Exploring a Community Land Trust

I ran into a bunch of old Crescenta Valley High School friends at Oktoberfest this year. It felt like stepping back into a familiar and comforting world. We talked about kids and work and the small details of daily life but underneath almost every conversation was the same quiet reality that housing costs loom over everything.

People I grew up with would love to raise their own families here. But the vast majority cannot. The gap between incomes and home prices has grown so large that even households with good jobs struggle to imagine a path back. In my parents’ generation you could grow up in a single parent household and still buy a home on a teacher’s salary. Today that’s impossible. The ratio of home prices to typical incomes has more than tripled in LA County over the last generation. 

Since moving back I have been struck by how little has changed in La Crescenta. Some of that is charming; some is not. Near where I live sits the old motel (the Maylane or the La Crescenta Motel). When I was a kid that building worked. Today it is abandoned and increasingly decrepit. Brush collects. Waste collects. Everyone agrees it is an eyesore. Everyone agrees it is not what we want. Yet proposals to improve it have been rejected again and again and the building keeps sinking into decay. 

I understand why people push back. La Crescenta is special. People want to protect the character of this valley. They want to avoid traffic headaches. They want to keep schools from being overwhelmed. They want to preserve the safety and quiet that makes this place feel like home. I feel all of that too.

But stepping back for a moment raises a harder question. What future are we imagining for the next generation if every new project is blocked? We already have a decade of results in front of us. The old motel is crumbling. The old golf course (Verdugo Hills Golf Course) is still empty. Homes are not being built. And the price of doing nothing is that more and more families who love this place cannot stay.

There is a pattern here. It’s when communities lose a shared sense that the future will be better than the past that things start to fray. When people cannot imagine a path toward a stable home and a stable life, trust erodes. Politics turn sour. Relationships strain. It is not surprising. It is a natural response to losing the basic belief that working hard will allow you to build a life. We are living through the consequences of the death of the California dream. 

Growing up here taught me something important, though. La Crescenta was shaped by people who rolled up their sleeves and built what they needed. This valley is filled with flag lots and DIY additions and stories of families who built homes that worked for them. That is why I think there is a constructive path forward that matches the character of this place rather than fighting it. It is called a community land trust. 

The idea is simple. A nonprofit owned by the community buys land and holds it permanently for community benefit. Homes on that land stay affordable for generations. Buyers can build equity but the land remains in trust. The goal is stability and affordability without losing control to outside interests.

Imagine if the old motel site were in a community land trust. The community could choose something better than a decaying shell. It could support homes for young families or seniors or local workers. It could be designed with local input and managed with local priorities. It could be designed by the La Crescenta community rather than developers from out of town. Instead of being a symbol of stagnation it could become a symbol of what we can build together.

The same could be true of the old golf course. People talk about wanting more walkability and more places to gather. A community land trust could help create that. Small shops. A doctor’s office that echoes the property’s roots. Homes for people of every age. A place shaped by and for the foothills.

My old football coach used to say that you are either getting better or you are getting worse. Staying the same is an illusion. That line has stuck with me over the years and it feels especially true today. We cannot freeze La Crescenta in time. We can either let things deteriorate through inaction or choose to shape change in a way that protects what makes this valley so special.

I love La Crescenta. I want my daughter and my friends’ children to have the chance to live here if they choose. I want the foothills to remain a place where people can build a life, not a place they are priced out of. There is frustration in the community right now and I feel it too. But frustration can be the start of something better if we let it push us toward building instead of blocking.

A community land trust would not solve everything but it would give us a tool to enhance affordability, preserve community character, and make sure the next generation has a place in the place that raised us. That feels worth striving for.

Patrick’s a husband, father, son, brother, avid cyclist, fervent reader, enjoyer of adventures, lover of board games and the author of “A New California Dream.” He writes for CV Weekly in his personal capacity.