Reconciling Land Use Conflicts

Can lawyers, government officials, environmentalists, and developers agree on standards for coastal development and management? I'm proud to have been one of three conveners of the Second Skidaway Conference on Coastal Development where participants agreed on important guidelines for our coasts. I also drafted the final agreement. This is one of many meetings where I have brought together a real diversity of opinion for fruitful discussion. I've also been active in affordable housing efforts in the US and abroad,. I've led environmental negotiations on nuclear power plants and lakes. And I've served as resident adviser to the government of Kazakhstan for housing and land reform.

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It Helps To Have Been There

I know land use conflicts from many angles. I have served as president of three statewide environmental groups. I've rehabbed urban housing and developed environmentally sensitive rural communities. As an appraiser I often had to put values on conservation easements. Courts and banks relied on my testimony about the economic impact land use regulations. 

It's Not Us Or Them: It's We

The individual or company who wants to make the world more dangerous or uglier is very rare. In legislatures and in the courts, land use conflicts are fought out as us against them. Since most of our disagreements are about how rather than what we want, with good will and a creative neutral participant, we can usually find common ground.