Feasibility of a Community Land Trust in Cincinnati
Start Date
7-8-2026 11:15 AM
End Date
7-8-2026 11:30 AM
Location
ALT 206
Abstract
A community land trust is a way to combine affordable housing with environmental stewardship. A nonprofit owns land, and individuals can lease the land, building or purchasing property on it, and sell that property, but not the land. This decommodifies land, removing speculative land value, and making housing more affordable. Governance is tripartite: property owners, the local community, and environmental experts make up the board. The whole approach is an intriguing and promising one for faith and value-based efforts in keeping with Laudato Si, Al-Mizan, and other social ecological teachings from major religious traditions. Our project was to explore the feasibility of a community land trust in Cincinnati, through conversations with government officials, community leaders, nonprofits, and developers.
The project is not complete but has reached some important areas for investigation: first, it turns out that Cincinnati was a pioneer in community land trusts, in that it had a faith-based (Dominican Sisters-led, Archdiocese-supported) land co-op that eventually became a community land trust. The community land trust no longer functions, and documenting how this happened is a major goal, as this will shed light on potential pitfalls today. Second, there is interest from city government officials, including the Mayor, the Port Authority, and the Office of Environmental Sustainability, and there are angles that need a formal feasibility study on whether and how CLTs in our area can be scaled; we plan to propose this to the Environmental Advisory Board, which we hope will take this to City Council. Third, there is interest in Norwood, adjacent to Xavier and outside the City of Cincinnati; this raised some legal questions about the nature of property deeds and restrictive covenants (particularly on resale pricing), as well as the question of our “value proposition”.
Feasibility of a Community Land Trust in Cincinnati
ALT 206
A community land trust is a way to combine affordable housing with environmental stewardship. A nonprofit owns land, and individuals can lease the land, building or purchasing property on it, and sell that property, but not the land. This decommodifies land, removing speculative land value, and making housing more affordable. Governance is tripartite: property owners, the local community, and environmental experts make up the board. The whole approach is an intriguing and promising one for faith and value-based efforts in keeping with Laudato Si, Al-Mizan, and other social ecological teachings from major religious traditions. Our project was to explore the feasibility of a community land trust in Cincinnati, through conversations with government officials, community leaders, nonprofits, and developers.
The project is not complete but has reached some important areas for investigation: first, it turns out that Cincinnati was a pioneer in community land trusts, in that it had a faith-based (Dominican Sisters-led, Archdiocese-supported) land co-op that eventually became a community land trust. The community land trust no longer functions, and documenting how this happened is a major goal, as this will shed light on potential pitfalls today. Second, there is interest from city government officials, including the Mayor, the Port Authority, and the Office of Environmental Sustainability, and there are angles that need a formal feasibility study on whether and how CLTs in our area can be scaled; we plan to propose this to the Environmental Advisory Board, which we hope will take this to City Council. Third, there is interest in Norwood, adjacent to Xavier and outside the City of Cincinnati; this raised some legal questions about the nature of property deeds and restrictive covenants (particularly on resale pricing), as well as the question of our “value proposition”.
