Contents (All links working as of May 2017.)
California Law
Municipal-specific law, and agency-specific law, like in the links below for Santa Cruz and Monterey, can often be found online, by searching a municipality’s or agency’s website.
Federal Law
Agency-specific law can often be found online, by searching an agency’s website.
Forms and Sample Documents
Forms and samples can also be found by googling for specific forms, or visiting an agency’s or business’s website.
- California Secretary of State entity forms, samples, and fees
- California Office of the Attorney General Forms
- LawInsider
Business
Cooperatives and Nonprofits, which are business entities, have their own sections. Municipal-specific sites, like the ones below for Santa Cruz and Monterey, can often be found online, by searching a municipality’s website.
- Create Your Business Plan, by the U.S. Small Business Administration
- Canvanizer [business and activity planning]
- California Secretary of State Business Entity Webpage
- U.S. Small Business Administration: Choose your Business Structure
- Think Outside the Boss: How to Create a Worker-Owned Business
- Benefit Corp Information Center
- Certified B Corporation
- Flexible or Social Purpose Corporation
- California Secretary of State Business Search
- County of Santa Cruz Fictitious Business Names Info
- County of Monterey Fictitious Business Names Info
- CalGold [CA business permits info]
- City of Santa Cruz Open Counter [Small Business Permits]
- Cities in Monterey County Business License Information
- Obtain Your Business Federal Tax ID, and Filing and Paying Taxes
- IRS Small Business and Self Employed Tax Center
- Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
- Social Enterprise Alliance: Knowledge Center
- Shareable: How to Share
Nonprofits
- California Attorney General’s Guide for Charities
- CA Franchise Tax Board Charities and Nonprofits (Exempt Organizations)
- IRS Tax-Exempt Status for Your Organization
- IRS Compliance Guide for Tax Exempt Organizations that are not a 501(c)3
Cooperatives
Also see links in worker owned co-ops and housing categories.
- University of Wisconsin Madison Center for Cooperatives: Resources
- California Center for Cooperative Development: Resources
- Cultivate.Coop Wiki
Worker Owned Cooperatives
- Think Outside the Boss: How to Create a Worker-Owned Business
- Videos from “Think Outside the Boss” Worker Cooperative Legal Workshop, 2014
- Steps to Starting a Worker Co-op: An Information Booklet
- Vital Steps: A Cooperative Feasibility Study Guide
Agriculture and Food
- California FarmLink
- Beginning Farmers
- Community Alliance with Family Farmers
- Agriculture and Land Based Training Association
- Agrarian Trust Resources
- ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
- National Agricultural Library (USDA)
- Alternative [Sustainable] Farming Systems Information Center (USDA)
- National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
- Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
- Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
- Sustainable Research and Education (USDA)
- Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (UCSC)
- UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
- Permaculture Pattern Literacy
- Rodale Institute [Organics]
- The Land Institute [Perennials]
- Regenerative Design Institute
- Biodynamic Association
- UrbanAgLaw.org
- American Community Garden Association
- Resources on Urban Agriculture from Change Lab Solutions
- Resource Center on Urban Agriculture and Food Security
- Urban Agriculture News and Articles
- CommunityFoodLaw.org
- Videos: Legal Eats: Legal Workshop for Community Food Enterprises
- Legal Eats: Legal Resources for Food Justice Enterprises
Governance
- Governance is Life: Organizational Governance for the Next Economy [A video by the Sustainable Economies Law Center]
- Seeds for Change Governance Resources
- Sociocracy.info
- Holocracy
Finance and Trade
- Video – Legal Basics for Time Banks and Barter Exchanges Webinar, by the Sustainable Economies Law Center
- CommunityCurrenciesLaw.org
Real Estate and Housing
Municipal-specific sites, like the links below for Santa Cruz and Monterey, can often be found online, by searching a municipality’s website.
- California Department of Real Estate
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- California Coastal Commission
- County of Santa Cruz GIS
- City of Santa Cruz GIS
- County of Monterey GIS
- City of Monterey GIS
- County of Santa Cruz Assessor online parcel search
- County of Santa Cruz Recorder online records Search
- Monterey County Assessor online parcel search
- Monterey County online access to Recorder’s official records
- County of Santa Cruz Planning Department
- City of Santa Cruz Planning and Development Department
- County of Monterey Resource Management Agency Planning Departments
- City of Monterey Planning and Development Department
- Cohousing California
- Housing Cooperative Resources from the California Center for Cooperative Development
- The Cohousing Association of the United States
- Global Ecovillage Network
- Fellowship for Intentional Communities
- National Community Land Trust Network
- NCLTN Community Land Trust Technical Manual
- Community (Housing) Land Trust Resources from Burlington and Associates
- California Department of Housing and Community Development [including mobile home residency]
- National Housing Law Project for Housing Justice
- Davis Stirling Act [applies to common interest developments]
- EPA Tools and Resources for Sustainable Communities
- US Green Building Council and LEEDS
- Build it Green
Land, Open Space, and Maps
- OpenStreetMap [community driven, open data maps]
- MilerMeter – [draw on maps in transparent overlay, then switch to OpenStreeMap, Google satellite/maps, terrain (USGS), opencyle, or USGS oldschool]
- Avenza PDF Maps [An app for smartphones that can download USGS and other maps, and with use of GPS, locate and track within maps]
- Find a Land Trust
- Land Trust Alliance
- LocalHarvest and Community Supported Agriculture
- Air Pollution Map
- Sound Map
- Crime Map
- Santa Cruz County Water Quality Map
- Water Quality at Beaches in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
- Windy.com
- ikitesurf.com
- Little Free Libraries Map
- Gall Peters Projection
Media
- GovTrack
- California Budget & Policy Center
- The Daily Climate
- Environmental Health News
- ProPublica
- Progress.org
- Bratton Online (Santa Cruz local news)
- The San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay)
- Feminist Law Professors
- Animal Blawg
- Above the Law
- Grist
- Common Dreams
- Social Enterprise Alliance: News
- Shareable
- Crowdfund Beat Media International
- Earth911 Media
- Treehugger
- Democracy Now!
- Public Radio Exchange
- Films for Action