Who Owns the Land?

For the central server implementations in Atlanta and New Orleans, it is the satellite entities who were intended to be the landholding entities. However, in an urban agriculture context, it will likely make more sense for the central server entity to be the landholding entity. This is the approach that NeighborSpace (described below) has utilized to great success. It takes advantage of economies of scale, real estate expertise available to the central server, as well as provides that single point of contact for public agencies who provide the land.

However, satellite entities may very well have a desire to own the land themselves at some point in the future, in order to better secure local control over what happens in their neighborhood. A “hybrid” approach could be initial ownership of the land by the central server entity, with local satellite entities having an option to purchase the land at a later date once the satellite entity has gained the capacity to steward the land themselves. Additionally, a clause could be included in the initial agreement to provide that, in the event a local entity were to fail, land would then revert to the central server.