Laconia Area Community Land Trust chief to retire

Linda Harvey announces she’ll step down in May 2017

Linda Harvey, founding executive director of the Laconia Area Community Land Trust, has announced plans to retire next May.

Harvey has been with the organization over 23 years, when it was a fledgling startup. Since then, the land trust has developed 277 units of permanently affordable housing, with another 89 units in three towns are in immediate pipeline. Most recently, the land trust completed the River’s Edge project in Laconia, converting a former contaminated site into 32 units of permanently affordable housing

In addition, thousands of Lakes Region residents have participated in LACLT’s free financial literacy and homebuyer education services.

“As a sole employee starting with a borrowed folding chair, she grew the organization into a nationally recognized success story,” said Jason Hicks, the land trust’s board chair. “Linda engaged local communities to recognize a need for affordable housing for its citizens and helped them provide it. She developed a vast network of committed stakeholders to create permanently affordable community assets. She assembled a team of highly skilled staff to provide programs of excellence and impact to thousands of Lakes Region residents.”

A winner of many honors over the years, Harvey won NH Business Review’s Business Excellence Award for Excellence in Nonprofits in 2016.

The organization said it has put a transition team in place and has been working with a consultant to work on finding a successor to Harvey.