Environmental Mediation & Conflict Resolution

Strategic Planning for the Town of Dauphin Island (AL) to Attain Sustainable Economic Development & Environmental Protection (January - December 2007). Five E's Unlimited is assisting the Town of Dauphin Island in developing a long-term strategy and implementation plan for community development that creates a more hazard resistant community able to balance economic development with environmental sustainability. The consultant services include (1) reviewing existing documents and statutes applicable to future development, (2) providing stakeholder sustainability awareness and inventorying all stakeholder place-based interests, values, practices, and future vision, (3) conducting community asset identification via public consultation processes, (4) developing visual frameworks of historical and current conditions that will influence changes in environment, community development, and cultural views, (5) planning and designing management strategies through public participation, including the visualization of possible futures and related timelines for progress, and (6) promoting implementation of a management strategy and measurement processes. During the final phases of the project we plan to work collaboratively with the Planning Commission and others in identifying how this strategic planning process can be integrated into the Island’s Comprehensive Plan. In addition, we will collaborate with official entities responsible for Island governance to identify areas of future cooperation that can result in improved opportunities for gaining needed financial resources. Consultanting partners in this contract included Gene Martin of the University of Washington, Seattle WA and Mary Mullins of the Bellwether Group, Mobile, AL. Contact: Nannette Davidson, Planning Commission, Town of Dauphin Island, AL 36528. tel: (251)861-5525, ext. 25. e-mail: ndavidson@townofdauphinisland.org.

Community Sustainable Development Assistance, Lake Tahoe (CA)-Northern Nevada (September, 2006). Served as a member of a Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) for the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Communities by Design program. Conducted a week-long charrette designed to help the communities of Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Reno, and Carson City assess their strengths and weaknesses with regards to water resources, land-use, transportation, energy, and economic development. Conducted a series of workshops to develop the background on issues, seek stakeholder input on core values and important concerns for the future, and provide recommendations for the communities to proceed in a sustainable fashion. Strongly recommended to the different communities that they begin to plan on a regional basis since they are very closely linked by a common watershed, transportation corridors, commerce, and labor force. Affordable housing was also a significant issue to all communities involved in the assessment. My leadership in water quality issues provided a strategic process for the involved communities into the exploration and design of Low Impact Development (LID) policies for future development guidance in the region. Contact: Peter J. Arsenault, Stantec Architecture, Inc, 2060 Brighton-Henrietta Townline Road, 2nd Floor, Rochester, NY 14623. tel: (585)413-5305. email: parsenault@stantec.com or Richard Licata, Professor of Architecture, Truckee Meadows Community College, 5250 Neil Road, Suite 301-G, Reno, Nevada 89502. tel: (775)750-8852. e-mail: rlicata@tmcc.edu.

Community Sustainable Development Assistance, Guemes Island, WA (June, 2006). Served as a member of a Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) for the American Institute of Architects, Communities By Design program. Conducted a week-long charrette process designed to help the Guemes Island community assess their choices and issues and define a path toward formulating strategies and solutions in their commitment to planning for a sustainable future. Team research and public consultation focused upon five community objectives that included: preserve the island’s rural character; conserve water and protect the quality of the island’s sole source aquifer; resolve transportation disagreements; protect wildlife and shoreline habitat; and increase island energy independence. Community participants commented that the sessions were far more valuable in examining the bases of their prejudices, wishes, and positions than they had expected. “One of the things that really impressed me was how many different voices and people, who often disagree, were brought together in this process,” said one participant. “Having all their input has made us all aware that we do have a community with a common vision. It’s made us all energized and hopeful about our future.” Team work assisted the community who was anxious to take charge of its future, especially with regards to controlling growth that’s compromising the Island’s rural legacy. The week’s work created the blueprint that the Island will recommend as its sub-area plan to document much of the philosophy, direction and tools that will eventually be adopted as the Island’s land-use plan by Skagit County. My leadership on community water issues assisted participants with identifying alternatives for regulating water use and providing alternative water supply by imagining seven potential futures for the Island’s development. Identifying water supply and quality problems associated with each of those potential scenarios provided the community an opportunity to develop solutions to each of those problems, resulting in an action plan. Contact: Ms. Erica Gees, Kuhn Riddle Architects, 7 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01002. tel: (413)259-1621. e-mail: egees@kuhnriddle.com.

Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), Washington, DC (January 2003). Served as a technical facilitator to CAST. Provided design and facilitation to three breakout sessions of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology’s Workshop on "Biotechnology-Derived Perennial Turf and Forage Grasses: Criteria for Evaluation" held in January 2003. Led the dialogue of more than 100 workshop participants discussing the state-of-the-art and possible criteria to be used for evaluating environmental safety and potential benefits and risks of these greases relative to traditional varieties. Contact: Ms. Cindy Lynn Richard, Program Coordinator, Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), 505 Capitol Court, NE, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20002 - tel: (202)675-8333; ext. 12. e-mail: crichard@cast-science.org.

Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW), British Columbia, Canada (February - September 2002). Provided the Whistler community and government (British Columbia, Canada) with expert opinions and data on sustainability as they would apply to a resort community to inspire long range planning and enhance sound economic development in tourism and recreation. The RMOW required that the consultant team, of which I was the lead consultant for the Sustainable Destination Resort Background Report development, work to examine and define sustainability criteria in the context of the Whistler community. A copy of this report can be found at Whistler It's Our Future. My responsibilities in this effort included working to develop community consensus on sustainable destination resort community characteristics and criteria for evaluating futuring scenarios for the community and government to use in evaluating and choosing their preferable alternative future. Designed methodology for developing a comprehensive plan that was not simply collaborative with the community, but that was initiated, driven and concluded by the community. Assisted the public in understanding issues surrounding sustainability and how methodology should be applied to the key economic development issues facing the community. Responsible for guaranteeing the public's considered opinion was recorded and reconciled through further consultation and that the Comprehensive Sustainability Plan was set for implementation. Contacts: Mr. Mike Purcell, General Manager of Planning & Development, RMOW, 4325 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, VC V0N 1B4 - tel: (604)935-8160. e-mail: purcell_m@rmow.whistler.bc.ca or Ms. Becky Zimmerman, Principal, Design Workshop, Inc. 1390 Lawrence Street, Suite 200, Denver, CO 80204 - tel: (303)623-5186; e-mail: bzimm@designworkshop.com.

Heartland Center for Leadership Development, Lincoln, NE (September 1998 - January 2000). Facilitated community training programs for community capacity building, telecommunications and information technology, land-use planning and sustainable development, and conflict resolution for the Kellogg Foundation funded Managing Information in Rural America (MIRA) Program. Contact: Ms. Vicki Luther, MIRA Program Director, Heartland Center, Lincoln NE 68508 - tel: (402)474-7667. e-mail: lbv229@aol.com.

Creede/Mineral County Chamber of Commerce, Creede, CO (January 2000). Provided community conflict training in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, during 2000. I worked with seven communities in southern Colorado, as part of the Kellogg Foundation's Managing Information in Rural America (MIRA) Program, to explore areas of conflict resolution toward developing sustainable economic development that guaranteed natural resource and diverse community cultural protection. Contact: Ms. Liz Ebel-Louth, Executive Director, Creede/Mineral County Chamber of Commerce, Creede, CO 81130 - tel: (719)658-2374. e-mail: creede@amigo.net.

The Town of Exmore, Exmore, VA (January - August, 1997). Provided contracted services as a planning consultant to the Virginia Eastern Shore Town of Exmore (USA) in their preparation of a Five Year Comprehensive Plan. Facilitated community organizing and public participation in revision of the Town's existing plan and wrote the final document. Provided information technology training and conflict resolution in support of the Town's public hearing process toward the implementation of plan proposals. Contact: Mr. David Scanlan, Town of Exmore, Town Council, P.O. Box 647, Exmore, VA 23350 - tel: (757)442-3114.

State of Louisiana, Department of Environment, Baton Rouge, LA (January 1993 - June 1994). Served as lead consultant on an 18 month public consultation project, providing design, facilitation, and mediation services to the EPA and the State of Louisiana for an EPA National Estuarine Program on the Barataria-Terrebonne estuarine ecosystem (coastal Louisiana). Facilitated the collective input of over 100 stakeholders and governmental officials and resolved numerous conflicts of cultural, economic, and environmental issues that resulted in the development of a “Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan” for this estuary. Assisted in stimulating and directing the collective work of a number of different teams (equally composed of citizens, scientists, and governmental representatives) that were formed to focus on the various sectors (economic, social, environmental) important in developing a comprehensive strategy for resource conservation and economic development implementation. Contact: Mr. Steve Mathies, Director, BTNEP Program Office, Nicholls State Univ., P.O. Box 2663, Thibodaux, LA 70310 - tel: (504)447-0868.

Great Lakes Program, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY (May 1989 - October 1990). Designed and facilitated an 18 month scientific inquiry by 85 international scientists, governmental officials, industry representatives, tribal council elders, and community group members on the topic of human health risk from exposure to toxic chemicals in the Canada US Great Lakes Basin. Designed the public/scientific consultation process and facilitated key forums that focused upon remediating conflict and developing consensus. From this work I edited a monograph on the results of seeking consensus among the various stakeholder groups (Human Health Risks From Chemical Exposure: The Great Lakes Ecosystem, published in 1991). Contact: Dr. Jack Vallentyne, 36 Longwood Rd. North, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 3V4 - tel. (905)527-4068; e-mail: Vallentynej@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.