Lincoln Housing Commission
Meeting Minutes of Feb 24, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Lincoln Town Hall, Donaldson Room
Present: Renel Fredricksen, BJ Scheff, Pam Gallup, George Georges, Mary Sheldon
Also present: Connie Lewis, Anita Scheipers
Actions and Discussion:
1) Renel passed out copies of the warrant article list indicating the placement of the various housing related articles in the warrant.
2) Building Inspector Earl Midgley was present to discuss the following items relative to care and maintenance of the housing units:
a. He requested permission to purchase a replacement dryer for 75 Tower Rd. Appliances had been provided to the other housing units. 75 Tower Rd had received a used donated dryer in the beginning. George moved and BJ seconded to approve the purchase of a dryer. The motion was approved unanimously.
b. Earl presented a snow plowing bill from Lincoln landscaping for $320. George moved and Pam seconded approval of payment of the invoice. Motion was approved unanimously.
c. Earl was asked to conduct an inspection of 30A Sunnyside to ensure the outgoing tenant had no damages to the unit for which he needed to compensate the Town.
3) Minutes of the Jan 28, 2009 and Feb. 10, 2009 were reviewed. Pam moved and BJ seconded to approve both minutes with minor grammatical changes. The motion was approved unanimously. Anita will ensure that these and all future minutes are placed in the Housing Commission binder in the Building Office, as well as on the town’s website.
4) New Rental Application for 30A Sunnyside: Renel reviewed the application. The applicant was informed by Renel it was not necessary to attend the meeting unless he wanted to. A representative of the family was present to hear the action by the commission. Renel explained the financial check, the past references and the CORI for the applicant all came back favorably. BJ moved and Pam seconded to approve the applicant for rental of the unit starting no later than April 1, 2009 with a move-in date of March is acceptable if possible by the tenant. The motion was approved unanimously.
George stated he would encourage future new tenants to be invited to a meeting of the commission to give all parties a chance to get to know each other to foster good communication.
Pam agreed to contact Anne Dooley, the current policies and procedures manual consultant, to determine how much information about tenants the commission is able to place in open session minutes.
5) The commission discussed town counsel’s opinion of the two housing related citizen petitions placed on the annual town meeting warrant. Anita explained that Atty. Goldberg is of the opinion that the two articles as written amount only to non-binding referendum questions which, if passed, would only provide guidance to the Selectmen and to future town meetings. Therefore, an acceptance of either article at town meeting does not mandate either the selectmen or future town meetings to take any of the stated actions. The proponents and town meeting voters will have this explained to them.
The commission also discussed general concepts of how to present information on the various housing related articles (including the citizen petitions) at town meeting.
6) Invitations for the 259 Concord Road Group Home Open House were distributed. The date and time of the event is Feb 26, 2009 from 5:00pm to 7:00 pm. George expressed appreciation that the invitation clearly referenced Autism on the letterhead of the invitation.
7) Renel asked for feedback from the members who attended the Feb. 10th CLRPC meeting at Bemis Hall. Several members expressed concern over the Hanscom housing report provided by Selectman Sara Mattes. Brief discussion on this topic ensued. No decisions or actions taken.
8) Pam updated the commission as to the status of the work on the new policies and procedures manual. She stated consultant Anne Dooley is still working on the initial draft, and will likely need to meet with the commission in the April timeframe to review all proposed policies and procedures. It was agreed the draft should be sent to town counsel for a brief legal review before it is accepted by the commission.
9) Renel and Pam agreed to draft a brief article for the next issue of the Lincoln Review.
10) Pam reported that Concord has had a similar problem with the deeds of some of their affordable units as Lincoln has had with the Battle Road Farm units – which prevent the affordability of these units to continue because the subsequent buyer is expected to pay a percentage of market value rather than a value that is tied to affordability. She stated she had been informed by Concord that they had reached an agreement with DHCD in that if DHCD contributed $30,000 per unit toward maintaining the affordability of the units, Concord would supply the necessary funds from CPC funds to cover the balance of the cost.
11) Meeting was adjourned at 5:50 pm.
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