If you’re seeking ways of stopping bad apartment-condominium projects then contact CEDS at 410-654-3021 or Help@ceds.org for a no-cost discussion of strategy options.

While apartments and condominiums provide an essential housing option, poorly planned projects can cause harm to neighborhoods and the environment. Impacts may include:

• Excessive traffic on neighborhood streets,
• School overcrowding,
• Damage to streams, wetlands and other waters, and
• Loss of pleasing views from your home.

Identifying & Resolved Apartment-Condominium Impacts

The first step in stopping bad apartment-condominium projects is to determine if a the project is likely to cause adverse impacts. The CEDS Development Project Impact Assessment Checklist eases the task of assessing potential apartment-condominium effects.

The next step is to explore options for designing each impact out of a apartment or condominium project. We call these options Equitable Solutions since they resolve our clients’ concerns while allowing property owners to achieve their goals. It is far easier to win adoption of Equitable Solutions when compared to killing a project.

Examples of CEDS successes in stopping bad apartment-condominium projects through the CEDS Equitable Solutions approach include:

• Ensuring main project access is off of a major road then preventing apartment-condominium cut-thru traffic onto a neighborhood street with emergency-services-only access gates or other measures,
• Postponing apartment-condominium construction until school capacity is expanded,
• Requiring an attractive landscaped buffer that completely shields apartments and condominiums from the view of those residing in nearby homes, and
• Winning the use of highly-effective environmental protection measures.

Stopping Bad Apartment-Condominium Projects

If a project is so poorly conceived that impacts cannot be resolved, then the only option may be to stopping the bad apartment-condominium proposal. This goal will be far easier to achieve if you can show decision-makers that you made a genuine effort to resolve impacts. This is but one of many components of the CEDS Smart Legal Strategies approach which can triple the likelihood of defeating a fatally, flawed apartment or condominium project for a small portion of the cost of other approaches.

CEDS Initial Strategy Analysis Best Place To Start

CEDS offers many free resources that can guide you through strategies for stopping bad apartment-condominium projects. These resources include the webpages listed to the right and our many free publications.

A number of folks find they lack the time to read through then implement the guidance on their own. Instead, they opt to retain CEDS to perform an Initial Strategy Analysis.

For a fee of $800 to $1500 CEDS can analyze your case and identify the most effective strategy for preserving your quality of life. The analysis usually begins with the following steps:

1. Verify your concerns regarding project impacts by reviewing actual project plans.
2. Assess the proposal for additional impacts. The CEDS Project Impact Assessment Checklist simplifies this task.
3. Search for Equitable Solutions that design away each impact while allowing the property owner to achieve their goals. Many of the webpages listed to the right will help you identify possible Equitable Solutions.
4. Review the criteria for approving the project as set forth in local and state law.
   Compile the evidence needed to show that one or more of the criteria cannot be met based upon unresolved impacts.
5. Research the decision-making history of the body required to approve the project. The goal is to identify factors that prompted past denials. These past examples will help you to increase the likelihood of a denial by structuring your case to show similar factors exist.
6. Identify issues likely to generate the widespread public support frequently needed to prompt decision-makers to deny approval for fatally-flawed projects or condition an approval in ways that resolve your concerns via the Equitable Solutions identified in Step 3 above, and
7. Identify at least one – hopefully several – attorneys with a good reputation for helping folks in your state who were concerned about similar issues.
   The analysis can usually be completed within two weeks of receiving a retainer. About half the time the analysis is the only thing our clients need pay for to win.

For examples of CEDS analyses and for further detail visit our Strategy Analysis webpage. For a no-cost discussion of how an analysis might benefit your effort contact CEDS at 410-654-3021 or Rklein@ceds.org.

CEDS Uniquely Qualified to Help You Preserve Your Neighborhood & Environment

For more than 30 years CEDS has been helping people across the nation protect their communities and the environment from threats posed by development and other project types. To see a map and examples of the many communities we’ve helped preserve click on: CEDS Case Map.

CEDS is one of very few organizations that solely helps people concerned about project impacts. This specialization and our nationwide scope has allowed CEDS to acquire a unique and extensive knowledge of technical solutions as well as strategies that have proven highly success in winning battles other thought impossible.

The CEDS network consists of more than 200 attorneys nationwide along with a long list of other professionals such as traffic and stormwater engineers, land use planners, etc. Because people (not corporations) are our primary clients we’ve learned how to protect neighborhoods at a fraction of the cost you might pay if you hired an attorney or consultant outside our network.

To learn how we can greatly increase your likelihood of success for minimal expense, contact CEDS at 410-654-3021 or Help@ceds.org.