LULA
Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program
LULA Spring 2009 - Quinnipiac River Watershed Area
This training session of the Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program is sponsored by Eastern Connecticut Resource Conservation and Development Area (RC&D), Connecticut Environmental Review Team Program (ERT), The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Quinnipiac River Fund, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund. The participants are respected and objective leaders in their communities with the ability to build and manage coalitions of interested people. The program is designed to teach participants how to use the land use system, consensus building skills, and comprehensive planning techniques to accomplish smart growth and watershed protection.
The four-day program is being held on the Fridays of March 13, 20, April 3, and April 17 from 8:30am – 4:30pm. Day 1 and 2 are at the Quinnipiac University Lender School of Business Mancheski Executive Seminar Room. Days 3 and 4 (April 3 and 17) are at the Woodbridge Library’s Community Room.
Participation was limited to 35 participants for this session. If you are interested in being considered for the next LULA session (tentatively scheduled for fall 2009) please contact Tiffany Zezula, Director of Training, Pace University at (914) 422-4034.
What if significant land use decisions didn’t tear communities apart?
What if citizens felt that their opinions mattered and were considered?
What if local leaders knew what their community wanted and felt they had the support to make tough choices?
The Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program is designed to help local leaders and communities accomplish this by building a network of local leaders with extensive knowledge in land use law and collaborative techniques.
The Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program (LULA) was created to build capacity for change among land use leaders at the local level of government. The Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program is a four-day course that teaches participants how to use land use law, consensus building, and community decision-making techniques to achieve sustainable community development. The program was designed to put needed technical and process tools in the hands of local leaders whose decisions create the land use patterns that will determine the quality of life, the economy, and the environment of communities in Connecticut. The program has the ability to adjust to and learn from the issues and needs of each participant. This training format arms graduates with more than just relevant knowledge; most leave with a renewed sense of hope in their communities’ ability to deal with change. As evidence of this, the motto of the LULA – creating communities, one conversation at a time – comes from a graduating participant who was describing what he learned form the program about his role as a local official.
The purpose of the program is to use law and negotiation theory to help local leaders understand that solutions to complex and persistent problems are more likely to be reached through authentic collaborative initiatives than the typical adversarial process. To increase the effectiveness of each program, it is taught on a “train-the-trainer” model so that participants are empowered to share that they experience with others. As a result, it encourages the creation of leadership networks, initiates and support grassroots regionalism, creates opportunities for civic engagement, and fosters intentionally sustainable communities.
"A model program for the nation, one that is institutionalizing sustainable development at the local level."
Paul Johnson, Former Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA.
LULA Training Content
The four, full day sessions taught over eight weeks, provide a broad range of tools and techniques to meet the needs of each participant. Presentations and written materials are provided that introduce participants to over 50 land use techniques that are available to local governments in Connecticut to shape and control land use patterns and create sustainable communities. The LULA team maintains contact with program graduates to help nurture a network of collaborative leaders, keep them up-to-date on emerging trends and to help them adopt land use techniques appropriate for their communities and regions.
The training program also introduces participants to key concepts for negotiation, facilitated community decision-making, and consensus building. Extensive breakout sessions explore the many opportunities that exist in the local land use process to use these innovative techniques to prevent and resolve the types of land use controversies that typically occur as development and conservation projects are proposed and debated. Also covered are comprehensive planning and citizen participation and how they can be employed to create a positive framework for all local land use decisions.
The course provides a training manual and lecture handouts, and involves relevant case studies, with ample opportunity for interaction, discussion, and learning.
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Networks of Effective Leaders
The premise of the LULA program is that new ideas are adopted at the local level through the twin concepts of “diffusion of innovation” and “adult learning”. A fundamental component of LULA is recruiting a hierarchy of opinion leaders within communities. These individuals are broadly respected and open to testing new ideas. These “early adopters” are key to enabling the adoption of innovative land use practices at the local, grassroots level. Because the new techniques are initiated by trusted community leaders, citizens are more likely to listen to and support them; especially because the techniques seek citizen participation.
The LULA program helps these opinion leaders realize the extensive authority that local governments have to influence development patterns and the critical role that planning plays in the adoption of new ordinances and regulations.
The negotiation and community decision-making components help leaders apply techniques that can bring the community to consensus on land use legislation and approvals. Over time, graduates form networks of leaders who work together to create livable communities and change unsustainable patterns of growth.
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Participants
The program encourages participation from all the players in the land use decision making process - locally elected and appointed officials, developers, local landowners, attorneys, chamber of commerce leaders, business leaders, environmental groups, and community activists.
Programs have been held for the leaders of adjacent communities in specific watershed areas with an emphasis placed on intermunicipal compacts and agreements.
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History
The Connecticut Land Use Leadership Alliance training program is the extension of a program developed by the Pace University Land Use Law Center in the Hudson River Valley starting in 1995, where it has graduated more than 1200 local leaders and received the official support of over one hundred municipalities. In Connecticut, eight training programs have been held since the program’s inception in 2005. More than 250 local leaders have graduated from the Connecticut program.
Training programs have been held since the program’s inception in 2005. Over 70 local leaders have graduated from the program during that time. Training has been given to local leaders from over 31 municipalities in Connecticut. Funding and support for individual Programs has been provided by: the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Capital Region Council of Government, Metro Hartford Alliance, Tidewater Institute, Eastern Connecticut Resource Conservation and Development Council, Connecticut River Gateway Commission, the Connecticut River Estuary Regional Planning Agency, the Connecticut Environmental Review Team, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The Program has been conducted at the Lyme Art Academy, the Town of Ellington Town Hall, Haddem Extension Center, and the Pasbeshauke Pavilion at Saybrook Point and other sites upon request.
Most Recent LULA
During the Fall of 2006 the fourth Connecticut Land Use Leadership Alliance training session was held. Thirty-one participants from the towns of Clinton, East Lyme, Groton, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison, Montville, North Stonington, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Preston, Westbrook, Waterford, a water pollution control authority and the Department of Environmental Protection. Participants serve their communities in a variety of roles include three planning and zoning board members, 4 inland wetlands and watercourse commission member, one who serves in a dual capacity, four conservation commission members, five staff members, six people who are regulators or activists on behalf of land trusts and other non profit organizations, and four first selectpersons and mayors.
As is customary with LULA trainings, on the first day the group identified their key issues and concerns. The top ranked issues included: managing change when there are competing economic/environmental/property rights interests, finding collaborative ways to achieve balance between these competing interests, finding ways to encourage town residents to participate in civic discussions, reducing reliance on local property taxes, protecting watersheds and aquifers through regulation and limiting impervious surfaces, and finding ways to have staff spend time on larger issues with town-wide impact.
The motivating interests and broad representation in the group made for four days of lively discussion. Case studies and open components included presentations on biodiversity, a multi-town conservation planning effort, a developer discussing how he had worked with a surrounding community, resources available from the regional planning agency, linking land use to water quality, a case study of a development which compares traditional techniques and best management practices in site design, and an example of an inter-municipal council from New York
Several members reported between sessions that they had shared legal information or experimented with a collaborative concept between sessions. In summing up the experience one planning and zoning board member wrote: “The Land Use Leadership Alliance was one of the best workshops I’ve been to. There was a wealth of in-depth information presented, with ample time for questions and lengthy discussions both with the presenters and fellow attendees….Everyone was there to learn from each other and we did. I left as part of a team of people I can call on (and have), all of whom really care about Connecticut.”
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The Staff
The “staff” for the Connecticut program consists of a Program Coordinator, Land Use Law Trainer, Negotiation Trainer, a Natural Resources Conservationist from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and a member of the Eastern Connecticut Resource Conservation and Development Council. Click here for more information on the LULA staff.
Program Contacts
Attorney Marjorie Shansky
LULA Trainer
61 East Grand Avenue
New Haven, CT 06513
203.469.3004
marjorie.f.shansky@snet.net
William Logue, JD
The Logue Group/LULA Trainer
33 Holbrook Road
West Hartford, CT 06107
860.521.9122
Bill@LogueGroup.com
Elizabeth Rogers
Eastern Connecticut RC&D Coordinator
Natural Resources Conservation Service
392E Merrow Road, Twin Ponds Center
Tolland, CT 06084
860.870.4942
elizabeth.rogers@ct.usda.gov
Attorney Tiffany Zezula
Land Use Law Center Advisor
Pace University School of Law
Land Use Law Center
78 North Broadway
White Plains, NY 10603
914.422.4034
tzezula@law.pace.edu
Seth Lerman
Resource Conservationist
Natural Resources Conservation Service
344 Merrow Road
Tolland, CT 06084
860.871.4065
seth.lerman@ct.usda.gov
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Programs
Completed
Programs
Spring 2005
East Granby
East Windsor
Ellington
Enfield
Somers
South Windsor
Suffield
Vernon
Windsor
Windsor Locks
Chester
Deep River
East Haddam
Essex
Haddam
Lyme
Old Lyme
Old Saybrook
Salem
Spring 2006
Cromwell
East Haddam
East Hampton
East Hartford
Glastonbury
Haddam
Hartford
Middletown
Portland
Rocky Hill
South Windsor
Windsor |
Fall 2006
Chester
Clinton
Deep River
East Lyme
Essex
Groton
Guilford
Killingworth
Ledyard
Lyme
Madison
Montville
New London
N. Stonington
Old Lyme
Old Saybrook
Stonington
Waterford
Westbrook Spring 2007
Ashford
Brooklyn
Canterbury
Chaplin
Eastford
Hampton
Killingly
Plainfield
Pomfret
Putnam
Scotland
Sterling
Thompson
Windham
Woodstock |
Land Use Leadership Alliance
Training Programs
Spring 2005 - Fall 2007 |
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Download a copy of the brochure.
pdf format. Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.
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Resources
Lula Website
www.ctlula.org
Eastern RC&D Website
www.easternrcd-ct.org
Pace University School of Law Land Use Law Center
www.law.pace.edu/landuse
Gaining Ground Information Database
www.landuse.law.pace.edu
Land Use Leaders Website
www.landuseleaders.com
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PowerPoint introduction to the LULA Program
Click here to download a PowerPoint introduction to the LULA Program, as presented to the National Association of RC&D Council's National Conference in Savannah, GA. 2.9 MB
Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation as a web page.
Click here to download the PowerPoint presentation as pdf document.
3.07 MB
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