Class Presentation

Collaborations Between Community Land Trusts & Conservation Land Trusts

Tonight’s Agenda

• Executive Summary– Community Land Trust = “Housing Trust” – Conservation Land Trust = “Land Trust”

• Examples of Trusts• Regulatory/Legislative Background• Funding• Case Study• Scenario• Recommendations• Surprise! • Questions

Executive Summary

• CLC/CLC background– Housing

• Roots back in 16th Century; In US, 1950’s• Used by people wishing to avoid burdens of land ownership & then to reverse

widespread poverty • Goals: create affordable housing for current & future residents; enable residents

to accrue equity– Land

• Local, regional, Int’l• Total Trusts:

– US: 1950, 53; Today, 1700+– WA: 36

• Total Protected (by local & State): – US: 37 million acres– WA: 23k owned, 153k acquired/conserved by other, 44k easements =220k acres

• Goals: to preserve natural areas in perpetuity; to preserve farm, ranchlands, water sources, & landmarks

(http://www.landtrustalliance.org/about-us/land-trust-census/data-tables#no_lt_state)

Executive Summary

• Our Client– Cascade Land Conservancy, CLC

• 1989, Private, WA’s largest independent land conservation and stewardship org.• Goal: To lead a movement that ties conservation to our communities while

protecting and stewarding the land• Vision: A region of “spectacular landscapes, a vibrant economy, and great places

to live.”• Cascade Agenda

– Population: at least double in next 100 yrs– Create 15 new cities the size of Seattle within the Sound– This major project links conservation with the need for livable, well planned

cities

Executive Summary

• Our Project– Based on a forum in 12/08

• Hosts: Enterprise Community Partners & Cascade Land Conservancy, CLC • 90+ housing and conservation leaders discussed opportunities for collaboration to expand their

impact and advance common goals for affordable housing and environmental conservation– Strives to:

• Display that conservation expertise can be useful in community transactions• Show that the benefits of land trust collaboration are numerous• Show that collaboration will increase the capacity of both housing & land trusts• Offer recommendations on collaboration

Trust Examples

• Homestead– 1990– Mission: “We are drawing together our diverse

communities to build and permanently preserve decent, affordable housing and real self-determination in the places where we live and work.”

– Takes the cost of land out of the purchase price of a home

– Provides subsidies and partial down payments– Buyers selects unit & Sign a 99-yr lease– Agrees to a resale formula that keeps the homes

affordable for future buyers

• Bainbridge Island Land Trust– 1989, by 2 architects, state lobbyists, &

lawyer– Mission: “to preserve and steward the

diverse natural environment of Bainbridge Island for the benefit of all”

– Interests in land having significant or potentially significant conservation values like wetlands, open spaces, tidelands, forest, and stream and wildlife corridors

– Works with private landowners using conservation easements

Mechanism-example

• Homesight– Non-profit, not a land trust – Applicable methods and mechanisms – Goal: promote affordable homeownership opportunities through 3 interrelated program

areas• 1) Homebuyer education and financial planning• 2) Buyer purchase assistance loan underwriting and origination• 3) New home construction

– Example:• Pontedera Condominium on Hiawatha Place S & S. Dearborn St

– 50% of units sold on open market– 50% of units offered to first-time homebuyers of low/moderate income– Affordable units stay affordable for 20 years via deferred mortgages, low

interest rates (3%), and publicly funded second mortgages– Offers other programs focused on community safety and livability

• Example:– w/ support from NeighborWorks America and local community organizers, they

created a series of workshops for local residents who want to pparticipate in civic activities and

– Created Community Safety Initiative and Southeast Seattle’s Community Police T eam

Sprawl: How Did We Get Here

• 19th century homestead grants: encouraged settlement away from towns

• 1920s, the advent of the automobile and cheap gasoline • Federal-Aid Highway Acts, 1916-1921– encouraged working in town

and living in country• New Deal housing programs: 2.6 million homes being built from

1933-1941; favored new single-family homes on the fringes of cities• the property tax structure: most states required that land be

assessed for “its best and highest use,” that is, development

See: Brewer, Conservancy, The Land Trust Movement in America, 2003, University Press of New England.

This 1914 Touring Car is one of several Model T Fords given to naturalist John Burroughs by his friend, Henry Ford, in an ultimately successful attempt to convince Burroughs that cars aided, rather than hindered, the study of nature.

www.theHenryFord.org

Combating Sprawl Today

• In 1990, the state of Washington passed the Growth Management Act[1] (GMA), with the following legislative findings:

– “The legislature finds that uncoordinated and unplanned growth, together with a lack of common goals expressing the public's interest in the conservation and the wise use of our lands, pose a threat to the environment, sustainable economic development, and the health, safety, and high quality of life enjoyed by residents of this state. [1] RCW 36.70A.

Regulatory/Legislative

• Conservation Futures/Open Space: RCW 84.34.210 • Critical Habitat Areas: designated under the Endangered Species

Act• TDR: furthers GMA goal of focusing growth in urban areas • LID: rely on soil and vegetation to reduce pollutants and stormwater

runoff• Mitigation banking: economic incentives for creating, preserving or

restoring wetlands• Cluster Zoning: density determined for an entire area rather than lot

--by lot

Local Zoning Laws

• Thurston County: encourage imaginative design, creation of usable open space, variety of housing types; provide guide for developers

• Pierce County: Public Benefit Rating System – assigns priority points

• Bainbridge Island: flexible lot process that promotes preservation of open space and clustering of development

Funding

• Membership fees, donation of conservation easements with stewardship funds, planned giving, donation of land in fee simple

• Government grants - Brownfields: contaminated sites; liability protection for innocent

developers, including local governments and non-profits; HUD - Land and Water Conservation Fund, LWCF, assists with improving

and increasing outdoor recreational areas and facilities; federal program

Funding

• WWRP: Washington Wildlife Recreation Program - funding provided for parks, water access sites, trails, wildlife habitat, and farmland preservation. Municipal subdivisions, such as cities and counties, state agencies, and tribal governments are eligible to apply. Amended in 2009 to allow nature conservancy organizations to apply for grants under the program.

• Community, Trade & Economic Development/Evergreen Sustainable Development Criteria: sets green building standards for affordable, sustainable development; provides grants to eligible projects via the Housing Trust Fund

Adopt an Acre®

• The Nature Conservancy's new Adopt an Acre program in the United States provides critical funds for the permanent protection and restoration of some of the last great places on Earth.

http://support.nature.org/site

Case Study: Troy Gardens

Can We Harmonize the Goals of Environmental Protection & Affordable Housing ?


Welcome to Troy Gardens


The Players:• Madison Area Community Land Trust (MACLT)• Urban Open Space Foundation (UOSF)• Community Action Coalition of South Central Wisconsin, Inc. (CAC)• Northside Planning Council (NPC)• University of Wisconsin at Madison (Department of Urban and Regional Planning)• Friends of Troy Gardens (FTG)


What They Have Accomplished• 5 Acres mixed income housing• 5 Acres restored praire• 5 Acres community gardens • 5 Acres CSA farm• Intrepretive trail• Restored woodland• Hmong herb garden• Edible landscaping


• Successful collaboration between a housing trust, the Madison Area Community Land Trust and a land trust, the Urban Open Space Foundation.

• “Luck is where opportunity and preparation meet.”

• The opportunity: State of Wisconsin surplusing (putting up land it owned for sale at market price) a parcel of land in the city Madison to generate funds for a correction facility.

• The preparation: the years of collaboration, hard work, and perseverance that was required to accomplish the local community goals of environmental protection and affordable housing; Includes that development of relationships between people and organizations long before Wisconsin put the land up for sale. In the case of Troy Gardens:

Key Elements To This Successful Collaboration


• 1995 The state of Wisconsin surpluses the 31 acres and prepares to sell. • 1995-1998 The North Side-Planning Council representing civic, neighborhood and church

organizations mobilizes to stop the sale and development of the 31 acres of surplused land. Tim Carlisle of the Northside Planning Council provides the Leadership to protect Troy Gardens.

• The first partnership to emerge was that of the Urban Open Space Foundation and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• The Urban Open Space Foundation and the UW-Madison Department of Urban & Regional Planning are early collaborators working with the City Planning Department and the Madison Community Council.

• Madison Area Community Land Trust enters the picture and its Executive Director Sol Levin advocates for an affordable housing component.

• 1998- A Development Plan Concept is approved by the Madison Common Council and includes: community gardens, a 5- acre farm, prairie restoration, nature trails, and up to 30 units of owner-occupied housing.

• The City of Madison and the State of Wisconsin become involved in and support the project. • The solution: a conservation easement on 26 acres and reserving 5 acres for 20 units of

affordable housing. • 2001- The Land is purchased by the Madison Area Community Land Trust.• 26 acres are leased to the newly formed non-profit “Friends of Troy Gardens” • A conservation easement is granted to the Urban Open Space Foundation on the same 26 acres

and 5 acres are reserved for a mixed-income housing development.

Scenario: Basin Oil: CLC and Homestead CLT

• Located in South Park neighborhood• Half-acre property on west side of

Duwamish• Adjacent to Terminal 117 Superfund

site• Basin Oil Company transported and

processed used oil from the early 1990s until 2004

• Soil near Duwamish River contaminated by overflow oil

• CLC and Homestead could collaborate to redevelop the property with assistance from ECOSS

• Good candidate for land trust project because (1) on the land conservation site, Duwamish River drains into and affects water quality in Puget Sound, and (2) on the housing side, South Park neighbors want affordable housing and also want the site cleaned up and redeveloped

Recommendations

To help land trusts begin thinking about how to build partnerships, we offer the following recommendations:

• Host meetings and events for both land and housing trusts to gain knowledge of each other as resources and facilitate partnerships.

• Create a clearinghouse of the various funding sources available to land and housing trusts and for what purposes (e.g., salmon habitat restoration, land acquisition, brownfields development).

• Plan events and formulate media strategies that inform the public of potential collaborations between the two types of land trusts to attract new home buyers/lessees supporters, donors, and volunteers.

• Build partnerships with non-land trusts, e.g., housing agencies, developers such as HomeSight, realtors, lenders, construction companies, local government officials, conservation and housing organizations

• Hold numerous stakeholder meetings prior to acquiring property to facilitate community buy-in and support.

• Tap into the land trusts’ volunteer base and partners for people who can research appropriate properties that might be donated or acquired for the development of sustainable housing and preservation of open space/environmentally critical areas.

Recommendations

• Consider brownfields as an option for remediation, development, and open space preservation. Contact CTED or your local government for assistance.

• Set up homebuyer classes (see Kulshan Community Land Trust, HomeSight) that address home purchasing issues and also land stewardship. Consider making attendance at these classes mandatory for home buyers/lessees.

• Become well-versed in the zoning and land use laws of the area(s) in which you are acquiring property, particularly those concerning cluster zoning.

• Consider non-traditional uses of TDR, such as development of dense affordable housing in urban areas, while purchasing development rights on environmentally critical areas within the city limits.

• Consider outreach to the community to use the property for educational purposes, e.g., bird-watching field trips, salmon restoration project demonstrations, environmental education for school children, and green building and low-impact development seminars.

• Also consider outreach in the form of community improvements by land trust volunteers.• Employ green building and low impact development to the extent feasible and practicable.• Consider other options for property development and conservation such as matching

properties with appropriate buyers who will work with the land trusts to achieve their goals (see the Methow Conservation’s conservation buyers program).

1. Because together, CLTs and CLTs can accomplish more than they could alone2. They can combine forces to address two important issues – sprawl and housing costs3. They can implement the ideas in our extremely cool project4. They can have more potlucks with locally-grown produce, tofu, and microbrews5. They can broaden their membership base & increase funding6. They can form partnerships with a wider variety of organizations7. They can conserve more open space in urban areas8. They can use more acronyms like CLT, HUD, CLC, LID, TDR, ECA9. They can increase their community connections10. Because community land trust folks and conservation land trust folks have a lot in common

Acknowledgements

• Matt Mega from Seattle Audubon (who came up with the original idea for this project) • Rebecca Lane from Homestead Community Land Trust• Matt Martel from HomeSight (a community development corporation)• Erika Malone at Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition• Brenda McMurray and Asha Rehnberg at Bainbridge Island Land Trust• Jeff Aken at CLC’s Cities Program• Kevin Burrell and Emery Bayley of the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle • Dan Stonington, Program Manager, CLC!!

Class Presentation

Documents

Transcript of Class Presentation