Efforts to site power plants, waste treatment plants, prisons, and other regional necessary but locally noxious facilities can generate strong local opposition. When regional benefits are spread among a great many residents (meaning that each person only stands to gain a small benefit) while impacts and costs
are concentrated on immediate abutters, those who stand to lose the most often object to having a facility sited in their backyard. There are better and worse ways of managing such siting processes.

The Facility Siting Credo spells out the To Do’s and Not To Do’s. Some facilities are totally inappropriate for certain locations and should be stopped. Others check all the right boxes, but don’t open the decision-making process to public input until after decisions are made. Just because the “gains to the gainers” outweighs all of the “losses to the losers,” doesn’t mean a proposed facility can or will win public support.

Following the Facility Siting Credo, which has been used in a great many locations, increases the chances of the “right” decision being made.