Opposition Isn’t Always a No

This week our discussion focused on stakeholders. One of the biggest insights I took away from both the lecture and field trip was to consider which stakeholders might oppose your policy. During lecture, we did a stakeholder mapping exercise and I got stuck thinking of opposition in terms of stakeholders being wholeheartedly against a specific proposal. Gabe reminded me that opposition to policy often comes in the form of practical concerns about how changes will impact a given stakeholder’s role. In this case, these concerns are usually valid and can be mitigated through collaboration with the concerned stakeholder and adjusting your policy to meet their needs.

This same lesson was echoed on our tour of laneway suites. As we followed Jo through the wet and muddy laneways of Leslieville, she told us about the wide array of concerns different stakeholders brought up to initially oppose laneway suites. Many were practical concerns I hadn’t considered but they did make a lot of sense. Firefighters were concerned about the ability of large fire engines to fit down skinny laneways and the city was concerned about how to divide property rights and how utilities for laneways would work. These practical concerns didn’t completely undermine the idea of laneway suites, but the final policies did need to accommodate them. Ultimately, the city requires laneway suites to only be built within a certain distance of fire hydrants. Laneway suites are zoned in the same way as basement suites are, just above ground instead. A laneway house belongs to the property owner and utilities are run from the existing property.

My takeaway from this week is that opposition doesn’t always mean a no. Often opposition takes the form of very understandable concerns and through conversation and some creative adaptation, these concerns can be alleviated to get people on board with your idea.