ASTA: Housing, Land Trusts, Special Assessments

During this Ask Strong Towns Anything session, Edward Erfurt, Chief Technical Advisor, answered questions on infrastructure funding, street design, and housing affordability. He discussed the impact of special assessments, the benefits of narrower streets, and why housing efficiency hasn’t lowered costs. The conversation also explored Community Land Trusts as a tool for long-term affordability. Members gained practical insights and resources to support stronger, more resilient communities.

Resources to Dive Deeper

• Term of the Day: A Local Improvement District (LID) is a method by which a group of property owners can share the cost of infrastructure improvements.
• There's a related article on the topic of special assessments that is helpful as a deep dive into the consequences of misusing these tools: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/5/6/special-assessments-turn-a-city-into-a-vicious-predator  
  • "A special assessment is a charge assessed by a local government that requires a specific property to pay for some or all of the costs of a project. Special assessments are a powerful tool, but they are selectively used. Want your dirt road paved? You will almost certainly get a special assessment. Want to build an interchange or bridge? The random landowners made instant millionaires by such a massive public investment are rarely given a special assessment."

• https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/9/11/reconstructing-the-street-move-the-curb
  • "Where a routine maintenance project typically involves some type of repair to the road surface, a full reconstruction project is more involved. If your city is replacing the underground utilities, that generally means the street is being reconstructed and not merely maintained. If the reconstruction project involves replacing the curb, don’t miss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something transformative."
    

I love everything Andrew Price has written for Strong Towns and his piece on making small bets (written in 2016) is excellent on the question of making good investments:  https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/6/14/making-small-bets

Daniel Herriges' piece on doing more with less is really relevant here:
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/6/6/narrow-streets-do-more-with-less

• "Pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers share these streets comfortably. None of them carry a lot of through traffic, and crucially, none of them carry fast traffic. The defining feature of all of the streets pictured above is that they are very narrow. Narrow enough that it's uncomfortable to drive any faster than about 20 miles per hour on them, especially when parked cars are present on both sides, requiring a certain amount of weaving around them."

Jonathan referenced this article by Chuck Marohn this week: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2025/3/10/why-housing-efficiency-isnt-making-homes-affordable

• "In the two decades following World War II, the U.S. housing market did experience real efficiency gains. Millions of returning veterans, supported by federal programs like the GI Bill, entered the housing market at the same time that the federal government dramatically expanded its role in home financing. The interventions that began in the 1930s — such as Fannie Mae, the FHA and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) — allowed for widespread mortgage access, fueling a surge in home construction that created the first generation of what we now think of as suburbanization. This infusion of capital enabled efficiencies and economies of scale to take hold. Builders developed large-scale production methods, reducing the cost per unit. Supply chains for materials and labor became more sophisticated, making home construction more predictable and efficient."

Community Land Trusts

We republished from Shelterforce this community land trust model explainer: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/4/4/organizing-and-the-community-land-trust-model

• "CLTs are a form of permanently affordable housing in which a community-controlled organization retains ownership of the land and sells or rents the housing on that land to lower-income households. In exchange for purchasing homes at below-market prices, owners agree to resale price restrictions that keep homes permanently affordable to subsequent households with similar income levels."

Rachel Quednau interviewed Rebecca McQuillen, Executive Director of the Marlborough Community Land trust, and Rodger Kube, president of the Land Trust’s board, about their land trust: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2022/2/17/marlborough-land-trust

Another helpful piece that mentions land trusts is this guest post by Dennis Strait and Abby Kinney of the Gould Evans planning and design firm in Kansas City, MO. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/7/25/6-rules-for-unlocking-the-potential-of-mid-size-cities 

• "Resident-controlled housing tools, such as Community Land Trusts and limited-equity housing cooperatives, secure low-cost housing through the acquisition and rehabilitation of dilapidated homes. A Community Land Trust is being piloted in our city, where the trust will acquire, rehab, and sell these homes to low-income people seeking a pathway to homeownership, who are not qualified to participate in the market. The appreciation of the house and its resale value to managed by the local cooperative, though the homeowner is typically guaranteed some equity when the house is sold."