Private agreements in residential development disputes

Abstract

AbstractTraditionally, private citizens have had few opportunities to alter proposals for residential developments. Adversarial procedures (litigation, arbitration, or public protest) are options but are expensive, lengthy, and complex. Since the early 1970s, environmental disputes concerning local development projects have increasingly been settled by more cooperative procedures that allow environmental advocates and developers to reach voluntary compromises. This article presents the history of two residential development disputes, the processes used to address the issues of concern, and the agreements concluded between the developers and local environmental advocates. These agreements did not effectively resolve the environmental disputes. As a way to strengthen the mediation process, ten criteria are proposed to evaluate agreements like these.