Housing Commission Minutes
March 22, 2005
Present: Rayna Caplan, Vicky Diadiuk, George Georges, Avram Kalisky, BJ Scheff and Bryce Wolf.
Minutes: The minutes of March 5 were approved.
Smart Growth Forum: Caplan attended for the Commission . The meeting was well attended. The Community Housing Task Force proposes multi or single family housing on small lots. The program is voluntary, and offers financial incentives to a community. Units should be near a transportation center, and cannot be age-restricted. Under the smart growth design the units are to be 20% affordable (40B is 25% affordable). Towns are looking to the state to help make up for additional school costs. Mass Housing has technical assistance available. This might be helpful to the RLF in its planning for the Mall.
Minuteman Regional HS: Wolf reported that she had contacted Kemon Taschioglou for an update on the Mill St. properties. He stated that the school is still considering its financial options and has made no decision on a course of action.
Minuteman Commons: Negotiations are still underway between the developers, DHCD, and the town’s counsel regarding the various condominium documents and other legal matters. DHCD has asked for modifications in lottery procedures and other items. The property has been cleared and the developers hope to begin soon.
Accessory Apartments: Scheff stated that she expected to hear from DHCD soon allowing affordability to be defined as 100% of median income instead of 80% median. Marlborough has an apartment program under LIP which pays property owners $8000 per affordable unit over a 15 year period as a sort of stipend for upkeep and repairs. This is less than the $1000/year per unit we are proposing.
Town Meeting: All appears in order for the Housing Commission articles and no controversy is anticipated.
The meeting adjourned at 8:10 a.m. The Sunnyside construction committee met immediately afterward.
The meeting scheduled for April 12 was cancelled. The next meetings are scheduled for April 26 and May 10, 2005 at 7:30 a.m.
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