From oil dependence to local resilience

Community Land Trust - making land available to everyone

We're a young family with 2 young daughters. I work full time as an engineer and get a fair pay. My wife works part time in daycare, mainly to be there for our children, especially in their early years.
First we looked to buy a house here (Kerikeri): no go, unless we work both full time for a killing mortgage.
Then we started looking for a section where we would live in a Yurt for a couple of years, until building a more solid house: no go, unless we move way out of town, the majority of the land is 'protected' by covenants, which basically selects for wealthy people (or people in big debt) who can build a villa from day one.

A lot of our friends around here are in the same boat. We're just looking for a place to live but all is fenced off and out of reach. Most of that land is doing nothing, just sitting there with endless grass on top, waiting for big money to be sold.

There must be something wrong here. Shouldn't we take care of the Land? Instead of calling it dirt and selling it at the best price, regardless of the intentions of the new owner?

I was thinking about buying a bigger piece of land with a group of people, to keep costs down, keeping the land in one piece and leasing it to the people who live on it. I was surfing the internet to find some more supporting information.
Apparently this idea (in a much better organized way than mine) exists for more than 40 years now and is widely and successfully tried out!

Community Land Trusts are growing quickly in America and the UK, and are based on the following principles:
- land is owned by the Trust, never divided and leased to the families who live there
- the house and other structures put onto the land are owned by the individual families
- continuous affordability: each family can sell it's house but at a controlled price, mostly linked to local wages
- shared governance: 3 groups comprise the Trust representatives: families who live on the land, people from the surrounding community and local government or other stakeholders
- continuous expansion: the Trust commits itself to continuously try to expand the model and acquire new land

I really like this idea, it has a beautiful vision AND it is practical.

What are the pros and cons to try to build this locally ?

Tags: CLT, affordable, community, house, housing, land, lease, loans, mortgage, price, More…trust

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Geert Dierick on February 3, 2009 at 22:33

Hi Helen

Great that this discussion keeps on being revived.
Could you explain a bit more ?

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Permalink Reply by James Edwards on February 12, 2009 at 12:42

Hi Geert,

I would really appreciate a response to what I wrote on page three of this comment thread as I put alot of effort into and to get no reaction ensures that the effort was a waste of time.

regards,
James

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Permalink Reply by Geert Dierick on February 16, 2009 at 23:30

Hi James

I didn't intend to offend you in any way.
I wasn't aware that your message contained a request for a specific response from my side.

At the moment, I'm still in the early stages and trying to decide whether I want to take the Community land trust idea forward. Once the ball would start rolling, I'm sure your ideas would be valuable concepts to explore.

Regards,
Geert

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Permalink Reply by James Edwards on February 19, 2009 at 21:27

Hey Geert,

I didn't mean to infer that I was upset. Just thought that some recognition of my contribution to the discussion wouldn't go amiss. No hard feelings.

I think that a cooperative land ownership enterprise is a worthy endeavour. I don't think that you should be dissuaded from continuing with the project merely due to bureaucratic intransigiance, though I would understand it if you were.

I've stumbled across a book that you may find of use in developing the concept. Its entitled, Living in Utopia, New Zealand's Intentional Communities. The authors recognise that New Zealand's legal structure of property ownership makes it difficult
to establish commons based housing arrangements. Apparently Trust Law in New Zealand entrenches a conflict between the Trustee and Beneficiary as it grants immense power to Trustees and little to Beneficiaries. It also claims that Trust law is needlessly restrictive and ensures that the legal status of many intentional communities is both uncertain and unstable.

http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=u_tQP3bQuJwC&dq=Living+in+Ut...

I believe that the Limited Liability Partnership model that I discussed in my prior comment could act as a superior legal structure as it grants the prospective Intentional Community the flexibility and certain and stable legal status that is currently not provided under trust law.

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Permalink Reply by Geert Dierick on February 20, 2009 at 22:18

Hi James

I don't know a lot about legal structures but as you point out, NZ law could make the creation of a community land trust (CLT) more difficult.
I would be interested to know more about your view on Limited Liability Partnership. I checked your previous mail again but couldn't find the details there. What is the difference with a Trust and how could it benefit CLT formation ?

Also, in the UK they are currently working actively on building new CLTs and also national structure to support it. They recently got a new law through parliament who specifically focusses on the legal structure and support for CLTs.
They also have started a Community Land Trusts Ning site.

There are good discussion out there, already 130 people on the network so plenty of brains to share ideas.
Also check out 'Tricia Austin' on the site. She works at Auckland University and is currently working on a model to make Community Land Trusts feasible in NZ.

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Permalink Reply by James Edwards on February 21, 2009 at 20:04

Hey Geert,

Re. the Limited Liability Partnership, its viable to be introduced in New Zealand, because it effectively a consensual partnership model that provides a framework for several individuals to negotiate and define their individual rights, responsibilities, and duties without being reliant on any particular legal jurisdictions prescriptive approach to law. Thats as I understand it, from my conversations with the founder of the Open Capital Model.

He describes his model that relates to its use in a cooperative housing arrangement, in a detailed article in the Asia Times Online. A relevant excerpt is here. "A capital partnership is essentially a new type of partnership-based evergreen leasing framework. Property freeholds are held within the framework by a custodian with property occupiers and financiers as co-owners, as follows: Occupiers pay a capital rental for the use of the property. An affordable, but index-linked, rental is then set. Units in pools of property rentals are then sold to long-term investors. Any rental paid by the occupier before due date automatically becomes investment. When an occupier's income as an investor equals the rental due for the use of the property he is - in economic terms - the owner. "
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JD03Dj04.html

He also presented his concept at the UK alternative economic conference, FEASTA, which can be viewed on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgd3_34TyW4&feature=channel_page
http://www.opencapital.net/theory.htm

I'll have a look into the CLT and its applicability in New Zealand, but I think it will run into trouble with current law.

I can't really comment about it, cos I don't know enough about it.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer F Aird on November 18, 2009 at 7:08

Hi All
It's great so many of you are playing with this idea and how it can work in NZ. I'll be coming to NZ for 3 months (Dec 5th - March 10th for summer yay!) and travelling fairly widely around the country. I host a Ning site in the UK for Community Land Trusts and also the website www.communitylandtrust.org.uk so perhaps my experience might be useful to some of you.

I'd be happy to visit any of you or meet up - perhaps to bounce ideas and share stories from CLTs that are more established?

Do get in touch
Cheers
Jen

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Permalink Reply by Geert Dierick on November 18, 2009 at 20:26

Hi Jennifer

Good to see you here!
I hope you have a great time in NZ.

As you might know, I strongly believe in the CLT model and was playing with the idea of starting one in NZ.
Currently, we've put our focus on a reviving community in the Coromandel.
The land, 150 acres, is managed by a trust. The trust also owns all buildings and businesses. Current members (~6) are hesitant to put any money in the old houses since they don't own it.
I see great potential in this community and believe that the CLT model could help revitalise it, with the community managing the land and each family taking care of its own house. Businesses could be individual or cooperative.

If all goes well, we hope to move into the community after New Year.
Please keep in touch, it would be very useful if you could bring your experience with CLTs.
It's a magic location, in the Whitianga harbour.

Cheers,
Geert