A land trust is an agreement whereby one party (the trustee) agrees to hold ownership of a piece of real property for the benefit of another party (the beneficiary). Land trusts are used by nonprofit organizations to hold conservation lands, by corporations and investment groups to compile large tracts of land, and by individuals to keep their real estate ownership private, avoid probate and provide several other benefits.

A community or conservation land trust is an organization established to hold land and to administer use of the land according to the charter of the organization. A land trust is a useful way to manage complex divisions of the Bundle of Rights that people can own in real estate, and can be used to manage something as large and complex as a multi-state REIT, or as common and small as a single-family home. Alternate use, see charter airline, yacht charter, bare-boat charter or Charter Communications. ... The bundle of rights theory is a common way of explaining how rights in property are held. ... Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. ... A Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT (rhymes with treat) is a tax designation for a corporation investing in real estate that reduces or eliminates corporate income taxes. ...

Corporations sometimes set up land trusts when they want to compile large tracts of land without arousing suspicion or alerting people to their plans (which would cause the asking price to rise). For example, the land for Disney World near Orlando Florida was put together by using many land trusts to buy smaller tracts of land.

Individuals use land trusts mainly for privacy and to avoid probate. No one knows what one's bank balance or stock investments are, yet anyone with an internet connection can look up a person's real estate holdings. A person who has an auto accident or a doctor who accidentally injures a patient is a much better target for a lawsuit if he or she owns real estate investments. So some investors buy their properties in land trusts so their name does not appear in the public records. The land trust also allows the property to immediately pass to their heirs at the moment of death, rather than go through a long probate process.

Some of the other advantages of land trusts for individuals are:

• Sales price of the property can be kept off the public records
• Property taxes are lower if the purchase price is kept private
• Judgments or liens (such as IRS liens) against an individual's name are not a lien against their land trust property
• Partners can more easily continue a project if one dies or is divorced
• Interests can be transferred quickly without recording a deed
• Managing a rental property is easier when the trustee can be blamed
• Negotiating a purchase or sale can be easier when the trustee can be blamed
• Liability on financing can be limited to the assets of the trust

Investment trust companies hold property for investment purposes and non-citizens who want long-term access to land in Mexico often enter real-estate trust agreements, called fideicomiso, with Mexican citizens, but land trust more often refers to a community scale organization. Community land trusts are established to provide low- and middle-income families access to affordable housing while conservation trusts protect environmentally, historically or culturally valuable places. Land trusts are also in place to protect farmland and ranchland. Despite the use of the term "trust," many if not most land trusts are not technically trusts, but rather non-profit organizations that hold simple title to land and/or other property and manage it in a manner consistent with their non-profit mission. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

History

Land trusts have been around at least since Roman times but their clearest history is from the time of King Henry VIII in England. At that time people used land trusts to hide their ownership of land so they would not have to serve in the military or suffer the other burdens of land ownership. For example an elder uncle would hold his nephew’s land so they would not have to join the king’s army. To put an end to this King Henry in 1536 passed the Statute of Uses which said that if a trust was passive, that is the trustee didn’t do anything but hold the land, then the “use was executed” meaning the trust was void and the beneficiary was considered the real owner. In the late 19th century in Chicago some people figured out that land trusts would be good things for buying property for investors to build skyscrapers on, and city aldermen figured they would be good a good way to hide their ownership in land since they were forbidden to vote on city building projects when they owned land nearby. Since the law of England including the Statute of Uses was the law of America the question arose whether a land trust would be valid. This question went to the Illinois Supreme Court which ruled that if a land trust was set up with some minor duty on the trustee (such as to deed the property to the beneficiaries 20 years later), then the trust would not be considered passive and would be valid. Thus the land trust in America today is often called an “Illinois-type” land trust. Land trusts have been actively used in Illinois for over a hundred years and in recent decades have begun to be used in other states.

Community land trusts

Land trust communities trace their conceptual history to India's gramdans where villages held property in the community interest, and to European and North American land banks, which are quasi-public agencies that invest in land often to help build family farms or to encourage economic development. Residential land trusts emerged in the United States after calls among civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s in the American South for economic reforms to reverse rampant poverty. An Institute for Community Economics was organized in the 1960s to help residential trusts: A land bank is a bank that issues long-term loans on real estate in return for mortgages. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... The U.S. Southern states or The South, known during the American Civil War era as Dixie, is a distinctive region of the United States with its own unique historical perspective, customs, musical styles, and cuisine. ...

• Gain control over local land use and reduce absentee ownership
• Provide affordable housing for lower income residents in the community
• Promote resident ownership and control of housing
• Keep housing affordable for future residents
• Capture the value of public investment for long-term community benefit
• Build a strong base for community action

Residential community land trusts are now widespread in the United States, but seldom gain much notice beyond occasional local news accounts. The Institute for Community Economics in 2004 reported nearly 120 community land trusts of varied sizes in 30 states, the District of Columbia and in five Canadian provinces. While a few earlier trusts faltered, the number of land trusts in North America overall nearly tripled between the 1987 and 2004. 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Community trusts don't typically advertise their goals, but rely on community members and word of mouth to attract new residents. In residential land trusts, the community association usually owns land, while their occupants’ own buildings. Trusts usually retain rights to buy buildings from residents who move out of the community. The goal of residential trusts is often to protect housing prices from real estate speculation and gentrification but to allow residents to accrue equity, including sweat equity. Speculation involves the buying, holding, and selling of stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, collectibles, real estate, derivatives or any valuable financial instrument to profit from fluctuations in its price as opposed to buying it for use or for income via methods such as dividends or interest. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Ownership equity, commonly known simply as equity, also risk or liable capital, is a financial term for the difference between a companys assets and liabilities -- that is, the value that accrues to the owners (sole proprietor, partners, or shareholders). ... Sweat equity is a term used to describe the contribution made to a project by people who contribute their time and effort. ...

Conservation land trusts

The goal of conservation trusts is to perpetually preserve sensitive natural areas, farmland, ranchland, water sources, or notable landmarks. These include enormous international organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, as well as smaller organizations that operate on national, state/provincial, county, and community levels. Conservation trusts often, but not always, target lands adjacent to or within existing protected areas. The Nature Conservancy is a land trust founded in 1951 in the United States. ...

Many different strategies are used to provide this protection, including outright acquistion of the land by the trust. In other cases, the land will remain in private hands, but the trust will purchase a conservation easement on the property to prevent development, or purchase any mining, logging, drilling, or development rights on the land. Trusts also provide funding to assist like-minded private buyers or government organizations to purchase and protect the land forever. In the United States, a conservation easement is an easement — a transfer of usage rights — which creates a legally enforceable land preservation agreement between a landowner and a municipality or a qualified land protection organization (often called a land trust), for the purposes of conservation. ...

As most land trusts are non-profit, they rely on endowments or donations to provide capital to acquire land or easements. Donors often provide cash, but it is not uncommon for conservation-minded landowners to donate an easement on their land, or the land itself. Some trusts also receive funds from government programs to acquire, protect, and manage land. Some trusts can afford to pay employees, but many others depend entirely on volunteers. A non-profit organization (often called non-profit org or simply non-profit or not-for-profit) can be seen as an organization that doesnt have a goal to make a profit. ... Volunteers is a 1969 album by American psychedelic rock band, Jefferson Airplane. ...

When land is acquired, trusts will sometimes retain ownership of the land in perpetuity, or sell the land to a third party. This third party is often the government, which will usually add the land to an existing protected area, or create a new one entirely. Land trusts were instrumental in the 2004 creation of Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, as well as the expansion of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park by 50% in 2003. Land trusts also sell land to private buyers, usually with a strict conservation easement attached. Keeping the land under private ownership has the added benefit of maintaining the land on local property tax rolls, providing income to the local government. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve became a United States national park on September 13, 2004. ... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Area  Ranked 8th  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ... Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, established in 1916, displays the results of 30 million years of volcanism, migration, and evolution—processes that thrust a bare land from the sea and clothed it with complex and unique ecosystems and a distinct human culture. ... Property tax is an ad valorem tax that an owner of real estate or other property pays on the value of the thing taxed. ...

Some areas have extremely limited public access for the protection of sensitive wildlife, or to allow recovery of damaged ecosystems. Many protected areas are still under private ownership, which tends to limit access as well. However, in many cases, land trusts work to eventually open up the land in a limited way to the public for recreation in the form of hunting, hiking, camping, wildlife observation, watersports, or other responsible outdoor activities. This is often with the assistance of community groups or government programs. Some land is also used for sustainable agriculture or ranching, or even for sustainable logging. While important, these goals can be seen as secondary to protection of the land from development. Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals: environmental stewardship, farm profitability, and prosperous farming communities. ... Ranching is the raising of cattle or sheep on rangeland, although one might also speak of ranching with regard to less common livestock such as elk, bison or emu. ... Examples of well planned clearcuts in the Canadian Rockies taken from Green Spirit: Trees are the Answer Sustainable forestry - often relates to natural cover and forest where seed trees are left for natural regeneration. ...

The Land Trust Alliance, formed in 1981, provides technical support to the growing network of land trusts in the United States. The Alliance performs a National Land Trust Census that keeps track of the land protected by local and regional land trusts[1]. The last Census, conducted in 2003, reported that these trusts have protected almost 9.4 million acres (38,000 km²) of land in the United States, double the 4.7 million acres (19,000 km²) recorded in the 1998 survey. Over 5 million acres (20,000 km²) of that was protected by conservation easement in 2003. Although it does not include national or international land trusts in its Census, the LTA estimates another 25 million acres (100,000 km²) in the U.S. have been protected by those organizations. The largest amount of land protected by local and regional trusts is in the Northeast with 2.9 million acres (12,000 km²), while the fastest growing region between 1998 and 2003 was the Pacific (consisting of California, Nevada, and Hawaii), with protected land increasing 147% to 1.5 million acres (6,100 km²) in 2003. 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Regional definitions vary The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. ... For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

In 1891, the Trustees of Reservations was founded, perhaps the first conservation land trust in the entire world. Conservation land trusts now operate in all 50 U.S. states, as well as many other countries. Since then, the number of land trusts has steadily increased, with most forming in the last 25 years. Over 300 new local and regional trusts were formed in the period from 1998 to 2003 alone, with the last LTA Census counting 1,537 operating in the United States. Over 1,000 of these are members of the LTA. California now has the most land trusts, with 173 operating statewide in 2003. Massachusetts, despite being much smaller, was a close second with 154 land trusts that year. The Trustees of Reservations is a nonprofit conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural areas and historic sites in Massachusetts. ... Official language(s) English Capital Boston Largest city Boston Area  Ranked 44th  - Total 10,555 sq mi (27,360 km²)  - Width 183 miles (295 km)  - Length 113 miles (182 km)  - % water 13. ...

In October 2002, Property and Environment Research Center published a report by Dominic P. Parker entitled Cost-Effective Strategies for Conserving Private Land. This paper identified numerous ways for operating land trusts more efficiently, pointing out that conservation easement and other tools for land preservation may be less costly than ownership. Sometimes the various rights associated with land ownership are separable. A preservationist organization may, for instance, buy only the extraction rights on a property with oil or minerals, and then rent those rights to extracters on the organization's terms. The terms might include requirements to protect the environment and pay the organization royalties on materials extracted. Many land trust organizations had already been using these strategies for years when this report was published. For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... The Property and Environment Research Center, or PERC, is a Montana-based free market environmentalist think tank. ...

See also

• Cooperative
• Green belt
• The Nature Conservancy
• The Land Conservancy, a trust of British Columbia, Canada
• Creative Real Estate Investing
• Connemara Conservancy

Co-op redirects here. ... For other uses of the word Greenbelt, see Greenbelt (disambiguation). ... The Nature Conservancy is a land trust founded in 1951 in the United States. ... TLC The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (commonly abbreviated to TLC) is a not-for-profit, charitable land trust based in British Columbia, Canada. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Latin: Splendour without diminishment) Official languages English de facto (none stated in law) Flower Pacific dogwood Tree Western Redcedar Bird Stellers Jay Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 36 6 Area... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

External links

• The Land Trust Alliance