Public Relations: Developer vs. community - time to listen - by Harry Zlokower

Let’s face it. Residential developers and owners have never been the average New Yorker’s favorite people. There has always been a love-hate relationship, and no time has this  been more apparent than during this  rising market and housing shortage  balanced against residents’ desire for neighborhood preservation and decent quality of life. As new towers rise and aging structures undergo upgrades, developers and owners are confronted by communities over issues of noise, danger, congestion, violations, and plans community members believe threaten their neighborhoods. The uproars are real and can delay work, cause overruns, legal and public relations expenses and harm to reputations. There is no clear-cut answer when interests so distinctly contrast. But there are things developers and owners can do with regards to communications and public relations. First, make communications and PR part of your planning. Study the pros and cons of your project’s impact before beginning. Secondly, do not be deceptive or secretive. Show a poker face to competitors, but be upfront with the community. As much as you may not think so, you have the money, the talent, the political skills and contacts that can be brought into play at any time. Trying to put something over on the people whose lives, in their mind, will be forever changed, can bounce back detrimentally, not to mention ethical and legal implications. Finally, listen, communicate and negotiate. Meeting with community members and their legislators, presentations, media coverage, and as some developers and owners endeavor to do, creating a neutral, unbiased website to make designs and intentions perfectly clear, can go a long way toward reaching an equitable agreement. No one will be totally satisfied initially but the end result may be enough to move the project toward realization with the least possible fallout. Harry Zlokower is president of Zlokower Company and past president of the New York Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, New York, N.Y