What is a Community Land Trust?

What is the history of Community Land Trusts?

How are long term land leases used in the CLT community?

Who is eligible to be a resident leaseholder?

Do Community Land Trusts pay property taxes?

How are CLT's different from conservation land trusts?

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What is a Community Land Trust?
A community land trust is a private non-profit corporation created to acquire and hold land for the benefit of a community and provide secure affordable access to land and housing for community residents. CLTs prohibit speculation of land and housing, promote ecologically sound land-use practices, and preserve the long-term affordability of improvements on the land.

A Community Land Trust is a democratically structured, community based non-profit corporation, designed to strike a fair balance between individual and community interests.

The purpose of the CLT is to acquire land and remove it from the speculative, for-profit market. The land is made available to individual families, cooperatives, and/or other organizations through long-term leases.

CLT’s combine the best features of private and community ownership. Residents have some essential benefits of home ownership: lifetime security, a limited fair equity for their investment, and a legacy for their descendants.

What is the history of Community Land Trusts?
Founders of the Institute Community Economics (ICE) conceived the Community Land Trust (CLT) model in the late 1960’s. One source of inspiration was Vinoba Bhave’s Granada or "land gift" movement in India, a successful voluntary land reform effort initiated during the 1950’s. Also influential were the Jewish National Fund, the conservation land trust movement, and Native American concepts of land stewardship. The Community Land Trust (CLT) is a contemporary American adaptation of these influences: a new model for land reform, preservation and sustainable, affordable development.

How are long term land leases used in the CLT community?
CLTs use long-term leases with the intention of providing secure affordable housing opportunities over a much longer time span. In this way, CLTs use public housing dollars very effectively, spreading benefits to low income people over a much longer period of time.

The LCLT retains ownership of the land and subsidies, and offers a 99 year ground lease with a one-time renewal option. The Ground Lease is the legal document that stipulates the conditions and restrictions between the cooperative and the Land Trust. It can be summarized as follows:

The LCLT raises funds from various sources (public and private), and acts as an owner and developer for the construction of the homes.

Once the construction of the homes is complete, the LCLT conveys the improvements (the homes) to the cooperative. A lease agreement is signed between the LCLT and the cooperative. In return, the Cooperative assumes financial responsibility for the payment of any loans and all expenses, including real estate taxes, related to the operation of the homes (which it owns) and the property (which it leases). The monthly rent under the ground lease is set at the minimum level required to pay for the taxes on the land, a portion of the LCLT office overhead related to the LCLT’s limited responsibilities as lessor.

The Cooperative then leases the homes to its members (the residents), also for a period of 99 years. The monthly rental for these residences (based generally on the size of each residence) is determined by the annual budget of the Cooperative and includes real estate taxes, loan repayments and reserves for maintenance and repairs. In addition to monthly rent, each member pays his or her own utilities.

A member/resident is free to sell his or her membership in the Cooperative and transfer the Occupancy Agreement on terms they negotiate between the Coop and eligible buyers, subject to two restrictions:

1. the purchaser/transferee must meet the federal government’s definition of a low income person in San Juan County; and
2. the sale/transfer price cannot exceed the amount the selling member originally paid for the membership increased by 5% (or the CPI rate, if greater than 5%) simple interest per annum and the amount paid by the member for authorized capital improvements during the period of the member’s tenancy.

Who is eligible to be a resident leaseholder?
Any Lopez Island resident who can demonstrate:

• limited financial assets, not including autos and equipment related to employment
• regular adequate income
• at or below 80% of the adjusted median income for San Juan County
• agree to terms of Cooperative By-laws and LCLT Ground Lease

LCLT homes are financed through conventional construction and mortgage loans. Costs are kept down through use of residents and interns in construction crews, and through community contributions of labor and resources. State and federal support for low income housing amounts to about one third of the total project cost.

Do Community Land Trusts pay property taxes?
Yes, Community Land Trusts pay property taxes on land and improvements.

How are CLTs different from conservation land trusts?

Both CLTs and conservation land trust control land use for the benefit of people in the future as well as the present, but they tend to be concerned with different types and uses of land.

Conservation trusts are primarily concerned with controlling rights to undeveloped land to preserve open space, ecologically fragile or unique environments, wilderness, or productive forest or agricultural land. CLTs, on the other hand, are primarily concerned with acquiring residential use.Some land trusts combine both purposes, preserving some land in a natural state while leasing other land for development.

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