Hello All,
I am currently looking at the best legal structure for my intentional community, and I am leaning towards the Co-op with an LLC or Land Trust. I was wondering who here is setup under one of these, and how is it going for you, and could you provide some insight like resources I could go to and get a better idea of the two.
Hi @misstnsteph, Letting you know that I just added the tags āresourcesā, ālegalā, and āfounderā to your topic! Weāre trying to keep this forum pretty organized, so if you can add relevant tags to your future topics, weād appreciate that participation. You can learn more about adding tags in our Getting Started document!
This is (somewhat) dependent on your location. This is a good resource, I think, to get started: https://www.nasco.coop/sites/default/files/srl/Organizer's%20Handbook-2020%20edition%20[Compressed%20Book%20Layout].pdf
and if you live in the Northeast U.S., this has some good resources:
Resource Center ā Cooperative Development Institute
I suggest checking out the website of Grounded Solutions. They have a lot on CLTs. Also the School of Living which uses CLTs with intentional communities.
Replying again from my personal perspective, rather than as a moderator:
My community is also thinking deeply about these structural questions. Right now, the three of us own a house together as individuals and donāt yet have a legal ābusinessā entity. Weāve been using a book called Creating a Life Together by Diana Leafe Christian to help guide our process, and there are a few chapters in it on the different legal structures available to intentional communities
If you are in California the best resource would be Sustainable Economies Law Center (theselc.org).
Hi Stephanie! FIC team member here. This is a great short video on CLTs from the FIC youtube channel. We hosted this event a while back with School of Livingās (SOL) Karen Stupski and Herb Goldstein so this is their take on CLTs.
Thanks for sharing about your process here on the forum! Iām starting a homestead in Maine with my partner and weāre interested in potentially expanding it into a CLT too.
From what Iāve learnt so far I feel like an LLC makes the most sense to me for what Iād like to either start or join. People own their house/unit, but everyone collectively owns the land together and makes decisions accordingly. I know that in some communities one or a couple community members own the land, but I feel like that could get lop-sided in regards to distribution of power in community decision-making and so it doesnāt feel like the right model for me. Additionally, being a 501C3 or being a land trust seems to have a lot more organized rules that legal entities have made, rather than the autonomy I think an LLC would/could have.
Iād love to get more input on these ideas to see if Iām wrong or just find out what is working for others here.
Iām also starting to see some potential advantages in owning together as a nonprofit (less taxes), or a private landtrust.