The land for Kotare Village will be owned by Kotare Community Land Trust (KCLT).
So, what are the advantages of buying a lease in a Kotare Community Land Trust?
Most eco-villages are held on the free market and prices are aloud to swing wildly and sometimes out of control. The free market is a major barrier to entry to most hard working families who find it impossible to enter the real estate market with current valuations. Thus, Kotare village will be held by a Community Land Trust (CLT). This is a non-profit community-based ownership of land which not only allows permanent tenure, democratic governance, but most importantly affordability for housing, farms and businesses as it takes the speculative market out of the equation.
Who controls the Kotare Community Land Trust?
The governance of the trust is performed by trustees, who will chosen by Kotare Village. Initially, some trustees may include financial stakeholders, that will be phased out and replaced by the settlers association as settlers purchase the leases and finance is repaid. We envision having 6 trustees, 2 chosen by Koanga Institute, 2 chosen by the Settlers Association and the remaining 2 appointed by the initial 4.
What is the role of the Trustees?
The trustees of the Kotare Community Land Trust are responsible for:
- protecting Kotare Village values
- insuring the Trust’s purpose statement is upheld at all time
- using available funds to promote community development which furthers the goals of the community, now and for future generations.
Purpose Statement (Kaupapa)
KCLT is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to actively work to conserve the land by perpetual stewardship. It will use the land to develop Kotare Village, a self-reliant community, where we honour the land and respectfully regenerate its ‘Mauri’ (life force) such that it can nourish and sustain its members and those that follow.
KCLT Major Objectives
- To establish a legal ‘membership’ base which will be called the ‘Village Association’, upon which peoples relationships with the Village legal structures are built, including their rights to participate in those structures.
- To establish the legal structures necessary to perform those tasks required to facilitate the creative and orderly objectives of the village. These include:
- As a not for profit land trust, the KCLT, will have the responsibility of owning the land, directing the long-term development of the land and resource use. It will be party to leases and license agreements with members and other resource users.
- An Incorporated Society Village Association, which has the responsibility of managing the village commons and all the leases and license agreements held by the Land Trust. Membership of the Village Association is gained by a membership fee in association with the lease of a house site.
- To create a home for the Koanga Institute, where it can continue with its work, both for the benefit of the village and the wider community.
- To form a rural village, within multiple clusters, to settle members, and allow regenerative use and management of the land and its environment.
- That all land uses will be regenerative of the land (not merely sustainable) in terms of supporting a mixed ecology of people, cropping, pasture, domesticated animals, forest, wetlands and wildlife and will be based upon permaculture principles.
- That the primary use of the land will be to support the material and cultural needs (within a simple lifestyle) of those people living on the land and their environment (food, health, clothing, shelter, energy, knowledge,spiritual sustenance, ‘social glue’, ‘currency’, finance).
- That the secondary use of the land will be for sustainable ‘export’ production of goods and services.
- To show rationally that the four fundamental processes that drive our ecosystem (the water cycle, the mineral cycle, energy flows, and community dynamics) are respected and used regeneratively for all land uses. This also applies to any ‘imported’ inputs that will be required for long-term sustainability of the productive systems on Kotare Village land.
- To employ Permaculture design as one basis for planning and design of managed systems.
- To create a process for allowing members (both individually and collectively) to have agreed ‘entitlements’ to leases, licenses and/or rights of occupation, to use land or resources owned by KCLT.
- To ensure that value paid to the KCLT for membership rights, and private assets or value developed on the property, are protected and returned in a fair measure if members decide to relinquish their entitlements.
- To develop various plans to assist our purpose, these to included; a Land Use Concept, a Self Reliance Plan, a Research Plan, and others.
To learn more about our eco village and how we incorporate permaculture principles using organic and regenerative land use strategies then click around to learn more!