Lopez Community Land Trust (LCLT) has been awarded first prize in the “new construction” category by the National Association of State Community Services Programs (NASCSP).

NASCSP  members are state administrators of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Community Services Block Grant and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program. 

The award is for the latest affordable housing neighborhood “Common Ground” on Lopez, and due in part to LCLT’s publication of the manual “Land, Water, Energy, Resource Use: A System’s Approach.”

“It’s really exciting” says assistant director Rhea Miller. Involved with the Land Trust since its founding in 1989, Miller says that the Common Ground Project shows that sustainability and community can go together. “A lot of people said it could not be done,” she says. The project did indeed have its fair share of problems. It took approximately three years to come to fruition and was hit by the economic downturn. However, against all this the neighborhood was completed in July 2009 and is now fully occupied.

Common Ground is a zero-net energy neighborhood utilizing rainwater catchment, solar hot water, a grid-tied photo voltaic system, and straw bale construction.

This year LCLT is focusing on sustainable farming, starting a grain project and a grain CSA.

Sandy Bishop and Rhea Miller are to accept the award on behalf of LCLT in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 24.

See www.lopezclt.org for photos of Common Ground and the manual.

For further information, call Bishop or Rhea Miller: 360.468.3723