Community Development Corporation Questions Abound; Here Are Some Answers

Published: June 15, 2024

Misunderstandings about the nature and role of community development corporations (usually called CDCs for short) are plentiful. These private corporations are not held to the same “sunshine law” standards as local governments, in most places at least, so it can become difficult to obtain information about their internal workings if they do not live up to their mission statements about involving the community.

Yet their decisions impact the communities where they operate, sometimes very significantly, and they might be just as public-spirited as you would expect from your town hall. I am actually a big fan of the CDC as a driver of change and development, but sometimes the community does not understand what they can and cannot do, and at other times the CDC does not meet the standards of its own rhetoric.

If you have a question about community development corporations in general, usual practice among CDCs, or a practice you have observed on the part of a local corporation, you will be able to use the form at the bottom of this page to pose your query to the author of this website.

One question I frequently hear raised in conversation is how a CDC differs from a neighborhood association. On this website you can read all about neighborhood associations, which are private organizations of people who live in a neighborhood and possibly a few other interested parties, such as business owners. They tend to run like any civic league. 

In contrast, a CDC generally has professional management, at least once the corporation has established itself. As a generalization, we can say that a CDC frequently acts as a real estate developer, whereas that would be a fairly rare activity for a neighborhood association.  The CDC may or may not be interested in ordinary quality of life issues that usually dominate the agenda at a neighborhood association.

This website contains a page about starting a CDC but does not yet address a wide array of aspects of managing them. Just like any entity, poor administration, sloppy practices, and failed vision can create problematic situations for the community. The lack of transparency just adds to the frustration or mistrust on the part of the neighborhood.

So it is not surprising that visitors to this website and its predecessor asked enough questions about community development corporations that it seemed worthwhile to create a category pertaining just to these questions. Use the form below; also below you can see links to answers for questions others have asked.

A Good Community Home > Community Development Questions > Community Development Corporation Questions 

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