Citizens concerned about South Broad Development impact look to form coalition and secure a CBA

Citizens concerned about the new South side development gathered Monday evening at the City Council chambers to form a coalition.

The goal? to present the developers and owners of the new lookout stadium a community benefits agreement.

A CBA is legally enforceable contract between a developer and a community coalition.

On the agreement, citizens are hoping to get the stadium developers to promise things like every job at the stadium providing a living wage, local jobs, and sustainable practices.

Geoff Belldahl is with C.A.L.E.B. a local coalition that stands for Chattanoogans in Action for Love Equality and Benevolence. He helped lead Monday’s meeting.

“Our city as seen a remarkable level of development and investment. Oftentimes, the benefits of that and the burdens of that don’t fall equally on people’s shoulders, right? So some people can benefit and then on the other end, people are left with just the rising rental prices, the rising land costs, excess traffic, sewage lines, all sorts of compounding issues,” said Belldahl.

H. Maria Noel is the President of South Chattanooga Neighborhood Association.

She said it’s about having a seat at the table.

“We want to be a part of this community benefits agreement and the development of it so that it not only benefit our own community but so it also impacts businesses and individuals in developing communities, so this is a step in the right direction,” said Noel. “It is how communities can have more of a impact and development takes place around whether it’s a stadium, or the entire 100 acres of building that would take place and we want to make sure that we’re sitting at the table to understand parameters of how this will impact residents, workers, churches and members.”

If successful this will be the first CBA in the city’s history.

With a successful agreement, the community will have legal standing to make sure these promises become a reality.