In December 2020, Independence Foundation Fellow/Staff Attorney, Justin Hollinger, and Staff Attorney, Joe Jampel, finalized a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) for the development of North10 Philadelphia’s Be A Gem Crossing in North Philadelphia, representing a coalition of community groups in the area including Nicetown Tioga Improvement Team, Called to Serve CDC, Nicetown CDC, Hunting Park United, and Hunting Park NAC.
North10’s Be A Gem Crossing is a mixed-use, multi-family residential development located at 3226-58 Germantown Avenue. The development will include 41 affordable apartment homes, 12,900 sq. ft. of commercial space, and parking.
A CBA is an agreement between a developer and community-based organizations that lays out the project’s contributions to the community, in turn ensuring community support for the project through issues like zoning variances, public funding, and public land disposition. Development projects have direct and substantial impacts on surrounding communities. CBAs present an opportunity for cooperation between developers and community organizations to mitigate potential harms and expand benefits and opportunities.
The Be A Gem Crossing CBA represents this type of cooperation. Together, North10 and the community coalition can ensure that the development expands economic opportunities for all residents of the 19140 area.
CBA Terms include:
- local and minority hiring goals for construction and demolition work;
- local-hiring commitments for permanent operations and on-site jobs;
- wage requirements for on-site jobs;
- coordination with Called to Serve CDC to recruit and place local job applicants;
- funded pre-apprenticeship training programs for the building trades;
- funded sponsorships for program participants to get hands-on experience through paid work on construction sites;
- commitments to steer procurement contracts to local businesses; and
- clear standards for transparency and community engagement.
“This CBA will be a template for large and small projects,” says Cynthia Barnes, Co-Chair of the Nicetown Tioga Improvement Team. “Knowing that this CBA will positively affect lives presently and in the future is very valuable, and we hope that it will benefit other organizations going through a similar process.”
Josh Klaris, Executive Director of North10, agrees. “North10 believes that all community improvement projects, including real estate developments large and small, need to happen with the community, not ‘to’ or ‘for’ a community. The process of negotiating this agreement was just as important as the final product.”
RHLS can provide legal support to community organizations to ensure that CBA commitments are workable and enforceable, and can help navigate common pitfalls with CBAs, including needed expertise in implementing benefits, navigating resource disparities between developers and communities, providing guidance in a changing legal landscape, and advising on issues of enforcement and accountability.
Community organizations interested in pursuing a CBA should contact RHLS as early in the process as possible, by reaching out to Justin Hollinger (justin.hollinger@rhls.org), Joseph Jampel (joseph.jampel@rhls.org), or Kim Dolan (kim.dolan.org).