2013-12-00-CPC-rpt (Needs Assessment Report)

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Town of Lexington Community Preservation Plan Overview Introduction In March of 2006, the residents of Lexington voted to adopt the Community Preservation Act (CPA), which set a 3% surcharge on property tax bills to be supplemented by State matching funds from the Massachusetts Community Preservation Trust Fund. The Lexington Community Preservation Committee (CPC) was appointed at that time to make recommendations to Town Meeting for the use of the funds raised by the surcharge under the CPA. In its initial year, fiscal year 2007 (FY07), the surcharge brought in approximately $2.5 million dollars, which was fully matched with State funds. Since FY07, annual revenue from the local surcharge has steadily increased. Latest figures are only available for FY12, for which the surcharge was $3,344,371. However, State matching funds, which come from a surcharge on Registry of Deeds transaction fees, have fallen, a function of falling home sales in Massachusetts over the last several years. Initially at a 100% match in FY07, the percentage has dropped to 27.79% for FYI 2. This reduction is also due in part to an increase in the number of communities which have passed the CPA, and therefore compete with Lexington for limited funds. (To date there are 155 communities with CPA by- laws.) The Community Preservation Act was amended in July of 2012 to allow, among other changes, the restoration and rehabilitation of recreational resources, the clarification of certain definitions, and the transfer of $25 million to the Statewide CPA Trust Fund from the FYI State budget surplus. At the time of passage, there was legislative intention to transfer $25 million in funds each fiscal year for disbursement to CPA communities in the form of the State match. To date the Lexington Town Meeting has appropriated over $31 million in funding for CPA projects recommended to Town Meeting in the four primary categories of Community Housing ($6.8 million); Historic Resources ($7.3 million); Open Space Preservation ($9.5 million); and Recreational Uses ($3.3 million). (The $4.3 million approved by Town Meeting for purchase of the Busa property is presently undesignated as the Selectmen have not yet delineated which portions of the parcel will be used for open space and which for other purposes.) Of the funds that have been in the Town's Community Preservation Fund (CPF), over $8.3 million have been provided from the State's supplemental matching funds and $500,000 from a State Land (Local Acquisition for Natural Diversity) Grant. The CPA statute requires that at least 10 %of the CPA funds received in each fiscal year be spent or reserved for each of the CPA's three main purposes: open space, historic resources, and community housing. CPA funds may also be also used for acquisition, creation, preservation or the restoration or rehabilitation of recreation resources. CPA funds that are not expended in one year may be "banked" or carried over to subsequent years within each main designation. The remaining 70 % of CPA funds received in each fiscal year is available to be appropriated or