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| '''= The basic achievement of the community land trust legal documentation is to separate the value of the land from the value of buildings and other improvements on the land''' [http://occupysecession.com/2012/07/18/new-agrarians-local-innovators/]
| | see: [[Community Land Trusts]] |
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| =Concept=
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| =Definition=
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| "The basic achievement of the community land trust legal documentation is to separate the value of the land from the value of buildings and other improvements on the land (fences, soil fertility, perennial stock, etc.). Land, a limited natural resource, is removed from the market and held in trust by the democratically structured, regional non-profit. The value created from labor applied to the land (agricultural crops, buildings, etc.) is securely the private equity of the person creating the value (the farmer) and is exchangeable in the marketplace."
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| (http://occupysecession.com/2012/07/18/new-agrarians-local-innovators/)
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| =Examples=
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| ==The Indian Line Farm and beyond==
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| Occupy Secession:
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| "In 1986 in my own Jug End Road neighborhood of the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts, Robyn Van En founded the first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project in the United States at her Indian Line Farm. In a CSA, consumers guarantee the yearly production costs of the farmer through a shareholder fee. Working in collaboration with shareholders, the farmer determines an annual operating budget. Ideally, the budget is then divided by the number of shareholders to determine the cost per share. CSA members pay in advance so that funds are available to the farmer during the growing season. In return they receive a weekly share of the harvest and the security of a local source of organically raised vegetables. Because of Robyn’s initiative there are now over a thousand CSA farms around the country.
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| CSAs provide an excellent model for consumers sharing the risk of yearly production costs with the farmer. Yet the question remains: how can young farmers gain affordable access to land in the first place? Again Indian Line Farm provided a model. When Robyn’s farm came up for sale following her untimely death in 1997, the sale price was too high for entering farmers. A farm income alone could not carry mortgage payments and still maintain responsible farm practices.
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| It was the cost of the land that put purchase price out of reach. This problem is typical of regions close to urban areas or deemed valuable for vacation homes. The market value of the land reflects the demand for house sites, frequently second-home sites, rather than the social benefit of maintaining a local farm. High purchase costs of the land and the pressure of mortgage payments on that purchase can drive a farmer to employ unwise farm practices and production methods beyond what is ecologically suitable for the land. If the citizens of the Southern Berkshires wanted Indian Line to remain an active farm producing vegetables for local sale, they would have to partner with the farmer to purchase the farm.
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| The community, working through the Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires and The Berkshire Taconic Landscape Program of The Nature Conservancy, made a one-time donation to purchase the land. The Community Land Trust holds title to the land, and The Nature Conservancy holds a conservation restriction. This has enabled two young farmers, Elizabeth Keen and Alexander Thorp, to purchase the buildings and enter into a ninety-nine-year lease on the land, the use of which is determined by a detailed land use plan.
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| The individuals who donated to the project needed the incentive of knowing that the Community Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy would not be coming back next year to the donors to refinance the same farm—that this one donation would keep the farm actively farmed and affordable for future farmers. Ownership, after all, is only a bundle of rights. It was simply a question of what rights the donors, working through the two non-profits, wanted to retain in return for their role in purchasing the land; put another way, how many rights would the farmers require to preserve the incentive to farm with all their heart and strength?
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| The Nature Conservancy used the legal tool of a conservation restriction to protect the ecological quality of the land for future generations. The Community Land Trust used the legal tool of a lease to ensure that community objectives are maintained. The lease has the following requirements:
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| The buildings are to remain owner occupied. They cannot become rental property or vacation homes for city people.
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| The land must in fact be farmed. The lease requires a minimum yearly commercial crop production over and above household use; however, the lease does not specify what kind of crops should be grown. This is the private affair of the farmer, based on his/her evaluation of local markets.
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| At resale the buildings must remain affordable to the next farmer. The lease requires the leaseholder to offer all buildings and other improvements back to the community land trust for resale. The price can be no more than the current replacement cost of the buildings, adjusted for deterioration.
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| The farmer is to employ organic practices and meet the conditions of a land use plan developed to respect the specific ecology of the site.
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| All other ownership rights belong to the farmer, including the ability to pass on the farm to heirs through the transfer of the lease.
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| The lease arrangement does not guarantee that the farmer will farm well. Such skills are cultural and acquired over many years; however, by taking away the burden of land debt, the community land trust does give farmers the opportunity to ply their craft under more favorable circumstances. As land prices continue to rise in regions surrounding cities, it will be ever more important for citizens to utilize such enabling methods to ensure a local food supply.
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| The basic achievement of the community land trust legal documentation is to separate the value of the land from the value of buildings and other improvements on the land (fences, soil fertility, perennial stock, etc.). Land, a limited natural resource, is removed from the market and held in trust by the democratically structured, regional non-profit. The value created from labor applied to the land (agricultural crops, buildings, etc.) is securely the private equity of the person creating the value (the farmer) and is exchangeable in the marketplace.
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| The private, non-profit community land trust is thus a flexible tool for a community to determine its own goals for land use and distribution. As a result of the success of the Indian Line Farm model, several conservation land trusts in the Berkshires and nearby Connecticut are in the process of initiating their own community land trusts in order to have a complex of legal tools at hand with which to protect not only open farmland but the affordability of homes and farm buildings for the future farmers working the land."
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| (http://occupysecession.com/2012/07/18/new-agrarians-local-innovators/)
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| =Book=
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| '''Book: The Community Land Trust. E.F. Schumacher Institute.'''
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| URL = http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/CLTbook.pdf
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| "The idea seems to be that the land (and ALL things it contains, like oil, coal, etc) is held by the community in trust. Then members can in essence "[[Rent]]" the land and build whatever they want (within reason) on it. The land is "their land" in the sense that they cannot be expelled and they can use it to make a profit, however, they can neither sub-let the land or sell it at a profit (land speculation)."
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| (http://middletnchesterton.blogspot.com/2008/03/insanity-and-sanity.html)
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| =More Information=
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| National CLT Network at http://www.cltnetwork.org/
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| [[Category:Peerproperty]]
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| [[Category:Agrifood]]
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