Community Land Trust

Community land trusts are nonprofits that create and preserve essential community assets through long-term affordable land use.

Managed by organizations or community groups, these trusts support affordable housing, nonprofit spaces, health clinics, schools, community gardens, and small businesses. By separating land ownership from property ownership, community land trusts ensure that these assets remain accessible and affordable, securing vital resources for generations.

Why it matters

Permanent Affordability for Denver-Area Communities

At some properties, ULC acquires the land, and sells the land’s building(s) or development rights to other mission-minded organizations. ULC then leases the land beneath the building to that organization at a low cost for 99 years (via a “land lease” or “ground lease”), with an automatic 99-year renewal.

Community land trust benefits

01
Lowering Ownership Barriers for Nonprofits

The leasing of the land (rather than buying it along with the building, as in most real estate deals) means a lower barrier to building ownership for mission-minded organizations.
02
Passing on Savings

Affordable-housing developers can pass along their savings in the form of lower rents for residents.
03
Locked in for the Future

ULC’s land lease ensures that community-serving uses are locked in for at least 99 years, even if the building changes hands.

How ULC’s Community Land Trust is Different

Today there are more than 320 community land trusts in the United States. The vast majority support affordable homeownership; less than 5% of them include commercial and other non-residential uses.

ULC’s community land trust is one of the few nationwide that has mixed uses. It is the largest commercial community land trust in the United States, with more than 165,000 square feet of space occupied by nonprofits and schools.

Mixed-use community land trusts help communities retain – via affordable real estate – critical uses like health clinics and schools, legacy businesses and other small businesses, as well as affordable housing.

In the United States, the majority of affordable housing developments are affordable for about 50 years, based on federal tax credits available to developers. By contrast, ULC ensures housing affordability for 99-198 years through its community land trust, and was the first in Denver to introduce the 99-year land lease for multifamily preservation/development, in 2007. Today, a 99-year term of affordability is more common in our region.

320

Community land trusts in the United States
< 5%

Of community land trusts include commercial or mixed-use space
99-198

years

ULC’s community land trust ensures community benefit for 99-198 years

Properties in ULC’s Community Land Trust

End of Properties

HISTORY OF COMMUNITY LAND TRUSTS

Land, Community, and Justice: A Legacy

The first community land trust in the United States was also a commercial one. New Communities was founded as a farm collective in 1969 to provide a safe haven for black farmers on 5,735 acres in Lee County, Georgia.

“The vision for the land was to become fully self-sufficient. Despite personal, cultural, and institutionalized discrimination, New Communities acted on that vision through the 1970s. They eventually would farm over 1,800 acres and operate a farmer’s market and greenhouse. They even earned a reputation for their cured meats. Unfortunately, all was lost in 1985 following a severe drought in southwest Georgia where black farmers were refused emergency loans offered to their white counterparts.”

– From New Communities