As communities across the state struggle to find ways to create and maintain low-cost housing, one Orange County city is adopting a strategy first used by environmentalists to protect open space.
Irvine, a rapidly growing city of 180,000, with outstanding schools and a low crime rate, is creating a land trust whose goal will be to make 10% of the city's housing permanently low-cost.
By 2025, the Irvine Community Land Trust, a nonprofit corporation that the city plans to establish within six weeks, will aim to own 9,700 homes, condos and apartments, more than any other community land trust in the country.
The land has yet to be earmarked, city officials said, but much of the low-cost housing would probably be built in the planned Great Park development.
In a strategy approved by the City Council last week, the trust, one of the first in Southern California, would acquire land through developer fees, government grants and other funding. City officials already have projected that they would have about $270 million to buy land.
The Irvine housing would remain low-cost because residents would buy their homes or condos from the trust and sell them back when they move, keeping just a small percentage of the equity. For rent-restricted apartment projects, developers would serve as landlords, but the city would own the land.
In traditional low-cost housing programs, the housing stock reverts to market price after a fixed time, usually from 20 to 30 years.
"We're making history," said Mayor Beth Krom, who serves on the interim board overseeing the trust. "There are communities that are reluctant to really make this a priority," she said. "But at the end of the day, shelter, food and mobility are essential and common interests that people share."
Land trusts began in the early part of the 20th century as a way to preserve open space. However, starting in the mid-1970s, communities started using land trusts to stabilize housing and rental prices for lower-income residents.
Community land trusts are growing in popularity across the country because soaring housing markets are making it impossible for cities to maintain affordable housing, experts said.
Burlington, Vt., has the largest community land trust in the country with 15% of its housing -- more than 2,000 homes -- permanently low-cost.
"Early on, we determined that what we wanted to do is create affordable housing and not pay for it over and over again," said Michael Monte, Burlington's director of community and economic development.
