Norwalk committee hears expert briefing on community land trusts as a tool for preserving affordable homeownership

Norwalk — The Norwalk City Ad Hoc Affordable Housing Committee on an evening meeting restarted its 2025 work with a briefing on community land trusts, a nonprofit model that separates ownership of land from ownership of buildings to preserve long-term affordability, committee Chair Nora Azizi said.

John Davis, a city planner who has consulted on community land trusts since 1993, told the committee there are about 320 CLTs in the United States and described the model as "community-led development on community-owned land of homes and other assets that remain permanently affordable." He summarized the classic CLT arrangement: a nonprofit land trust owns the land and sells or leases the structures to homeowners or other building owners under a long-term ground lease that includes resale-price limits and stewardship obligations.

The committee opened with a routine vote to accept the minutes from February of last year; the minutes were approved with three votes in favor and one abstention by Miss Dunn. A motion to adjourn closed the meeting at the end of the presentation; the record does not include a roll-call tally for that…