Submitted by Jason Lyon of Presentation & Treatment Design
This year, the oldest of the city’s 91 neighborhood councils are turning five years old. A 29-member citizen commission is midway through a 15-month review of the neighborhood council system and will issue recommendations for improvements later this year. All in all, our system of “participatory democracy” is still in its infancy. There are a lot of kinks to be worked out. As someone who has looked at it from a lot of different angles – both as NC board member and city commissioner – I’m often asked for practical advice on how to approach neighborhood councils and their stakeholders with development projects. Here are a few suggestions:
Approach the NC as early as possible in the process.
The most common complaint among neighborhood councils is that they aren’t given enough time to consider proposals before being asked to offer their advisory opinion. Because they’re volunteers, without paid staff, they tend to move slowly. You should expect to take at least two months to move through the NC’s process. If you approach the NC when your application is deemed complete, there should be plenty of time before your hearing date. Better still, make your initial contact even before submitting your application. The more set-in-stone your proposal is, the more you are likely to encounter resistance. If you can accommodate community input at the concept level, you’re much more likely to have a satisfactory outcome. To that end,
Be honest about the degree of input you can accommodate.
Because applicants often approach the NC only after being asked to do so by the council office or ZA, they often arrive without a clear sense of why they are there, or with the understanding that they are simply presenting their proposal as a fait accompli. However, the NC, as an advisory body, will probably expect that you are there for their input on the project. That may or may not be realistic, depending on where you are in the process. Be very clear from the beginning what you are hoping to gain from your interaction with the council. To help align those expectations:
Ask the land use chair and/or Board president to walk you through the process before you attend a public meeting.
While several NCs have established processes for reviewing land use applications, it will probably be several years before the majority of Boards have such formal procedures. But in asking the NC’s officers to walk you through the process, you can begin to establish a spirit of partnership, rather than feeling at cross-purposes. More importantly, you may have the opportunity to create a process where none exists, and thereby ensure that you feel fairly treated as you proceed. When you do attend a public meeting:
Expect broadly varying expertise in planning and land use issues and in the relevant applicable laws, and frame the discussion accordingly.
This is probably the one complaint I hear most from developers. Because the neighborhood council mandate is to increase citizen participation in government, NC meetings tend to include people who have very advanced knowledge in this area, and people who are reviewing an application for the very first time. I have found that the most successful presenters at my own council managed to (respectfully) work some education into their presentations. For example, by framing the discussion of a variance around how you believe you have met the five required findings, you may be able to narrow the discussion and avoid the broadest NIMBY non-sequiturs. Still, you should:
Recognize that you will probably be confronting a lot of fears, which may take the form of hostility, irrationality and rudeness.
These are open, public meetings where people are encouraged to express their views. Many people don’t know how to do that in a constructive or even courteous way. It’s important to recognize that, unlike city staff who have no emotional stake in your proposal, the people in an NC meeting are likely to have a very visceral response to it. Some will be rude. There is no reason for you to tolerate personal attacks, but you can expect to hear things you find offensive. We have found it useful to try to draw out people’s fears directly and then move the discussion to practical plans for addressing those concerns. If your project is likely to be controversial, your pre-meeting discussion with the NC leadership should include a plan for maintaining civility. To that end:
Know that there is a distinction between neighborhood councils boards and neighborhood council stakeholders.
You have a right to expect a greater level of professionalism and courtesy from the elected Board of the NC than from the public at large. Boardmembers have an explicit commitment to representing all points of view. Stakeholders do not. If the Board has treated you rudely or unfairly, consider filing a grievance. The only way to make the system work is to hold people accountable for their behavior. What seems like a tedious process now may pave the way for smoother interactions with that council in the future. Which brings me to the last tip:
Try to think of the NC – and the community at large – as your partner in the process, even if they don’t.
It almost goes without saying that it’s better to move forward with community support rather than opposition. Earning it is much easier said that done; it requires more patience and humility than most of us want to exert on a daily basis. But it has been my experience that those developers who managed to weather the messy community process and to incorporate it into their work have built ongoing and constructive relationships with the neighborhood councils that will ultimately serve both sides’ interests as they move forward. I believe it’s worth the effort.
