Community Benefits Agreement Template

The “CBAs” of some recent projects have not been accepted as legitimate CBAs by supporters of the benefit community movement. For example, the “CBA” for the new Yankee Stadium was not considered a “real” CBA because it was negotiated by elected officials and not by community groups. [10] The agreement contained significant community benefits, such as $28,000,000 in grants and free tickets to local organizations. [18] However, the KBA has not been implemented smoothly. In 2009, the former Community Fund manager sued the Yankees charity, claiming that the fund had been mismanaged. [19] Although many CBAs have proven to be effective tools for improving the economic development process, several criticisms have been made. Perhaps the most important criticism is that the CBAs do not offer the opportunity to ensure that they are truly representative of the needs and wishes of the Community. The Atlantic Yards CBA, for example, has been criticized for being negotiated by only a handful of community groups, all funded by the developer, while many other community groups have been excluded from the negotiations. A report by the New York City Bar Association also questioned whether CBA negotiators will conduct good deals with developers and whether CBAs will disrupt the planning process. Various legal problems related to executions and counterparties can also weaken the effectiveness of the CBA. [17] Since a CBA is a legally binding contract, it can only be enforced by the parties who signed it. CBAs included in development agreements can be implemented by government and community groups.

[5] To date, there is no case law on the validity and applicability of CBAs. The 1993 contract, similar to Donald Trump`s CBA, for the New York City Riverside South project was the subject of an expert opinion by the 2008 New York Appellate Division, but the court found that the terms of the contract had expired. [9] Supporters of CBA argue that the community utility approach improves the development process for the community, developers and local officials by creating a win-win overall scenario. [9] Some of the principles and objectives that CBA supporters want to promote are: research on justice and community control in the next system.

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