Community Benefit Agreements (or CBAs) are unofficial agreements between a real estate developer and a community. When a developer proposes a large scale project, sometimes people from the affected neighborhood try to negotiate some sort of benefit to make up for the trouble they think the new development might cause.
Do communities actually benefit from these things? If not, who does? How do they work? And who gets to negotiate on behalf of the ‘community’ in these kinds of agreements? To find out, a group of students from College Now at Hostos Community College, along with CUP, CUP teaching artist Hatuey Ramos-Fermín, and teaching assistant Prudence Katze interviewed people involved with the Bronx’s Kingsbridge Armory CBA to learn about how the process worked (or didn’t work). They talked to lawyers, government officials, and community advocates to break down the steps in the CBA process.
Who Benefits from Community Benefit Agreements is a poster that sorts the events of the Kingsbridge Armory CBA into a timeline you can follow, and includes helpful pointers for other communities seeking to initiate or navigate the CBA process.
The group presented their final poster at Hostos Community College for a discussion among CBA experts, community members, students, and their families.