Community Involvement and Demolition

EPA's goal is to provide an environment where all people enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and have access to the decision-making process to maintain a healthy environment. Community relations should be part of any planned demolition activity. Community engagement is important for residential demolitions because it can inform communities of the appropriate management of harmful materials in their community and also present community members with the opportunity to comment on potential site reuse.  

Demolition Stakeholder Engagement

Governments, businesses, non-profits and others involved with demolitions can engage with communities to ensure citizens are aware of demolitions and take note of any necessary health and safety precautions. To highlight some community best practices related to potential community involvement issues, EPA hosted the webinar, Effective Blight Elimination Communication Strategies. In this webinar, midwest communities and the National Demolition Association discussed strategies to promote engagement directly with demolition industry/program stakeholders and community focused blight elimination best practices.

Presentations:

• St. Louis Development Corporation (pdf) (3.3 MB)
• Detroit Land Bank Authority (pdf) (3.15 MB)
• National Demolition Association (pdf) (1.68 MB)

Background resources:

• National Demolition Association
• St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative Demolition Tracker
• St. Louis Peace Park Planning
• City of Detroit Demolition Portal
• Detroit Land Bank Authority