Cooperation Commonwealth is a community land trust where members protect land, shared resources and cooperative work in perpetuity.
Why a land trust
A true community shares more than a road. Neighbors work the land together, help each other through hard seasons, and settle problems among themselves. That kind of cooperation keeps communities strong and independent.
Today, a place to live usually means going into debt to buy land in a community where you have little say over how things are run. Making a living means taking whatever job you can find, where someone else decides what kind of work gets done. Many people who want to care for the land can't afford to buy in. When a farmer or shopkeeper retires, there's often no one nearby who can afford to take the place on, so it gets sold off or closed.
Cooperation Commonwealth is our answer. It is a trust that holds land, buildings and shared resources permanently, so people can live and work together without having to buy in.
We want to rebuild something like the old commons: shared land, shared work, and neighbors deciding together, the way human society survived for hundreds of thousands of years.
The land
The trust is not a landlord. It holds land and buildings as shared resources that the members govern together.
Commonwealth land can hold many things at once:
- Shared spaces, like community gardens, open workshops and outdoor kitchens
- Cooperative businesses, like farms, bakeries and repair shops
- Members' homes, held under long-term leases
How it operates is decided by the members, with the long-term health of the land in mind.
How it works
The land is never sold.
Once land is in the trust, it stays there. It can't be sold, speculated on or broken apart.
Buildings are held in common.
The Commonwealth holds homes and buildings too. A member who builds can donate what they've built, or loan it and be repaid what they put in over time, adjusted for inflation.
No one profits from land or homes.
Land and homes here are for living and working, not for investment. No one buys in to make money, and no one leaves with a profit. That keeps the land with people who want to live off it, not make money off it.
How we decide
Members decide directly.
Cooperation Commonwealth members make decisions that affect the community directly whenever appropriate. Whether it's how shared resources are used, where a new building goes or who is welcomed as a member, anything the members can decide for themselves, they do.
Consensus first.
We work toward an agreement everyone can accept. A member who has doubts can stand aside and let a decision go forward. If agreement can't be reached, the proposal is taken up again later and needs a large majority to pass.
Every coordinator serves a purpose.
A coordinator is a consenting member who is elected to organize a particular piece of work for the Commonwealth, like a community garden or building project. Members reconfirm each coordinator regularly.
Some things can't be voted away.
Our core principles, like keeping the land out of the market and treating everyone fairly, are written so that no vote can override them.
Coordinators: an example
Coordinators keep the Commonwealth from getting bogged down in endless meetings and votes, while members keep the final say. Say the members decide that growing more of our own food is a priority.
- Members set aside land for it and agree on what they intend to grow.
- The coordinator schedules planting, organizes shared work, keeps the equipment running, and keeps the work transparent with other members.
- They carry out the plan, but they can't change how the land is used without the members' approval.
- If they stop keeping members informed, ignore decisions or share things unfairly, members can recall them and choose someone else.
Work gets done efficiently, and everyone doing it stays answerable to the members.
Cooperative businesses
Supporting cooperative businesses is one of the Commonwealth's founding aims. Commonwealth land and infrastructure are offered to cooperative businesses as a foundation to start and grow. Each business governs itself, owned and run by the people who work in it.
To use the land, a business agrees to a few shared principles:
- It is never sold to outside owners
- It follows the Commonwealth's land-use terms
- It provides a benefit to the Commonwealth
Working together
Businesses on the land stay independent, but they don't have to stand alone. They can share facilities, tools and knowledge.
A farm, a CSA and a caterer, for example, would each run in their own way. Working side by side, the farm grows, the CSA delivers, the caterer cooks, and all three use the same kitchen, storage and equipment.
The Commonwealth is a seedbed for cooperatives. It gives new co-ops a place to take root, and it frees established ones from extraneous expenses like rent so they can put more into their work, and everyone benefits.
Resource sovereignty
Resource sovereignty is a community's ability to meet its own essential needs, wholly or in part, without depending on outside supply chains, markets and institutions that don't answer to the people. That independence gives members greater control over the conditions of their lives.
Members can produce food, maintain land and buildings, repair tools and equipment, organize transportation, provide essential services, preserve practical knowledge and respond when the supply of critical goods and services is disrupted. The community's land, buildings, cooperatives and shared natural resources make that possible.
Community stewardship
Stewardship is the members' shared work of governing, maintaining and caring for the land, resources and relationships that sustain the community, and preserving them for those who come after. The trust holds these things permanently, but stewardship makes that permanence meaningful.
Membership
New members are approved by a consensus of current members. After a provisional year, the members either extend that time or confirm the new member, who may get a 90-year lease to use designated land and facilities.
Every member has an equal say in the community, bounded only by its founding principles. Members also have use of the land and of the community's shared spaces, facilities and resources.
There is no uniform standard for joining. A new applicant is accepted when the members believe that person will benefit the Commonwealth with whatever they bring to it, whether that's skills, labor, ideas or care. Every member contributes toward a shared purpose: protecting the land, sharing the work and caring for what the community holds in common.
Once confirmed, members may live on the land or not, belong to a cooperative or not, and take part in group decision-making, or not. Membership exists to expand a person's freedom, not constrain it.
Questions
Do I have to buy land or a home?
No. The trust holds the land and the buildings on it, so no one has to buy in. Members live and work on the land under leases instead.
How does someone become a member?
Membership is based on what a person can bring, whether skills, labor, knowledge, resources or care, and on what the community needs. New members spend a provisional year with us. Once the members confirm them, they may get a 90-year lease.
Members don't have to live on the land. There are no fees to join.
Who can speak or sign for the Commonwealth?
Any member can talk about the Commonwealth and represent it informally. Only the members, or someone they have authorized, can sign contracts or commit money on its behalf.
Can a member be asked to leave?
Yes, but only through a fair process. It starts with mediation, then a hearing, and removal takes a three-quarters vote of the members.
What happens to a building a member builds?
All buildings belong to the Commonwealth. After a member is given a 90-year lease to the land, they may decide to build a structure to either be donated or loaned to the Commonwealth. If they decide to leave and request reimbursement, this is offered as repayment over time for the cash and materials they put in, adjusted for inflation. Their own labor is counted as volunteered and isn't part of the repayment.
Repayment comes from the next member who takes it on or, if no one does within about a year, from rent until it is repaid.
Personal, private and public property
Personal property is what you use in your own life and work, like clothes, furniture, a vehicle or your own tools. It stays yours, and you take it with you if you leave.
Public property here means the land, the buildings and anything given to the trust. It isn't owned by the government. It is held in common by the members, who govern it together, and no one can sell it.
Private property is land or buildings owned to make money from others, by renting them out or selling them at a gain. The Commonwealth exists to keep land out of that market for good.
Can a cooperative business start or move here?
Yes. Supporting cooperative businesses is one of the Commonwealth's founding aims, whether it's a new co-op or one that's already running. Co-ops can use Commonwealth land, facilities and infrastructure, and each one governs itself and chooses its own members. To use the land, a business agrees to a few shared principles: it is never sold to outside owners, it follows the Commonwealth's land-use terms, and it provides a benefit to the Commonwealth.