participating in this transformative digital planning initiative. Let’s build better, more resilient cities together. 

For more information, contact Michelle Blom at blom@republicurbanism.com.