Good Neighbour Policy
Here it comes … the construction phase of the development. You campaigned hard, and you saw some changes happen to what was proposed, but you knew that something was going to be built. Can I encourage you to stay organized, as a neighbourhood, during this phase. Unless you have experienced a construction site near you, I don’t know if all these thoughts would readily come to mind when trying to mitigate the inevitable tensions between developers and neighbours but here they are!
Is my list a little long? Yes? Will all these situations occur on your site? Probably not. But if your City’s Good Neighbour policy doesn’t cover any specifics then this list will help remind you of possible areas that need to be discussed.
The City’s policy
The Good Neighbour policy for my city is two pages and does not cover any specifics about issues that might arise during the construction phase and/or neighbourhood adjustment phase. Talks about how the construction phase and then the neighbourhood adjustment phase will impact the area must start during your campaign and there must be a specific plan in place before construction starts. A large construction site could alleviate some of the initial parking scenario but as housing units are finished parking will spread to the surrounding streets.
Routes that workers and trucks use must be established and enforced. Local traffic situations must be identified and respected. There is an elementary school on our main street and even residents of the city have a hard time remembering to slow down to 30 kph.
There needs to be a commitment to inform neighbours effectively, at lease 1 week in advance, about ‘heavy truck traffic’ days, and work on utilities that might affect the residents, in writing and with large mobile signs.
There must be a plan to deal with workers and other site visitors who are not respectful and are repeat offenders. Set up a system so that the ‘site host’ knows about all fines that are issued. How about ensuring that workers pay their Bylaw fines? How about adding on a ‘site fine’ for their 2nd offense. How about making it known that for this construction project ‘3 strikes and you’re out’?
Find your City’s ‘Good Neighbour’ policy
Discover if your City has a current (or past) Good Neighbour policy. If not, begin the process of seeing a policy developed for your city. Check with other cities for their Good Neighbour policies. The policy could be short and not identify any specific concerns. This chapter will help you with your discussions with City Hall, the developer and your City Council, if necessary.
‘Let’s be respectful’
That first day of construction, in your neighbourhood, can be … just awful … especially if you are unaware of what was going to happen. Somehow, with great self-restraint, you must be respectful with all your words and actions. This is not easy … at all.
Make it through your first conversations, apply some of the strategies I suggest, and the days will get better.
Be tenacious
You will start with words. Through your campaign. Through the pre-planning process of the construction phase. You will have expressed your concerns. You will have stated your no-negotiables.
One hour. That is all it should take … to have the Project Managers at the site. If you have tried, very hard, to get a plan in place and all your best efforts haven’t worked … then I am suggesting that a few parked cars ought to do it.
You should not have to endure a first week of phone calls and frustration and complete chaos in your neighbourhood.
Close down the site by parking in front of the entrances. Close down the street by filling the road with vehicles. Make some new signs!
Now … stand your ground … next to your parked car. Cameras at the ready. Media on the way. They must treat you and your neighbours and your neighbourhood with respect. There are consequences for bad behaviour.
Find and talk to, in person, the Project Managers
Your first move, your best move, is to start building a relationship with the City’s Project Manager and the developer’s Project Manager. You could find someone who is friendly, listens well and wants to see the construction phase go smoothly. If not, this chapter and this website offer lots of creative ideas to see change happen.
Site host(s)
The most important person for a neighbourhood development project. A full time position. With benefits. If all goes well, he gets offered homemade cookies first. There must be several people hired for this job because they need to be on site at all times. Someone with some backbone, please. And no attitude! And definitely not working their first job ever. Able to stand up to Very Important People, including the Project Managers. Always visible in a fluorescent vest. Learns the names of residents in the neighbourhood. Has extra hard hats on hand to show visitors through the site. Deals with neighbour’s concerns effectively. Has a STOP sign close by for directing traffic. Has traffic controller training. Has a can of yellow paint at his station. Hands out fines and enforces them. Has the ability to terminate workers. Walks the site and the surrounding area morning and evening.
The construction phase will take many months to complete. If your campaign has been successful (and perhaps contentious), then there are ruffled feathers to soothe. Start here. Your goal is for your site hosts to be ‘treated’ well throughout the construction phase. He/she is your entry point. Get to know how he likes his coffee. His favorite treat. His favourite sandwich. You might, eventually, even know how the Project Managers and the site supervisors like their coffee. Get creative. Donate a (highly visible) golf umbrella. Wash his vehicle (once a week). Find out when his birthday is (and other significant days in his life). I wish I had known how important this step could have been to my sanity, and my neighbours.
Signs for the site
There will be a very nice sign advertising the construction company on the site fence. There will be a required sign about site safety. Eventually there will be a beautiful sign with the project’s name and location of their sales offices. There also needs to be signs (at all access points, if the site is large) listing the agreed upon plan for the neighbourhood.
The signs need to indicate:
-permissible work hours – am – pm, Monday – Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Some workers might want to start early on Friday or put in some hours on the weekend.
-the City’s Noise Bylaw. Some workers like to play there music loud early in the morning. Let’s determine the acceptable volume for these devices.
-the usual Bylaws that are ignored (parking, noise, site and surrounding area maintenance, etc.), the amounts of City fines and how they will be enforced.
Contact numbers
Find and distribute contact numbers of the Project Manager, the site supervisor, the site host, the construction company, the City’s Project Manager and the City’s Bylaws department to all team and troops. Make sure all your team and troops have a list. (Your ultimate goal is to get a home phone number for the developer’s Project Manager or the City’s Project Manager for emergencies and for those moments of absolute frustration with the project.)
There needs to be a large sign(s) with:
-the contact numbers of the Project Manager, the site supervisor, the construction company, the City’s Project Manager and the City’s Bylaws department.
-the contact numbers for towing companies that have their impound lots far across the region.
-After Hour/Emergency contact numbers for the Project Manager and the City’s Public Works yard
-contact information for WorkSafeBC
I could watch the progress on the project from my front window. The roofing stage was a bit frightening. Workers weren’t wearing safety harnesses. I know that it can make your movements awkward but if you fall, you’re gonna be dead. I remember that I phoned WorkSafeBC several times and I saw them visit the site and talk to workers but not much changed except the workers’ level of anger with me.
Parking
This will most likely be the most frustrating aspect during construction. Good signs will help but I think that the laziness factor, which is the desire to find the closest parking spot, will be the hardest hurdle to overcome.
There needs to be a detailed plan that was decided upon by neighbours, and the Project Managers. Notices need to have been distributed to all the surrounding area. There needs to be several signs at site access points that outline the parking plan for the area surrounding the construction site. There need to be many signs in the surrounding areas that outline the plan and give phone numbers so neighbours know who to call when workers don’t follow the plan when parking their (large) work trucks. There needs to be a sign that indicates your City’s Bylaws concerning parking, which is usually ‘within 3 metres of a driveway’. There needs to be a sign that indicates the Motor Vehicle Act parking regulations. Check this policy for your city/area for accuracy.
Motor Vehicle Act has jurisdiction on the street and it’s illegal to park:
• on a sidewalk or boulevard
• across the entrance to any driveway, back lane or intersection
• within five metres of a fire hydrant (measured from the point
at the curb beside the hydrant)
• within six metres of a crosswalk or intersection
• within six metres of a stop sign or traffic light
• where your vehicle obstructs the visibility of a traffic sign
Working the Parking Plan
It often seems that good plans are made but they are not effectively monitored and/or reevaluated. Assumptions are made that once the plan is revealed everyone will follow it. Unfortunately, these plans are concocted in an office with perhaps a quick visit to the site to verify or another glance at the photos that someone took of the location on their cell phone.
There will be the initial influx of workers who need to understand the plan. All the various trades will be arriving as the work progresses. At each stage of the project every trade will have new workers on their crews. All those VIP sales representatives from the various supply companies will be visiting the site. All those visiting VIPs from the development team will want to park close to the site when they come to see the progress of the project. Although these visitors are optimistic and expect to be at the site for a very short visit, their stay will inevitably be longer and their creative parking choices will be a nuisance to the day’s work.
Working the Traffic Plan
The plan looks good on paper however the budget has played a significant role in the scope of the coverage by traffic controllers. And it does seem like there are more people driving angry these days with the patience factor of a nanosecond. The traffic plan needs to start out thorough and filter down to acceptable. The traffic plan for ‘heavy truck days’ needs to be expansive and wide ranging.
Daily traffic concerns
Is your site near a school zone with excited children and mothers with strollers and toddlers, arriving from many different directions? Will the school’s crosswalk guards really be enough, especially if the project if large. Is there a senior’s residence nearby with many elderly residents walking slowly with their walkers? Are there lines of daycare children walking to nearby play areas? What about access points for local amenities and stores? Are the surrounding streets busy with those out for a walk? Not all dogs are calm and not all owners have control of their pets. What are your concerns about your construction site and the surrounding area?
Busy days
Several of those large mobile signs, placed the night before, at key points in the usual traffic patterns of commuters, would help many miss the construction site on those days. Hiring a few (dozen) extra traffic controllers would be a good idea for those extremely busy days of construction activity.
You want to make sure that the actual crew that is coming to your location is made up of mostly seasoned traffic controllers. Recently, in my city, I experienced two different groups of traffic controllers during several weeks of roadwork. One team made significant eye contact and gave very clear directions. I was impressed, and obedient! The other bunch made no eye contact and vaguely swung their signs. The goal is to keep everyone safe. A 2-day training course gives you the theory of controlling traffic and not much experience.
Armageddon aka Excavation for Underground Parking
If the building will have underground parking, gird your loins for ‘the dig’. You cannot imagine the chaos all these trucks with trailers bring to a neighbourhood.
How do you plan to remove all that earth or endure a year or more of construction? Certainly not from an office. How do you slow down drivers with trucks and trailers on your city streets when they are getting paid by the load? Not with a traffic controller straight from their 2-day course. Where will drivers be rerouted when there is another immense construction project happening on the same route out of town? Hopefully not through residential streets, guided by traffic controllers who have erected a canopy, have brought lawn chairs and are sitting for most of the day listening to their tunes, talking to their friends and playing games on their cell phones.
There must be an extremely well thought out plan that everyone is committed to follow. Neighbours must be included in the discussions. This will be the first step in the construction phase and it needs to go smoothly.
If you know that there will be underground parking for this project and early and ongoing discussions are not happening, I would suggest that ‘small moments of action’ occur.
Pick a day before excavation begins. Take up all parking spots as far out from the site as possible. Temporarily remove all temporary ‘No Parking’ signs, by dark of night, and transport them far away (and leave contact information so they can be picked up.) Park large trucks close to the intersections of the truck route, as they will slow down trucks with trailers. Better yet, borrow or rent a (few) box trucks for those strategic corners. A 14’ box truck will slow traffic down at a turn but a 26’ box truck, parked strategically (far out from the curb), will stop everything! Have a crew of neighbours with (empty) strollers (no small children, please) and old people with their walkers and residents with their dogs crossing at all intersections in a continuous loop.
This ‘moment of action’ will show your determination and definitely get the planning process started. You could, if you’re feeling generous, inform Bylaws and the Project Managers beforehand. Don’t forget to inform City Councillors and local media sources. Inform all the residents in the surrounding area. Inform all the residents in the city … to come and watch the showdown.
Needed: Long, Visible Loading Zone
If the site is in a residential neighbourhood the Loading Zone is of utmost priority. Not all residents drive to work in the morning and then don’t return until evening. How many neighbours walk their children to school or are out walking their dogs several times a day? Is there a bus stop on the street or a school or a park? Negotiations for the smooth running of this Loading Zone will take determination by the Project Manager, the site supervisor, the site host, City Bylaws and residents. And, if the situation is untenable a ‘small moment of action’ will bring both parties back to the discussion table.
All correspondence to companies sending workers to the site must include an initial, stern paragraph, a detailed attachment about the Good Neighbour policy for the site, clear directions to introduce themselves to the site supervisor and the site host, and a parking plan for the surrounding area. There must be a visible, designated site host waiting to direct all traffic. There must be several large, carefully placed signs for the Loading Zone. If the Loading Zone is full then visitors must be sent out into the surrounding area to find a parking spot.
Yellow curbs
Yellow paint on curbs indicates that parking is not allowed. Areas that require yellow paint need to be established and painted before construction starts. These areas need to be kept and enforced even after construction has ended because the neighbourhood adjustment period can be a very trying time for new and old residents. The site host needs to have a can of yellow paint and a paintbrush at his station.
Permanent signs
Permanent parking signs that will be placed in the area after construction is finished should actually be erected before construction begins.
Temporary ‘Resident Parking’ signs
Some form of simple, temporary ‘Resident Parking’ signs needs to be available. Wire frames with plastic sleeves are a possible answer and an easy reminder for workers. A supply of these signs need to be kept on site because they do tend to go missing.
Large, mobile signs
Either those extremely large mobile signs or some other form of large signs needs to be a priority and a supply of these signs need to be kept on site for ‘heavy truck traffic’ days or when local utilities will be worked on.
Ongoing site and surrounding area maintenance
One official document said this: ‘No dirt, debris or mud shall be permitted on any road. Roads must be kept clean and swept three times daily at minimum, or more as required, with the final cleaning occurring at the end of the workday. The site must be monitored at all times during fill activities, and any debris removed right away.’
The method of cleanup must be effective and include the site and the surrounding area. Dirt spreads and therefore the cleanup must extend further than just in front of the site property. Garbage and/or recycling bins need to be placed strategically as some workers can be extremely lazy with their personal garbage. I watched one worker open his truck door and dump his garbage onto the street and then drive away.
Pavement
At the end of the day, when crews have been working on a street, they are required to repave the street, even if it will be worked on the next day. We can deal with uneven pavement for a day. I object to the repaving job on the final day that leaves a permanent dip or chasm in the road and is never fixed.
Manhole covers
How many of us, on our daily commutes, curse at that dip in the pavement around a manhole cover? How many years have you been swerving to miss it? How many of them overflow with water during heavy rainfall?
Shouldn’t there be someone on a paving crew that becomes the expert? Why are some paving jobs seamless and others are a continuous obstacle course for drivers? Did someone forget to order the risers that are helpful in setting the manhole covers at the proper height? Could penalties be applied in perpetuity if they are not fixed? There needs to be final inspections of the property and surrounding area before the developer’s deposits are returned. So, let’s say before the Open Houses start or a For Sale sign goes on the lawn and then a month later or immediately if a resident complains.
Recently, in my city, a paving job left a significant dip around two close manhole covers. They came, they tried to adjust the situation, they failed. Now we have two uneven joins where they cut around the situation and repaved!
Potholes
These usually occur along the joins of new pavement either at the middle join or on the outside edges. There will be a final layer of pavement eventually but these uneven joins are distressing or dangerous during construction as they are often not clearly identified during the process. Spraying the joins with fluorescent paint would be a good beginning.
I watched one pothole in a neighbouring city grow for over a year during the construction stage of a business tower. A well known, substantial developer was building on a corner and next to it was a privately owned property. The hole was at the property line. It grew during construction. A new sidewalk was eventually built that ended at the property line. And the pothole remained. Paving happened and the pothole, that was situated at the beginning of the turn lane, was not dealt with. I drove by regularly and had to swerve to miss this ever-expanding hole. The developer didn’t deal with the pothole and neither did the city during construction and afterwards. It was years before this hazard was finally dealt with.
Steel plates
If the work on a street requires digging down several feet or more then a steel plate will be used to cover over the hole overnight. It is quite a jolt to drivers to have to stop suddenly because you didn’t notice them. Could we have a better procedure than a few cones, please. How about a little forethought and many, tall, fluorescent cones to give enough warning to drivers.
Stormwater drains
These must be identified, in the surrounding area, covered and monitored, especially during the fall, and days of heavy rain or snow.
A crew of watchful residents
Is the plan working? Are workers parking where they should? Is the site being kept clean? If not, how about some ‘small moments of action’? Do you have some neighbours who are retired or who regularly walk past the site? Could they be enlisted to hold signs at site access points? A sign for ‘Quick Towing’ and a phone number would surely help most workers get the message. Bribe a tow truck driver with coffee and donuts to come park near the site one morning. One instance of a vehicle being towed would help. Block a repeat offender in … on Friday afternoon.
Monday morning message
Is the plan working? If not, get creative with ‘small moments of action’. How about taking up as many parking spots as possible near the site on a Monday morning. Get every vehicle out of their garages and carports and onto the street. Park far apart. Get neighbours with signs hanging out on the corners to let everyone know why they are having to park so far away that morning. ‘Blocking driveways is not polite’ – ‘Don’t park large vehicles so close to the intersection’. Be gracious and alert the Project Manager and City Bylaws on Friday afternoon. Or just inform the Project Manager on a Sunday night. This would severely affect their sleep as delays cost money and reduce their profit.
Environmental concerns
Did you raise your concerns during the application process but the project is still going ahead? If you think the issue is important, then it is important. Continue the fight, please. Become known … at Council meetings and City Hall and at the site … as a respectful residents who has concerns and is monitoring the situation. Does your city have an environmental staff person? Get to know them. Take photos and send them … to a growing list of stakeholders. Create ‘sound bites (available in the handbook)’ and make some signs and erect them to remind workers and inform those who pass by. Build a relationship with a person from the appropriate, supervising ministry. Find other environmental groups in your region, attend their meetings and make contacts. Prepare for a ‘small moment of action’. Prepare to alert the media. This is a fight worth fighting.
Fences
Must be inspected at the beginning and end of each day. Must be kept until the landscaping is happening.
Large clock(s) on site
Synchronized, so City Bylaws can be easily enforced and workers know when they can play their music.
Bylaw enforcement
This will probably be the next biggest frustration for the neighbourhood. Don’t make the assumption that Bylaws will be driving by regularly, and dealing with parking issues, etc. Bylaws is usually ‘complaint driven’ and therefore neighbours must communicate their concerns first. It is key to ask that complaints be catalogued by your construction site? This will give you important data to take to City Council if your situation is awful. Will the Project Managers be committed to dealing with repeat offenders? From the first day of construction, all neighbours need to have those important telephone numbers for calls, and texts, and pictures? More info can be found on the ‘Bylaws’ page of website.
Extremely large machinery
There needs to be a plan for delivery hours for extremely large machinery. There are regulations for moving these large pieces of machinery during daytime traffic. Although your site might only have a few of these large deliveries, try to have them scheduled as close to work starting or finishing time as possible. (17 minutes in the middle of the night, with a diesel engine running, and chains clanking, can definitely ruin a resident’s good night’s sleep)
Port-a-Potties
There needs to be a plan for the placement of the Port-a-Potties. The bathrooms need to be centrally located, and the truck that comes to empty them needs easy access. If yours is a development project in a residential neighbourhood, at least get them to build a tall fence around these units. We do not need to see ‘the final adjustment’ of the process!
Large advertising signs
Eventually there will the large signs advertising that these housing units are for sale. Where will they be erected? With a little forethought, these signs might not be so annoying to neighbours throughout the construction phase.
Display suites
One glorious morning, when I glanced out my front window, what did I behold? The display suites were ready and the real estate agent had erected ‘Visitor Parking’ signs. Why didn’t my neighbourhood experience this detail throughout the construction phase? I deeply regret that I hadn’t borrowed these signs and left them up on one of the local mountains. It was 11 years before I finally went inside one of these units. This is evidence of my still simmering anger at the process I and my neighbours experienced. Neighbours need to be informed of plans for ‘Open Houses’ and given assurance that ‘Visitor Parking’ will be monitored by the real estate agents and the City Bylaw department. If necessary, they should hire a traffic controller.
Nighttime security
Unless you are informed that there will be a security guard walking the site, it can be very disconcerting to see a wandering light on site late at night. The neighbourhood residents need to be informed if there will be a security guard on site.
Lighting and Sound
Lighting is needed for safety but the annoyance factor must be considered. Careful thought needs to be given to style and the placement of any lighting that will shine near or into nearby residences. Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles need to be followed.
Is your site going to be a car dealership? Rules for (loud) announcements that will echo in the surrounding area need to be thoughtfully established with the understanding that any needed modifications to the rules will happen quickly.
Warehouses
Vancouver, BC is the largest port in Canada and it is growing. The need for industrial warehousing is extreme. The search to find more warehousing space is relentless. Warehouses provide their own infrastructure so the cost to the City is lessened. Their taxes can be a substantial part of the City’s budget, much greater than residential taxes. So what, if they and their extensive parking lots and sparse landscaping are ugly and the traffic they add to the area is annoying.
Our story
The final phases of a huge warehouse complex appeared on the Agenda of City Council. Local residents also appeared, bringing their emotions with them. The fight was ugly. The final look is not horrible thanks to significant buffers becoming part of the final design. But residents weren’t included early in the discussions so there was no possibility of believing that the finished look wouldn’t be horrendous. Residents will carry the scars of this campaign forever.
An addendum. The wildflowers are blooming on the buffers surrounding the site, and when I drove by this past week there were four residents taking photos. Serious photos, with cameras on tripods. Will wonders never cease. Beauty near all those parking stalls.
If what you are confronted with is a potential warehousing site, these are my best thoughts.
Location
If the warehousing will be in an area that is already mostly warehouses, then you are advocating for aesthetically pleasing. Depending on the size of the units, there are some designs that will give you a second story that could provide housing for the owners or a tenant. This would bring in a few more housing units to the region.
If you are confronted with a huge site, and it is not near housing then I think that your concerns will center around the flow of traffic, both local and work vehicles, what will the buildings look like, what will the area look like when it is entirely built out and what will the area look like in five and in ten years?
If you are confronted with a huge site, and it is near housing then you can also add in concerns about noise, within the complex and the surrounding area, fumes from trucks, lighting and the movement of vehicles to and from the site.
Landscaping
A few trees in the parking lot is nice but if you drive through a warehousing area in your city, those with a planted buffer look and feel better. What will the landscaping look like five or ten years from now? I heard one landscaping architect plead for an excellent quality soil mixture for the parking lot trees to better ensure their survival. A local car dealership planted a lovely row of cedars along their entire chain link fence and they were all dead within a year.
If we have to endure, let it at least be pretty.
Transit
Our warehouses contain a distribution centre for a large company. The buses do not run frequently and especially not late at night. If there are 3 shifts then workers are walking late at night to catch the last buses. This means lighting and sidewalks should be a key factor in the negotiation process. There at least needs to be a conversation about a shuttle bus, operated by the company, for the late shift or all shifts.
Design
Your attention will focus on the proposed designs. You will be asking lots of questions and you will be wanting answers. I did not think to go looking at nearby warehouses. While writing this chapter, I have taken to driving through warehouse areas to see what I do and don’t like. What I am observing would have been helpful insights to comment on during the development application process.
My City was dealing with 4 large lots divided into quarters by local arterial roads. Upon reflection, the area could have been so much better if the City had hired consultants to design the look of the 4 lots. As it is we have 4 lots with similar looks but not a unified flow of walking paths and sidewalks and building design. There were some talks about the centre of the 2 roads being designed with some amenities for residents living nearby. That would have been a unifying look to the area.
As I drive by the last phase of the last warehouses I am saddened by the plain look of the side of the building that faces the parking lot and one of the main cross streets. When Council made some final strong suggestions and the plans were adjusted, we all apparently missed this detail.
Community Amenity Contributions (CACs)
Developers that want to build within your City must contribute a negotiated amount of money to help with community amenities like the library and recreation facilities. Your City will have an official policy that will explain CACs.
Do the CACs that your City collects from developers go into a single line item in the budget? Or, does your City’s policy indicate how certain percentages of the CACs will be spent? First and foremost would be affordable housing. (Then, I would suggest a substantial donation to the children’s section of the local library! Or, what area of city life do you feel needs additional funds?)
There were strenuous negotiations during the development application process and the City received a large piece of land next to a large recreational facility and sport fields. I think that we, as a City, should have received a finished sports complex.
Yes, warehouses will pay higher taxes into the city coffers. The layer of peat from the site was donated to the community garden. Dirt was freely given to the local BMX track. I have seen City events being given very generous gifts by this development company that have gladdened the hearts of those organizing these events.
But all 4 corners of a central intersection of my city are now dominated by warehouses and are now a truck route to a major bridge. One lot was used as a regional fill site for years.
There have already been years of construction activity to and from these sites and now there will be various sizes of delivery trucks and worker’s vehicles traipsing through our city until the end of time.
Firstly, we needed to have better thoughts on how to mitigate what was going to happen. Then we could take their money.
After the dust has settled
For many, the dust will never settle, myself included. Was it the process that the City used, the dirt and the road congestion during the construction phase, or the ongoing adjustment phase of street parking and the ‘creative’ ethics of your new neighbours. (“I am in a rush, I can squeeze in here, it’s not too far into the intersection”). Are leaves actually picked up or just blown onto the street by the landscaping company? What about the removal of snow from their site to beside cars parked on the other side of the road in front of your driveway?
Oh, the joys of living in a city!
In conclusion
These suggestions will help you navigate the potential agony of development near you. I wish I had persevered in building a working relationship with the development Project Manager and site host, the City’s Project Manager and the Bylaws department, with notes of all my discussions (and actions) being sent to a City Councillor that I was developing a working relationship with.