Moving families in, students out
Community land trust may allow more families to move into area

By NICOLE RADZIEVICH
Collegian Staff Writer

After more than a year of debating a solution on how to control student density, the State College Borough Council is considering incentives to help solve the issue. About a half a year ago, the borough instituted the First-Time Home Buyers' program to attract single families into the borough. Now, it is considering a community land trust that would be maintained by the borough.

"There is some degree of excitement for this (community land trust) program," said Bill Davison, member of Pennsylvania Service Corps, serving as a community planner for State College. "I think this is an excellent way to get single families into the homes."

Typically a land trust is a non-profit corporation with a mission to conserve land and resources. A land owner may work with a land trust to preserve agricultural, scenic, historic or recreational atmospheres. The non-profit corporation does this by purchasing properties on the market. Then the homes are resold to single families, but the land is still owned by the municipality. When the home owners decide to sell, the trust has the first opportunity to buy it at a "reasonable" price. Typically, the land trust is owned by neighborhood associations or other local groups.

Although no plans have been finalized, Davison said the borough is looking into a different type of land trust. The community will not own it; the borough will.

Because the borough would own the trust, there are some potential ramifications. Not too many donations would be needed for the trust because it would not be tax exempt as it is for non-profit organizations, Davison said.

"There are good things about that, too," Davison said. "Because the borough owns it, it will serve the entire community -- not just a small area."

Although the plan is still in the preliminary stages, the borough's first step would be to buy between three and 12 properties. The planning department hopes the trust will help reduce absentee landlords and the conversion of single family homes into rentals.

"This certainly won't solve the student housing problems," said council member Jerry Wettstone. "But, it will help."

Wettstone said there is a market for rental housing in State College. And, as long as the demand is high, rental housing will flourish, and single families -- comprised of wage earners -- will flee the borough. Once this happens, the borough tax base is weakened; most of its revenue is derived from the income tax.

"We have to find some way to keep these families in the borough," he said.

But in order to keep the families in the borough, there may be costs -- both student and monetary.

Tina Gaughan, Undergraduate Student Government director for town affairs, said this incentive may cost students the right to choose where they live.

"I want to keep an open mind about it," Gaughan said. "But I can't help think that this may segregate students."

On the contrary, council member Janet Knauer said the trust may promote a heterogeneity in the neighborhoods. She said students are pushing into the borough. As this happens, a market for rental housing begins. Single families -- especially those just starting out -- cannot possibly compete with rental housing.

"The land trust may help ease this problem and create a more diverse neighborhood," Knauer said.

But Gaughan maintained that this may only hurt students because students would not have the opportunity to buy into the land trust. However, certain municipalities have been able to use the land trusts in order to place students in residential settings, and borough council members are not ruling out this possibility.

The Burlington Land Trust, located near the University of Vermont, was able to include students in its program. Founded in 1984, the trust was formed to control the rising costs of housing for those with low-to-moderate incomes. The trust encompasses 25 single family homes and 135 apartment buildings countywide. University of Vermont students can buy into this trust.

Steve Hingtgen, the membership director of the Burlington Land Trust, said the city has enabled students to become a part of the program. The Green Mountain Student Co-op allows students to buy shares of a house. When the students graduate, they sell their shares to someone else. It also imposes rent controls. So far, the co-op has acquired two of the corporation's 25 houses in trust.

"We have been very successful," Hingtgen said. "We've been able to keep (University of Vermont) students as part of our community. But, they are in areas that are conducive to student living."

However, Grey Lee, the University of Vermont's Student Government Association president, said most students do not know about the co-op or the trust. But he does think that the co-op has produced positive results.

"It helps reduce the 'student atmosphere,' " Lee said. "Because students own the home, they have a stake in the community. So, they take care of their property."

Hingtgen added that the trust met some negative reactions for the first five years, but people have warmed up to the idea.

"It's very complicated, and people just didn't understand it," he said. "Having land belong to the community is a very difficult concept to grasp in our society."

In addition to the student question, State College will also have to solve the money issue. The borough may find the answers in a corporation located in Bloomington, Ind., near Indiana University.

The Bloomington corporation owns 29 lots. According to its records, its direct costs for the lots amounted to $730,150. The corporation funded this through community development block grants, City Affordable Housing Fund Construction, the 1992 HOME dictated funds and a Small Business Association grant.

There are some differences between Bloomington's trust and State College's potential trust, though. First, in Bloomington, the community owns the trust and the borough will own the State College trust. This means donations will not be attractive because they are not tax-exempt as it is in Bloomington's non-profit organization. Second, the Bloomington trust corporation did not buy homes and resell them as State College is planning to do. It bought vacant lots and built homes on them; State College will just buy the homes and improve them before selling them back.

However, USG President Corey O'Brien said he's not too sure the program will ever get off the ground.

"I really don't think the borough can get a hold of some of this money," he said. "I don't think they can get the (community development block grant)."