Community Benefits Agreements for Artists and Neighbors in Changing Places

Action Tank will partner with Wave Pool Gallery and PolicyLink on an equitable community planning to research and develop a Toolkit for neighborhoods to advance community goals as neighborhoods manage outside investment that threatens to disrupt and displace residents.

We will facilitate artist-led research with residents in places like Northside, Price Hill, Madisonville, and Camp Washington, particularly those involved in recent negotiations with developers on behalf of their neighborhood.  

Simultaneously, Action Tank will work with national legal experts at PolicyLink to develop an expert-researched, artist-designed Toolkit outlining national best practices and tailored for Cincinnati neighborhoods and community groups. 

Finally, we will host a launch event for residents, developers, policymakers, artists, and media to introduce the Toolkit, encouraging city-wide stakeholders to use it.

September -  October: Action Tank will kick off work with PolicyLink to review national Community Benefits Agreement best practices. Action Tank and WavePool will engage artists to design creative community engagement. 

November - January: Continue best practices research, begin Toolkit design, and publicize engagement activities through community councils, Invest in Neighborhoods, Community Development Corporations, social media, and targeted email and phone calls.

November-February: Host engagement event(s) across the community to gather input from residents and summarize feedback for toolkit contents, release, and design.

March - June: Use feedback to inform final development of Toolkit in partnership with artist designer. Bring residents advisors together to review/test draft toolkit.

July- August: Host Toolkit launch event for audience consisting of community leaders, developers, policymakers, administration officials, artists and creative placemakers, media, and otherwise engaged Cincinnati residents. Distribute hard copies of Toolkit and widely publicize materials online. Propose Neighborhood Summit session.

A community benefits agreement is a contract between a developer and neighborhood or community stakeholders that requires the developer to provide specific amenities and/or mitigations to the local community or neighborhood. In exchange, the community stakeholders agree to support (or at least not oppose) the project.  

Many of Cincinnati’s neighborhoods are experiencing a rapid increase in new development, and their neighborhood leadership and residents are grappling with how to engage with developers in a way that allows for beneficial development but also protects the neighborhood’s interests by avoiding displacement, encouraging local hires, and building up businesses that will best serve residents over the long term. Over-the-Rhine, the West End, Walnut Hills, Madisonville, and Uptown are all experiencing development activity and have all endeavored to use CBAs within the last five years with varying outcomes.