Land Trust
Description
A community land trust is an arrangement that allows land to be held by a third party on behalf of the beneficiaries of the trust. Community land trusts serve to take properties off the real estate market in order to serve the non-market objectives of the trust. Many community land trusts serve to provide home-ownership opportunities to low-income families who would not be afforded the opportunity on an open real estate market. And by stabilizing home values and rents they have served to stave off displacement resulting from “revitalization” while offering improved access to services and amenities that beneficiaries of the trust would not normally receive. Neighborhood stabilization options like a community land trust are important for the Ghettostead operator to consider in the strategies used to provide valuable services to the community around it.
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Case Study
The Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust (BVCLT) is a non-profit developer that provides permanently affordable home-ownership and rental options to people with low to moderate incomes or with disabilities while also working to create sustainable and pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods. The BVCLT is an outgrowth of the Los Angeles Eco-Village, which is now a property within the BVCLT. Currently, four types of housing are provided by the BVCLT: single-family homes, condominiums, limited equity housing cooperatives, and shared homes. The BVCLT has an operating budget of between $100,000-300,000, and each of its properties has its own operating budget separate from the trust’s. The BVCLT is three miles west of Downtown Los Angeles and only a few blocks from a Metro rail station in one of the densest parts of the city.
Regulations
The land-use regulations that apply to private owners of any R2 zoned property would also apply to a community land trust with the exception that community land trusts that are also nonprofits are permitted to operate a farmers market on certain properties in R zones. However, the Ghettostead as a private residence is not one of these designated properties.
Tactical Options
- Create a community land trust that establishes the Ghettostead site as its first property in a neighborhood-stabilization and community-building plan.
- Own the Ghettostead privately without gaining certain regulatory easements provided to nonprofits.