This report discusses the concept, features, and implementation of municipal-level community benefits agreements (CBAs) in California. This report notes that these agreements enhance trust and cooperation between employees, businesses, communities, and governments by contractually binding them to one another following CBA negotiations. Notably, where large scale development projects are bound to a community through a CBA, this report finds that the economic growth and development is more wide spread across the community where developers and communities have a CBA in place than in cases where developers are not bound to the community through some contract. This report finds that CBAs both open lines of communication between community groups and developers and foster greater coordination between communities and developers by establishing goals of development.

This ordinance specifies forest mitigation requirements and establishes protections for local forest resources. This ordinance also establishes forest resource easement programs whereby developers may set aside or otherwise sell as credit unused forestry easements to other developers.

This report is a resource for community organizers who want to improve transit options in their local community. This report includes case studies of successful ridership campaigns and best practices for organizing riders and transit workers.

An ordinance encouraging government entities to purchase locally grown food by providing local producers a bid preference depending on whether the producer is local, sustainable, or a combination of both.

This ordinance specifies municipal purchasing preferences and practices which favor locally owned and operated businesses. It provides definitions and useful language pertaining to local growing practices, government procurement, contracting, and purchasing preferences.

This model resolution declares a specific day 'Buy Local Day' and expresses the city's support of local, independent businesses.

The resolution requires Woodbury County and any food service contractors who conduct business with the county to purchase locally produced organic food when a department of Woodbury County serves food in the usual course of business. A contractor may cover unavailable local organic supply through its current procurement practices with preference to be given to local non-organic food products. The resolution requires a single-point-of-contact broker, located in Woodbury County, to interact with food service contractors, for availability, price, quality, presentation and delivery terms for all locally produced organic food.

To provide transportation funding, the ordinance imposes a 30 year .5 percent tax on all retail sales within Los Angeles County and a 30 year .5 percent tax on the storage, use or other consumption in Los Angeles County of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer. The ordinance allocates all funds generated by the tax for transportation in LA County, establishing four separate sub-funds with minimum spending amounts for each.

This ordinance designates a portion of the county to be a transportation improvement district and allocates funds for the improvement of county infrastructure in this area. This ordinance also permits public-private partnerships in this district and establishes equitable transit and access as a development priority in this district.

This report briefly reviews economic and finance literature on split rate property taxation as well as a case study of the District of Columbia's attempt to use value capture to fund a portion of a new Metrorail station. Split rate taxation charges a higher rate for land and a lower rate for buildings and their improvements. Value capture is a type of public financing that recovers value that public infrastructure generates for private land owners. This report compares a combination of these techniques, value capture split rate property taxes, with other techniques for transportation infrastructure finance and concludes that value capture split rate taxation can balance policy objectives for affordable housing, economic development, and environmental protection.