“The Chimacum Commons project is rooted in Jefferson Land Trust’s focus on protecting and supporting local working farms and farmers.” – Erik Kingfisher, Director of Stewardship and Resilience, Jefferson Land Trust
“The Chimacum Commons project is rooted in Jefferson Land Trust’s focus on protecting and supporting local working farms and farmers.”
– Erik Kingfisher, Director of Stewardship and Resilience, Jefferson Land Trust
At the center of Chimacum, just off Highway 19 and steps from the Chimacum Corner Farmstand, Chimacum Commons is a working agricultural property shaped by soil, water, and longstanding community ties. Productive fields meet the salmon-bearing waters of Chimacum Creek, and conservation stewardship ensures that farming and wildlife can continue to coexist here for generations to come.
Jefferson Land Trust acquired the Chimacum Commons property in 2014 to protect a vulnerable piece of farmland in the heart of Chimacum. At the time, the 15.7-acre property faced the real possibility of development — a move that would have permanently removed the land from agricultural use and potentially impacted the salmon habitat along Chimacum Creek.
From the beginning, the Chimacum Commons project was guided by a threefold vision: to conserve productive farmland, restore salmon habitat along the creek, and explore a pathway for affordable housing on the property that could support local farm- and food-system workers.
Following acquisition, the Land Trust partnered with the Jefferson County Conservation District to carry out restoration work along the banks of Chimacum Creek — improving habitat conditions for salmon while protecting water quality downstream.
Over the next decade, the Land Trust continued to steward the property by leasing the land to local farmers, keeping it in active production while engaging farmworkers, neighbors, community leaders, and housing advocates in ongoing conversations about its future. This steady, behind-the-scenes work ensured the land remained protected, productive, and ready to support broader community goals over time.
Today, Chimacum Commons remains an actively farmed landscape, with the majority of the land dedicated to agriculture and fish and wildlife habitat protection.
In 2023, building on more than a decade of conservation and community engagement, Jefferson Land Trust partnered with Olympic Housing Trust to advance the project’s long-held affordable housing vision. Olympic Housing Trust, a nonprofit specializing in permanently affordable housing, is leading planning and predevelopment work for housing on a limited, approximately 4-acre portion of the property.
In 2025, the partnership received a significant grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce to support this work. A site plan has since been prepared that clusters housing on the eastern edge of the property, near Chimacum Corner Farmstand and well away from Chimacum Creek, while preserving the majority of the land for farming and habitat.
Once affordable housing is developed, Jefferson Land Trust will transfer land ownership to Olympic Housing Trust while retaining a permanent conservation easement that protects the site’s agricultural soils and ecological values in perpetuity.
As the landowner, Olympic Housing Trust will manage both the housing and agricultural leases on the site moving forward, and Jefferson Land Trust will ensure that the terms of the conservation easement are being honored by Olympic Housing Trust in perpetuity. Groundbreaking on the housing component is anticipated in 2027.
We look forward to seeing how this special central Chimacum property will continue to support our community and thrive over time as both an active farm and as home to those who care for and work the lands that nourish us.
A: When protecting land, we always consider whether Land Trust ownership of any property is a required or desired long-term outcome of the project. Our goal for any property is for it to be owned and managed by the person or organization best suited for its long-term stewardship.
In the case of Chimacum Commons, ownership of the land by Olympic Housing Trust is the best outcome. Jefferson Land Trust is not in the business of building or managing housing, and Olympic Housing Trust has strong experience in this area. Owning the land will allow them to offer affordable farmworker housing (our shared goal) to prospective buyers and renters by holding underlying land leases to the homes on the site.
Because Jefferson Land Trust can accomplish the permanent protection of the agricultural, habitat, and open space values on the property by holding a conservation easement, it’s not necessary for us to also own the land in perpetuity.
Olympic Housing Trust’s ownership of the entire property will help the Land Trust protect the most farmland and will also allow Olympic Housing Trust to build the most housing possible. In order to preserve the most farmland for agricultural activities, it’s best that the housing development is clustered in one corner of the land. However, if Olympic Housing Trust only owned the portion of the land where the development is planned, there wouldn’t be as many development rights.
A: Olympic Housing Trust
A: Olympic Housing Trust. Jefferson Land Trust and our partners at Jefferson LandWorks Collaborative can provide support if needed and requested. As we do with all of our easement-protected properties, Jefferson Land Trust will conduct annual monitoring visits to the farmland and protected habitat to ensure that the terms of the conservation easement are being met.
