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Community Benefits Agreements
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Read Specific Community Benefit Agreements
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Community Benefits Agreements
Making Development Projects Accountable
 How can communities ensure that development projects respond to the real needs of residents and working families? This report offers an in-depth guide to creating legally enforceable agreements that guarantee quality jobs, local hiring, affordable housing, and other neighborhood benefits. Read the report.
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Each year, tens of thousands of new jobs, and almost as many housing units, are generated in the Los Angeles region by economic development projects, which often benefit from public subsidies and are always subject to some form of land use or other government regulation. Absent community input, the majority of the jobs in these developments—in retail, tourism, and other service industries—are part-time, low wage and without benefits or career opportunities, while the housing units are affordable only to the well-off. For this reason, economic development projects are an important means for improving job quality in key low wage industries and improving the quality of life for working families.
LAANE pioneered the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) strategy in the late nineties with the landmark Agreement for the Hollywood & Highland economic development project. Since then, we have joined with allies in labor, environmental and community-based organizations to win many CBAs in Los Angeles, and have seen the movement spread to metro regions around the state and country.
Community Benefits Agreements are legal documents in which the developer of a project commits to a series of benefits that typically include quality jobs, local hiring, affordable housing, environmental mitigations, community services and other components depending on the nature of the project and the needs of the community. The Agreements are won by residents of the project neighborhood and other stakeholders organized in cross-issue and multi-racial coalitions that build enough power to bring the developer to the table to negotiate. Often, the city government or redevelopment agency become involved through provision of subsidies or application of land use requirements. Over time, the city of Los Angeles has come to include community benefits standards in requests for proposals (RFPs) or development agreements without the need to negotiate a separate agreement.
Winning the CBA: The CBA process is not the same in every situation. In broad outline, the following steps usually must occur:
1. LAANE researchers track development plans and identify proposed projects that have the potential to generate a significant number of jobs in industries where wages and benefits are typically poor.
2. LAANE staff meet with neighborhood leaders, unions that are organizing in the sector where jobs will be created, clergy, and environmental, housing and other issue advocacy groups depending on the specific plans for the project.
3. Leaders in the neighborhood are identified and a coalition of the key stakeholders is formed, with residents in the leadership.
4. The coalition reaches out to residents and identifies what they would like to get from the project in terms of jobs, housing, services and facilities.
5. When the coalition has achieved sufficient power and visibility, meetings with the developer begin during which the coalition—always led by residents —negotiate the demands for community benefits.
6. Once an agreement has been reached with the developer, city or redevelopment agency officials will usually need to be involved and will often have to approve the agreement.
Normally, pressure is necessary to win agreement from the developer and/or the city. This can take the form of delegations, actions, media events, petitions, neighborhood meetings, turnout at hearings, and so forth.
What the CBA can mandate: With each new CBA—whether in Los Angeles or elsewhere – new benefits are added to the list. The particulars depend on the nature of the development and the needs of the community. Typical benefits include:
- Living Wage jobs
- Health benefits for workers
- Local hiring and training for career ladder jobs
- Affordable housing
- Community facilities such as health clinics, day care centers, computer centers, or meeting rooms.
- Recreational facilities and green space
- Environmental mitigations or enhancements
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