Strategy in Action

Tool: Community Benefits Agreements

Since 2018, the City of Berkeley and San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), a multi-county transit system, have collaborated on new transit-oriented development(TOD) at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations. The City and BART established a community advisory process in 2020, which included a community advisory group. The group recommended community benefits for the development including affordable housing, public spaces, and affordable commercial space.In 2024, the City of Berkeley negotiated a community benefits agreement with BART as part of the formal exchange of land rights for the development. The CBA is intended to provide small and local businesses with affordable commercial space as the city revitalizes the Ashby and North Berkeley BART stations, because the new mixed-use developments threaten to displace small businesses and spaces such as the Berkeley Flea Market. The agreement requires the new TOD to provide a minimum of 5,000 square feet of commercial space for community-based organizations, nonprofits, and small or minority-owned businesses. In this space, commercial tenants are granted triple-net leases. While this type of lease is often considered predatory, in this case leases are offered at less than or equal to 50% of the fair market rate. By setting aside affordable commercial space, the CBA tries to ensure that small local businesses will be part of the new development.