Community Benefits Agreement - The Community Benefits Movement

The Community Benefits Movement

As local governments grapple with their responsibility to shape development and land use patterns, the community benefits movement emerged to challenge conventional thinking and offer a broader vision. Related to smart growth and environmental justice, the community benefits movement aims to ensure that the main purpose of economic development is to bring measurable, permanent improvements to the lives of affected residents, particularly those in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Organizations allied with the community benefits movement have pressured the public sector to play a more strategic role in land use planning and urban growth, and to leverage economic development subsidies toward the creation of good jobs, affordable housing, and neighborhood services that improve the quality of life for all residents.

Although the community benefits movement began in Los Angeles, it has spread rapidly to other cities, including Atlanta, Denver, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Syracuse, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington. Leading organizations include The Partnership for Working Families, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy ("LAANE"), Strategic Actions for a Just Economy ("SAJE"), SCOPE, Georgia Stand-Up, and Pittsburg UNITED .

CBA advocates contend that the community benefits approach improves the development process for the community, developers and local officials by creating an overall win-win-win scenario. Some of the principles and goals that CBA advocates seek to promote include:

Inclusiveness. The CBA negotiation process can provide a mechanism to ensure that community concerns are heard and addressed. While some cities do a good job of seeking community input and responding to it, many do not. Low-income neighborhoods, non-English speaking areas, and communities of color have historically been excluded from the development process. Laws concerning public notice and participation are often poorly enforced, and official public hearings are frequently held at times and places that are not neighborhood-friendly. Having a CBA negotiation process can help to address these problems, providing a forum for all parts of an affected community.

Enforceability. A CBA can ensure that a developer’s promises regarding community benefits are legally enforceable. Developers “pitching” a project often make promises that are never written into any project approval documents, and even when they are, they may not be monitored and enforced by the relevant government agencies. By creating an enforcement mechanism or expanding the class of parties who can enforce these promises, CBAs can make enforcement much easier.

Accountability. CBAs enable citizens to hold governments accountable for the use of tax dollars by giving them a voice in how development subsidies are distributed.