We do have successes.

As an advocate for empowered neighborhoods, slow growth, public participation, and environmental protection, I have to remind myself of that constantly. I wish I could say that the rewards of civic involvement come often. Unfortunately, they do not.

We can all see how fast our beautiful mountains are being carved and scarred, and public policy simply hasn’t kept up with the changes.

So, I’ll be honest, as a member of the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods (CAN) and founding member of Mountain Voices Alliance (MVA), I often find myself questioning whether our time spent advocating slower, more thoughtful development is worth all the hard, unpaid labor, stress and occasional pangs of hopelessness.

When these thoughts arise, I have to consciously focus on the successes we have witnessed and the dear (and all too rare) people volunteering their time to give neighborhoods a voice in the face of a relentless development machine. (Yoga, chocolate and doses of dog kisses also help!)

These things act as smelling salts to revive my spirits and allow me to jump back into the fray of activism. In this article, I want to tell you about the local policy-making situation and end with the beacon of hope that keeps a lot of us going.

The Obstacles: Public Apathy, Lack of Resources, Vested Interests
Sadly, not enough people are paying attention to how public policy happens. The pro-development lobby heavily influences the policy that governs our lives—locally, statewide and nationally.

Several local pro-development groups have paid staffers to attend endless public meetings and lobby for their economic interests. Their members sit on city and county boards and appear on the rosters of every government committee formed to examine local ordinances.

Some developer reps can make fair decisions in the long-term environmental interest of the public good. In fact, we get a lot of support and encouragement from conscientious real estate and construction professionals.

The problem, though, is the gaping imbalance of power in general.
Environmentalists are out-numbered, out-networked, and out-moneyed by the pro-development lobby plain and simple. Also note that during elections, pro-development members make substantial campaign contributions.

The public depends on elected officials and their staff to protect the environment, but I’ve seen some incredible pressure hammered down on them by rooms packed with self-entitled, hostile developers. The presence of bodies supporting, say, greater stormwater buffers, simply doesn’t compare. Because without an immediate vested interest, few will attend to speak in favor of tougher regulations despite supporting them strongly.

Those who do get involved in public policy for neighborhoods and the environment usually do so because they’ve been burned by a bad development themselves.

The development lobby can afford lawyers. Our team can’t. We can, however, turn to the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government for advice, but even getting that advice followed by government officials may require a lawyer. So that puts us back at square one.

Volunteers with CAN and MVA follow local governing bodies, but we don’t have enough people to monitor every meeting. (Are you eating chocolate yet? ‘Cause there’s more.)

An overwhelmed and understaffed bureaucracy slowly grinds down and wears out many people faced with a negative development situation. For example, we see lots of property owners who’ve been flooded by poor development practices upstream. It’s often a serious chore for those new to this stuff to learn the development regulations, much less see them enforced.

Often citizens are told to get a lawyer for any hope of compensation. This is an expensive and harrowing endeavor with no guarantee of success. At times, people miss their deadline to sue because it takes them so long to figure out which way is up.

People who don’t follow local government often learn about a big development project by the sound of a chainsaw. By then it’s probably too late to have an influence on the outcome. That’s why it is critical to form a neighborhood group and have a volunteer scanning newspapers and board agendas for projects that could harm the neighborhood.

Okay, Now for the Good News
Some will say, “Well, this thing bearing down on my neighborhood is a done deal. Why waste my energy?” The powers that be count on that attitude, and they thank you for it. Do not swallow this. Many activists in our group have heard “It’s a done deal” over and over and over again only to prove the naysayers wrong.

Earlier this year, in fact, a small group of dedicated activists sent Progress Energy’s area oil-burning power plant packing. Even seasoned environmentalists told us that was impossible. Citizens stopped the Battery Park parking garage and a huge downtown mall in Asheville, and forced public comment into the county planning board meetings.

To say that a small group of neighbors—or even one person—cannot make a difference for the better would be untrue. You just need to know the obstacles and extent of the work ahead—and have lots of good chocolate on hand!

Resources:
While they can’t provide you with chocolates, the Community and Environmental Defense Services offers a great, free and downloadable resource called “How to Win Land Development Issues” that can help you better understand the obstacles and work you might face if you decide to speak up about a development issue. To download your copy, visit at www.ceds.org.

Meet Your Columnist
Heather Rayburn is the co-chair of Mountain Voices Alliance (MVA, www.mvalliance.net), an Asheville-based civic and environmental group committed to preserving the natural beauty, abundant resources, unique character, and quality of life of our communities. MVA came together to support environmental stewardship and to help others negatively impacted by development projects. Look for Heather and her guests in Green Roots each month!

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