Minutes
Lincoln Community Preservation Committee
May 14, 2007
Present: Rayna Caplan, Susie Collins, Craig Donaldson, John Koenig, Colin Smith, Bill Stason, John Valpey, Peter von Mertens, Bryce Wolf
Guests: Anita Scheipers, Assistant Town Administrator
Stuart Saginor, Executive Director, Community Preservation Coalition
The Committee first met with Ms. Scheipers, and discussed attempts to improve coordination of its funding process with the funding schedule of the Capital Planning Committee. There are often projects that are eligible for funding by either committee, and given the state match against Community Preservation funds, it would typically by fiscally advantageous to have those projects funded by the Community Preservation instead of Capital Planning. Capital Planning feels pressure to make its decisions early in the budget process so as not to slow down that process at all. If Community Preservation delays making its decisions, that can result in delays at Capital Planning. The Committee agreed to try a two-step process, whereby preliminary funding requests would be due by September 15, with complete requests due at a later
date. The Committee will send out an email this spring notifying interested parties of the accelerated process, and follow up with another email in August when Capital Planning sends out its notice to town departments and committees.
The Committee discussed scheduling meetings with our relevant constituent committees early in the fall.
The Committee then met with Stuart Saginor of the Community Preservation Coalition. Mr. Saginor first discussed the activities of the Coalition: Coalition members spend a lot of time on Beacon Hill protecting the CPA against the numerous bad bills that are filed every year to amend the CPA, and sponsoring technical amendments to improve the CPA; the Department of Revenue looks to the Coalition web site for information on how to interpret the CPA; the Coalition provides a technical assistance hotline; it responds to press inquiries; it holds regional conferences to help communities implement the CPA.
The Coalition was first formed to promote adoption of the CPA. It’s work now focuses more on implementation. It has only 2 full time employees, and is the only statewide voice for the CPA. All other “industry” groups in Massachusetts charge a membership fee. As of march 31, 54 communities have voted to join the Coalition, out of the 102 adopting communities that have money. Membership is based on a calendar year.
A total of 124 communities have adopted the CPA as of May 14, with an additional 5 communities voting on adoption this spring. While adoption was originally centered mostly in the eastern part of the state, adoption in other parts of the state is picking up. Mr. Saginor sees this as a good thing; the greater the cross-section of communities that adopt, the harder it will be for the legislature to impinge upon the CPA.
The state fund is made up of filing fees from the Registries of Deeds, which vary from $10 to $20 per document. The state fund originally reached a peak of about $53 million. The fund is estimated to bring in about $34 million this year. The 207 communities that will receive a match for FY 2007 will receive a total of about $65 million. The CPA is now at a point where annual town CPA fund will far exceed the state fund. The match for October 2007 will be 100%, but the Coalition estimates a 55-70% match in October 2008, and a less than 50% match in October 2009.
The legislative history of the CPA shows that the original projections were for only a 25-50% state match. No one anticipated a 100% match, which came about because of the extremely high volumes of mortgage refinancing activity resulting from the low interest rates in the early years of this decade.
Mr. Saginor then described the scenario for a less than 100% match. This involves 3 rounds of financing. In the first round, 80% of the fund will be distributed to the adopting cities and towns pro rata, based on their local surcharge amounts. The second and third rounds are made only to the communities that have adopted a 3% surcharge. Out of the 124 adopting communities, only 65 have the 3% surcharge.
The second round will distribute a flat amount, in the range of $40,000 to $140,000 per community, weighted in favor of poorer and smaller communities. The third round is a repeat of the second round.
The Coalition has legislation currently on Beacon Hill to change the surcharge at the Registries of Deeds to a floating fee so as to guarantee at least a 75% match in the first round. Debate on this bill will not start until June 11 at the earliest. The Coalition will issue a call to action to member communities in late summer or early fall.
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council is involved in efforts to protect the CPA. The Mass. Municipal Association is not; as it represents all the towns, it does not have enough of a constituency.
There was a question of using CPA funds to remove invasive species. Mr. Saginor referenced a DOR letter ruling to the Town of Chilmark which approved of that usage.
The committee then discussed a request from the Lincoln Affordable Housing Trust, relating to septic costs and legal fees to be incurred on the Hollingsworth property, and unanimously approved the following resolution:
RESOLVED, that the Community Preservation Act Grant Agreement dated October 2006 between the Town of Lincoln and the Community Preservation Committee be amended to provide that the Lincoln Affordable Housing Trust may “borrow” up to $50,000 of the funds appropriated to the Lincoln Affordable Housing Trust under that agreement for the purpose of necessary due diligence costs precedent to the sale of the Hollingsworth property by the Trust, with such funds to be “repaid”, without interest, upon the sale of that property.
The committee then heard liaison updates, including:
Conservation - Peter von Mertens discussed the progress on the Booth property acquisition
Historic - Colin Smith discussed the creation of additional historic districts
Housing and Housing Trust - Rayna Caplan discussed the progress on Sunnyside
Recreation - - Susie Collins discussed the opening of the Tot Lot
Pierce House - Bill Stason discussed the meeting to discuss the Pierce House report by Bentley College
Comprehensive Long Range Plan –Craig Donaldson discussed the progress of that committee.
The committee approved the minutes from its March 15, 2007 meeting.
Submitted By: John L. Koenig
Approved: 9/18/2007
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