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A
collaborative process will help position communities as full
partners in revitalizing abandoned, idled or under used
commercial and industrial sites and vacant properties.
Principal
#1: Adopt a policy of inclusion.
People living
in communities and small businesses already located in areas
where brownfields and vacant properties are prevalent have been
most affected by conditions in their neighborhoods and will be
most affected by changes in those conditions. It’s democratic,
they have the most at stake and their inclusion in decisions
should be fundamental.
Principal
#2: Recognize that community engagement involves
multi-stakeholder readiness. Engagement necessarily means
helping communities become prepared to
engage in the brownfields and
economic development dialogue.
Capacity building
that educates, trains, helps create a common language among
stakeholders and leaves no one at a communications or
understanding disadvantage is imperative.
Principal #3:
Honor communities and neighborhoods as whole places not solely
as environmentally degraded or socially and economically
disadvantaged.
Honor communities as
places where people want to live, learn, worship, work and play.
Principal #4:
Honor diversity.
Respect diversity of
races and cultures, viewpoints and perspectives. Be responsive
to viewpoints that just might challenge the mainstream. A
community’s contributions can test and improve redevelopment
plans and make for a more thorough, informed process.
Principal #5:
The foundation of community redevelopment and revitalization is
equitable beneficial land use.
Land reuse can either
replicate the economic and environmental consequences resulting
in brownfields and vacant properties or lead to changes in these
circumstances that benefit all stakeholders. Further, race,
class and concentrated poverty issues are intricately
intertwined with the history of land use and under-investments
in certain communities. The impacts of this history must be
factored into decision-making intended to benefit affected
neighborhoods.
Principal #6:
There shall be no forced displacement as a result of
gentrification.
Neither tax
increases, nor elevating property values nor rising rents shall
force long-term residents, workers and small businesses to
unwillingly flee their neighborhoods.
Principal
#7: Economic, social and environmental advantages that are
the consequence of community redevelopment must directly benefit
the communities, which have suffered and survived through the
years of blight, degradation and under investment by the public
and private sectors.
Principal
#8: Environmental Justice communities believe that the
Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution entitles
everyone to equal protection under law, including equal
environmental protection.
Overwhelmingly,
the states have passed laws on liability releases and investment
tax incentives which should not obscure a cardinal point:
Health and environment must be considered on par with the
importance of the real estate development deal.
Principal #9:
Recognize the intersection of the 3 E’s: Equity, Economics and
Environment; it’s the pathway to sustainable redevelopment.
Principal #10:
Invest resources at levels sufficient to accomplish the
community engagement objective.
Typically, this is an area where the public and private sectors
expend the fewest resources and expect to get the most bang for
the buck. Community engagement is not public relations and it’s
more than public participation. At it’s most productive; it’s
resource intensive relationship building that is sensitive,
pursued over the long-term and concentrated on parity in
preparing communities to engage in the redevelopment process
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