Affordable, sustainable homes and communities

Lopez Community Land Trust is a 501(c)3 non-profit that builds a diverse, sustainable Lopez Island community through affordable housing, sustainable agriculture, and other dynamic rural development programs.  Incorporated in 1989 to meet the challenge of the cost of housing rising 190% in one year, LCLT was formed with the following Purposes:

  • To acquire and hold land in trust in order to provide for permanently affordable housing. Homes shall be built and lands shall be used in an environmentally sensitive and socially responsible manner
  • To provide permanently affordable access to land for such purposes as quality housing, sustainable agriculture and forestry, cottage industries and co-operatives by forever removing the land from the speculative market.
  • To develop and exercise responsible and ecological practices, which preserve, protect and enhance the land’s natural attributes.
  • To serve as a model in land stewardship and community development by providing information, resources and expertise.

Local Empowerment

By 1992 LCLT had completed the first affordable housing project on the west coast and was featured in the New York Times (“Low-Cost Houses on a High-Price Island,” New York Times, May 2, 1993). Since then, LCLT now has:

  • 6 affordable housing neighborhoods, three of which are designed to be net zero in energy usage, a total of 47 cooperatively owned homes and 6 rental units.
  • Over 60 acres of farmland held in trust for agricultural use at Stonecrest Farm and Lopez Sound Road Farm & Forest Preserve.
  • Internships for construction of affordable housing, sustainable agriculture, and Lopez School’s LIFE Program
  • Net zero office space
  • Coordination of Grain CSA (Community Supported Agriculture),with shares of island grown non-GMO wheat and use of a shared mill for flour
  • Publish biennial Farm Products Guide 
  • First USDA approved mobile slaughter unit in U.S. in 2001
  • Former site of a food safety testing in our FoodMetrics Lab, now serving communities in Puerto Rico
  • Began the Lopez Seed Library in 2011, now housed at Barn Owl Bakery and Heritage Grain Farm
  • Co-founded farm to school program (LIFE) at Lopez schools in 2006
  • Co-published Bounty: Lopez Island Farmers, Food, and Community, a story of local farmers and recipes from their produce