Yes...a win for organizers; our eyes are watering at this Handling O' Biz for the betterment of vulnerable residents in Sacramento. 👏😭🙌
Aggie Square Settlement with Sacramento Investment without Displacement (SIWD)
On Tuesday, the City of Sacramento and SIWD finalized an agreement to settle SIWD’s lawsuit against the UC Regents for the Aggie Square project.
SIWD, a coalition of residents, organizations, and community stakeholders, has worked with the City of Sacramento, UC Davis, and Wexford (development company) to address the environmental, transportation and housing impacts the Aggie Square project is destined to create. The lawsuit was brought forth because the coalition found that UC Davis had not met their legal requirements addressing these impacts.
Furthermore, the org was confident that future developments would not uphold their commitments to the people of Sacramento if there wasn’t a robust community benefits agreement policy in place. (you aint never lied!) If the org did not hold fast, long-time community members in neighborhoods vulnerable to gentrification and displacement wouldn’t have protections in place to help them reep the benefits of these types of investments.
The City of Sacramento initially voted to defend the UC Regents position, and protect them from following their legally mandated requirements to address/mitigate/lessen the impact of their development, but ultimately helped negotiate the agreements SIWD set forth in their lawsuit demands. (well that's good to hear).
These agreements included:
funding for the housing trust fund
guaranteed jobs for residents
improved and enhanced transit service along Stockton Boulevard
regular community-led accountability meetings
housing and repair assistance for low-income residents,
and on-going engagement with community members while ensuring SIWD representatives are members of future planning and working groups for the Aggie Square development.
The agreement between the City of Sacramento and SIWD is to hold the city accountable for ensuring the agreements are honored by UC Davis and Wexford. In turn, SIWD agreed to continue working with organizations and residents in the impact areas to make sure they not only have a seat at the table, but are actively involved with the planning, design, and implementation of future community benefits that will be a result of this major economic and academic boost the Aggie Square project presents to Sacramento.
More about Sacramento Investment without Displacement: https://siwd.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SacIWD
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SacIWD