[Oscar Regen Tribe 🔺]

Will share resource we have been gathering from different sources 🙂

1. There are MANY legal structures that are possible for owning land collectively. My community spent YEARS debating the issue and finally settled on a 501(c)(7) Mutual Benefit Corporation, commonly known as a “social club”.

I found a lot of good relevant information to aid our choice in the documents on this site, particularly these two:

http://culturemagic.org/PDF/c1ICLegal.pdf

http://culturemagic.org/PDF/c1Legal20Inc.pdf

We are also a mutual benefit. It works well for us, but review all options

He will REALLY need a lawyer, not to create the legal entity that will own the land, but for the community to create bylaws and foundational ruling documents

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  Oscar Regen Tribe 🔺.

culturemagic.org

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[Oscar Regen Tribe 🔺]

#2 : My understanding is that Land Trusts are for people who are landowners and want to get benefits (tax deductions / grants) for conservation efforts (by holding sections of the land for conservation which means no building or agriculture on that land).

“Our land is owned by a 501(c)2 non-profit that is partnered with our 501(c)3 non-profit.”

The Land Trust model that Dancing Rabbit uses. Basically the land is owned by the c(2) and then the community interacts through the c(3) non-profit and the community itself. A community member there never owns any land, they lease. They only own improvements / buildings they add to the land.

https://landtrustalliance.org

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  Oscar Regen Tribe 🔺.

landtrustalliance.org

Land Trust Alliance

Land Trust Alliance

[Oscar Regen Tribe 🔺]

#3 You can also create a 508, a religious organization, writing a religious treatise is fun.

You don’t need a board and there’s less paperwork and automatic tax exemption.

Intentioneers.net has a lot of words and resources on different things, and one thing I learned there was the different structures for ic.

For example the international center for Krishna consciousness is a large organization that owns and manages lots of temples, but community members buy up the houses around the temples to create community.

I loved that.

That’s kind of a tangent, except for the way it allows the 508 to own common areas and the individuals to be able to buy into the community and have tangible equity in it

Good luck!! Rooting for all:)

[Oscar Regen Tribe 🔺]

#4 from reddit : Dancing Rabbit where I live is based on a land trust model, you can read more about it here. https://www.dancingrabbit.org/ecovillage-life/our-land/dancing-rabbit-land-trust/

The bits that I understand are that the land is held by a non-profit, which is governed by its membership and a Board that includes non-members (most of whom are former members or otherwise familiar with what we are doing). All of us who are members of the community are also members of the land trust, so we are the governing body. Our bylaws are set up so that major changes to the land like development or selling it would require agreement of basically the whole group. This means that there is no owner or landlord who holds power over the community and we can be fairly sure that the ground rules (pun) won’t change unexpectedly.

The land is organized in a sort of zoning system that allows for different uses in different areas and any member can use it according to the system in place. For example, a member who wants to build a house can apply for a leasehold (we call it a warren, another pun) by presenting a proposal to the full group. If it meets the agreements that we have in place and there are no major objections, they start paying a small fee to the land trust (the money is in a pool shared by all of us and used for land maintenance etc) and get to work building. Any improvements such as houses, sheds, or gardens belong to the owner and can be sold to other members later. The land itself continues to be owned by the trust throughout this, a bit similar to a condo where you can buy an apartment and own everything inside it, but the building itself belongs to the association.

Not owning the land individually is scary for some people who want total control of their property. This isn’t a good model for them and the downside is that you don’t have total control of your leasehold, you still have to follow the land trust agreements. The benefits include what I mentioned above (the land is owned by a group, so no individual can sell it or change it without your agreement), and also that we don’t have to buy the land as individuals. So if someone buys an existing house, the price includes the house, shed, garden, etc but not the land. That makes the cost of home ownership much lower than in a private property model.

We also have land available for agriculture and other uses as well as the majority of our land that is left for non-development and ecological regeneration. This means that I have access to tons of land and opportunities that I couldn’t afford as an individual. And as a group we get to do cool things that help support a healthy ecosystem.

I love this model and I’m glad to hear that you are looking at it. Someone else in comments suggested looking at other models and I would agree that is a good idea. I’d also suggest that this isn’t either/or. In our case, the land trust is simply a title holding organization that manages the land itself. We also have a separate non-profit that handles education, outreach, fundraising, and that social stuff. We have other cooperatives and organizations that handle things like car ownership and businesses. I’m sure you can find several models that will suit your needs.

I’m happy to answer questions in comments or email, although I am by no means an expert on land trusts or non-profits. If you want to get in touch with our land trust committee (a group of members who do the administrative work), they would likely share more details.

Good luck!

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dancingrabbit.org

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Page not found – Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage