In the past two-and-a-half decades, community benefits agreements (CBAs) have emerged as vehicles for residents of low-income communities to derive benefits from urban development projects. This paper locates CBAs in their historical context. It argues that the contemporary political economy of urban development has distinctively shaped their form and function. It theorizes CBAs as hyper-local civil-sector responses to unequal growth and market failures in the crucible of neoliberal urban governance. The paper concludes that while CBAs offer limited promise for equitable urban development, their organizing processes disrupt existing power structures and build possibility for further reforming the dynamics of urban development.