Sometimes small efforts to become more active in your community and participate in decision-making goes a long way to achieve environmental protections locally. Many issues that affect the environment are local - such as clearing a forest for new houses or fencing off a meadow to dig a new quarry. Often, we learn about new local land use projects in after a decision has been made on them. Usually, it’s too late to challenge such decisions when a backhoe is being loaded off a truck to start work. Whether you live in a large city or a rural community, your local government has a means of making land use decisions which are largely public (or supposed to be public) and allow community input prior to issuing a decision. If you desire to have a voice in decisions that affect local land use or developments in your community that could impact the environment, it is best to become aware of your local government’s decision-making processes and who your township leadership and officials are. Each city, township or municipality should have systems and schedules for regular meetings and ways to offer the public a chance to speak up about issues. Many townships post the schedule of meetings and topics to be discussed on their websites. Sometimes additional information is posted for the public to review in preparation for a meeting or decision, such as engineering drawings and plans for upcoming proposed land uses. If your local government does not have a maintained website, information should be available at your municipality’s office.
A key part to effectively make your voice heard is early and vocal participation in municipality-level public meetings in which decisions are made. In many cases, if a decision is made during a public meeting which you did not attend, you may be barred from later bringing an appeal of the decision in court, regardless of how erroneous the decision made is. This is a difficult reality for community members to come to terms with, but the courts have been reasonably specific about this requirement. Attending a public meeting when it is held on a certain topic grants a person “procedural standing” and a right to later appeal a decision that results from that meeting. Therefore, if you have strong feelings about land use or zoning in your township, it is very important to be involved in and participate in public meetings as early and consistently as possible. In some instances, decisions on certain land development issues can be decided in only one public meeting which doesn’t allow a citizen much leeway in participation.
If you are somehow not able to attend public meetings or hearings but wish to express concern or voice comments on an issue, call your township officials and ask for a way to prepare written comments on that subject before the meeting is to take place. Ask for your comments to be added to the record of the public meeting. If you cannot attend in person, request a means to attend the public meeting remotely, such as by telephone or computer.
Additionally, residents should be aware that public meetings and hearings on land use and development decisions should be noticed to the public in certain ways. If such notices of public meetings are not made, a citizen may have a cause of action for failure to follow procedures for public meetings. Usually, notices of meetings are required to be published in a local newspaper at least a week before the meeting is to take place. Posting a notice to the affected piece of land is also required before a meeting on that land is conducted. Despite these notice requirements, residents often do not see signs or read newspapers to know of the public meetings, so staying in touch with other community members and neighbors about land uses is also important.
Should you have more questions about any information here, Fair Shake attorneys can advise you on the rules of land use - from conditional uses, to zoning, to variances and appeals of such land use decisions. Fair Shake can also offer legal assistance in challenging decisions made in your community and advising you of what your legal options are if you feel you have not been given a fair chance to make your voice heard. Contact us with questions or problems on which you’d like the advice of a lawyer.
