Most of us recognize the challenges facing our rural townships where working farmland, affordable housing, and ecological habitats are all threatened by development and rising land values.  Across our region the value of farmland for its potential as a new subdivision, second home, or country estate far outstrips its agricultural "carrying capacity".  This is more that just another pressure on the next generation of farmers;  it is a real threat to the long term food security of the millions of people throughout our region.
 
While many efforts are being made at preserving open space, much still needs to be done to realistically ensure farmland affordability to the next generations of farmers that our region will need as our economies, and communities "re-localize".

What makes a Community Land Trust different from other Non-profit Land Trusts?

Current open space and farmland protection primarily takes two forms; Donation of Development Rights "DDR's" or Purchase or Development Rights, "PDR's".   Most Land Trusts across the region focus on the strategy of Donated Development Rights. As non-profits they hold the voluntarily donated rights of private landowners, and in return the landowner receives various income and property tax reductions. While these tax-incentive based strategies have so far been successful at protecting open space from development, they have had other impacts in our communities as well. Few farmers have the personal income to benefit from these incentives, and as a result across the country these programs have had the unintended consequence of helping drive a rural land market that has only pushed the value of farmland further out of reach of new farmers, especially in those areas like the Hudson Valley where the private estate market is so high.  There is another crucial risk to these donated rights as well; they may or may not be permanent.  As relatively new legal creations they have not yet been fully tested in the court system when such protected land changes hands, and new owners fight to remove such restrictions.
 
As a result, many in the conservation movement who are concerned about working farmland are focusing their time and resources on PDR programs. When non-profits or others purchase the development rights from current land owning farmers, these farm families are strengthened economically, and often use the money they receive to pay off debts, capitalize new farm operations, or even buy more land.  This strategy is an important one in protecting the existing farm operations that have been the heart of our communities for generations. There is still a risk, though, in that there is no complete guarantee that this protected land will remain as working farmland, or even that it will be affordable to the next farmer when the land is sold because protected land retains such a high value in the market as a personal
estate. And it does not effectively address another critical need in our region if we are to build a sustainable food supply; how do we get the next generation of farmers onto the land to feed us all?
 
This is where a Community Land Trust can be important.
 
At the heart of  Community Land Trust's (CLT) mission is assuring permanent affordability of farmland and housing.  CLT's work by purchasing critical farmland directly, and making it available in long-term inheritable leases to farmers. This effectively separates the farmers needs for long term security, limited equity, and the opportunities of homeownership and farmland access from the pressures inherent in a speculative market where farmland is seen as just another "commodity".  Through a CLT model,  farmers have wide opportunities to build equity in a home and agricultural business, and even transfer that equity to their heirs, while knowing that the lands they are working are going to stay in farming for generations to come.

The additional benefit to the community of assuring affordable access to land for farmers is that farmers are much more likely to farm using sustainable methods if they are not under the financial pressures of high debts that force many farmers to use inputs and methods they know are not the best for the environment, but that they feel forced to use in order to survive economically.
 
Additionally, as democratic, community-based organizations, CLTs allow for genuine local control over  critical land-use decisions that affect us all now, and will do so long into the future. Through a CLT model, farmers and the communities they are part of, can be better assured that farmland and farm families will continue to be part of the landscape for generations to come.