Page 119 - Beyond Decommissioning

100 Beyond Decommissioning

the productive reuse of the site the former operator or the investor contributes to the
socioeconomic prosperity of the neighboring communities. Support of local stake-
holders can ease the granting of planning consents and assist in the modifications
to the local infrastructure necessary to enhancing the value of the site under a new
use. Conversely the lack of such support can produce delays to decommissioning
and site redevelopment, and even lead to the cancellation of such projects—a measure
that would be damaging to local interests.
Finally, a successful redevelopment project requires multidisciplinary teams to be
involved, including architects, IT specialists, site planners, people familiar with the
state and history of the site, etc.; the input of the end users should not be disregarded.
These teams may be assembled within one organization or between business partners.
Two factors may hinder success of multidisciplinary teams active in redevelopment
projects:

if the interactions and responsiveness among the team members are not ideal, the project will
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suffer regardless its separately taken, technical resources (see the Zollverein case in
Section 2.3). This may be due to different professional, cultural, and job backgrounds of
newly assembled teams and the resulting lack of familiarity;
the team is often of temporary character (e.g., limited to the duration of the project or to
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specific phases of it) and assembled based on the previous relationships. This may impair
a timely feedback and knowledge transfer from project to project.
The setting of multidisciplinary interactions, initial education, and previous experi-
ence, and how willing are team members to share knowledge are all factors impacting
on project outcome. However, managerial direction and leadership are crucial
(Thomsen, 2010).
Organizational aspects expected to make a redevelopment project successful
include among others (EPA, 2014b):

l assemble a balanced, competent, multidisciplinary planning/implementation team;
l harmonize different “cultures” among members of the team (including such aspects as
safety, productivity, hierarchy, reporting requirements, etc.);
l be aware that moving from planning to implementation may require iterations and program-
matic changes;
l keep the project on track;
l start sooner rather than later;
l identify resources beforehand and check the resource status constantly;
l establish milestones and hold points;
l identify issues that are critical to progress;
l introduce new businesses into the area in parallel with redevelopment advances;
connect to job training opportunities;
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celebrate achievements;
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advertise job positions and preferentially hire local people;
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when hiring external contractors, consider how to link the local community to that process;
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consolidate, manage, and comply with expectations;
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document project implementation: use templates for recurrent activities (e.g., meeting
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minutes, attendance sheets, volunteer forms).