Real Estate Program - Full Document
LIVE IN COMMUNITY AT OUR LADY’S RANCH
Ownership Structure
After much prayer and consultation, we have developed the property of Our Lady’s Ranch into several home sites that reside within a large common area. The legal format of this arrangement allows every community member the opportunity to own their own home on the property. Rather than purchasing a large piece of farmland (which usually costs an exorbitant amount of money), several families can each lease a private site for their own home, while sharing the use of a larger rural area with agricultural improvements like irrigation pipes and fencing already completed.
Each family that builds or purchases its own home remains responsible for its own maintenance, taxes, and insurance. Each family also contributes to the property taxes and upkeep of the shared land, while participating in a farm club membership that promotes the common values and goals of the community. This creates a balanced approach to the ownership of an individual home with the shared use of a communal property. Each family therefore enjoys the security and freedom of their own home, while using a larger agrarian landscape that would otherwise be unaffordable.
The OLR property development plan includes additional real-estate opportunities for families, including the purchase of adjacent land parcels or nearby homes, or simply renting a home on site. In this way, the OLR Farm Club Membership accommodates different economic situations. Some families joining us will have worked for many years and accumulated substantial savings, while others will just be starting out with minimal resources. Therefore, membership options include land/home ownership, land lease with home ownership, and land/home rentals in order to create opportunities for several economic situations, without creating second-class citizens.
Generational Land Leases
Our Lady’s Ranch, LLC owns approximately 160 acres of property in Grass Valley, California. The property development plan designates 8 home sites as shown on the “OLR Master Plan.” Each home site is available for lease to allow families to build their own home on the property. Leases are lifelong with continuous options to renew for the benefit of families to create value in their own home and retain that value for future generations. Each family is also free to sell their home and receive any profits earned, based on the equity they established in the home.
All leases are recorded at the Nevada County Recorder’s Office, which assigns an “Assessor’s Parcel Number” to the home site, upon which time all property taxes, insurance, construction, and maintenance are paid by each particular family for each particular home Site.
Each lease requires a monthly payment to Our Lady’s Ranch, LLC for the purpose of building and maintaining the gravel roadways that access each home site from the nearest county road, about 1.5 miles away. The monthly payment for each lease varies for each home site based on the size and location of the site. The cost of each lease shall be fixed for five years, subject to change every five years thereafter based on any increases to the road maintenance costs.
Each leaseholder shall receive the benefit of using the access and utilities easements of Our Lady’s Ranch, as defined on the “OLR Easement Plan.” Each leaseholder shall also benefit from the farming and recreational opportunities available on the property through a membership with Our Lady’s Ranch Farm Club, which defines the “Designated Areas and Terms of Use” and the “House Rules” for participation. The OLR Farm Club charges a fee for membership and use of the property in order to pay for the overall costs of the property, including the property taxes, insurance, and maintenance, along with any future land developments.
In order to establish a certain quality of design and construction of the private homes at Our Lady’s Ranch, along with normal standards of property maintenance, the OLR property has a CC&R document, “Conditions, Covenants, and Restrictions” to protect the value of each home. To further protect all leaseholders, Our Lady’s Ranch will retain a “First Right of Refusal” so that when a leaseholder desires to sell their home, OLR can find a buyer that is suitable to the rest of the community.
Prayer Centered Leadership
At Our Lady’s Ranch, we recognize that our true leadership begins with God and flows through our Blessed Mother’s guidance. Our community places itself under Our Lady’s protection and direction, so our spirituality shapes our practical governing approach. We maintain a hierarchy that balances clear authority with collaborative discernment. Decisions for daily operations rest with an executive director (Our Lady’s Representative) while larger decisions involve varying levels of a majority, approved through a community vote.
Selecting the right person to serve as Our Lady’s Representative requires discernment beyond mere management skills. We look for someone who demonstrates Our Lady’s love for all neighbors—someone tireless in service, patient with weakness, forgiving of mistakes, and willing to suffer for the good of others. This person must be advanced in virtue, particularly humility and patience, while remaining responsive to threats against the community.
The fruits of the Holy Spirit must be evident in the daily life of the representative, including the virtues of charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity. Without these spiritual qualities, even the most intelligent person would struggle to maintain the harmony needed for a flourishing community.
Drawing wisdom from St. Benedict’s Rule for monastic communities, we understand that the representative must govern through example more than words. Our Lady’s Representative must adapt his/her relational approach to different personalities (gentleness with some and firmness with others) always seeking the welfare of souls entrusted to his/her care. Rather than focusing on material concerns, the representative must remember to “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given you besides” (Matthew 6:33).
Decision Making Hierarchy
The current ownership of Our Lady’s Ranch is privately held in a limited liability company. However, in order to create a more long term and balanced governing system in the future, the property will be donated into a separate non-profit entity. After establishing the community of leaseholders and landowners who will live in and around the property, the governance structure of Our Lady’s Ranch will merge into a board of directors, where the leaseholders and landowners will become the decision makers of the organization.
To provide additional perspective and appropriate checks on authority, we have established a Hierarchy of Approvals that assigns different types of decisions to different levels of consensus:
Operational decisions regarding daily activities, maintenance, and general community functioning rest with Our Lady’s Representative. This allows for efficient management without burdening the entire community with routine matters.
Decisions involving construction projects, maintenance expenses, and monetary spending require a simple majority vote (55%). This ensures financial clarity while maintaining practical momentum.
Decisions about who joins the community or who can visit for extended periods requires a stronger consensus of a major majority vote (75%). This higher threshold recognizes the profound impact new members have on community life.
Fundamental changes to our governing bylaws require a super majority vote (85%), ensuring that core principles remain stable while allowing for necessary evolution.
This staged approach for approvals prevents both the paralysis that can come from requiring unanimous consent for every decision and the potential problems that arise from concentrated authority. It also respects the principle of subsidiarity—decisions are approved by those most directly affected by them.
Our Lady’s Council
To assist Our Lady’s Representative, we have established Our Lady’s Council comprising household leaders according to specific criteria. The Council serves the community by keeping the Representative informed about community developments, warning of potential dangers, and participating in the election of new leadership when necessary. The Council will eventually become the Board of Directors of the new non-profit entity, initially gaining practice and confidence to direct the future organization.
Each council member shall provide a specific administrative duty like hospitality, facility management, photography, communications, or bookkeeping, just to name a few. This distribution of responsibilities gives each household meaningful participation in community operations, while creating opportunities to work together thus promoting unity.
The council meets regularly for prayer and discussion, bringing concerns and suggestions from each household. These gatherings aren’t merely administrative, so they begin with a scriptural reflection and invite divine guidance before addressing practical matters. Our prayer intentions unify us in the Holy Spirit, while discerning God’s will through Our Lady’s intercession.
When conflicts arise, we follows Jesus’s guidance in Matthew 18:15-17, beginning with private conversation between affected parties, then involving witnesses if needed, and finally bringing persistent issues before the wider community. This graduated approach respects privacy while ensuring that serious matters receive appropriate attention.
Managing Shared Resources
One of the many advantages of community life is the ability to share resources and create small scale enterprises that benefit everyone. However, without clear agreements, these opportunities can become sources of tension. So we utilize practical approaches to sharing that maintain both fairness and flexibility. The OLR Farm Club provides clear guidelines for the shared costs and use of our tractors, processing equipment, and specialized tools. Through the farm club program, each family contributes a specific monthly amount towards the maintenance of these common resources, according to their use. This makes economic sense because no family needs exclusive ownership of a tractor that they only use occasionally, yet everyone benefits from having access when needed.
Our shared enterprises also benefit the entire community by allowing greater rewards for greater efforts. When one family takes primary responsibility for the laying hens, for example, they receive the benefits of free eggs for their household while selling surplus eggs to other families at wholesale prices. This creates appropriate incentives because the family managing the chickens has reason to care for them well, while everyone in the community can enjoy fresh eggs at a reasonable cost.
The same approach works for our dairy cow. The family managing the milking receives milk for their labor plus income from selling surplus to others. And when they need a vacation, another family steps in and receives the milk during that period. This arrangement distributes both benefits and responsibilities fairly while creating natural opportunities for families to help one another. And most importantly, this communal arrangement gives each working family a certain flexibility that individual farming enterprises lack.
These micro-enterprises create a simple economy within the community. They reduce costs for goods while providing bonding opportunities beyond purely social activities. Having a system of shared work teaches families to solve problems together and establish equitable arrangements based on actual contributions rather than abstract ideals.
Conventional currency remains useful within the community—not as the ultimate measure of value, but as a tool for creating fair exchanges. When an individual and/or family contributes specific work or products, they deserve appropriate compensation, which can then support their other needs. This clarity minimizes any resentment that could otherwise develop in communities that attempt to function without economic boundaries.
Entry, Exit, and Transition Processes
New members join Our Lady’s Ranch through a discernment process that benefits both the applicant and the existing community. Prospective members typically begin with extended visits, participating in daily rhythms to experience community life directly rather than projecting idealized expectations. These visits allow natural relationships to develop while revealing potential challenges before significant commitments are made.
When someone expresses serious interest in joining, we engage in conversations exploring spirituality, family dynamics, financial readiness, and alignment with community values. These discussions aren’t one-directional interviews but a shared discernment of whether this particular community is the right fit for this particular individual or family at this time along their journey.
For those departing, our ownership structure provides clear exit pathways. The community has the first right of refusal to purchase the departing member’s interest and home, with nine months to exercise this option. The home value is determined by a professional appraisal to ensure fairness while protecting the integrity of the community.
We have also established provisions for unexpected circumstances like an owner’s death. The heir(s) may petition to assume occupancy (subject to community approval) or receive proceeds from the sale of the home. This approach balances respect for family inheritance with the need for compatible members.
Communication and Prayer
Clear, direct, and charitable communication complements prayer as the practical foundation of governance. We need regular community meetings with structured agendas that create space for both practical updates and deeper sharing. Between formal meetings, we maintain impromptu personal communications regularly, with a community group chat for practical matters.
At the heart of our governance approach lies the recognition that no human system, however carefully designed, can function properly without God’s grace. Regular prayer, both individual and communal, remains essential for maintaining right relationships and discerning God’s will in everyday decisions.
Community-wide prayer gatherings provide opportunities not just for spiritual connection but for sharing concerns, expressing gratitude, and renewing our shared vision. These times remind us that our ultimate purpose is not efficient management, rather “living and moving and having our being in Christ” (Acts 17:28).