HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-04-13-LEARY-min 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.
Future Meetings
The next Task Force meetings will be scheduled for May 4, 2011, at 8:30 AM, expected to
be in Room G-15 of the Town Office Building.