CLT Home for Sale – 400 Bunker Drive

One twin home unit (400 Bunker Drive) is currently available for sale by the owners through First Homes  This home is in the Maple Hills development, opposite the soccer fields at Maple Street and Jefferson Parkway.  

The home is sold as house only with a 99-year lease on the land (the Land Trust retains title to the land), and sale is restricted to families within certain incomes.

For further information, contact Chris Flood 507-287-7117 at First Homes.

Northfield Community Land Trust Takes New Direction

When the Land Trust was created in 2001, it was envisioned that the organization would grow to a point to where it would be able to hire part-time staff to assist the volunteer Board.  Seven years of growth with our land trust, and the experience of other land trusts throughout the state, have taught us that the economies of scale for a land trust to have even part-time staff is much larger than first envisioned.  In order to find a way to provide a higher level of service to the Cannon River Community Land Trust home owners, the Cannon River Community Land Trust Board of Directors has initiated a dialog with First Homes, a housing organization which is part of the Rochester Area Foundation.  First Homes is a non-profit organization that was created to build affordable housing in the Rochester Area and throughout Southeastern Minnesota.  The organization builds and manages different types of affordable housing including a community land trust.  The Board pursuing discussions with First Homes assume ownership of the land owned by the Cannon River Community Land Trust, and the leases that it maintains with each of the homeowners.  The following are the main items why the Board is considering this action:

 

1.  Full-time staff support in the First Homes organization

2.  The organization owning the property and managing the lease may change, but the terms of the lease would remain in effect

3.  The homes and property would continue in a community land trust program

4.  The availability of other housing resources to CLT homeowners

5.  This transfer of the property and the assignment of the lease from the Cannon River Community Land Trust can only occur with the consent of the CLT homeowners.  So in order to more fully explain the process and answer any questions you may have, an information meeting will be held shortly to answer questions.

CLT Continues to Sell Homes

The Cannon River Community Land Trust (CRCLT) has sold three of the twinhome units that it purchased from the Northfield Housing and Redevelopment Authority in February 2007.  In addition to the one remaining twinhome at 400 Bunker Drive, the CRCLT has repurchased a CLT single-family home at 1905 Wilcox Blvd. from the homeowners for resale in the Community Land Trust Program.  The homeowners decided to move and purchase a home in the private market.  This demonstrates that the Community Land Trust Program is working as designed by allowing persons or families to move into homeownership at an affordable price and build equity for later use in moving up in the housing market.

CLT Buying 3 Remaining Twinhomes in Maple Hills

The Cannon River Community Land Trust (CLT) has worked out a purchase agreement with the Northfield Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) to purchase the last three remaining twinhomes in the Maple Hills development.  Previously the CLT had been purchasing the homes as it found buyers.  The goal in having the CLT purchase the remaining twinhomes is complete the development from the HRA’s perspective, which will allow the HRA to focus its full attention to other housing issues in Northfield.  The move allows the CLT to keep the homes in the land trust program while it continues to market them.

CLT Session at NAHRO Conference

I was honored to share the podium with Sheri Harris from the Central Minnesota Communty Land Trust at the Fall Conference of the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials at Breezy Point.  There were over a dozen attending the morning session as Sheri and I navigated through the powerpoint presentation and answered numerous questions.  I explainted the creation of teh CLT homes in Northfield and gave examples of our developments such as Maple Hills (Bunker Drive).  It appears that Land Trusts are gaining momentum in the providing long-term affordable housing.  Many of the participants queried both Sheri and I on the process to create a Land Trust.  It is exciting to see communties adpat the model to their particular needs.