Issues meeting notes

1/20/11

Ben Boyce, Coordinator,  Accountable Development Coalition

We were fortunate to have Ben Boyce, coordinator of the ADC, or Accountable Development Coalition, speak with us today.

Ben described the ADC’s purpose and principles , which can be found on their website. CCSR is a member organization and Anne Seeley is our representative there. The origins of the ADC were in 2005-6. The aim is “to create a platform for good progressive development in Sonoma County”.

Among the member groups are CCSR, Sonoma County Conservation Action (SCCA), Greenbelt Alliance, the North Bay Labor Council, the Building Trades Council and the Sonoma County Transportation and Land Use Commission.

In the past, ADC has worked with the Santa Rosa Station Area planning process, the Sonoma Mountain Village project in Rohnert Park, as promoters of a Commercial Development Linkage Fee for affordable housing, and against the expansion of the Rohnert Park Walmart Store. They will be working on the second, or North Santa Rosa Station Area planning process.

Ben is the sole paid staff member for the group. They are supported by member group contributions, and expand their work by using grants. With such a grant, ADC developed and printed a manual for application of Green Building principles for use by cities.
Ben defined and described two policies the ADC will continue to promote, as they have done in past years: the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) and the Community Impact Report (CIR). The CBA is an agreement between a developer and a group such as ADC in which standards for development and labor practices are written into an agreement. If such an agreement can be reached, ADC will assist the developer by speaking for the project in the many entitlement processes they have to go through.
The CIR is a companion to an EIR done for a project, but instead of environmental effects, it assesses impacts on other businesses, needs for wage-appropriate housing, and effects on local government.

Anne E. Seeley