HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-04-07-CPC-min
Minutes of the Community Preservation Committee
Monday, April 7, 2014
4:00 pm, Parker Room
Town Office Building, 1625 Massachusetts Avenue
Present:
Committee Members:
Marilyn Fenollosa, Chair; Richard Canale, David Horton, Leo McSweeney,
Robert Pressman and Sandra Shaw.
Administrative Assistant
: Nathalie Rice
Also in attendance was David Kanter, Vice-Chair of the Capital Expenditures Committee (CEC).
The meeting was called to order at 4:00 pm. by Ms. Fenollosa.
1.Final Votes on Motions and FY15 Projects
a.) LexHAB Creation of Affordable Housing at the Busa Property -
Rob Addelson,
Assistant Manager for Finance was in attendance to discuss revisions to the motion for Article
8(g) of the 2014 Annual Town Meeting (ATM), the LexHAB request for $750,000 in CPA funds
for the creation of affordable housing on the Busa property. (These FY15 funds are intended to
be used in combination with unspent monies previously appropriated to LexHAB.) Ms.
Fenollosa explained that a question had arisen regarding the use of the CPA funds appropriated
to LexHAB in FY12 and FY13. In those appropriations, CPA funds were appropriated for
“acquisition” of housing rather than “creation”. Town Counsel’s opinion, she noted, was that the
word “acquire” legally encompassed creation of new units, but Town Manager, Carl Valente felt
it would be prudent to clarify this in the FY15 ATM motion.
Members discussed the revised motion and reaffirmed their support of the LexHAB project and
the CPC’s intent to have previously unspent funds used in FY15 for the purposes of creating new
affordable housing on the Busa property. The “Guidelines for Use of CPA Funds by LexHAB”,
published on page 21 of the 2014 CPC Report to Special and Annual Town Meeting, were
referenced in the discussion. (#13 allows CPA funds to be carried over from year to year.) After
a duly seconded motion, members voted (6-0) to reaffirm the CPC’s support of the LexHAB
project on the Busa property for the purposes of creating/acquiring affordable housing as
submitted in its application and plans to the Committee, and that the requested FY15 funds of
$750,000 be combined with unexpended balances from Article 8(d) of the warrant for the 2011
Annual Town Meeting and Article 9(g) of the warrant of the 2012 Annual Town Meeting for a
total of $1,284,653.
Mr. Addelson then discussed the revisions to the “Brown Book” (the Town’s Budget and
Financing Plan) necessitated by the revised motion under Article 8(g). He said he had amended
Table VII on page XI-13 entitled, “FY 2015 Manager’s Recommended Budget: Capital Projects”
to show the appropriation of the unspent total of $534,653 from the 2011 and 2012
appropriations. He noted he had also revised the Capital projects paragraph on page XI-22,
which described the LexHAB proposal. Members reviewed the revised paragraph, but noted that
it referenced 4-6 units of housing. They raised concerns about this since the Board of Selectmen
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had voted to approve 6 units. Members also questioned whether the SHI was a Town or State
list. Mr. Addelson said he would discuss the issue of the number of housing units with the Town
Manager and would make appropriate changes to the paragraph.
b.) Visitor Center –
Mr. Kanter updated the CPC on the position taken by the Board of
Selectmen on the funding for the Visitor Center project. After the Board’s previous vote of
(3-1-1), it had recently endorsed the project funding (5-0). The CPC discussed whether to
reaffirm its vote on the project; its previous vote had been (7-0-2). Since neither of the abstaining
members was present, the Committee agreed a re-vote would be unproductive.
2.Updates
– Ms. Fenollosa reviewed the Committee’s “Updates and Errata to the CPC Report
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to Annual Town Meeting” which had been released on April 4. She said two errors were
corrected in the Report, a reference to the State Match percentage on page 3, and the total of
Affordable Housing appropriations to date presented in the Table entitled “Appropriated to
Date” on page 47. (The total had been recalculated due to an error carried forward from
previous years.) The majority of the changes to the document, however, involved
modifications to the description of the LexHAB proposal under Article 8(g) to tie it more
closely to the revised motion. Article 8(a), the Construction of the Sidewalk at the
Community Center, was changed to the status of Indefinitely Postponed and a typographical
error in its title was corrected. The financial tables were amended to reflect the removal of
the $100,000 in CPA funds associated with this project.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:05 pm.
The following documents were presented at the meeting:
1.“FY2015 Manager’s Recommended Budget: Capital Projects”. Page XI-13 of the Town of
Lexington, Fiscal Year 2015 Budget & Financing Plan, March 3, 2014.
2.“LexHAB Set-Aside Funds for Development of Community Housing (Busa) - $1,284,653.” ,
page XI-22 of the Town of Lexington, Fiscal Year 2015 Budget & Financing Plan, March 3,
2014.
3.“Community Preservation Committee Updates and Errata to the Report to the 2014 Annual
Town Meeting, released April 4, 2014”.
Respectfully submitted,
Nathalie Rice
Administrative Assistant
Community Preservation Committee
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