What is a 99-year lease, and why does White Hawk use it?
A 99-year lease is a lease that lasts as long or longer than the life of the lessee. (Similar constructs have been around since the Renaissance, and a 99-year lease was used when Britain leased Hong Kong from China.) The idea is that the lessee comes as close to ownership as possible without actually buying the property. The reason White Hawk doesn’t sell individual plots of land to individual buyers is that it would take the community out of the group’s control and put it legally into the control of individuals. Selling individual lots would make the community the same as a regular housing development in the eyes of the law, which would mean that it would be subject to fair housing laws. In other words, it would require White Hawk to legally break up the land we share into smaller chunks to sell to whomever wanted to buy them and develop them. We would have no control over membership or land development. With a co-op legal structure and a 99-year lease model, we can preserve the land
