Meet with a Property Owner Early

A community organization should meet with owners of key development sites early in the planning process. The meeting should take place before a CBO finalizes plans for the reuse of an owner's site. At this meeting the CBO should seek the owner's view on how property should be redeveloped before it settles on a final plan for the property. Owners of key parcels should not feel a CBO's goal will impair its own plans to redevelop its property. Otherwise the CBO will have difficulty gaining the cooperation of the property owner in implementing its vision for the reuse of the vacant land.

A community organization should focus its first meeting with owners of strategic properties on means to increase value for the owner's land. The CBO should bring marketing materials such as information on recent sales or rentals in the neighborhood, a market analysis and economic trends in the area.

If the community organization has access to federal, state or city grant funds that can be used to develop marketing materials, it can offer to develop a highest and best use analysis for the owner's property at no charge to the owner. Consider use of NYC OER's Place-Based Community Brownfield Planning Grants for this purpose. This technique can gain the owner's trust while also highlighting the advantages of the community planning effort.

Some examples of economic data likely to gain the attention of property owners include:

• Economic development trends in the area or surrounding areas
• Market demand data
• Rental and sales comparables
• Potential return on investment and cash flow projections
• Type of uses and buildable square footage or unit numbers allowable by zoning
• Local rental rates for proposed uses
• Construction costs
• Environmental remediation costs
• Proposed funding mechanisms
• New land value after project completion

A community organization should develop a relationship with the property owner before raising any environmental issues about the property. Before conducting such a meeting, a CBO can meet with OER to discuss environmental issues at a property and various incentives, including city brownfield grants, an exemption from state hazardous waste fees, use of the Clean Soil Bank, state liability protection and OER working directly with the state Department of Environmental Conservation on closing petroleum spills, to address potential contamination at a property.

When environmental issues are broached with a landowner, the community representative should use neutral language, referring to the property as underutilized rather than describing it as a brownfield. Environmental concerns should be discussed in a non-threatening way. A community organization should consider bringing an expert such as an environmental or real estate professional to the meeting with the property owner who can discuss cleanup grants and liability protection for owners and developers if the property is cleaned up in a government oversight program, such as OER's Voluntary Cleanup program.

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