Milwaukee Park East Redevelopment CBA

A 2005 Milwaukee CBA known as the Park East Redevelopment Compact (PERC) was the first CBA to be implemented through legislation rather than through negotiations between the community and individual developers. The agreement arose due to plans to demolish of a section of freeway in downtown Milwaukee, which opened up prime land for development. Since no unified development plan for the area was contemplated, the coalition could not undertake negotiations with a single prospective developer. For this reason, the coalition pushed to have its CBA incorporated into the redevelopment plan. While the city did not approve of including the CBA in its plan, the county eventually did, and the resulting Park East Redevelopment Compact applies to sixteen acres of county lands and requires developers to provide living wages for construction jobs, to incorporate green design elements into their buildings and to implement job training programs. The plan also requires the county to provide for affordable housing and to contribute to various community programs, such as those to train and find placements for minority workers. Additionally, the agreement set up a Community and Economic Development Fund to be financed by land sales. The fund is to support the Community Advisory Board, which will oversee and monitor the implementation of the Park East Redevelopment Compact.

A nice report about the Park East CBA is available here, and a shorter brochure can be found here. More information can be found at the Institute for Wisconsin's Future website.