After You Beat Them, Join Them
PERMITTING GUIDE COMMUNITY RELA TIONS 24 Don't view permitting as a one-time public relations endeavor. Those old friends may influence new goals as well. After You Beat Them, Join Them by Christopher Hopkins your business as a good corporate citizen requires a carefully considered strategic plan and the discipline to carry it out. Sponsoring a youth sports team or donating to a local cause is nice, but taking it a step further distinguishes you from the typically uninvolved contributor. The benefits are worth the effort if even just a few of those angry citizens who complained about your business are turned into valuable friends whose support for you makes the die-hards look unreasonable. Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) is the domi-nant attitude towards local development in America. On top of that, a quarry or aggregate facility is the third most-unwanted type of de-velopment, with 64 percent of Americans saying they wouldn't want one coming to their com-munity, according to sur-vey on attitudes toward real estate development. Zoning and development decisions have be-come political battles. Increasingly, politicians are unwilling to stand up to angry opponents if an applicant does not demonstrate enough local support to give officials the cover they need. Local problems, national implications Whether you like it or not, your business oper-ates in the Internet Age. With the saturation Zoning and development decisions have become political battles. Before you begin, develop a winning strategy. T he relief of no longer having to deal with irrational neighborhood opponents and their trumped-up arguments can be one of the most satisfying parts of successfully permitting your quarry or plant and opening for business. You'll never have to deal with those meddling troublemakers again. It's an appealing pipe dream. But sitting back and expecting your vanquished foes to live and let live won't cut it. You may not know it now, but eventually you'll find yourself needing zoning relief or public approvals for change in your opera-tions or an expansion. You might even want to open a new facility in another community miles away. That's when your old enemies will show up like ghosts, ready to stick it to you. (If they haven't already made themselves a thorn in your side by complaining every time you release a shot or a truck goes up the road.) Failing to become an active part of the com-munity backfires in unexpected ways. If you are disengaged from the local community, you don't know what harmful stories or attitudes might be circulating and you'll have no cred-ibility to disarm rumors and misinformation. Building local relationships and establishing