Community-owned assets or organizations are those that are owned and controlled through some representative mechanisms that allow a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

to influence their operation or use and to enjoy the benefits arising. Benefits of ownership in

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

projects such as dams and

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

are claimed to include increased responsiveness to needs of that community and the community valuing the projects more highly.

Community land buyouts

Communities can sometimes buy the land they live on and manage them through locally-run trusts. There are many examples of this in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

including Eigg, Assynt and

Ulva Ulva (; ) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, off the west coast of Mull. It is separated from Mull by a narrow strait, and connected to the neighbouring island of Gometra by a bridge. Much of the island is formed from Cen ...

Community-owned enterprises

In Saranac Lake, New York, after the local Ames Department Store closed due to bankruptcy and residents were forced to travel to Plattsburgh for staples, the town was approached by

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...

which offered to build a supercenter, but the community felt that Walmart would negatively impact local business and increase traffic. As an alternative, a community-owned store was organized and shares were sold to community residents. $500,000 was raised by about 600 residents who made an average investment of $800. The store, Saranac Lake Community Store, opened in October 29, 2011, in remodeled facilities in downtown Saranac Lake. Powell, Wyoming, also has a community store established in 2002 under similar circumstances. In both instances the securities were intrastate offerings registered under less onerous state securities laws rather than

federal law Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a country has a central government as well as regional governments, such as subnational states or provinces, each with constituti ...

. Funds were raised in a similar way for an

independent bookstore An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store (although there are some multi-store independents). They may be structured as sole proprietorships, ...

in Brooklyn, a coffeehouse in Oakland, and restaurants in

Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Hastings-on-Hudson is a administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County located in the southwestern part of the administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Greenburgh, New York, Greenburgh in the state of New Yo ...

"Love a local business? Buy a share
Sometimes it takes a village to fund a company." by Helaine Olen on CNN Money, September 10, 2009 and Hardwick, Vermont. In Hardwick two enterprises were created, one which operates a restaurant which prepares meals using locally grown food, another which bought and equipped the location as a restaurant. The New Rules Project of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance a nonprofit corporation has worked to make financing of community owned business less onerous. H.R.2930, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Ac

, would relax securities law requirements making it easier for a community to raise money for community owned enterprises.

Notes

{{reflist

External links and further reading

*Bryden, J and Geisler, C (2007) Land Reform and Community - a ‘new wave’ land reform? ''Land Use Policy''
Community Owned Business
This article by the American Independent Business Alliance explains the distinctions between community-owned and cooperative businesses and indexes many examples of community-owned enterprises in different business sectors.
"Love a Local Business? Advise it to be careful about selling shares!"
blog post by Katovich Law Group
"Local Stock Exchanges and National Stimulus"
by Michael H. Shuman, originally published in the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Community Development Investment Review Volume 5, Issue 2, 2009

Volume 5, Issue 2, 2009, foreword by David Erickson, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
Full review
*
Could “Small Is Beautiful” Replace “Too Big to Fail?”
Don Shaffer, RSF Social Finance
New move over land reform
BBC News Online, 19 August 2003 Anarchist theory Cooperatives Socialism Community development

Community land buyouts

Community-owned enterprises

See also

Notes

External links and further reading