Login

What You Need to Know

Curious about how land co-operatives work or what makes Island Unity’s model unique? Below are some of the most common questions we receive about the structure, responsibilities, and benefits of land co-ops—along with how they support local housing co-operatives across Prince Edward Island.

What is a Land Co-op?

A land co-operative is when an entity owns the land and/or the land and buildings and enters into an agreement with a local co-op. A land co-op ensures that the land and or buildings are taken care of.  

The benefits of this model include:

  • flexibility to adapt to future changes in governments policies and funding programs,
  • creates scale by pooling resources and networks,
  • created as a vehicle for further development,
  • residents can focus on the community portion of their homes and know that their assets are being taken care of.

Community land co-ops acquire land and buildings to provide at-cost housing. In doing so, they remove the land from the speculative market. To do this they:

  • maintain the assets,
  • fill units,
  • provide management and governance support.

They can be structured in many ways. Island Unity Land Co-op will consult the residents and define the structure.

CHF Canada supported a model in Nova Scotia. This model includes the following structure:

  • the land co-op owns the land and the buildings,
  • the land co-op can offer multi-year operating agreements to housing co-ops,
  • the land co-op has property management and governance support services.

Members of the land co-op will include professionals, organizations, and individual co-operatives (through a delegate system). A land co-op has its own board of directors responsible for the governance of the properties and monitoring contracts such as professional property management to complete the day-to-day operations of the land co-op. The board of the land co-op will be elected at the annual meeting.

If a local co-operative enters into an operating agreement to use the land and or buildings, it would also have its own board of directors and governance structure, where it would be responsible for the local co-op’s operations, including:

  • approving an operating budget,
  • reviewing and approving the audit, as well as appointing an auditor,
  • establishing criteria for membership,
  • facilitating membership engagement and education,
  • nominating and electing the board,
  • deciding on a delegate to represent the local co-operative on the land trust board.