By way of introduction, I am Joel West, the President of the Cannon River Community Land Trust located in Northfield, MN.

The Land Trust was formed in October of 2001 as a non-profit to assist in the creation of long term affordable housing in Northfield and the surrounding area. The area of operation for the Land Trust is the boundary of the Northfield School District.

Since its creation in 2001 the Land Trust has created 16 affordable single-family and twinhomes and plans to have 19 homes in the program by the end of 2006. The Cannon River Community Land Trust (CLT) was able to accomplish this by partnering with the Northfield Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) on its projects.

The CLT and HRA have partnered on four projects in the past five years. With this strong beginning, the CLT looks forward to its future projects in Northfield and this venue to keep the community informed.

Watch for blog posts from Joel West at the Cannon River Community Land Trust… real soon now.