Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Commons?
Commons are not a new concept. Indigenous cultures globally, for whom land ownership is a settler/colonial imposition, have practiced a community land relationship for millennia that does not include private ownership. In a commons, community members hold each other accountable as well as support each other in the healing and stewardship of the land.
It sounds so simple, but it’s difficult to rebuild and recreate land access in the “commons” model when it runs counter to current land ownership systems and beliefs such as land financial market value, wealth building, land tenure, independence, and success. Laws and ordinances, and support structures are designed to serve private ownership. A lot of work goes into finding the legal and social pathways for a different structure that considers the needs of the land, community, and an individual’s needs and values.
The commons model is not the answer for everyone. There are communities and individuals who prefer private ownership for good reasons, including a desire to control land use and the opportunity to build wealth. For others, this is a path to transform the monetization of land.
Why the Commons? Why now?
Commons are a transformative alternative to individual ownership models because land and natural resources change from an individually held commodity into a community held non-commodified relationship. This fundamentally changes the nature of land access and land tenure, meaning that it’s not an individual’s access to capital that determines access and tenure, rather one’s engagement in community and sustainable food production.
What is a Community Farmland Trust?
A community farmland trust is an organization or legal entity that works to preserve and protect agricultural land for the benefit of the local community, and typically operates as a non-profit organization while utilizing a community-based approach to land ownership and management.
What is the connection between Commons Land Community Trust and Agrarian Commons?
We began as an affiliate of Agrarian Trust and became our own land trust organization to more appropriately address our regional needs of local ownership, stewardship and governance. Learn more in our Origin Story.
What does Commons Land Community have to offer?
As a 501c3 Community FarmLand Trust, Commons Land Community offers a variety of support services for the development and protection of community based land access and tenure.
Support for landseeking farmers and stewards - we offer long-term tenure and equity building opportunities in a cooperative environment without debt from land purchase.
Support for landowners seeking values aligned succession - we offer a legal ‘container’ that protects land from division and unsustainable development with tax incentives and support for the equitable transition of land to the next generation of land stewards.
Land transition facilitation, acquisition, and holding - our trust provides an interim position for land between land owners, eliminating the need for individual owners transitioning out of ownership to “find the right person” or do the right thing on their own, while ensuring that the land is stewarded in the future. Commons Land can serve the role of third party with land transition facilitation and/or short term deed holding for land back and land return opportunities and also support long term land protection strategies for existing and emergent land based organizations.
As a commons, we are enthusiastic about resource and knowledge sharing and are eager to help support the emergence of other Commons. At its core, Commons Land is a community of allied individuals and organizations committed to community based land ownership. We help nourish this community by holding spaces for like minded folks to convene each year throughout our region.
Does Commons Land Community Trust use easements?
Easements cover a wide range of agreements and restrictions. The most simple explanation of any easement is the ceding/sale of a right on a given property. There are many kinds of easements – when talking about land and farmland, conservation and agricultural easements are the most commonly used and referenced. Easements are a tool, and right now they are a very visible and popularized tool. At Commons Land, we recognize that easements can be a fantastic tool for a given situation and, at other times, be an inappropriate tool. We will navigate easements on a case by case basis, working with all parties to figure out if and why an easement makes sense and whether or not an easement meets everyone’s needs and goals.
How do easements work?
Easements are a permanent sale or a ceding of rights on a property. The bodies that can hold easements are private organizations and government at all levels.
Easements can be used as a tool to:
Reduce the price for the land seeker while maintaining market value for a land seller
Provide a landowner with resources for grazing infrastructure or habitat improvement/restoration.
Protect land from urban development pressure.
Landowners can donate the value of an easement to an organization for a tax reduction.
The monetary values negotiated in an easement are based on current market values for that specific geographic area. These do not always reflect future market values and may or may not reduce future market value.
Easements can be very general to very specific, depending on the organization you are working with to buy or hold the easement and that organizations’ goals and missions for easements. Some organizations are more flexible in easement development than others.
Easements are forever, as defined right now. There are currently no ways to undo a permanent easement.
Easements require monitoring or surveillance. An entity holding that easement is tasked with “enforcing” the easement, or checking in to make sure that the easement is being followed.
Why are easements not the best tool for everyone?
Easements are created with the value framework of preserving financial wealth for the landowner while reducing the financial value of the land. This can mean a property with permanently reduced value, and can be seen as extracting wealth and rights from a property at the expense of future generations.
Easements require monitoring or surveillance. Different language can be used to describe enforcement, and formats of monitoring, check-ins, reports or visits vary between easement types and which body holds the easement. Many organizations and agencies work with the landowner to figure out what will work best. Many indigenous, black american, immigrant or people of color are not comfortable with government, agency or organizational surveillance.
Breaking an easement can have different results based on how the easement is broken, what kind of easement is broken, and who holds the easement. Financial penalties can lead to the loss of land ownership.
How can I get involved?
Commons Land Community is still emerging. We admit, we don’t have it all figured out and we need the diversity of skills and experience our wider community can share. That's how Commons thrive. Currently, we are working to bring people together to build a bigger network, share opportunities and possibilities, with the ultimate goal of land transition opportunities. Let’s connect!