PLUM PERMACULTURE Land Use Management
…..what it does ~~~>> create IDEAL HUMAN HABITAT
…..what it is ~~~> a new social form of relating/sharing, a cultural collective inside and outside land held by individuals.
This document is designed to assist two goals. The first is our human responsibility to care for the land so we can grow food for the coming generations.
Another major goal is efficiency of housing by living in groups that make good use of existing structures, utilize onsite resources to produce food for those in the vicinity and share the surplus to assist with local economic equilibrium. Local and state economists might take heed of these cost saving measures.
The PLUM is one shape that looks promising, which uses a Tenants in Common (TIC) type of format for the agreement. Even if your state does not have TIC laws, agreements can be made about how land is purchased, but only WHEN it is purchased. Other agreements are how the ownership can be transferred, and that it can NOT be returned to common sale. It is established human habitat.
To begin, persons who wish to live in such a community, agree to which Permaculture /experienced local people will operate the VOLUNTEER WORK and do the LAND USE Analysis provided by the particular piece of land.
This group is a POM = Permaculture OWNERSHIP Management. The goal of each POM is feed everyone involved in a coordinated effort with local and regional resources and needs foremost in all decision making. Due to lack of understanding how to grow healthy food, what and how we plant must be kept healthy and an efficient food source by the POM “growing edge” technology.
The persons providing the down payment occupy the residences, or build them, as agreed to through POM land use analysis for the longstanding benefit of the fertility of the LAND. Land use analysis is done way before signing papers, so all participants know the scope of the work we are undertaking. The owners choose and include whomever they choose to fill the established housing on the property. Every PLUM resident-to-be signs, agrees to the POM volunteer food production system, even children coming of age or other persons must SIGN the same document to live as residents.
EVERYONE must independently agree / sign the plans, with clearly stated plans using comprehensive Land Use Analysis plus deciding who among the POM or any group would do the work or find the right workers. So if it was orchard land, or if goats were the main focus, or creating an ideal setting in nature for a day care center or garden vegetables, or simple senior living with subsistence gardens, any group including “my genetic family only” groups, can create ideal human habitat. Whatever the FOCUS, it is clearly stated.
Then the food gardens are created as best serving the needs of the residents and the workers. The property is purchased under the existing agreement, otherwise it is subject to ordinary laws of inheritance and when any owner/resident person died, their inheritors could then dismantle the ideal human habitat. POM volunteer work is scheduled quarterly from six months out, so privacy and work can both be facilitated.
So how does a PLUM member benefit from the Management if they do not “own” it?
The benefit we all get is the structure to make sure that the land gets to be productive and protected as ideal human habitat…that rare thing in the world today. AND all participants share the bounty aka FEED EVERYONE! So PLUM Members and POM volunteers get together and everyone uses the land assessment tools and decides what goes where and when. PLUM and POM volunteers also decide when and what each member will teach and make an orderly schedule of classes being taught as the work occurs. For example, teaching pruning in the winter, and posting the times that people would be working to the local list serves, so PLUM could do things for two reasons (high efficiency time) and be maximizing skills for all.
Teaching volunteers to prune apples and rewarding them with fruit coupons is highly efficient, with zero transport cost ZTC and a market for the apples more efficient and less costly than each property having /staffing a farmers market booth. Details of CSAP Community Supported Agricultural PRODUCTION are spelled out in the original agreement. So if the owner was a WINERY and the gardeners were the residents, then only the kitchen gardens would be accessible to the residents. CSAP is the method used in PLUMs, but any volunteers might be selling at farmers markets, and BY AGREEMENT, carry food from any PLUM to that farmer market. The funds from the sales would go back to the residents in the form of other foods NOT grown in that food production group. No funds from any food source go into any individual’s POCKETS. CSAP organizations make plans for animal management many years ahead, and for crop rotations on the various PLUM locations.
Down Payment
Any PLUM or POM group raises funds for the down payment on a tract of land, with existing housing. As the entity does not need living space, the other members of the TIC are persons, up to appropriate levels for the housing. One situation is that the land is great for GROWING but housing is very poor, so there’s only room for a field guardian residence. In any case, each of the TIC members pays an agreed-upon proportion of the monthly mortgage payment. For example, a single person getting a small room in the house pays a smaller amount and “owns” equity on a smaller portion of the property than a couple with a child and dog, but ANY arrangement can be agreed upon depending on the individuals making up the specific agreement.
EVERYONE gets EQUAL RIGHTS in common space access. This translates into you do get space in the refrigerator, but again, one person would have less space than a family of four.
A resident would not need to be a Permaculture student, nor participate in the work on the land personally nor through the POM volunteer system. So if someone’s Mother or friend wants to have the main house master bedroom then they can be the largest contributor, and invite their own friends and family. Each contributor who is obligated to pay rent or mortgage payments may deed their owned portion of the land to any person but that person must sign the PLUM agreement, best if done when that inheritance document is created.
Children of contributors inherit both the land and the right to live there for generations in the future. Extended family members may contribute a small amount also, to be able to park their RV on the farm every summer or whatever the owners of that PLUM stated in their original paperwork. All disputes settled by meeting of PLUM. It is very beneficial for any organization/people to have a permanent site and plan for LONG-TERM food production…. even 7 generations in the future.
Sharing and security of the hearth
PLUM and POM will in all ways protect the residential members from the impact of their members’ work on the personal lives of the residential members, as agreed upon by individuals. All food grown on the property will first feed the PLUM residents, then the members of POM volunteers, and then as agreed upon by PLUM and POM, gifted or sold and reinvested in the LAND /projects. No produce nor farm product sales go into individual person’s pockets. Any person may receive money for their skills, from anyone else. Sales of produce or PLUM sponsored events proceeds go to feed animals, buy olive oil and that which we cannot grow, or purchase new tools, create solar water storage facilities, etc. Created together, used to benefit us all, augment the earth with the surplus = collective energy. This is food security and LIFE aka land-based security.
The residential members of this land use agreement need not be a part of working POM nor participate in the hosting of persons working the land. In other words, the POM organization will be responsible for all of its own activities and the actions/integrity of all persons brought to the land. If residential members agreed to host an activity, some form of community currency might be applied here. Example: Children’s Camp Weeks happen in summer for 3 weeks. Everyone puts in an agreed upon number of hours work before and after the camp, and donations cover food and medical tent supplies. Liability papers must be signed y parents, etc. In all cases, volunteers operate in a family system, including everyone.
All payments need to be signed and witnessed by an agreed upon number of members of the PLUM, who are the “owners”. Log books should be kept, not just checkbooks and ledgers, because if someone pays for a new water pump with their own check, this still needs to be officially recorded as provided by an individual in the PLUM collective. Interlocked systems, like no check written without a log book entry number, and two signatures required for any purchase over an agreed –upon amount are easy ways to prevent oversights in accounting. These agreements will be the amendments on the PLUM purchasing agreement.
Changing membership/sale of a residential member’s portion of the land would be done in accordance with TIC legal regulations, BUT must be approved by POM volunteers and all later owners are bound equally to the initial agreements. All of these details would be spelled out in the specific agreement. Add more here to create your own plan! Local real estate law offices may have outlines and language used in Tenants in Common (TIC) rules, or look online for your area.
Other interesting aspects: Any person can be given a “LIFE ESTATE” which can end or be a permanent sanctuary. It becomes a “condition of sale” of the property, and is fixed to the deed like a commercial parcel, with details of exact allowances.
If a person could carry the loan or other aspects of the PLUM purchase, but the finances might be eaten up by taxes, then some residents might consider a one to four year signed agreement to be the DEPENDENTS of the main person carrying the deed. The ordinary fact is anyone can carry another as a dependent, and when the year’s taxes are signed, there is NO BINDING agreement for the next years. A tax expert can help groups understand this.
PLUM in location, POM volunteers in action …. a new social form of relating/sharing, a cultural collective inside and outside privately held land.
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PeaceandPlanting.garden
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Stella Jane
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