Updates

Developers Required to Meet with Community and Labor First

For the first time, a City Council is requiring Developers to meet with both community members and labor allies before beginning the development process. Thanks to the hard work of Urban Habitat and coalition partners Congregations Organizing for Renewal and the Building Trades of Alameda County, San Leandro’s City Council unanimously voted in favor of adding an amendment to the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement between the City’s Redevelopment Agency, BART and developer/landowner Westlake Development Partners LLC.

The ENA establishes a clear public involvement process during the 18 month ENA timeframe and before an application is brought by Westlake (as the Master Developer) for this key opportunity site. This amendment to the ENA- the first of its kind- is a huge win after nearly 6 months of work by our coalition.

Boom-and-bust cycles have shaped the city of Richmond’s history. Its population quadrupled between 1940 and 1943; later, with the closing of its World War II shipyards, the population shrank dramatically. From 1970 to 2000, it grew at only half the rate of the rest of the East Bay. Today, Richmond remains an important industrial center for the Bay Area, home to nearly a third of all jobs in the manufacturing, wholesale and transportation sectors. Because of Richmond’s reliance on industrial economies, much of the city’s land is zoned for industrial and commercial use.

Beset by decades of economic, social and environmental challenges, Richmond faced significant financial shortfalls. “Historically it was unable to access its fair share of regional resources and was a city dealing with disinvestment,” recalls Juliet Ellis, executive director of the environmental justice organization Urban Habitat. “And for a combination of reasons the relationship between the City Council and community members was extremely tense, at an all-time low.”

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