In 2004 Community Legal Resources initiated the Community Land Trust Project.  A team of highly-skilled volunteer attorneys was empanelled to conduct year-long project to develop the legal tools necessary to support the development of community land trusts in Michigan.

A community land trust (CLT) is a private, nonprofit corporation created to provide secure affordable access to land and housing for the benefit of the community. The CLT provides access to land and housing for people who are otherwise priced out of the housing market.

CLTs are unique in that they treat land and buildings differently. CLTs permanently own the land on which homes and other structures or facilities are built, while individuals own the home (or other structure/facility) on the land pursuant to a long-term (usually 89-year) renewable ground lease.

CLTs involve unique real estate, taxation, and other legal strategies that must be adapted to Michigan law in order for CLTs to achieve success in Michigan.

The Community Legal Resources Community Land Trust Project was sponsored in large part by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

PRODUCTS

After careful review of the structure and operations of community land trusts, the Project attorneys developed a series of tools to assist Michigan CLTs.  The products of the CLR CLT Project can be downloaded by clicking on the title of each document:

• Sample memorandum of lease
• Sample bylaws for a CLT
• CLTs: A Primer for Local Officials
• CLTs: A Primer for Financial Institutions
• CLTs: A Primer for Local Assessors
• CLTs: A Primer for Title Companies
• The Homebuyer’s Guide to CLTs

All products of the Community Legal Resources Community Land Trust Project are available online at www.clronline.org/clt .

CLT PROJECT ATTORNEYS

Community Legal Resources thanks the attorneys and their employers who volunteered their time, talents and resources to make the CLR Community Land Trust Project possible.

• Randy Awdish, Pepper Hamilton LLP
• Christopher Ballard, Bodman LLP
• Jane Forbes, Dykema Gossett PLLC
• Debra Geroux, Butzel Long
• Vicki Harding, Pepper Hamilton LLP
• Jill Kometh, Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
• Cathy LaMont, LaMont Title Corporation
• Julius L. Loeser, Comerica Bank
• Mitch Meisner, Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
• Will Moseng, Michigan State Housing Development Authority
• Thomas Nowinski, Clark Hill PLC
• Brian Page, Dykema Gossett PLLC
• Randy Perry, Bodman LLP (retired)
• Noam Raz, Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC
• James Rose, Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss PC
• Glen Zatz, Comerica Bank

The CLR Community Land Trust Project acknowledges the many years of hard work across the nation developing the original Community Land Trust model. The work of the Institute for Community Economics, the Burlington Community Land Trust, the Madison Area Community Land Trust, and Burlington Associates, among others, built a solid foundation from which the CLR Community Land Trust Project could build upon. The CLR CLT Project would like to specifically acknowledge the Institute for Community Economics' Community Land Trust Legal Manual as the source of the initial document from which the CLR CLT Project's Sample Ground Lease and Sample Bylaws were created.