» Monthly Archives: August 2009
Affordable homes or societal burdens?
August 30, 2009 Victorville Daily Press — OPINIONS DIFFER ON IMPACT OF LOW-INCOME HOUSING
Part two of a three-part series examining affordable housing in the Victor Valley. Low-income housing aims to ensure that everyone, no matter their income level, can find a place to call home. Many residents say it also means crime, blight, lower property ...
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Study: developers need to start organizing online; opponents are!
By Owen Eagan and Jay Vincent,
The Saint Consulting Group
Our company, Saint Consulting, recently conducted a study to assess the extent to which community groups were utilizing Facebook to oppose real estate development projects. The results should provide a wake-up call to developers.
Using a set of strict research criteria, Saint Consulting found a significant number of ...
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Ten Commandments monument at county courthouse stirs uproar
By Dwight Merriam, Partner, Robinson & Cole, LLP
(Dwight Merriam explores a legal uproar over opposition to a county monument to the Ten Commandments at a courthouse in Oklahoma)
So sayeth the Tenth Circuit in Green v. Haskell County Board of Commissioners on June 8, 2009, followed on July 30th by the court en banc voting 6 to ...
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If you think choosing melons is tough, try ripeness in land litigation
By Dwight Merriam, Partner, Robinson & Cole, LLP
Just yesterday one of my younger children from what we call the “second litter” asked me at dinner how I could tell if a coconut was ripe. I paused, realized that I had no answer, and did what every good parent should do and asked instead why they ...
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Saint Replay — Enduring lesson from 1980s – political tactics, not marketing, win land use fights
(One of the first blog posts by Mike Saint recounts an enduring lesson from 25 years ago, when he founded The Saint Consulting Group)
By P. Michael Saint
Chairman and CEO, The Saint Consulting Group
When I worked on my first land use political battle in Massachusetts in 1984, the developer wanted to tout his project’s features and ...
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The power of independents in contested land use cases
By Ben Kelahan, Senior Vice President, Energy, The Saint Consulting Group When describing the various constituencies that we are charged with targeting, educating and mobilizing on various land use development projects, we commonly talk about vocal minorities and silent majorities. But there's a third constituency that is equally or more important to understand and engage ...
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Real Citizens Are Not ‘Astroturf’
By Ben Kelahan,
Senior Vice President for Energy, The Saint Consulting Group
After reading my daily dose of coverage this morning about various special interests "astroturfing" the climate change legislation, I figured why not add from the ink well a bit myself. The astroturf histrionics via press, blogs and tweets around the for and against advocacy ...
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12 Tips to Maximize Support at Public Hearings
Our friend the late Debra Stein, founder and CEO of GCA Strategies, had many good ideas on influencing the land use approval process. Here are her 12 tips on maximizing community support at public meetings. — P. Michael Saint, Chairman and CEO, The Saint Consulting Group Maximize Community Support at Public Hearings By ...
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What is Political Risk Management in Land Use?
By Ben Kelahan and Tom Ahern The Saint Consulting Group If you've ever invested millions or billions in capital to develop a project and watched it all disappear one night at the hands of a few elected officials who voted 'no,' stop reading. You know what political risk is and wish you had included it ...
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Reaching out after you win quarry permit – community involvement, Part 3
(Chris Hopkins started a series for quarry owners who have won a permit on what do you do now - Part 1 and reaching out to the community - Part 2)
By Chris Hopkins,
Senior Vice President, Aggregates and Mining, The Saint Consulting Group
Most companies “contribute” to the community, but are they really involved? Is it enough ...
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