Not tiring of defeat leads to victory for natural gas driller
The residents signed off on the plan and publicly expressed their satisfaction with the measures the client took to ease their concerns.
Background
A natural gas driller needed approval to drill a well in close proximity to a nearby residential development – 65 homes less than 800 feet from the proposed well. The nearby residents were almost all opposed to the proposal – they were concerned about the safety of the well and amount of truck traffic that would be travelling local roads. Because of similar sight fights in the area, residents had a negative perception of the natural gas driller. Despite 14 months of negotiations, the driller had been unable to work with residents to find a solution.
Our Approach
Land Use Experts went to work finding a path to victory for the natural gas driller. We gathered political intelligence regarding where the decision makers stood on the proposal and what it would take to get a “yes” vote. Our intelligence gathering revealed something that the client was not able to uncover through their local lobbyist – no amount of public support for the proposal would get the decision makers to “yes” unless an overwhelming majority of the 65 nearby homeowners signed off on the proposal.
In order to get the surrounding homeowners to sign off on the proposal, Land Use Experts staff repeatedly met individually with the residents. The goal was to prevent a few vocal opponents from taking over large group meetings and to build trust with the residents – we wanted the residents to have confidence that their best interests were guiding our decision making. In hundreds of individual meetings we repeatedly heard “no” from the residents. However, through bits and pieces of information picked up from individual residents, we were able to craft a solution that satisfied the whole neighborhood.
Working with the clients engineering team, we took small recommendations and request from the residents and turned them into a comprehensive plan that addressed many of the concerns we had heard. When we took the plan to the residents, they were not happy with everything, but they trusted that we had their best interests in mind. The residents signed off on the plan and publicly expressed their satisfaction with the measures the client took to ease their concerns.
Winning Results
Our confidence building measures worked – Land Use Experts was able to convert almost every opponent into a supporter. Our efforts were so successful that we were able to get former opponents to collect petition signatures from those closest to the well site and the larger neighborhood – gathering over 250 signatures in support of the once opposed well site. For the public hearing, we orchestrated testimony from two dozen of the residents so that the decision makers repeatedly heard that opponents had been converted to supporters.
The decision makers applauded the clients efforts to work with the community and unanimously approved their proposal. The success of this project allowed the client to build capital with the decision makers for future site fights and begin to turn around their public image.