2010-10-04-LEARY-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Meeting Notes Ad hoc Leary Property Community Housing Task Force October 4, 2010, 9:00 a.m. Room 207, Town Office Building Present: Bob Bicknell, George Burnell, MarilynFenollosa, Aaron Henry, Wendy Manz, Deb Mauger, Maryann McCall-Taylor, Lester Savage, and Betsey Weiss; Garry Rhodes, Ross Speer Absent: Bill Hays, Stephen Keane Housekeeping Minutes of September 13, 2010 approved  Site Visit Marilyn Fenollosa distributed emails from Hannon and Andrade who toured the property and have worked with affordable housing in historic structures. She felt their conclusion was that preservation is doable with a small unit as part of a larger development. Ross Speer, an architect who has volunteered his services, said the house has an odd layout as to functionality and it is a gut rehab kind of project. If the Secretary of Interior standards are applied they cover both inside and out, whereas the state only deals with the exterior. He felt 4 to 6 units seem reasonable. Aaron Henry felt the other units could not subsidize the cost of historic preservation and CPA fund should be sought to cover those costs. Les Savage asked what had happened to the $10,000 voted by Town Meeting for historic preservation. Maryann McCall-Taylor explained that the $10,000 was mentioned in the description, but not the motion as voted, but also that it had gone to the structural study done by Salemi Architects. Deb Mauger asked if LexHAB would manage the unit if it is rehabbed, and is the $250 to $300 per square foot the figure for the entire program or that unit? Les said that LexHAB ’s units are costing about $150 a square foot using the Minuteman Tech workers. Ross Speer said cost runs about $170 a square foot with a 20-unit development and the price goes up as the project gets smaller. George Burnell raised the issue of whether prevailing wage regulations applied. Aaron said that was with federal money and Davis/Bacon applies at 11 units. Work might be governed by procurement under 30B. In general, affordable housing trusts are subject to 30B but LexHAB predates that enabling legislation. Bob Becknell said the units could be managed by LexHAB or the Housing Authority and rental was the way to go. Betsey Weiss said that maybe Town meeting would view the historic unit as affordable but not require it to be on the subsidized housing inventory (SHI) but the remainder of the units would be on the SHI.