Utah Community Land Trust plans six townhomes in Provo to boost workforce ownership

The Utah Community Land Trust (UCLT), presented by Sarah Van Cleave, said it will pilot an owner-occupied project in Provo aimed at workforce households and described how the land-trust model reduces costs.

"When you build properties in a land trust, the land is held in perpetuity, in the trust under a 99 year lease," said Sarah Van Cleave, introduced in the meeting as director of the Provo Housing Authority and director of the Utah Community Land Trust. Van Cleave said the trust removes land cost from the sale price, enabling lower purchase prices and longer-term affordability for buyers such as teachers, emergency responders and other essential workers.

Van Cleave said the trust is in its early stages in Provo: its earliest local project is six townhomes, and the organization is seeking partners to scale. She noted donation models — where homeowners without heirs might donate property to the trust — and said such donations could be resold to qualifying families under the trust's resale restrictions.

During audience Q&A Van Cleave explained the land trust's role is separate from the housing authority in practice: "It's a subsidiary of our nonprofit. It's not the housing authority," she said, clarifying governance and purpose. She invited interested partners and developers to discuss collaboration and acknowledged the project is small at first but designed to be replicable.

City staff said they will pursue complementary funding sources (RDA, CDBG) and that available RDA funds are being used toward the initial townhome project. No formal approvals or funding allocations were made at the meeting; the presentation served to inform partners and legislative attendees of the land-trust strategy.