Community Benefit Agreements
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Alliance has been a leader in Minnesota in promoting the use of community benefits campaigns to link public investment directly to community needs. Our grassroots organizing, public education presentations, capacity-building and technical assistance work has helped Twin Cities organizations to take a larger role in local development decisions. We’ve helped local groups to organize constituents around a local development project, create greater citizen participation in local land-use decisions, surface ideas for equitable development outcomes, and work towards a vision that benefits all parties involved.
What is a community benefits agreement?
Major metropolitan cities are in a constant battle to attract new urban redevelopment projects. Cities continue to wield a variety of development tools, zoning incentives, and public subsidies to attract residential, commercial, and industrial development – but countless opportunities are being lost to tie these public investments into measurable community benefits that link development goals to racial and economic equity issues.
Community leaders are now arguing that development that receives public subsidies and assistance should do more than provide developer-driven amentities - these developments should be designed by affected communities and help lift people out of poverty.
A new tool is emerging across the country to achieve equitable development outcomes - the community benefits agreement (CBA). A community benefits agreement is a legally enforceable contract that sets forth a range of strategic investments, services, and tangible dividends provided to local communities as part of a development project. It is often the result of direct negotiations between a developer and organized representatives of affected communities – locking in an agreement by the developer to shape the project in ways that deliver specific benefits for the community.
Community benefits agreements may include living-wage requirements, minority contracting, first-source hiring preferences, fair labor practices, job training programs, land banking and affordable housing set asides, increased urban densities, transit integration, open space protections, environmental clean-up, community service centers, direct community involvement in the development planning process, creation of new funding resources, and other provisions.
Across the country, CBAs have united community and neighborhood groups and led to alliances with transit, land-use, housing and labor advocates.
Minneapolis Wireless CBA
The Alliance’s first CBA victory came in 2006, when we brought broad community representation together to recommend community benefits provisions for the city of Minneapolis to include in the contract with its chosen municipal wireless broadband vendor. The outcome is a Digital Inclusion Fund, housed at and managed by the Minneapolis Foundation, which is expected to grow to at least $11 million to fund digital justice projects throughout the city.
Purina Mills CBA
In a recent victory, LCC signed a CBA with developer Dale Joel on February 27, 2008. The CBA will ensure that redevelopment of the Purina Mills site, just east of Hiawatha Avenue on 38th Street in Minneapolis, will provide lasting benefits to the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, including affordable housing assurances, support for local businesses and community groups, green design techniques, and bike and pedestrian integration. This will be one of the first opportunities in the Twin Cities for a community group to test monitoring and enforcement techniques. Click here to read the details of the CBA (PDF).
CBA Efforts Across America
To learn more about the CBA movement across the country, visit these web sites:
Good Jobs First
www.goodjobsfirst.org
California Partnership for Working Families
www.californiapartnership.org
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)
www.laane.org
Working Partnerships USA
www.wpusa.org
East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE)
www.workingeastbay.org
The Mobility Agenda
http://www.mobilityagenda.org/home/file.axd?file=2008%2f12%2fCBApaperfortheinternet.pdf