Facilitating
Brownfields Projects
Successful brownfields projects are
collaborative wonders. Cooperation and
compromise are essential to achieving
cleanup and revitalization. Stakeholders
abound, and while they may share the same
ultimate goals, their visions for getting there
are as varied as they are.
Third-party neutrals may be the solution to
unlocking your complex project. Convening
meetings, facilitating talks, and mediating
between diverse interests -- all tools that
facilitators can use to keep brownfields
projects on track.
EPA's Brownfield Facilitation Pilots
EPA provided support to a dozen
brownfields projects across the country to
find out if facilitation works. The answer is
a resounding yes. The experiences at the
pilot sites are described in "Evaluating the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's
Brownfields Facilitation Pilot Projects."The
report examines the impact of facilitation and
facilitated collaborative decision making on
brownfields assessment and redevelopment
initiatives.
The report evaluates EPA-promoted
facilitation efforts in communities with
difficult issues to resolve. As a comparison, it
also evaluates facilitation efforts initiated by
communities that identified the need for and
sought out facilitator support on their own.
The evaluation assesses whether, and under
what conditions, facilitation improved the
decision making processes associated with the
12 nationally supported facilitations and 12
locally initiated facilitations.
"Evaluating the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's
Brownfields Facilitation Pilot Projects"
is now available on EPA's Brownfields Web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/brownfields
For more information on whether facilitation may be
helpful for your brownfields project, please contact
EPA's Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center at
202-564-2922, or visit the CPRC Web site at:
http://www.epa.gov/adr
East Palo Alto,
East Palo Alto was a community with signific
environmental justice concerns and historical distrust and
poor relationships among stakeholders. The facilitator
for this project was selected by a cross-section of
stakeholders before any meetings were convened, and
was present through the completion of the process. The
facilitator was successful at engaging all representative
stakeholders in the process. At the beginning, many
stakeholders were unwilling to convey their perspectives
in fear of how the information might be shared. The
facilitator was able to build trust in the process and
encourage people to share their ideas. At the end of nine
months, the group identified five possible approaches
to redeveloping and reutilizing the 80-acre Ravenswood
Industrial Area. Stakeholders found this project to be
a model for community problem solving as different
factions of the community were able to work through
their differences.
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The interventions varied widely for the sample
projects. In addition to convening, facilitation
and mediation, neutral third-party services
included: mentoring, coaching and training,
planning and implementing multi-stakeholder
meetings. Moreover, while some interventions
were short-term (covering a span of a few
days), others spanned as long as three to four
years. In some cases, the facilitators were
involved at the beginning of a project, during
the convening stage. In other cases, facilitators
were engaged only after difficulties were
encountered, some as much as two years into
the life of the project.
This report should help brownfields
stakeholders consider the best way to proceed
in initiating a project, how best to use a
facilitator, and what to expect from a multi-
stakeholder process. The report:
• Explores the process of decision making
and consensus building in brownfields
redevelopment
• Assesses the contextual, procedural and
substantive variables that contribute to
effective brownfields consensus building
• Clarifies barriers to effective decision
making in brownfields redevelopment
projects
• Recommends improvements in consensus
building process design and management
• Documents effective uses of facilitators in
brownfields redevelopment projects
• Identifies and clarifies "best practices" used
by facilitators in these projects
Big Gem Site, Shenandoah, VA
Neutral facilitators and collaborative decision making
experts provided by EPA assisted stakeholders in coming
to consensus on a revitalization vision for the 67-acre
former iron production facility known as the Big Gem site.
EPA's facilitation assistance enabled local stakeholders
to devise the strategy and establish the partnerships
that led to reuse of the Big Gem site as a park and
revitalization of the nearby historic downtown district.
Support provided by the facilitators included:
Process Design: Designed the Advisory Board structure
with a timeline and clear roles and responsibilities
Facilitation: Provided meeting support by developing
agendas and keeping participants focused and on
time. The facilitators'neutrality and objectivity added
legitimacy to the process.
Networking/and Partnership Building: Enabled the
community to identify and engage key regional, state
and federal partners that had not been involved earlier.
Through strategies for targeting and engaging new
partners, the Shenandoah Pilot was able to leverage more
than $1.5 million in additional funding for community
revitalization.
Training: Provided training to community leaders
on managing meetings, effective communication
techniques, consensus building, mediation and public
speaking.
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