Pushing for a new comprehensive plan and zoning map can set a community up for success in the future. A plan can drive ideas about “housing, economic development, public services, environmental protection, and natural and manmade hazards and how they relate to each other. ” For a plan update to happen, there needs to be the political will to make change.

1. Look at the existing comprehensive plan (if one exists). You can usually find it on your town’s or county’s website.

2. Attend your planning or zoning board. (Or, if there isn't an active planning board, advocate to create one - check out the model ordinance for language you can bring to your decision-makers.)

3. Join your local planning commission or zoning hearing board.

4. Find funding and outside support to help pay for a comprehensive plan.

5. Learn from great examples in other communities.

6. Advocate that a lot of public participation is required in the creation of the new plan.

7. Make sure that the community’s full range of diversity is represented in the planning process.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Pennsylvania: How does Municipal Planning Work? https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2023-07-23/municipal-planning-pennsylvania-community?fbclid=IwAR2o2LdUxU7_Zc6MgUZHHBx2QJCV9sbdFXbU6_rSOsmHcHQghewgqMTMdU0

Equity Goals & Recommendations for Comprehensive Plans: https://www.planningmi.org/assets/docs/Are%20We%20Planning%20for%20Equity%20Carolyn%20Loh%20JAPA%20Article.pdf

Green Zones: https://sustainablecitycode.org/brief/creating-green-zones/

Examples of Municipal Actions of Advance Environmental Justice: https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/municipal-ej-guidance/example-municipal-actions-to-advance-environmental-justice.pdf

Example Comprehensive Plan Policies to Support Physically Active Communities: https://www.ca-ilg.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/gms-transp-example-comp-plan-active-communities.pdf

Participation Tools for Better Community Planning: https://civicwell.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Participation_Tools_for_Better_Community_Planning.pdf

The Planner’s Playbook: A Community-Centered Approach to Improving Health and Equity: https://www.changelabsolutions.org/sites/default/files/2020-12/ThePlannersPlaybook_FINAL_20201207.pdf

Zoning has been used to create segregation and unequal access to opportunities, and higher exposure to environmental hazards for households with low-income and households of color. Here are some zoning strategies that can help Environmental Justice:

• Public Participation: Meaningfully bring diverse groups of neighbors to be part of the process to create or update a comprehensive plan and zoning laws. This makes sure that zoning is developed to reflect the needs of the community. Zoning laws can also strive to be more proactive and inclusive of public input during decision-making of future developments by requiring more notification; additional or different structure for public meetings; and transparent and accessible assessments and reports by potential developers.

• Citizen Involvement: Local boards (zoning hearing board, for example) make a lot of decisions that impact environmental justice, but often those who are part of these boards may not represent the full community. Appoint board members who represent the diversity of the community as a whole - including race, gender, income, homeownership, renters, and age.

• Environmental Impact Reviews and Analysis: Require that developers address demographics and Environmental Justice matters in Environmental Impact Assessments (including: traffic studies, acoustic studies, air quality studies, hydrological studies, geological studies, pre-development and post-development testing). This can give municipalities ability to review and seek to ensure that cities have the power to reject these applications or require changes that mitigate their impacts. It also increases accountability and transparency.

• Community Impact Statements: Mandate a process where members of the impacted community make a statement about what they believe the positive or negative impacts will be if a particular use is approved or allowed to expand. Local officials could be required to take the results of the community group's CIS into consideration.

• Eliminating Non-Conforming Uses: Usually, developments that have been in the community already are 'grandfathered' in, which means they do can continue functioning even if they do not meet a town's new zoning laws. You could:

  • In some states, you can adopt a local amortization law to eliminate the use. Amortization laws give developments that do not follow new zoning laws a certain amount of time, or a change in owners, to either comply with new zoning laws or stop functioning. Unfortunately, this is not legal in PA, and may not be legal in West Virginia and Ohio.

  • Pass new zoning laws. If you change the underlying zoning rules and the existing development tries to change into a different type of development in the future, they will need to re-apply for a non-conditional use approval. For example: imagine a new zoning rule creates a residential neighborhood, and a restaurant has been in that neighborhood for years. The restaurant can continue to exist in that residential neighborhood because it’s already there. If the restaurant gets popular and wants to expand, it can build a patio without any problem because it’s still the same business – serving food. But now let’s imagine the restaurant wants to change to be a bar. This may not be allowed under the new zoning rules because it is now trying to operate as something different – it would need to try and apply to be a non-conforming use. This gives the municipality a chance to say ‘no, you can’t – this doesn’t align with our new zoning rules.’

  • Pass and enforce public nuisance ordinances to meet the updated plan and zoning codes and create accountability for industries to follow updated laws.

  • Ohio law allows zoning regulations to eliminate non-conforming uses if the use has been voluntarily discontinued for at least six months.

• Conditional or Special Use: Ensure new developments that may harm health or wellbeing comply with additional requirements before they are approved.

• Overlay Zones: Create additional requirements over an existing zoning district to ensure additional protections. Overlay zones designate specific areas within the community that require higher protections. For example, environmental, public health, or historic zones.

• Industrial Siting + Buffer zones: create districts that serve as a transition between two or more uses that may not be good next to each other.

  • Watch Out! If your goal is to have a new zoning map to keep all industry together in a specific industrial zone, make sure to also think about how it could still lead to inequities. Why? Historically and today, policies and funding have meant that low-income neighbors and communities of color are more likely to live near industrial zones. Updating zoning to mandate that industry can only be in this part of a neighborhood could make it worse by inviting more or higher polluting industries located near low income or households of color. To decrease that, think about buffer zones to include physical screening, landscaping, significant setbacks, open spaces, affordable housing programs, and even other lower-intensity commercial uses.

• Exactions and mitigation fees: fees that municipalities can assess developers to reimburse the costs associated with their new development that can be spent on Environmental Justice issues.

• Banning - ban specific land use or industries that harm health and/or environment. This is the most direct way to impact change but can be challenged in court and may have significant industry push-back.

  • Watch Out! Exclusionary zoning says you cannot create any zoning ordinance that prohibits an economically viable use everywhere in a municipality. The question to ask is: when a zoning ordinance is created, at that time, does it prevent some particular business from operating anywhere in the municipality? It often arises when municipalities try to exclude something with extreme setbacks. For example, an ordinance that says that methadone clinics or fracking wells cannot be placed anywhere within 3,000 feet of a school, church, playground, or nursing home. While that ordinance is not outright saying it’s not allowed, it's also limited it so strictly that there wouldn’t be a place in the whole municipality that fits the description, which means it has, effectively, prohibited this across the whole municipality which is not allowed.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

What Is Zoning Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fbfikDbRtU

Exclusionary Zoning and It's Effect of Racial Discrimination: https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2021/06/17/exclusionary-zoning-its-effect-on-racial-discrimination-in-the-housing-market/

Understanding Exclusionary Zoning and It's Impact on Concentrated Poverty: https://tcf.org/content/facts/understanding-exclusionary-zoning-impact-concentrated-poverty/?agreed=1

How Zoning Can Reduce Pollution: https://millmanland.com/industry-news/how-zoning-laws-can-reduce-pollution/?fbclid=IwAR3i4Wg8ulYKmGerTDUQyAL0px7-lqycxgV6O25V30h3Nu5amlMyz2raOcU#:~:text=Prohibiting%20Specific%20Land%20Uses,the%20environment%20and%20public%20health

Local Policies for Environmental Justice, A National Scan: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/local-policies-environmental-justice-national-scan-tishman-201902.pdf

Chicago Looks to Overhaul Its Zoning and Land Use Policies to Address Environmental Discrimination: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15082023/chicago-environmental-justice-zoning-policies-pollution-cumulative-impact/

Ohio Zoning 101: https://odh.ohio.gov/wps/wcm/connect/gov/791e1124-7fd6-4782-8392-367a68257391/FAQ_Factsheet_Land+Use+Zoning.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CONVERT_TO=url&CACHEID=ROOTWORKSPACE.Z18_M1HGGIK0N0JO00QO9DDDDM3000-791e1124-7fd6-4782-8392-367a68257391-mJMzfuy

• Learn what the ordinances already on the books say about the issue you care about.

• Advocate for a new or updated ordinance as a community.

• Advocate that a lot of public participation is required in the creation of new ordinances.

• Be part of your local committees or boards who recommend ordinances to city council.

• Be part of your city or county governing body that approves ordinances.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Local Policies for Environmental Justice: A National Scan: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/local-policies-environmental-justice-national-scan-tishman-201902.pdf

Chicago Environmental Justice Plan (Draft): https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/cdph/environment/CumulativeImpact/EJ-Action-Plan-Strategies-Summary_v2_072423.pdf

Collaborative Policy Development: A Roadmap: https://www.changelabsolutions.org/product/developing-equitable-enforcement-provisions?utm_source=ChangeLab+Solutions+Active&utm_campaign=fbaaa3254a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_02_07_04_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-fbaaa3254a-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Example Environmental Resolutions: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/resources/section_sponsored_resolutions/

• Research if there is a local or county land bank in your area already.

• If there is a land bank, you can:

  • Attend meetings;

  • Comment at meetings with your thoughts and ideas;

  • Look for a chance to join their Board.

• If there isn’t a land bank, you can:

  • Build relationships with your local leaders to provide some education to them about land bonks.

• Share funding and resources that support land banks.

• Talk with housing nonprofits or community development agencies to see what interest they have in developing a land bank.

• Be part of your local committees or boards who work on housing and land issues.

• Be part of your city or county governing body that can pass an ordinance about land banks.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

National Land Bank Map

OH:

• Ohio Land Bank Association

PA:

• PA Land Bank Filing Guidelines

• Land Bank Model Ordinance

• PA Department of Community & Economic Development Land Bank Page

WV:

• Registration Form

• West Virginia Land Stewardship Corporation

An economic or community developer is responsible for:

• Planning, designing, and implementing economic development strategies

• Acting as a key liaison between public and private sectors and the community

• Helping local businesses and the government to find funding from government and private funding.

They oversee what businesses come into a town, where that money is invested, and who benefits from them.

There are also often Corporations or Organization who plays this role for the municipality or the county (sometimes called a Community or County Economic Development Corporation).

The International Economic Development Council shares four prisms to help foster equitable economic development:

1. Acknowledge the history, discrimination, and systems that have kept people of color from creating, building, and retaining wealth.

2. Programs and initiatives must explicitly target affected and vulnerable communities, particularly those with high population(s) of color.

3. Equity cannot be produced from a singular source - diverse collaborations are needed.

4. Incorporate equity and inclusion into performance metrics.

• Learn what the ordinances and incentives already on the books say about the issue you care about.

• Build relationships with your local economic developers to learn what they are doing.

• Share funding and resources that support economic development.

• Be part of your local committees or boards who recommend and work to bring new jobs to your community.

• Be part of your city or county governing body that incentivizes how new jobs come to your community.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Just Transition - A Framework for Change: https://climatejusticealliance.org/just-transition/

A Playbook for Equitable Economic Development: Guidance on identifying structural racism and implementing equitable practices: https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/A-Playbook-for-Equitable-Economic-Development.pdf

Thrive Rural Framework to build rural property: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/community-strategies-group/thrive-rural/

Just Transition Fund: https://justtransitionfund.org

FEDERAL ENERGY FUNDING FOR RURAL AND REMOTE AREAS: A Guide for Communities: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-10/OCED_Rural-Remote%20Fed%20Overview.pdf

WV Hub: https://wvhub.org

Coalfield Development: https://coalfield-development.org

Blue Green Alliance: https://www.bluegreenalliance.org

ReImagine Jobs: https://reimaginejobs.org

ReImagine Beaver County: https://www.facebook.com/reimaginebeavercounty/

ReImagine Appalachia: https://reimagineappalachia.org

It’s important to do these with some frequency (example: quarterly, every 6 months). This will allow you to stay up-to-date and catch new decisions coming down the pipeline, and ideally catch them early enough to impact.

The earlier you find out about a new development that doesn’t align with your vision, the more time and options you have to drive your vision.

• Make specific asks with specific timeframes.

• Avoid broadness or fishing for information – this just delays the process.

• Do not use the Right To Know to ask questions.

• Make sure to add the full company name (ex: Company, LLC or Company Inc.]

• Make sure to include email if you want all communications (some administrators don’t think that email is included in communications so will only send back letters.)

Example: “All communications, including applications, reports, emails, or other submissions, between [Company Name] and [the Dept, etc.] regarding [Address of Company], since May 16, 2023..

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Executing + Doing

Tips:

Some agencies have their own Right to Know Request Forms. When possible, use the agency’s specific form. If there isn’t a form, you can find great examples and tips here:

• PA: https://www.openrecords.pa.gov/RTKL/HowToFile.cfm

• Ohio: https://www.acluohio.org/en/news/so-you-want-submit-public-records-request

• West Virginia: https://www.nfoic.org/west-virginia-foia-laws/

Example Right to Knows and More Tips: https://www.nfoic.org/state-sample-foia-request-letters/

Here are some of the approvals needed for many industrial facilities. The specific workings of the facility and the rules of the local municipality and the state dictate the specific stamps of approval needed.

Local municipality:

• Decides how land can be used and where different kinds of development can be located.

• Decision-Makers: Design Review Committee; Board of Zoning Appeals & Planning Commission, City Council

County:

• Creates county plan; sometimes approve some stream crossing, roads, and waste.

• Decision-Makers: Board of County Commissioners (if there is zoning) & Development Districts

State

• Implements federal expectations for the issue and oversees day-to-day monitoring.

• Power over many environmental permits.

• Decision-Makers: State Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Natural Resources, Public Utilities Commission, State Economic Development Department, or State Department of Health

Federal

• Creates the big-picture vision for the issue.

• Creates the expectation for different issues.

• Give $ to states to implement the vision.

• Permitting over cross-state impacts or especially big environmental emissions.

• Decision-Makers: US Environmental Protection Agency, US Dept. of Transportation, US Dept. of Energy

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Citizen's Guide to the Permitting and Approval Process for Land Development in Pennsylvania: https://www.delcocd.org/DevGuide.pdf

A Citizen’s Guide to Fracking Permits in West Virginia: https://wvrivers.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/WV-Rivers-Citizens-Guide-to-Fracking.pdf

Strength in numbers: Requests for a meeting or changes to a meeting format from many people.

Providing specific details about out how complicated the proposal is and how the community needs help understanding it.

Environmental Justice issues

There are no requirements about how the public meeting is conducted, and your goal can be to avoid the “dog & pony show” where developer is just trotting people out to make it look good. Some “asks” that you can make to make the meeting meaningful:

• That the meeting happen weeks and even months before the vote is going to happen. Try to avoid the public meeting happening immediately before the vote is going to happen.

• Public members to be allowed to ask questions and make comments.

• Questions to be answered immediately, instead of “thank you, we will get back to you.”

• The right people to be there. This includes people who may have the answers to questions, and those who actually make the decisions. You can ask for specific people to be there.

• That all participants are allowed to make a 3-minute statement and ask questions.

• That the meeting is accessible, this could mean: asking for a bigger room; write-in options before or after the meeting for those who aren’t able to join at that particular time; online participation; closed-captioning; languge translations.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

EPA Public Participation Guide: https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/public-participation-guide-public-meetings

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Influencing + Motivating

How to Write Successful Public Comments Webinar: https://youtu.be/dBbDAZH3OHk

Ohio Environmental Council Public Advocacy Toolkit: https://theoec.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/AdvocacyToolkitOnly_Updated082022.pdf

Step by Step Tips for Writing Effective Public Comments: http://eli-ocean.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/Written-Commenting.pdf

Public Written Comment Templates: https://publiccommentproject.org/comment-templates

Step-by-Step tips for Providing Effective Verbal Comments: https://www.eli.org/sites/default/files/files-pdf/Verbal-Commenting_1.pdf

A Citizen’s Guide to Fracking Permits in West Virginia: https://wvrivers.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/WV-Rivers-Citizens-Guide-to-Fracking.pdf

Community benefits can be an important lever. But, they can sometimes lack 'teeth', which makes it hard to hold someone accountable if they don't follow-through. Make sure your community benefits are a Green Flag and meet the four principles for strong benefits. (Adapted from Common Challenges in Negotiating CBAs.)

Red Flags:

• No real community participation

• Weak coalition

• Negotiations are secret and exclusive.

• Commitments are vague Common Challenges in Negotiating CBAswith no clear timeframes or measurements.

• No effective formal means of accountability.

• Developers persuading city leaders that they will drive away economic development.

• Projects already fully designed and then community is brought in to ‘sign-off’.

Green Flags:

• Community interests are well-represented.

• Process is transparent, inclusive, and accessible.

• Concrete, meaningful benefits deliver what the community needs.

• Clearly defined enforcement mechanisms ensure accountability.

Community Coalition - in charge of:

• Building a diverse coalition

• Creating a shared vision and prioritizing goals

• Representing the community’s interest

• Negotiating and signing CBA

• Ongoing implementation

• Ongoing monitoring and enforcement

Developer - in charge of:

• Negotiating and signing CBA

• using CBA to get municipal approval or funding

• Getting community support

• Helping developer have a clarity of outcomes

Municipality - not required, but can support the process:

• Providing transparency around the project

• Helping to open communication between the community and developer

• Encouraging and/or requiring community support for project approval

• Can take some responsibility for monitoring

• Can make benefits part of municipal processes through a Development Agreement or Community Benefit Agreement

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Community Benefit Resource Bank: https://reimagineappalachia.org/cba-summit/

Community Benefit Agreements and Organizing for Equitable Development Webinar: https://www.policylink.org/equity-in-action/webinars/community-benefits-agreements

Maximizing Value: Ensuring Community Benefits: https://reimagineappalachia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Community-Benefits_Whitepaper.pdf

Department of Energy Community Benefit Agreement Toolkit: https://www.energy.gov/diversity/community-benefit-agreement-cba-toolkit

The People’s Justice40+ Community Benefit Plan: Step-by-Step Guide: https://emeraldcities.org/j40playbook/

CBA Toolkit: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e907d1c6f62ac522c31bff5/t/5f79deb2f54a4032051b0941/1601822409403/CBA+Toolkit+for+Website.pdf

Community Benefits Agreements Offer Meaningful Opportunities to Include Voters’ Voices in Development: https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2022/7/5/community-benefits-agreements-offer-meaningful-opportunities-to-include-voters-voices-in-development

The role of local government in protecting workers’ rights: The role of local government in protecting workers’ rights

World Resources Institute: Through Benefits-Sharing Agreements, Clean Energy Projects Can Earn Community Trust

In your complaint or alert, be as specific as you can. Include as much of the following as you can:

• Observations – what you saw, felt, heard, and smelled.

• What the weather was

• Time of day

• How people were feeling

• If you have any data from monitoring or public monitoring websites

• Any photos or videos

• Tell them if you live in an environmental justice community and why this problem is an environmental justice issue – this may get more or quicker attention.

In addition to your state Department of Environmental Protection, you should also think about making complaints to:

• Local or county health department

• State department of health

• City councilperson, mayor or other local elected officials

• County commissioners or other county officials

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Ohio:

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Complaint Form: https://epa.ohio.gov/help-center/contact-us/submit-a-complaint

Pennsylvania:

Center for Coalfield Justice: How to report an environmental emergency/file and environmental report with the DEP: https://centerforcoalfieldjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/20221027-How-To-File-Complaint-with-DEP-a-step-by-step-guide-2.pdf?ms=email&emci=42834abd-00a7-ed11-994d-00224832eb73&emdi=d2f7c6e0-08a7-ed11-994d-00224832eb73&ceid=6011570

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Complaint Form: https://www.dep.pa.gov/About/ReportanIncident/Pages/EnvironmentalComplaints.aspx

West Virginia:

West Virginia Department of Environmental protection Complaint Form - Dam safety, underground storage tanks, hazardous waste, or water/waste: https://dep.wv.gov/WWE/ee/geninfo/Pages/complaints.aspx

WVDEP complaint form - Dust, fallout, odor problems and open burning: https://dep.wv.gov/daq/general/pages/default.aspx

Here are some flags that may alert you if deliberations are not happening in public. If you think that agencies are not complying with the Sunshine Act, this could be sign that it may be time to to talk with an attorney.

• Very quick meetings

• Decisions for big projects seemingly coming out of nowhere

• Lots of executive sessions taken during public meetings

• Lack of responses to right to know requests

• Lack of discussion at public meetings before decisions are made/voted on (indicates improper discussions were occurring not in public meetings)

• Vague meeting agendas released with little time for public review.

• Lunches or dinners that public officials attend together before meetings. Public business often gets hashed out during those unofficial gatherings, but that is very hard to prove.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Executing + Doing

Ohio:

• What You Should Know About Ohio’s “Sunshine Laws”: https://www.ohiobar.org/public-resources/commonly-asked-law-questions-results/courts-and-lawyers/what-you-should-know-about-ohios-sunshine-laws/

• Ohio Sunshine Laws Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/faq/sunshine-laws-faqs

Pennsylvania:

• Guide to the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act: https://panewsmedia.org/legal-and-legislative/guide-to-the-pennsylvania-sunshine-act/

• A Citizen’s Guide to The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act: https://blogs.law.widener.edu/envirolawcenter/files/2010/03/PA_Citizens_Guide_re_Sunshine_Act.pdf

West Virginia:

• The Open Governmental Meetings Act: https://ethics.wv.gov/openmeetings/Pages/default.aspx#questions

• Open Meetings Act: https://wvpress.org/legal/open-meetings-act/

GNA’s are helpful when the community wants to force the company to address their public health, environmental, or nuisance issues and the community has some leverage, such as:

• Company needs a permit or public approval.

• Company is vulnerable to a lawsuit;

• Company wants good public relations (usually to expand)

• Company changes ownership

• The company has been ignoring community complaints.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Evaluating the Use of Good Neighbor Agreements Report: https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1018&context=books_reports_studies

Northern Plains Resource Council Good Neighbor Agreement Example & Resources: https://northernplains.org/good-neighbor-agreement/

Case Costs and Fees

• What is your fee structure? Do you work on a contingency fee basis (i.e., you only get paid if I win)?

• What percentage of the recovery do you typically charge for personal injury cases?

• Are there any additional costs or expenses that I should expect (e.g., expert witness fees, court costs)?

Communication and Accessibility

• How will you keep me updated on the progress of my case?

• What is your typical response time when I have questions or need updates?

• Will you be the one personally handling the case, or will other attorneys or paralegals be involved?

Strategy and Success

• How will you investigate the source of contamination and the extent of damage?

• What kind of timeline do you anticipate for this case?

• Do you foresee any challenges or potential obstacles in this case?

• Have you handled cases involving environmental contaminants before? 

• Can you provide examples of similar cases you've successfully represented?

Community:

• Experts on history and culture of community

• Supports those most impacted in the community

• Identifies grievances

• Develops demands

• Develops strategy to achieve demands

Layers:

• Expert on the law and procedure

• Supports grassroots organizing

• Provides community education

• Organizational development

• Leadership development

Fair Shake provides pro-bono and sliding-fee-scale legal representation, counseling and support. Here is what to expect:

• Communities can call us at 412-664-5546 or fill out this form: https://www.fairshake-els.org/contact-us.

• One of our attorneys will set up an intake call – during this call the attorney listens more about the situation, see if there is a legal angle to the problem, explain our pro-bono and sliding-fee-scale pricing structure, and give them a price estimate based on:

  • For individuals: annual income and family size

  • For nonprofit and grassroots: average of last three (or less) years of funding

  • For municipalities: sliding scale based off average annual budget of previous three years, plus additional discount if it is an Environmental Justice community as identified by Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.

• The attorney brings the potential case back to our full team, where the team discusses if we have the expertise and capacity to help, if there are legal levers in the situation, and that it fits to our strategic environmental justice mission. If we are able to move forward, we will sign a retainer agreement with the client and begin legal representation & counseling.

  • If we aren’t able to help, we try to provide a good referral, or encourage them to call back in a few months when our capacity is different.

This activity may be easier for someone or a team who has these strengths:

• Relationship Building + Feeling

• Influencing + Motivating

• Strategy + Thinking

• Executing + Doing

Fair Shake: www.fairshake-els.org

West Virginia University Land Use Clinic: https://landuse.law.wvu.edu/

Case Western Reserve Law Clinic: https://case.edu/law/clinic

Appalachian Citizen Law Center: https://aclc.org/