Forrest Gardens Settlement

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Greetings to all: I am here on the land near Wolcott Vermont and have been creating a domain on the land for thirteen years now with a house, cabin, barn, ponds, gardens, orchards, living fences, etc, and there is a nearly 500 hundred acre parcel across the road that i would love to see be developed for kins domains on the land. To establish this i am here with expertise, support and possibly a nursery to get the ball rolling. We just need the know-how in establishing the operating parameters i.e. non-profit, foundations etc. to procure funding purchase the land and gift to would be settlers/gardeners wishing to join such an endeavor. A friend of mine in nearby Woodbury is trying to establish a land patent on his 100 acre parcel so this is in the works. I do not know nuts and bolts of manifesting the reality of a kins domain settlement in the USA but i do have an intimate connection with the land here and know the owner well enough. I have questions regarding non-profits i.e. how to work with them at arms length such that the people do not grant away their individual rights inadvertently. I am grateful for those of you working with these details and am expressing here that an opportunity exists here establish such a settlement given the needs and will to procure such a vision. sincerely Timothy Forrest

Re: Forrest Gardens Settlement

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Greetings Timothy Forrest (lovely name),

Your dream of a kins domain community near you is beautiful and I encourage you to hold that dream regardless of what I'm going to say here. Your post is very important because it mentions possible legal structures for our new communities that are commonly mentioned to me and need better understood. Anastasia's dream has been my own dream since 2007 when I first read the books. I immediately discovered no kins domain community existed in America so I determined that I would start one. People who wanted to participate were easy to find. People who knew and understood the zoning and building laws in America and Canada were nearly non-existent outside of real estate contractors. These laws are not just local. They are in every county in the US, and they control how the land can be used, what and how you can build, what size the lot must be, where the house can or can't be placed on the lot, what materials can or can't be used, what the water supply, sewage and power systems will be, and much more. That's the first big hurdle to overcome in building kins domain communities that are true to the Vedruss communities and lifestyles we saw in the RC books.

Land patents are fine (we have an excellent one here as well) but they do not, in and of themselves, protect the owner from these laws that prevent true freedom in creating a kins domain community. In fact, the land patent is a worthless collection of papers if the patent holder does not have the knowledge to back it up and the willingness to fight for it in court. Besides the laws that limit communities to the standards of the government "planners", the additional factor of a non-profit is another layer of even greater outside control and for a variety of reasons no knowledgeable family would ever participate in that structure for a kins domain community. As of 2012 these statements applied...
1) the non-profit is under full control of the government, NOT the participants.
2) the non-profit must end each fiscal year with no money or assets on its books except in rare instances.
3) the people who receive the accrued assets (land and property) in most cases, must pay income tax on that gift.
4) as long as the land parcel is associated with the non-profit organization, the kin domain "settlers" are subject to losing their land, their work and personal investment, or their rights regarding their parcel.

There's more about that but it's a big discussion. I suggest anyone thinking a non-profit is a good plan, get a non-profit application and instruction sheet from IRS and begin filling it out. As you encounter the restrictions think about how you could adapt the plan to work around the restrictions. It won't be easy as IRS does not set up organizational structures that can restrict it's control.

One community effort in Idaho set up their land purchase and membership in an LLC. The nightmares they have been going through as a result is a true horror story. I won't even detail that story here and many readers wouldn't even believe it. One couple may have managed to hold on to their domain and 8 years of work there, but it's not done yet so time will tell. I certainly hope they are successful but they've been through hell trying to protect their domain. I hope they join this forum as they have so much valuable experience to share with others wanting to start or join new kins domain communities.

As I said at the beginning of this post, hold your dream. But also we community dreamers must make ourselves more than dreamers. We must thoroughly examine every aspect of our dream to identify it's strengths and weaknesses. Believe me I know from direct personal experience. We've been building our community dream for 7 years (8 years for Vedrica in Idaho) and those years have been filled with hard discoveries of the strengths and weaknesses of our beautiful dream.
:Joyce-M:
at Charisma, becoming
one of Earth's most beautiful spots.