Opportunities for Municipalities

Many localities are seeking ways to rapidly lower barriers to affordable housing – while expanding economic opportunities and access to skills for all in the community.

Openworld Villages provides ways for localities to achieve these goals.  We offer fast-track solutions in three areas:

UPDATING OF REGULATIONS

• holding orientation briefings/workshops for local governments on attraction of  EcoVillage and Tiny House Community developers
• benchmarking the competitiveness of current zoning and building codes, relative to municipalities that offer tiny house-friendly environments;
• creating a scorecard of license and permit requirements that now limit sharing economy ventures (identifying barriers to AirBnb, Lyft, Uber, TaskRabbit, etc)
• helping to draft improved ordinances;
• designing forms for web-based "eGovernment" licensing and permitting systems;
• preparing economic and fiscal impact projections for the proposed reform packages; and
• helping localities raise regional and national visibility of their adopted reforms among tiny house and EcoVillage owners.

opportunities for tax reduction

• mapping tax constraints that do most to deter EcoVillage, Tiny House Community, and sharing economy startups;

• identifying opportunities for targeted tax relief, linked to the degree that HOAs and condo associations in the new areas take on responsibility for providing basic infrastructure and services; and
• preparing economic and fiscal impact projections for the targeted tax relief packages (including impacts of new job creation and increases in land values).

CREATION OF SUCCESS-SHARING land trusts and "endowment ZONES"

Wherever possible, Openworld Villages works with localities to include Community Land Trusts or similar entities as a means of enabling residents to participate in rising land values.

For municipalities interested in conveying idle sites to land trusts and similar success-sharing entities, Openworld Villages can provide the following services:

• identifying priority sites for inclusion in the land grant/land trust entity;
• drafting long-term lease/concession agreements that include beneficial interests for the provider(s) of attractive site(s);
• preparing model articles of incorporation and bylaws for formation of nonprofit or for-profit Community Land Trusts; 
• developing master plans, presentation materials, and animations relating to phased growth of residential, commercial, and other land uses for the properties;
• identifying revenue-generating opportunities for the local Land Trust;
• preparing financial projections;
• designing equity-sharing or similar frameworks for volunteers in the EcoVillage, the Tiny House Community, and/or the surrounding areas to benefit from shares in the rising value of the Land Trust properties; 
• recommending Endowment Zone incentives (based on the experiences of successful enterprise zones/special economic zones) that can assist in attracting investment to the area; and
• assisting in the public launch and promotion of the Community Land Trust/Endowment Zone.

The result of such changes can put economically-struggling areas on the map as locations of choice for development of self-funding EcoVillages and Tiny House Communities.