The Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission (UVLSRPC) sponsored another thought-provoking seminar at Dartmouth’s Baker Library on March 19th. The seminar was part of the American Planning Association Audio/Web Conference Training Series brought to our region through the generous funding of the NH Charitable Foundation (space arranged by OPDC). Wednesday’s program topic was “Confronting NIMBYs.” Two California planning consultants and the Director of Planning from Lake Oswego, Oregon shared their planning experience.
I found the 1st-hand examples from Dennis Egner, AICP of Lake Oswego (sometimes called “Nimbyville”) the most interesting. Lake Oswego is within the regional growth boundary of Portland, about 35,000 people and extremely affluent. A certain number of housing units have been planned for the town by the region. Agricultural lands & the growth boundary limits sprawling the units at the edge of town and therefore, the town has planned to accommodate the housing through infill and re-development. Egner spoke of about Nimbyville and how his office is focused on maintaining Lake Oswego’s high quality of life; educating residents about existing plans; recognizing when it is time to update plans; and making sure new residents feel connected and knowledgeable about the existing comprehensive plan and process. In addition to planning for maintaining the high quality of life, the Planning Office has deemed it critical to provide public education through its web site; monthly newsletter with a calendar of projects & planning efforts; weekly email on planning activities and meetings; and provides a community learning series.
The consultants spoke of the need for good management of the planning process and meetings. It was noted that listening is key as well as managing opposition to : avoid anger; avoid aggession (clear process for testimony, treat everyone with respect & call people by name); and manage behavior by enforcing rules and not allowing attacks on the audience, developer, board members (anoyone).
Most interesting tidbits (for me):
- Research shows that residents value what they have 3 to 20 times more than what they could have in the future (pretty challenging odds for planner-types!)
- Community is more than the proximate neighbors to a project – advantages and/or disadvantages of a plan or project may extend to entire town and sometimes, even the region
- Don’t “super-empower” proximate neighbors to the detriment of the community goals
- Mitigate impacts & provide clear information on how specific issues have been addressed
- Two outreach campaigns may be necessary to address the opponents & supporters
Visit www.planning.org/audioconference/CNIMBY in order to download copies of conference supplemental resource materials.