Bellicose Bumpkin

Back in the October 2009 town meeting, Article 14 was approved that provided $60K along with a previously approved $40K for the purchase of a large chunk of land near Assawompsett and the Black Brook Conservation Area.

I won’t take the shine off this good news by pointing out that our $100K investment would have been more like a $50K investment if we were participating in the CPA – the best no-brainer planning tool available. Oops,,, just did. As reported in this Enterprise article:

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Middleboro came out on top of the last round of state grants and was awarded nearly $400,000 to protect a huge swath of land in south Middleboro along the largest natural inland body of water in Massachusetts.

The land, owned by developer Ernesto Caparrotta, is in the middle of 865 acres of protected land along the 4,000-acre Assawompset Pond Complex, a large regional water supply for more than 200,000 people.

Another $400,000 was approved through a water supply grant, and The Nature Conservancy picked up the remaining $350,000.

“We’re very, very excited,” said Planning Director Ruth M. Geoffroy, the major architect of the effort.

She said the newest purchase caps a long-term goal to protect land and the water supply in one of the region’s environmentally richest areas that is home to several endangered species. She said the purchase price is about $860,000 for 88 acres that would fall to the developers’ shovel without the grant.

Geoffroy said the land will be open to the public, but there is no decision on whether hunting will be allowed.

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Kudos to Ruth and everyone who worked to put this together.

I have to get out to this area and see what sort of trails there are.

From Wareham:

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A combination of a federal grant, Community Preservation funds and private donations, together totaling more than $3 million, will be used to protect more than 300 acres of land fronting on Buzzards Bay.

“It is especially compelling that Wareham town voters, through an initial allocation of Community Preservation Act funds, provided the seed money that was the catalyst for advancing this amazing project,” Wareham Land Trust President John Browning said in a statement. “Now the project has blossomed into the largest conservation area on the Wareham coastline, and the same voters have now completed the project by once again allocating CPA funds to the project. This is a testament to the foresight and commitment of the Wareham community to protecting the unique natural assets on Buzzards Bay.”

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Wareham spent $320K on 20 acres of land that provides access to another 300 acrees on Buzzard’s Bay. That $320K, will was matched at probably 90% by state funds, resulted in $3 million in land. That’s a return of nearly $20 on the dollar. Even with no state matching – that’s still a return of $10 on the dollar.

CPA is smart money.

Looks like some other people in town are talking about CPA.

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Open Space Committee members debated last month on whether to present voters with a request to adopt the Community Preservation Act next year.

The committee met with Kim Gilman of the Community Preservation Coalition (CPC,) who was there to discuss bringing the CPA to Middleboro.

Passed by legislators in 2000, the CPA allows towns to raise property taxes by one to three percent. The funds garnered from this increase are used toward preservation of historical sites and buildings, conservation efforts, recreation, and community housing. In November of 2002, Middleboro voters voted 3,284 to 2,799 against adopting the act.

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I will say that back in 2002, it didn’t get defeated by that much. I had heard that it lost by like 2-1. Clearly not so.

Personally I think that waiting for the economy to be better is sort of like a dog chasing it’s tail. It will make the pill easier to swallow, but there’s is no guarantee that the economy won’t turn down in the year between the time CPA is passed and the time when the first tax surcharge comes in.

Still, if it makes people feel better then so be it.

So I see this article on some CPA expenditures in Easton that were recently approved at town meeting:

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While voters authorized spending $250,000 of Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to continue the restoration of Unity Church and $69,400 from the same fund for restoring Queset Gardens behind the library, the most contentious discussion of the evening revolved around allocating $360,000 of CPA funds for the restoration and redevelopment of the Dean Mill property located on Depot Street.

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Almost $670K spent at one town meeting on historic preservation projects.

Imagine trying to get all that to fly at a Middleboro town meeting? Without a program like CPA, opportunities like these slip past and the town is left patting itself on the back for the kneejerk responses and crisis management that passes for preservation in this town.

A recent post about an upcoming employment seminar devolved into a discussion of the Community Preservation Act a law that benefits towns interested in preserving their communities.

Today’s Patriot Ledger had an article that covered an interesting use of CPA for affordable housing. Too often people look at CPA only as a tool to preserve open space. It can also be used for affordable housing, historic preservation, and recreational assets. Back to point. Randolph is using CPA money to give out loans to buy houses. This money is intended for people that otherwise might not be able to secure financing to purchase their own home.

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Veterans and middle-income families can receive up to to $15,000 in grant money toward buying a home in town as part of a new program that officials call unique.

Grants of $10,000 will be available toward the down payment on a home in Randolph, and up to $15,000 if the home is currently foreclosed or abandoned. Participants must meet income requirements and will be selected through a weighted lottery.

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What a great program. Lower income people benefit. Distressed properties are prevented from becoming blighted. The community as a whole benefits.

Great idea.

People in a similar condition in Middleboro can take comfort in the fact that they won’t be able to buy a house at all and so won’t be saddled with that $24 CPA surcharge.

This weeks Gazette is full of interesting articles and letters to the editor.

Bumpkin’s Corner – my bi-weekly column gives an overdue update on the CPA effort. That alone is worth the price of the paper, at least to my mom.

Word on Carcier v. Kempthorne/Salazar) came in at the 11th hour leaving editor Jane Lopes just enough time to opine that the already slim chances for a Middleboro casino have become much slimmer.

A great letter from former CFO president Jacquie Tolosko pointing out that the myopic BOS might do with some reading glasses so they can see the impacts and realities that have been pointed out repeatedly by casino opponents for almost 2 years now.

Another great letter from Mike Solomini about the Middleboro BOS’s reluctance to follow open meeting law. At the last BOS meeting, Mr. Solomini asked the BOS to amend meeting minutes to include the germane content of a discussion about the BOS’s connections with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, it’s investors/handlers, and gifts they had received. Spataro and to a lesser degree Brunelle, put on a quite a display that fortunately has been immortalized in a video that will be posted soon.

The Gazette is still only 50 cents and this week’s issue would be a bargain at twice that price.

I received this email and put it out there for discussion. Historic preservation easements sound like an interesting option.

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Dear Mr. Belanger,

I stumbled across the Middleboro CPA webpage by accident, and am interested in learning about what the CPA is doing. I grew up in Middleboro (I am a member of the MHS class of ’97), and now live and work in Washington, D.C. I work for a small nonprofit historic preservation organization (The Trust for Architectural Easements – www.architecturaltrust.org) that manages over 800 historic preservation easements in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Illinois. Historic preservation easements preserve historic architecture forever; similarly, land and open-space easements preserve land and open space in perpetuity.

I was wondering if the idea of using historic preservation and open-space easement donations to protect Middleboro’s open land and historic sites has been considered – either instead of, or in addition to, the proposed property tax increase. Easement donations are voluntary, and are made by property owners in the form of preservation restriction agreements recorded against their properties. Property owners agree to restrict their properties from further development, and are eligible to receive federal tax deductions based on the appraised value of the restricted property. The restrictions are permanent, and run with the land in perpetuity; future owners of restricted property must abide by the restrictions.

For a building to be protected by a historic preservation easement, it must be located in a National Register Historic District, or be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Middleborough Center Historic District is in a National Register Historic District, and therefore, many of its buildings are eligible for protection by historic preservation easements through the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive Program. And, Middleboro’s buildings individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places (the Peter Pierce Store [now, I believe the police station], the Tom Thumb House, and the U. S. Post Office Building) are similarly eligible. (The C. P. Washburn Grain Mill had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places – and is, in fact, still listed on the Register; had it been protected by a historic preservation easement, it could not have been torn down.) Other historic buildings in Middleboro located outside of the historic district might be added to the National Register through a nomination process.

I’d be more than happy to discuss the historic preservation program with you over the phone if you think that there might be an interest in the program by historic and open-space property owners. I don’t like to think about the over-development of Middleboro’s open space, or of the loss of historic buildings that Middleboro is facing. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to help you with your cause.

Best wishes,

Laura Thornton

888-831-2107 ext. 12

lthornton[at]architecturaltrust.org

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The Massachusetts Historical Commission is accepting applications for grants. This would be the perfect thing to use CPA for. The Massachusetts Preservation Projects fund gives you a 50% match for historical preservation. If we were in CPA, we could spend some CPA funds on these sorts of projects. The net result would be that we would receive 3 dollars for every 1 dollar we invested.

Look at the numbers. Imagine a theoretical $200K project to restore some historic building. Further imagine that we fund the project with CPA money and this historic grant and assuma a 50% CPA match.

Total cost: $200K
Historic matching: $100K
Middleboro contribution: $67K
CPA matching funds: $33K

End result – we get $200K worth of historic preservation for $67K. That’s nearly a 300% return.

Now let’s get back to reality. Without CPA, most likely we will never spend any money on this historic project, we will not receive the matching CPA funds, and we won’t get any money from this historic grant project.

If you’re not in, you can’t win. If we don’t adopt CPA … we’re not in.

Here is a quote from the Massachusetts Preservation Projects fund web page.

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Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin and the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) are pleased to announce Round 15 of the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund grant program. The MHC is now accepting applications for Round 15 grants. It is anticipated that funding for Round 15 will be in the range of the previous two grant rounds, Rounds 13 and 14, which were funded at $750,000 and $800,000, respectively.

The Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund (MPPF) is a state-funded 50% reimbursable matching grant program established in 1984 to support the preservation of properties, landscapes, and sites (cultural resources) listed in the State Register of Historic Places. Applicants must be a municipality or nonprofit organization. Historic cultural resources in public and nonprofit ownership and use frequently suffer from deferred maintenance, incompatible use, or are threatened by demolition. These important resources represent a significant portion of the Commonwealth’s heritage. By providing assistance to historic cultural resources owned by nonprofit or municipal entities, the Massachusetts Historical Commission hopes to ensure their continued use and integrity. The program is administered in accordance with 950 CMR 73.00.

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The next CPA meeting will be at the Middleboro Library, 6:30 to 8:00 PM
on Tuesday, January 6th.

The first part of the meeting will be informational for anyone with
questions about CPA followed by a larger organizational segment.

Please come one and all – even if just to stop by and say “Bumpkin,
you rock!” or to hurl tomatoes and/or insults from the back of the
room.

http://cpanow.org

A summary of last night’s CPA meeting can be seen on the CPA Now web site.

I have to say that I’m very excited by the turnout and I’m not talking about the sheer quantity of people – which was pretty darn respectable. It was the type of people who were there.

With the Marshall indictment, our old friend the casino issue is rearing it’s ugly head again and no doubt things will heat up in the coming days. There was a tremendous cross section of people from very pro, to very anti, to people who didn’t give rat’s behind. There were older townie types, new residents, people from town governemnt, citizen activist types. There were people who have feuded pretty publicly over the last year and a half. Right up front was a Wampanaog trbal member. Nearby was Brian Giovanoni – who has excellent knowledge of CPA and apparently worked to pass it in Duxbury. There were some people who have done some pretty good skewering of me on the Internet and some people who have had their own battles on the ‘net.

This was the very first time since the “C” came, that I really felt that there was hope for the town to come together and work together on something without a cloud hanging over everything.

I want to personally thank everyone that came.

Middleboro Library – large meeting room(downstairs)
Tuesday, December 16
6:30 P.M. to 8:30 P.M

The Enterprise has an article about pros and antis working together on CPA.

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They were bitter opponents over whether to allow a casino in town, but they’ve put their differences aside in an effort to get the Community Preservation Act passed by a petition initiative for the spring ballot.

Board of Selectman Chairman Adam M. Bond, who helped frame the casino agreement with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe last year, and William Mazzilli, a staunch casino supporter, have joined forces with Richard Young, chairman of the statewide anti-casino collation and Mark Belanger, an anti-casino blogger.

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That pretty much says it all. CPA is a pure effort that has nothing to do with the wars of the past.

The current Gazette also has an article about this effort:

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Beginning with a meeting that is scheduled for 6:30-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 16 in the lower meeting room at the Middleboro Public Library, Mr. Belanger and other local residents who support his goals hope to launch a grassroots effort to attain passage of the Community Preservation Act (CPA). Prominent supporters so far include Chairman of Selectmen Adam Bond, who spoke in favor of the project at Monday night’s selectmen’s meeting, Conservation Agent Tricia Cassady, Finance Committee member Steven McKinnon and local resident William Marzelli. Mr. Belanger hopes to build on that support and enlist a crew of volunteers whose first task would be to obtain the signatures necessary to get the CPA question on the April ballot.

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For the last year, I’ve been looking at CPA, the Community Preservation Act and am convinced that this is a great program that Middleborough should be taking advantage of. CPA is described in some detail here:
http://cpanow.org

In short – it is a way for Middleborough to raise money, that is partially or fully matched by the state, for preserving open space, historical treasures, provide housing, enhance recreational offering, and otherwise improve our community.

Myself and a number of other Middleborough citizens – pro casino, anti casino, town employees, citizens, are looking to get CPA on the ballot at the spring town election. This will require nearly 1,000 signatures – which must be collected by early February.

To that end, we are looking to hold informational meetings, answer questions and find others who are willing to help. The first meeting will take place this Tuesday:
Tuesday December 16, 2008 – 6:30 PM
in the Middleboro Library – downstairs.

Passing CPA will not be done with a few emails or a web site. It will require people. Please join us on Tuesday evening. With all the turmoil and division Middleboro has seen in the last year or so, this is an effort that will require all and an effort that has one simple goal: To preserve, protect, and improve our community.

Until the meeting, I would ask you to collect email addresses and phone numbers of people you know – your universe, and get them in a state where you can contact them to ask for their support.

Regards and please feel free to contact me anytime if you have any questions.

-Mark

I asked for and was granted a spot on the Middleboro FinCom agenda last night – Monday 12/8/2008. I gave a short presentation on CPA which can be seen here. Click in the page to advance from slide to slide.

The presentation is quite brief and lacking much detail without commentary.

I kept it as brief as I could, the committee showed interest and even bumped me up on the agenda so I could get out early. It is a real pleasure dealing with this group of professionals and I find them highly approachable. FinCom is a resource that Middleboro should be taking more advantage of and I would encourage everyone to pay attention to and support this committee. Without going off on a tangent, I really would like to see the expertise of FinCom leveraged more than it is. But I digress.

I wanted the opportunity to explain CPA to them and appeal for their individual support if not the support of the committee. Regardless of whether FinCom supports the idea of CPA, or if any of its members support it as individuals, I asked to be heard … and I was.

And I can’t ask for any more than that.

I was about to start running some real numbers on what the average Middleboro household would pay if we adopted CPA. Fortunately, I didn’t have to. I contacted a person from Community Preservation Coalition who sent me this projection based on FY2008 tax receipts.

To remind you – CPA would allow us to have a surcharge of 1-3% on our property tax bills. This money would be matched by the state up to 100% but more likely somewhere around 70-75%. These monies can be used for open space preservation, historical preservation, affordable housing, and recreational spending. In the next legislative session, there will be a bill to increase the minimun state match from 5% to 75%. Where else can you get a 75% return on your money?

The first $100K of property value is exempt and there are low income exceptions as well. These numbers are based on FY08 tax figures, using a residential tax rate of $10.10 per thousand and and the average single family home’s assessed value of $326,403 reduced to $226,403 with the $100K exemption. The brings the average tax payment down to $2,286.67.

Here are the expected payments, matching state funds, and totals based on these numbers:

CPA%	Avg payment	Town total	State match	Total with 75% match
1.00%	22.87	$198,328	$148,746	$347,074
1.50%	34.30	$297,492	$223,119	$520,611
2.00%	45.73	$396,656	$297,492	$694,148
3.00%	68.60	$594,984	$446,238	$1,041,222

CPA % – Amount of CPA surcharge
Avg payment – Average payment per house per year
Town total – Total raised by the town
State match – Amount given by the state (based on 75% match)
Total with 75% match – Total CPA funds raised by Middleboro with state matching funds

So – if Middleboro opts into CPA at the maximum amount of 3%, the average home will pay $68.60 per year or just $1.32 per week. This will raise $595K per year and bring in $446K of free state matching money for a total of just over $1M dollars per year to preserve open space, prevent unwanted development, preserve our history, and pursue affordable housing.

The Globe reports on closer scrutiny of CPA spending:

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Newton was planning to fix up Stearns and nearby Pellegrini Park, both in the village of Nonantum, with Community Preservation Act money.

But the state’s highest court ruled last month that the program’s funds, drawn from a special property-tax surcharge and state matching grants, could not be used to renovate recreational facilities – unless they were initially purchased or created with those funds.

The exception isn’t much comfort to communities with little or no open space left to acquire. Many are scouring the decision like Talmudic scholars for ways to legally justify fixing ball fields and tot lots with one of the few pots of money unravaged by budget cuts.

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This is clearly unfair to towns with little open space to create new recreational facilities and little money to maintain existing ones. Just look at Middleboro’s chronically underfunded Parks Department. While we have space for more stuff, we’re struggling to take care of the stuff we have. CPA could help alleviate that.

One of the digs on CPA comes from people who just don’t like state programs. They rightly point out that the state can change the rules – which is true to an extent. As more communities opted in to CPA, and the economy worsened, the matching funds dropped from 100% down to around 70%. There is talk of a bill to fix the minimum match at 70% – which would be a great thing. While the court has ruled that you cannot use CPA monies for existing recreational space, there is a bill to allow CPA spending for that purpose:

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“If you’re built out, you are really stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Pizzi said.

The coalition supports a bill sponsored by state Senator Cynthia Creem, a Newton Democrat, that would amend the law to allow improvements to existing recreational spaces, Pizzi said.

The bill is in the House Ways and Means Committee but is not expected to advance this legislative session, Creem’s staff said. It will have to be refiled once the new session begins in January.

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Even if the bill doesn’t make it this time around, CPA should evolve to be more community-friendly as more and more towns opt in and run into things like this.

It’s still free money that allows for better planning of expenditures that we are(or should) be spending anyway.

I’ve been watching the CPA campaign in Gloucester and am pleased to see that it passed.

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Gloucester voters passed the Community Preservation Act, with 8,259 voting yes, and 6,088 voting no.

Question 4 on Gloucester ballots asked voters whether they wanted to accept the Community Preservation Act and add a 1 percent surcharge on the annual tax levy on a person’s home, minus $100,000 in value, beginning in Fiscal Year 2010. Elderly and low- to-moderate-income families would be exempt.

The surcharges would go into the Community Preservation Fund, the city would receive a matching grant of up to 100 percent from the state. The money from the state is funded by deed transfer collections. The money is split up among communities in the state that have already adopted the CPA, including Rockport, Essex and Manchester.

The CPA money can be spent in three ways: acquisition and preservation of open space; creation and support of affordable housing; and the acquisition and preservation of historic buildings and landscapes.

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Coming up to this vote, there were many letters in Gloucester local papers some inf favor and some against. In these hard economic times, the easy thing to do is vote to keep a few more bucks in your pocket. Often however, the easy thing is not the right thing. Gloucester voters made the right choice and I hope Middleboro voters do the same when it’s their turn.

Looks like CPA funds will be matched at 70% next year. Meaning that a town that has adopted CPA will get $7 for every $10 they contribute.

Free money.

There is a bill in the pipeline that would establish a minimum match of 75%.

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Cape and Islands towns will be getting less money for open space, affordable housing and historic preservation this year under the state Community Preservation Act.

Since 2002, Massachusetts towns have received a 100 percent match for qualifying projects. This year, many towns — including a sizable number on the Cape — will get a state match as low as 70 percent. The drop-off is expected to be even sharper next year.

CPA money is raised from two sources. Municipalities that vote to participate in the program raise a local share from a property tax surcharge of up to 3 percent. State money used to match the local funds is raised from a $10 to $20 fee on registry of deeds transactions.

As the real estate market has tumbled, the amount of state CPA money raised from registry of deeds transaction fees has shrunk.

State officials say the problem posed by the decrease in the state-generated CPA money has become insurmountable, because there are increasing numbers of municipalities seeking a piece of the CPA pie.

The number of communities enrolled in the CPA has jumped from 34 to 133 since 2002. Statewide, registry fees have dropped from a high of $53 million in 2003 to $27 million last fiscal year, which ended June 30. The amount of state-generated CPA money is expected to be about the same in the current fiscal year.

State Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem, D-Newton, has filed legislation that would raise registry fees to guarantee a state match of no lower than 75 percent. The Community Preservation Coalition backs the bill. The Legislature did not act on the bill this session, but it will be re-filed in January.

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My next Gazette column will be out tomorrow and deals with CPA.

This article came in via a Google alert and contains this tantalizing statement:

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“The facility will be brought completely up-to-date, it will be ADA-compliant and handicap-accessible,” Mr. Foster said. “The other benefit is by taking matters into our own hands, we are gaining some immunity to unfriendly 40B projects that might be forced on Marion.”

One of the big advantages to this proposal, according to Mr. Foster, is that no additional burden will be placed on the Marion taxpayers. The $525,000 of Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds already allocated and available for the project would be used to garner $7.7 million for the project — so every $1 in CPA funds would bring in $15 in outside funding.

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Short version – Marion used their CPA money to create desireable affordable housing for seniors, got a whole bunch of extra funding, and is cranking up the number of affordable housing units – which in turn protects them against unwanted 40B development.

Meanwhile Middeleboro continues with it’s crisis-of-the-day style of dealing with affordable housing, open space, and other issues that CPA would help us bring under control.

Here is a nice example of CPA funds being used to block unwanted development:

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PEABODY-The city is one step closer to preventing Scouting Way, a proposed 16-unit subdivision, from becoming a reality.

Councilors approved the request made by the Community Development Department to use $550,000 from Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to acquire the land between Summit Street and Forest Street and keep it as open space and future recreational use.

“This is an opportunity for the city to purchase land…and halt any development,” said Director of Community Development Jean Delios. “Most importantly, this could continue to serve in its natural state as a flood storage area.”

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I’ve just started writing a Gazette article about CPA so feel free to comment if you have any input.

Another in my ongoing series to scope out CPA – the Community Preservation Act. Initially I read the available information and for several months I’ve been seeing what shows up in a google alert. The idea is see all news about CPA – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

This article makes an interesting point about affordable housing – which is one of the three things CPA money can be used for. It is in the town’s best interests to have enough affordable housing to prevent relatively uncontrolled 40B housing.

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Town Meeting established the trust fund last November using $500,000 collected through the CPA surcharge on local property taxes. The state matches that funding 100 percent.

Petrin said the fund allows the town to act quickly if a property that could be used for affordable housing hits the market, rather than waiting for the next Town Meeting to try to buy it.

“It gives them the capability of making fast decisions, because sometimes deals happen quickly,” Petrin said.

Trustees won’t be able to borrow against the town’s budget, but only from the money available in the fund.

Along with a recently adopted broader plan for housing, the fund also should help Ashland block unwanted developments proposed under Chapter 40B, the state law that mandates a certain amount of affordable housing in all towns, town officials said last year.

The fund could be used to promote affordable housing in other ways, too. Other communities have used the funding to start home rehabilitation programs for low- to moderate-income residents.

I’m trying to see the downside here folks and just can’t.

Here’s an interesting article that caught my eye. It’s an innocuous post about Rayhnam hiring a part-time planner to replace their full-time planner. The Raynham Town Planner left to pursue a job in Randolph.

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McCarthy resigned last month from the full time position of town planner — after serving in the positon for 12 years — in order to accept the position as Randolph’s town planner.

The full-time position in Randolph, expected to pay McCarthy a salaray of between $61,000 and $81,000 a year, is being funded through financial benefits associated with the Community Preservation Act that voters in Randolph accepted in 2005.

Although Raynham voters failed to accept the CPA during the same year, the town has been funding McCarthy’s annual salary of $58,000 through its general operating budget.

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I’m intrigued that the town of Randolph is able to fund a run-of-the-mill town position using CPA monies.

Curious.

Here’s a good article about CPA in the Vineyard. It discusses why the state contribution will drop this year, an overview of how it works and how the monies have been used in the past.

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The incentive for towns to join the Massachusetts Community Preservation Act (CPA) is that the state matches funds derived from a three-percent surtax on the property taxes collected by the towns. Until this year, the state has matched town funds 100 percent, but that level of match was never guaranteed. Bob Bliss, spokesman for the state Department of Revenue, told The Times this week that the match will probably drop to 65 percent this year. The final figure will be announced in October. Mr. Bliss explained that the number of towns adopting the CPA has increased, and the slow housing market has reduced the income from the Registry of Deeds, which is where the state matching funds come from.

The CPA is designed to help towns in three areas: affordable housing, open space, and historic preservation. At least 10 percent of each town’s CPA appropriations must go to each of the three categories. Once at least 10 percent has been voted for open space, money may also be spent on recreation facilities.

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Here is the list of towns that have adopted the Community Preservation Act. It is current to June 2008 and includes the percentage contributed by each town. Many towns are contributing the maximum of 3% and I’d guestimate the average to be over 2%.

CPA list

This quick blurb on WickedLocal gives a short overview of some of the projects being considered for CPA money. Like many of the projects that are being done in other towns, they mostly seem like worthy projects – many of which would be done anyway. These sort of quality-of-life projects can really add to a town’s character.

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Bruce Freeman Rail Trail design plans, Monument Street retaining wall repairs and a facelift for the West Concord Fire station were among the suggested town-sponsored Community Preservation projects selectmen saw on Monday.

Some potential projects for the 2009 funding round of the Community Preservation Act are structural repairs to the Scout House, restoration of the Thoreau Book Collection and renovations to the Peter Bulkeley Building.

An estimated $1.2 million will be available for the 2009 funding round, which has a state reimbursement rate of 70 percent and will be voted at the annual Town Meeting on April 27, 2009.

The selectmen will put together a priority list of projects next month, after the town manager, or assistant town manager, get back to them about what each project will cost.

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The Globe is reporting about a group in Wareham that tried to stop the use of CPA funds to pay for beachfront acreage the town purchased in 2003.

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Political watchdogs in Wareham won a court order to block what they say is the town’s misuse of $1.1 million in Community Preservation Act funds. But it came a bit too late.

By the time a Brockton Superior Court judge issued a restraining order last Friday, the town had wired the money to its intended recipient, resident Barbara Deighton Haupt. The town owed her the $1.1 million for the beachfront acreage it took from her, but did not fully compensate her for, in 2003.

The citizens group, Taxpayers for Full Disclosure, had argued that it was improper to use funds from the Community Preservation Act to pay Haupt, and the state Department of Revenue agreed. CPA money is earmarked for three uses – open land or historic preservation, and affordable housing – and towns are expected to voluntarily heed those guidelines.

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As I said in the previous post, whenever you have money, you need to keep an eye on things.

Several things I’m curious about in this case. It seems the Selectman have authority to spend CPA funds. It also seems that they rushed the payment on this before a Nov. 16 deadline. From my experience, when people try to rush things through, there’s probably something shaky going on.

So how do other towns authorize expenditure of CPA funds? Stay tuned.

And what is this citizens group – Taxpayers for Full Disclosure? I’d like to hear more about them.