Community Land Trusts on rise

Community Land Trusts have grown steadily and spread all over the country, as more nonprofits and local governments have embraced the concept as a way to provide permanently affordable housing, according to a new survey by the Lincoln Institute.

Key findings of the survey, now available in this working paper , include:
• CLTs largely serve very low (less than 50% area median income), low (50-80% area median income) and some moderate (80-120% area median income) income households.
• While most (95 percent) of the responding organizations have units for homeownership, 45 percent reported that they also have rental units in their housing portfolio. The majority of organizations (80 percent) have less than 100 units including those owned and rented.
• Of the 6,495 homeownership and rental units reported, only 3 percent of ownership units and 7 percent of rental units were vacant.
• The majority (67 percent) of residential buildings are single family attached or detached houses.
• New construction is by far the most common housing development activity, although responding organizations also reported acquiring and rehabilitating existing homes.
Almost all of the respondents reported a 99-year ground lease, although some ground lease durations are for as few as 20. Nearly 60% of responding organizations reported that they had resales.

Property Tax Relief for

Community Land Trusts

Property Tax Relief for Community Land Trusts

In HB 1, passed June 14^th, (special session 2007 B), the Florida Legislature adopted property tax relief for the community land trust (nonprofit owner of the land) and direction to property appraisers on the valuation of the resale restricted home. But due to a legislative staff error in bill drafting, the effective date for the community land trust language was tied to the proposed constitutional amendment referenced in HB 1, which is no longer in effect. The following, therefore, is the language the House and Senate intended to become effective in 2007, but will need to be adopted again in the 2008 legislative session.

193.017 Assessment of structural improvements on land owned by a community land trust and used to provide affordable housing.--

(1) As used in this section, the term "community land trust" means a nonprofit entity that is qualified as charitable under s. 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and has as one of its purposes the acquisition of land to be held in perpetuity for the primary purpose of providing affordable homeownership.

(2) A community land trust may convey structural improvements located on specific parcels of such land which are identified by a legal description contained in and subject to a ground lease having a term of at least 99 years to natural persons or families who meet the extremely-low, very-low, low, and moderate income limits, as specified in s. 420.0004, or the income limits for workforce housing, as defined in s. 420.5095(3). A community land trust shall retain a preemptive option to purchase any structural improvements on the land at a price determined by a formula specified in the ground lease which is designed to ensure that the structural improvements remain affordable.

(3) In arriving at just valuation under s. 193.011, a structural improvement that provides affordable housing on land owned by a community land trust and subject to a 99-year or longer ground lease shall be assessed using the following criteria:

(a) The amount a willing purchaser would pay a willing seller shall be limited to the amount determined by the formula in the ground lease.

(b) If the ground lease and all amendments and supplements thereto, or a memorandum documenting how such lease and amendments or supplements restrict the price at which the improvements may be sold, is recorded in the official public records of the county in which the leased land is located, the recorded lease and any amendments and supplements, or the recorded memorandum, shall be deemed a land use regulation during the term of the lease as amended or supplemented.

Section 196.1978 which addresses exemption from property taxes, extends ad valorem tax exemption to “land that is owned by an exempt entity and that is subject to a 99 year or longer ground lease for the purpose of providing affordable homeownership”.