ABOUT THE MOAB AREA COMMUNITY LAND TRUST
The Moab Area Community Land Trust (MACLT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community land trust serving the Moab community.
Founded in 2012, MACLT has been building the framework to ensure housing affordability for every family in the Moab area. The mission is to create permanent affordable housing by preserving land held in trust in Moab City, Grand County, and northern San Juan County.
A community land trust (CLT) is a nonprofit organization governed by a board of community members working to ensure permanently affordable housing opportunities for families and communities. CLTs acquire parcels of both developed and undeveloped land and hold them in trust with deed restrictions. As stewards of the land, CLTs develop and maintain attainable housing options in perpetuity, regardless of who or how many people own or rent the houses over time. MACLT is a member of the National Community Land Trust Network.
In 2017, the Moab Area Community Land Trust (MACLT), received a generous donation of land (41 acres) for permanently affordable housing in a development they created called Arroyo Crossing. In 2019, MACLT was awarded $4.3 million in New Market Tax Credits in order to construct infrastructure improvements needed in Arroyo Crossing to serve the 248 residential units and one community building in the first phase (there are 300 total units and 3 community buildings in the master plan). Additionally, local people and organizations have donated to the vision, knowing that a diverse population is key to sustainability and quality of life of Moab Community.
MACLT constructed horizontal improvements (utilities, roads, etc) in 2020 and is began vertical construction on homes in late 2021.
The first sets of homes at Arroyo Crossing will be completed in late 2022 and are being constructed by Community Rebuilds and the Housing Authority of Southeastern Utah through their Mutual Self Help programs, which allow families to obtain a lower loan rate in exchange for helping build their own homes.
HOW IT WORKS
MACLT acquires, owns, and stewards the land in perpetuity. The homeowner owns all the vertical improvements on the land (the home and any accessory structures on the lot). With each prospective homeowner, MACLT enters into a long-term, 99-year, renewable agreement to leasethe land to the homeowner, rather than a traditional sale of the land to the homeowner. When the
homeowner sells, MACLT retains ownership of the land, the seller transfers ownership of the improvements to a buyer, and MACLT enters into a new lot lease agreement with the new buyer.
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The land lease model preserves affordability because it takes the land out of the cost of homeownership. Additional restrictions limit the resale price of the homes on the land. Both mechanisms work together to preserve housing affordability for longer than a traditional deed restriction or market rate unit could.
Arroyo Crossing is permanently affordable, even after the first homeowner. Because MACLT was able to obtain the land and build the infrastructure, that cost is saved and the family only has to purchase the home.
There are two ways that MACLT maintains affordability:
1. The price of land on which homes are built is protected from fluctuations in land market valuations by a legal ‘asset lock,’ and deed restrictions limit the price for which a CLT home can be resold.
2. MACLT sets the income-eligibility of the persons who may purchase the home. MACLT caps income-eligibility limits to households earning an income that is up to 120% of the community's Area Median Income.
The only subsidy is for the initial purchase and development of the land. Deed restrictions and asset locks maintain the affordability of homes, not ongoing loan or grant programs. Homeowners use individual mortgage financing like they would for a home purchased not in the land trust.
The organization supports the residents through the process of attaining and sustaining homeownership. In return, the homeowner agrees to sell the home at a resale-restricted and affordable price to another low-income homebuyer in the future. Consequently, the homeowner is able to successfully own a home while the organization is able to preserve the public’s investment in the affordable home permanently to help family after family.
STAFF
Kaitlin Myers
Executive Director
Kaitlin Myers is the Executive Director for the Moab Area Community Land Trust (MACLT) and oversees the development of the Arroyo Crossing subdivision. Her passion for the organization stemmed from four years of volunteer service on the MACLT board from 2017-2021, and she is the first paid staff member for the organization.
Kaitlin worked on affordable housing, economic development, and community development projects and policies for Grand County and Moab City for five years before transitioning into her role with MACLT. She currently serves on the board of the Utah Housing Coalition and is active with the Moab Area Housing Task Force and the Grand County Local Homelessness Council. Kaitlin holds a Bachelor of Design in Architecture from the University of Florida and a Certificate in Economic Development from Utah Valley University; she is currently pursuing a Master’s in Real Estate from Georgetown University.
In her free time, Kaitlin enjoys rafting rivers, hiking canyons, and skiing slopes across the beautiful Colorado Plateau.
BOARD MEMBERS
Sheri Griffith
Chair
Sheri is first and foremost a business owner, creating and running several businesses since her arrival to Moab in 1981.
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She was on the 1983 Economic Development Board when Moab was rebuilding from a crashed mining industry. Over the years, Sheri has served on the Utah Travel Council, Utah Department of Transportation, Governor’s Commission on Women and Families, and Utah Community Impact Board. She sat on the Governor’s steering committee for Rural Development, Governor’s Advisory Board on Women Business Development, and the Governor’s Task Force on Economic Development and the Environment. Her awards include Utah Women of Achievement presented by Governor Leavitt, Woman Business Leader by Utah Business Magazine, U.S. Conservation Service Award by Secretary of the Interior, and more. Sheri was elected President of Western River Guides Association and spent four years in and out of Washington, DC representing the outdoor industry of the West.
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Sheri is committed to the quality of life that Moab offers and managing all aspects that provide that quality and sustainability. Her dedication to this cause, in addition to her financial and business knowledge, make her an invaluable asset to the MACLT board.
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Carly Castle
Vice Chair
Carly moved to Moab in 2019 from Salt Lake City and currently serves as the City Manager for Moab City. Carly is no stranger to Moab; she grew up visiting the Moab area and worked as a river guide from 2006 to 2008. Carly has experience with local government leadership, affordable housing, and public infrastructure and served as a Special Project Manager for the Salt Lake City Public Utilities for seven years before moving back to Moab.
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Audrey Graham​
Board Member
Audrey moved to Moab in 1984 for her dream job as a park ranger at the Needles District of Canyonlands. She now works for the South East Early Intervention Program, serving children aged 0-3 with developmental delays and their families.
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Audrey discovered her passion for helping solve the affordable housing dilemma while working with families in their homes through her work with Early Intervention. Audrey was a founding member of the MACLT board in 2012 and became a believer in land trusts through the work of Lance Christie, a local volunteer planner and thinker, who saw land trusts as a perfect solution to high cost land in resort communities.
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In her free time, Audrey serves on numerous boards and loves to sew, rollerblade, ski, bike, and explore canyon country with her husband of 35 years.​
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Kara Stoner
Treasurer
Kara has been living in Moab since 2003 and has sat on the board for less than a year. Kara has been in construction and landscaping since 2005 and currently holds General and Landscape Contractor License from the state of Utah (B100 and S330 respectively). Her knowledge from running her business Eco Logic, a high-performance design build firm, is key to helping MACLT understand the financials of development projects.
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Kya Marienfeld
Secretary
Kya moved to Moab in 2015 to work as an attorney for local conservation group, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, where she mixes legal, policy, and field work to protect wilderness-quality public lands throughout southern Utah, with a focus on direct engagement with public land managers.
Since becoming part of the Moab community, Kya has devoted most of her time and focus in volunteer roles to helping Moab residents find safe, secure, and affordable housing and to efforts that seek to maintain Moab's unique character as a small, supportive, and welcoming rural town.
Kya has experience interfacing with community and national non-profits, private landowners, grant administrators, and federal and state governmental entities, with a focus on legislative policy and long-term planning.
Kya currently serves as the Chair of the Moab City Planning Commission, a volunteer advisory board that helps support the City's goals of incentivizing and removing barriers to development of new affordable and attainable housing within city limits, and serves as the primary community engagement point for most of Moab City's planning and zoning decisions.
HISTORY OF MACLT
MACLT is still a relatively young organization in the Moab area. Here are a few of our milestones so far.