2011-04-13-LEARY-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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LEARY PROPERTY COMMUNITY HOUSING TASK FORCE Room G -15, Town Office Building Meeting Minutes of April 13, 2011 Present: Bob Bicknell, George Burnell, Stephen Keane, Wendy Manz, Deb Mauger, Lester Savage, and Betsey Weiss. Guests: Bill Hays and Ross Speer Staff: Aaron Henry and Maryann McCall - Taylor. Minutes Staff was unable to produce minutes of the March 30, 2011 meeting. Approval will be delayed until the Task Force's next meeting. Discussion of Development Program, inc. Town Meeting Recap Mr. Savage, the Chair of the Task Force, recapped Town Meeting's decision not to fund the Task Force's request for $30,000 of predevelopment funding. As a result of this decision Mr. Savage felt that some decisions needed to be made in order to keep the process moving, the obvious points being the choice of developer and the number of units. A general discussion that included the participation of all present ensued. Ms. Weiss askedthe group if the status of the existing house should be revisited since the neighbors wrote letters which were published in the 3/31/11 Minuteman newspaper to preserve the farmhouse and also spoke in support of saving the farmhouse at the 4/6/11 Town Meeting session. Ms. Weiss also shared a concern that she hoped that the number of units would not need to be trimmed to one or two units after spending $600,000 to purchase the land and the need for affordable housing. This prompted the Chair to conduct a straw poll of the group, which resulted in a consensus around 5 or 6 units. Provided the number of units could be designed appropriately (as expressed in the Status Report to the Selectmen), the group felt that more units were necessary to balance out the number of units produced by the market. This is based on recent data coming out of the recent federal census, especially as it relates to the state's monitoring of the 10% mandate of MGL ch. 40B. The focus then turned to producing the Task Force's final report. Staff felt that a draft could be ready for the next meeting. Members suggested that it cover a number of elements relevant to the group's decision making, including the above - mentioned census data, background information on the acquisition process, as well as the topics touched on in the Status Report.