Montavilla Community Land Trust
A CLT is a legal tool for permanently removing land from the speculative market. It's been used in 48 states for over 50 years — to protect homes, farms, and community institutions from displacement. Here's how it works, and why it's the right tool for Montavilla.
The Core Idea
"A community land trust is a nonprofit organization that acquires land and holds it in trust permanently for the benefit of a community — separating ownership of the land from ownership of the buildings or uses on top of it."
— Grounded Solutions NetworkMost things you can buy depreciate. Land doesn't — especially in cities. Land near farmers markets, transit, parks, and community infrastructure tends to appreciate relentlessly, regardless of what's on it or who's using it. That appreciation is why a 0.84-acre corner lot in Montavilla is listed at $4,999,000.
A CLT breaks the connection between land value and speculative returns. The nonprofit holds the land — permanently, in trust — and issues long-term ground leases (typically 99 years, renewable) to whoever uses the buildings above it. Leaseholders can own, improve, and sell those buildings. They just can't sell the land, because the land was never theirs to sell.
This one structural change makes permanent affordability possible for homes, farms, markets, and community spaces — not just for one generation, but for every generation after.
How It Works
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit acquires land and holds it permanently. The land is never resold. It can never be flipped by a developer or lost to foreclosure in the way private land can be.
Leaseholders — homeowners, farmers, businesses, market vendors — get a 99-year renewable lease on the land. They own and control what's built on it. The CLT owns the ground beneath.
CLT boards are tripartite: ⅓ leaseholders, ⅓ community members, ⅓ public interest representatives. No single interest controls the land. The community does — in perpetuity.
The National Landscape
The first CLT in the United States was New Communities Inc., founded in Albany, Georgia in 1969 by SNCC civil rights organizers — to protect Black-owned farmland from a wave of speculative acquisition. The model has expanded steadily since, accelerating dramatically after 2017.
The West has more CLTs than any other region. Oregon alone has four. Proud Ground, Portland's largest, has helped 740+ households own homes at 20–50% below market. They're a neighbor, a peer, and a potential partner.
Three Axes
Most people think of CLTs as a housing tool. That's because most CLTs are housing CLTs. But the model works for any land use where permanent community ownership changes the outcome.
Permanently affordable homeownership and rentals. Buyers purchase homes at below-market rates and lease the land beneath them. When they sell, a resale formula keeps the home affordable for the next buyer.
Examples: Proud Ground (Portland), Champlain Housing Trust (VT), Houston CLT
Farmland held permanently for food production — removing land cost from the startup burden that prevents new and BIPOC farmers from entering. Long-term leases make multi-generational farming viable.
Examples: New Communities Inc. (GA), Lopez CLT (WA), Agrarian Trust (National)
Markets, small businesses, and community institutions protected from speculative displacement. The least common and fastest-growing CLT model — and the most directly relevant to Montavilla.
Examples: Rondo CLT (MN), Urban Land Conservancy (CO), Partnership in Property (MN)
Most mature CLTs are hybrids — they protect more than one kind of land. Lopez Community Land Trust on Lopez Island, WA holds 47 cooperatively owned homes and 100 acres of farmland. That's the kind of hybrid model MCLT could grow into.
Closest Analogs to MCLT
CLTs that acquired a single commercial or market property as their founding act — the same position MCLT is in today.
Athens, Georgia
Operated the West Broad Farmers' Market for years on land it didn't own — 13,000+ lbs of produce, 200+ weekly shoppers, a real community anchor. In 2025 the market went on hiatus because it had no permanent home.
The lesson: owning the land is the difference between a market that lasts and one that doesn't.
St. Paul, Minnesota · Founded 1993
Acquired two city-owned lots on Selby Ave at nominal cost and built 34 affordable senior apartments + 9,300 sq ft of commercial space at ~$7/sq ft vs. $20–35 market rate. Later acquired a beloved local café to preserve it.
The lesson: a city land transfer at nominal cost unlocked a commercial CLT that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.
Albuquerque, New Mexico · Founded 1996
Formed specifically to acquire one contaminated industrial site threatening a neighborhood. That single acquisition became 34 acres, 93 affordable homes, three rental complexes, parks, and a plaza.
The lesson: a CLT can be founded around a single property — and grow from there.
Lopez Island, Washington · Founded 1989
After housing costs spiked 190% in a single year, neighbors organized. Today Lopez CLT holds 47 cooperatively owned homes and 100 acres of farmland — the Pacific Northwest hybrid model MCLT aspires to become.
The lesson: housing, agriculture, and commercial protection can exist under one CLT roof.
Why Montavilla
7700 SE Stark Street is listed at $4,999,000. A developer could close at any time. The window to act is open — but CLT acquisitions require organized community intent and pre-positioned capital. The time to organize is before a sale, not after.
The Montavilla Farmers Market has operated on this lot since 2007 without owning it. Athens Land Trust showed what happens when a CLT-anchored market doesn't own its site — it eventually loses it. We have a chance to solve that problem permanently.
The petition, the pledges, the forum — hundreds of Montavilla neighbors have already said they want this. That organized community intent is exactly what CLT funders, city partners, and CDFIs need to see before they commit capital.
Proud Ground, the Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition, Oregon Housing and Community Services, and Portland Metro's affordable housing bond program are all established. MCLT doesn't have to invent these pathways — just access them.
The CLT movement is growing. Technical assistance, legal templates, and peer networks are more available than at any point in history. New CLTs are succeeding — especially in the West, where 37% of all U.S. CLTs operate.
Zoning protections change. Leases expire. Owner commitments transfer with the deed. Only a CLT removes land from the speculative market permanently — not for 10 years, not until the next sale, but forever.
7700 SE Stark has been a community gathering place for 19 years. A CLT is how the neighborhood keeps a voice in what happens next. Sign the petition, make a founding pledge, and join the conversation.