The Bolinas Community Land Trust is making a push to reinvigorate itself: it just hired a new executive director, expanded its board and made a commitment to better involve its membership, the nonprofit said at its annual meeting on Sunday.

The land trust is seeking to counteract some challenges it’s facing: rising property prices and an increase in short-term rentals make it difficult for families to buy homes and for renters to find a place to live. They also make it more expensive for the land trust, which rents 13 apartments to low-income residents as well as commercial spaces, to take on projects. 

And since Lesa Kramer left the organization in 2014, the nonprofit has struggled to find a new executive director. After a year with the role empty, the land trust hired Mill Valley resident Jerry Bernstein early this year, but he left after about six months. 

On Sunday the board voted to hire Arianne Dar—a four-year board member and, until Sunday, the chair—as executive director, with Meg Simmons becoming the new chair. “We’re really happy to be able to offer her that position,” said board member Frances McDormand.

Ms. Dar, a sculptor and former Bolinas-Stinson school board president who moved to Bolinas from Philadelphia 16 years ago, declined to go into specifics about Mr. Bernstein’s departure. But she said it was difficult for someone commuting from over the hill to get up to speed on the job’s complexities, which include working with the county, parsing out regulations and fundraising, among other things. “I know all the players,” Ms. Dar said.

The land trust also expanded its board from seven to 11 directors, following a membership vote. (“Is there an electoral college?” someone quipped.) It’s part of an effort to boost the nonprofit’s momentum and ability to take on projects. Ms. Dar also made a pitch to community members who have expertise to reach out to the nonprofit, if their skills could be put to use.

“It’s more and more important to get projects going,” Ms. Dar said, considering the struggles for long-term residents to remain. “We’re sort of in crisis mode.”

Board member Alethea Patton said the nonprofit is working with the county to address the difficulty of building second units. “There are a lot of roadblocks to that, primarily septic,” she said, but added that she has been meeting with the county to figure out how to allow well-functioning septics to support more bedrooms. “It’s something that is in process right now,” she said.

To help with other projects, the county recently gave the land trust a $15,000 grant to hire a planning consultant to help analyze project designs and feasibility and navigate the county and coastal commission. “So that’s very exciting,” Ms. Dar said.

The nonprofit has a few projects on the horizon. Ms. Dar said she hopes the new Local Coastal Program, when finalized, will allow homes to be built on a parcel of land donated to the trust—a project stalled by a drainage ditch near the sewer ponds that the county considers a wetland. Two other potential projects include one on the Big Mesa, yet Ms. Dar noted that the nonprofit recently let one potential project go, as it didn’t have the money to undertake it.

In the 2015 fiscal year, the nonprofit took in about $372,000, but the land trust needs that number to rise if it wants to create more housing. Part of better involving membership is to help with fundraising, Ms. McDormand said at the meeting.

The land trust has officially always been a membership organization. Yet although it is supposed to convene multiple membership meetings a year, it has only been holding one. In recent years, those meetings have not been heavily attended, with between six to 12 people. On Sunday, over two dozen showed up. 

But the era of one annual meeting is over, according to Ms. Dar. “That’s not right and it won’t happen again,” she said. Now the land trust will convene four member meetings a year, coinciding with quarterly board meetings. The board also hopes that a new website will help keep members involved.

“I want to have an active membership that gets to be involved in what we do,” Ms. Dar said.