2005-01-27-HPB.min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Housing Partnership Meeting Minutes for January 27, 2005 Attendees: Bob Bicknell, Florence Baturin, Jeri Fouter, Inky MacDougall, Tom Harden, Anne Frymer, David Burns, Mary Haskell, Martha Wood, Paul Linton, Harriet Cohen Bob Bicknell chaired the meeting; Mary Haskell and Harriet Cohen took the minutes. The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm. 1. Discussion of fund raising and publicity for Lexington Housing Foundation:. Art Katz, Jeri Fouter and Florence Baturin volunteered to work on publicity to attract donors – Jeri passed out brochures used by Arlington and Bedford. We want a good brochure showing the importance of affordable housing to a community; the need for a high quality brochure was stressed as a way for potential donors to know that we are serious about this fund-raising campaign We discussed whether the funds would be raised generally or for specific programs of ours; Bob Bicknell's action plan for the Home Consortium lists specific items for which we can use funds and they can be incorporated into the publicity. We have just been turned down by CHAPA for our application for a grant to pay for Phil Herr to consult further on the inclusionary zoning by- law – this is one specific effort for which we can use the money immediately. The publicity committee will do a solicitation letter targeted to churches and temples and also one targeted to banks and probably one targeted to realtors and developers 2. Hear Reports from Sub-committees. Zoning By-Law Changes (Mary Haskell): The only matter to report is the turndown by CHAPA as noted above. The question is: How do we get Phil Herr back in the picture? We do have $1,300 in the Housing Foundation, mainly from the Hancock Church. It was agreed that Mary will write to Phil asking him to send us a proposal as to the cost of getting started with him and ask him for quarterly proposals with payments over time. We can sign a contract with him. Tom Harden noted that the Planning Board's slot to report comes up the first night of Town Meeting--there will probably be a 5 or 10 minute informational session about inclusionary zoning even though it will not be up for a vote at this spring's town meeting HOME Consortium (David Burns): We will not be getting any money from the HOME Consortium next year. The HUD Regional Director, who retired, did not forward the application for funds to HUD in Washington. As a result, the four new members of the consortium, including Lexington, will not be getting any money. The consortium coordinator has tried to get us some money, but had no success. In any event, HUD is proposing to cut the grants next year by 50%.