Kaitlin Myers, who has headed up the Moab Area Community Land Trust for the last three and a half years, has formulated some strategies that actually work.

A lot has happened since she became the Land Trust’s first paid staffer in January 2022. Having served on the nonprofit trust’s Board of Directors for several years, and having earned college degrees in architecture and economic development, Myers knows more than a little bit about how houses get built, from the ground up.

She begins by saying MACLT is the “puppeteer” of the five different developers they work with. Myers learned early on that being an architect was not her wheelhouse. “I care more about how people interact within the walls, than how the walls are put together,” she tells me.

“Our whole model,” she says, “is focused on the land. We first work with developers to make it easier for them to build housing—so we’re able to sell the lease on the lot to them.” The lease is priced substantially lower than it would be on the open market. And MACLT begins the work by building infrastructure—roads, utilities, garden spots, site planning.

You need land. You need money—starting with a $4.4 million Federal grant the Land Trust garnered in 2019.

You need an indispensable public partner called the Southeast Utah Housing Authority, to oversee construction and help connect the dots.

You need an 8-member board of directors comprised of an impressive list of high-powered local leaders to help develop priorities.

And then you need something like a spaghetti chart, or as Myers puts it, “red strings on a board” to keep it all straight.
The admitted complexity is needed in order to satisfy a major requirement of the Land Trust’s mission, which is to serve a diverse population, and which the land trust believes is key to the sustainability and quality of life here.

Myers points to the spectrum of potential homeowners and renters, their different preferences, household structures, and income profiles. “It’s complicated,” Myers says, “but in the end it provides more choice for people who want to live and work here.”

The flagship of MACLT’s mission is Arroyo Crossing, a 41-acre tract about a mile and a half south of Moab on Spanish Valley Drive. The land was donated to the Land Trust in 2017 and was slated to be the breeding ground for 300 housing units at completion.

Building has been ongoing, with many of the first homes built in partnership with a Moab nonprofit called Community Rebuilds, which oversees construction of affordable strawbale homes in the Moab area (see Non-Profit Happenings, August 2023 issue).

The magic is that homeowners own the homes, but lease the land. This helps to keep the properties affordable, and management under the careful eye of the land trust ensures that there are limits on how much the price of the property goes up over time.

“This is my dream job,” Myers says. “There is nothing cooler and more personal than your home. What we do provides stability for people who love this community and want to stay here.”

To learn more and especially to get on the list for the new homes currently under construction at Arroyo Crossing: The MACLT has an informative web page and the Southeast Utah Housing Authority (435-259-5891) is an excellent resource. Myers also suggests going to Moabhousing.com for information on the land trust and other housing opportunities in Moab.

MACLT accepts monetary donations and is happy to entertain opportunities for land acquisition.

Be sure to mention you read about MACLT in Moab Happenings.