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The City has invested significant effort into its vision for the greater Southdale area and should use this opportunity to create mixed - income housing. 4. Create Long -Term Opportunities To Make A Portion Of Edina's Existing Housing Stock Affordable To More Peo- ple And Families. Although it is important to recognize the role of redevelopment and new construction in providing affordable hous- ing, there is limited opportunity for new single- family construction in Edina. Therefore it is critical to look at how Edina's existing housing stock might be made affordable to more peo- ple and families. The two primary means of doing so are Community Land Trusts and low - or no -interest second mortgages, both of which "buy down" the cost of owning a home through equity -sharing. Through a Community Land Trust (CLT), Edina can make available a stock of perma- nently affordable homes. The concept of a land trust is very simple. The price of the land is severed from the home, reducing the overall cost to the homeowner. The land Is owned by a separate, nonprofit community -based organi- zation and leased to the homeowner at a nominal amount. When the home is sold, any appreciation in market valuos split between the homeowner and the landowner depending on a predetermined formula intended to bal- ance the interests of present homeowners with the long -terms goals of the CLT. CLTs have several advantages. One of the beauties of a land trust is that it can be as lim- ited or expansive as resources allow. Another is that it helps families of modest means own a home and build equity rather than paying rent which never provides a financial return to the renting family. In some communities, land trust homes are completely anonymous, reducing the stigma of "affordable housing." Land trusts allow scarce dollars to be used as a one=time, long-term, sustainable community investment in affordable housing. Al- though the land is owned by a nonprofit, CLTs can remain on property tax rolls. Re- Community Land Trust housing in Bat- tleboro, VT, that was organized and search has incorporated by a group of concerned demon- citizens in August 1987 In response to strated the concerns about available affordable success of housing. CLTs In maintaining and expanding the stock of afford- able housing in an area. A number of commu- nities in the Twin Cities have highly successful CLTs. While CLTs can be costly to administer, Edina lies within the geographic boundary of the West Hennepin Affordable Housing Land Trust (WHAHLT). A potential limitation of CLTs is that they are nearly always used for single fam- ily housing. The legal complexities of land ownership in multifamily dwellings have hin- dered the use of CLTs in the past, but a recent application of CLTs to multi -family housing in the Twin Cities suggests these issues can be overcome. G The Community Land Trust program could ef- fectively meet Iifecycle goals in a number of ways. If paired with services such as the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation's program that helps senior citizens move from their single family home to, more desirable housing, a CLT could help attract new young families. Employer -based strategies, such as the model developed by Bremer Bank and the United Way, could also be used to both pro- mote the land trust opportunities and to pro- vide down -payment assistance. The benefits of second mortgages are numer- ous. Second mortgages that provide zero- or