January 1987 Home   Newsletters

February 1987

March 1987

Aloha, Members, New Members and Prospective Members:
League Interviews Council - Arnold Morgado (Arlene Ellis & Astrid Monson)
League Interviews Council - John DeSoto (Dee Lum & Mary Francis Sutphen)
League Interviews Council - Randall Iwase (Jean Aoki & Dorothy Murdock)
League Interviews Council - Dennis O'Connor (Rhoda Miller & Opal Sloane)
President's Message (Arlene Ellis)
Birthday Bash
USCINPAC Tour
Community Benefit Assessments
Development Agreements
Convention Center
Bills on Campaign Ethics
State Convention
YWCA News
League Education Study
MBHN Study
Vote Count Schedule
Neighborhood Boards
Annual Meeting
Calendar of Events

Community Benefit Assessments

League supported the objectives of Bill 194 seeking to set up a clearer measure of what developers will be expected to provide in the way of affordable housing and other community benefits, as well as strengthening the city's ability to ensure that these are actually provided in our testimony before the City Council.

Our main concerns with the Bill are:

  1. The bill should clearly indicate the kinds of benefits that could be credited toward the assessments and those which could not.

  2. As the Bill is written, it is the developer, not the city, who makes the assessment of community impacts and proposes a program to address them, with no mention made of community input into this process.

  3. The Bill contains no maximum time limits. Only the mayor, not the Council, can terminate an agreement. By making the agreement an administrative action, its proponents seek to nullify the U.S. Supreme Court's "reserved powers" doctrine which Holds that no law-making body can bind future legislative actions by contract.

League concluded by stating that the present bill tilts the field too far toward private interests. It gives land interests unprecedented rights in exchange for very little public benefits not already available.

January 1987 Home   Newsletters March 1987