Puget Sound Sage: Community Benefits Agreement at the Dearborn project
Puget Sound Sage: Community Benefits Agreement at the Dearborn project: "Sage is proud to announce the Northwest’s first Community Benefits Agreement!
After almost two years of negotiations, an agreement has been struck between the Dearborn Street Coalition for Livable Neighborhoods and Dearborn Street Developers LLC on a $300-million project, slated to be built on a 10-acre site at the crossroads of Seattle’s most economic and ethnically diverse communities – including Little Saigon, the Central District, the International District and North Rainier Valley."
After almost two years of negotiations, an agreement has been struck between the Dearborn Street Coalition for Livable Neighborhoods and Dearborn Street Developers LLC on a $300-million project, slated to be built on a 10-acre site at the crossroads of Seattle’s most economic and ethnically diverse communities – including Little Saigon, the Central District, the International District and North Rainier Valley."
posted by Dan at 09:50
1 Comments:
Let's be clear - all the communities that were involved with the Coalition are not on-board with the project or the agreement. In fact there is still strong grassroots opposition and the framing of this as everyone is satisfied is a fiction. There are about 40 community, advocacy and business organizations that are still are united against the project.
The CBA is a milestone for Sage, and separately Labor has made separate agreements which are achievements for them.
But the agreement offers little to the surrounding communities to address the major traffic and air quality impacts. There is nothing for jobs for folks in the surrounding communities - something that CBAs in other parts of the country have provided. And the project still introduces several hundred thousand square feet of big box formula retail into a community that is comprised of small, locally owned, and primarily ethnic businesses.
These issues were at the core of the concerns over the project when Sage and labor joined the Coalition. And they are still issues today.
So it is a bittersweet victory at best...
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