KAOH Media Enterprises
Before You Break Ground, Build Trust

The permitting landscape is more difficult than ever, facing headwinds at the federal level while navigating a patchwork of state and local requirements and increasingly sophisticated opposition movements. A September 2026 report from Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law identified 888 state and local restrictions on renewable energy development, including 865 adopted locally. It also documented 567 projects that had faced significant local opposition. These findings illuminate a reality familiar to KAOH Media: national energy strategy is ultimately tested in local communities.

KAOH combines expertise in permitting, public affairs, and community engagement to build local trust and to move critical infrastructure projects forward. Its approach places local intelligence and relationship-building on equal footing with land acquisition, engineering, and regulatory planning, recognizing that community support is just as important to project success as technical execution.

Understanding the Community First

For KAOH, effective outreach starts with understanding who lives near a proposed project, how local decisions are made, and which issues carry weight. Its team examines public sentiment, local media, civic organizations, neighboring developments, and the history of land-use debates. Those findings inform how a developer introduces itself, what information residents need and how concerns reach the people capable of addressing them.

In 2026, KAOH expanded its local capabilities through Fieldwise Civic Engagement, pairing strategic media, digital outreach, and public affairs with face-to-face representation. Its network of local consultants and liaisons can attend community meetings, meet residents individually, and report feedback directly to project teams. A microsite or advertisement can answer recurring questions; a trusted local conversation can uncover the question nobody has asked publicly.

“When an organization comes into a community and starts with listening, you can set the stage for two-way communication and start to build the trust that’s needed,” says Brad MacAfee, CEO.

Different Communities, Different Strategies

The value of that combination becomes clear across KAOH’s project work.

In one politically divided rural community, a proposed solar development faced skepticism involving agricultural land and nearby energy development. Rather than relying on broad clean-energy messages, KAOH built a campaign around skilled jobs and revenue for local schools. Union-oriented creative materials, events, community petition page, targeted digital outreach and carefully timed media relations helped translate passive interest into visible advocacy. More than 100 residents registered support, and some volunteered to speak at hearings. The project subsequently secured approval.

Elsewhere, officials were considering restrictions that could limit future solar projects, while organized opponents had spent years building support. KAOH developed a campaign that did not center the developer’s brand. Instead, it highlighted private property rights and landowners’ ability to make decisions about their farms. Email, text messaging, social advertising, and opposition monitoring moved together on a compressed timeline. The effort generated hundreds of petition signatures for local officials, putting an organized local perspective before decision-makers.

In another agricultural community, KAOH faced the challenge of introducing utility-scale solar where local identity was closely connected to farming. The strategy emphasized tightly targeted communications, an active developer presence, relationships with civic and agricultural organizations, community events, and continued monitoring of nearby debates. It produced dozens of identified supporters and formal letters of support, helping document community outreach during permitting. The project received approval, leaving relationships and communication channels that could continue beyond the hearing.

From Outreach to Permitting Strategy

These campaigns did not follow a single messaging formula. One emphasized jobs and schools, another landowner’s autonomy, and a third community presence and agricultural priorities. What connected them was the integration of local research, direct engagement, communication and disciplined follow-through.

Independent research points in the same direction. A 2025 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study of 979 neighbors of large-scale solar facilities found that stronger perceived engagement was associated with more favorable project attitudes. Supporters and opponents alike expected more engagement than they believed they had received.

KAOH works to close that gap by connecting what residents say with what developers do. Questions about roads, safety, environmental impacts or long-term community benefits can inform technical explanations, project adjustments, hearing preparation and construction communications. Engagement continues after an approval, when keeping promises becomes the clearest measure of credibility.

For developers and investors, this work is part of risk management, not merely reputation management. Permits depend on technical and legal requirements, but public confidence can shape how a project moves through discretionary decisions and local scrutiny. The most resilient development strategies recognize both realities from the beginning.

Permitting may culminate in an official vote. The relationships that influence it are built long before anyone enters the hearing room.