As a concerned citizen, can I talk to a developer? Featured
This might sound familiar: A new development is being proposed in my neighborhood and I am concerned that it might not match the character of our street; or what I know about the project is not consistent with the vision/direction of our street. I know that the project will be presented at the planning commission or city council as part of the approval process. Do I show up to the public meeting or can I just reach out to the developer directly?
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I hear this question a lot and I first want to share that there is no rule or best practice that should deter you from talking to a developer. In fact I would strongly recommend reaching out to the developer directly as soon as you are aware they are making an investment into your community. This is why when you see a zoning or project sign there is usually an email or phone number posted on it.
The reality is that both you and the developer have a stake in the success of the project. The struggle is that our current system is really complicated and orderly. By the time the project arrives at a public meeting, the developer has very little ability to modify a project. At this point, they have already spent a lot of money developing the plans, and invested lots of time meeting with municipal staff. The public meeting is too late to influence the end result.
The two most valuable things to a development team is predictability and time. Developers are working with a finite amount of money and an investor or bank that is expecting a return on that investment. The developer would really like to know concerns about their project much earlier in the project so they can manage any potential risk. A meeting with a room full of angry people or replanning a project at a public meeting with the angry mob is a huge risk to the developer.
Introducing yourself to the developer early in the project is an opportunity to positively influence the built result. The developer will be willing to talk to you because you are a local expert and can provide insight to the community. This is also the opportunity for the developer to address your concerns so that you become a supporter of the project.
As a plan reviewer, I always shared the contact information of the concerned citizens or community groups near a project site. I encouraged the developer to meet with residents and listen to their concerns. When a citizen called city hall about a project, I also shared the contact information of the developer to the resident. None of this is a secret so this information should be easy to get. The result of making these connections is that this provided the opportunity for both parties to meet and discuss a project before it was presented to the planning commission. The end result was always a better project that was embraced or at least understood by the community.
As an active citizen, this is also the opportunity to learn the constraints a developer has on a project. For example, you might ask why there is so much parking or why is the building pushed so far back from the street. This is an opportunity to learn that this was not the desire of the developer, but a mandate imposed by your community. With that knowledge, you can become a better advocate for code reform, and you can forge an alliance with an unlikely of people, the developer.
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