Community Benefits Agreement 
This questionnaire relates to the Community Benefits Agreement being brokered with the Allegheny County Housing Authority. We have broken the Draft CBA into sections to allow for your comment or feedback on each topic. 

To view the whole draft document as one, please go to the following link: CBA Draft Document
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What is a CBA and why does McKees Rocks need one?
A Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), according to LISC, "is a contract between a developer and community-based organizations representing residents’ interests. The agreement spells out the benefits the community will receive in return for supporting the developer’s project in their neighborhood. CBAs often includes benefits such as guaranteed minimums for local hiring, inclusion of affordable units in new housing, and the development or improvement of parks or community facilities. These agreements can help ensure more equitable development, enabling existing residents to benefit from new activity and opportunities in neighborhoods threatened by gentrification and displacement." 

In November 2021, a $500,000 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant was awarded to the Allegheny County Housing Authority to use in the creation of a plan to revitalize Hays Manor and the surrounding community. A draft of that plan can be found on the ACHA website. 

According to HUD: "The Choice Neighborhoods program leverages significant public and private dollars to support locally driven strategies that address struggling neighborhoods with severely distressed public housing and/or HUD-assisted housing through a comprehensive approach to neighborhood transformation. Local leaders, residents, and other stakeholders, such as public housing agencies, cities, schools, police, business owners, nonprofits, and private developers, come together to create and implement a plan that revitalizes distressed HUD housing and addresses the challenges in the surrounding neighborhood.  

To this end, Choice Neighborhoods is focused on three core goals:

Housing: Replace severely distressed public and HUD-assisted housing with high-quality mixed-income housing that is well-managed and responsive to the needs of the surrounding neighborhood;

People: Improve outcomes of households living in the target housing related to income and employment, health, and education; and

Neighborhood: Create the conditions necessary for public and private reinvestment in distressed neighborhoods to offer the kinds of amenities and assets, including safety, good schools, and commercial activity, that are important to families’ choices about their community.

To achieve these core goals, successful applicants must develop a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy, or “Transformation Plan.”  This Transformation Plan becomes the guiding document for the revitalization of the public and/or HUD-assisted housing units, while simultaneously directing the transformation of the surrounding neighborhood and creating positive outcomes for families."

We need your feedback on the Draft CBA that will be presented to the ACHA. 
Please comment on the following sections of the Draft. We appreciate your feedback.
II. DEVELOPMENT TEAM
The Parties recognize that development of the Plan that complies with Section III of this CBA requires a diverse set of participants;

The Parties agree to the creation of a  Development Team consisting of all interested parties to this project, including, but not limited to:

1) representative from Allegheny County Housing Authority,
1) representative from Allegheny County Department of Economic Development,
1) representative from McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation,
1) representative from McKees Rocks Community Development Corporation Ambassadors
1) representative each from ten various business and community stakeholders to be named later,
2) representatives from the McKees Rocks Borough government,
2) representatives from the Developer,
1) representative of the community churches,
2) current Hays residents, and
2) community residents At Large

Each organization that will make up the Development Team shall choose a representative from their organization to be a part of this Development Team.

The MRCDC shall additionally task the MRCDC Ambassadors with the responsibility of soliciting volunteers to fill the two positions on the Development Team that will represent the Residents of Hays Manor and the two positions that will represent the Neighborhood community at large.

All decisions regarding components of the Plan require a two-thirds consensus amongst the Development Team members.   If a two-third consensus is not reached  to lead development of the Plan the Parties shall submit the question to a Special Arbitrator. 

  • The Parties agree that decisions about the Plan must be put before and approved by MRCDC, as   representative of the concerns of the Neighborhood;
  • The Parties agree that decisions about the Plan must be put before and approved by FOR, as representative of the concerns of the Residents [of Hays Manor];
  • The Development Team agrees to work through disagreements until broader consensus is reached;
  • The Development Team commits to being physically present and accessible when requested. 
Do you agree with the number and types of parties outlined above; the 2/3 consensus requirement, etc.?  *
If you answered no or maybe above, what would you change and why?
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