Re: Community Involvement

[MAUREEN BRENNAN <MBRENNEN@baker-hostetler.com>]

I have been following the "community involvement"
debate and would be interested in knowing if
anyone has kept any statistics on Brownfields
redevelopments that track which projects had
"community involvement" and what types.  Several
commentators have stated that the cleanups or
transactions go more smoothly when there is
community involvement.  Has anyone done any work
to track the timelines of projects with and
without community invovlement?

Has anyone done any work to define the term
community?  I have had one project where the
neighbors surrounding the project for several
blocks in every direction were given substantial
information about the nature of the contamination
and the cleanup. Several environmental groups, the
members of which lived 15 to 30 miles away from
the project, complained that the "community" was
not informed because they didn't have the same
data as the people who actually lived around the
project.  The people who lived around the project
never saw these environmental activisits in what
they considered their community.  How have members
of this discussion group defined community?