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*** DRAFT ***Minutes of the Community Preservation Committee
Thursday, February 17, 2011
3:00 pm
Ellen Stone Room
Cary Memorial Building
Present:
Board Members:
Wendy Manz,Chair; Marilyn Fenollosa, Vice-Chair; Joel Adler,
Norman Cohen, Jeanne Kreiger, Leo McSweeney, Sandy Shaw, Betsey Weiss and Dick
Wolk.
Administrative Assistant
: Nathalie Rice
Also in attendance were David Kanter and Shirley Stolz, members of the Capital
Expenditures Committee (CEC), and Glenn Parker, Chair, and Susan McLeish of the
Appropriation Committee (AC).
The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by Ms. Manz.
1.Approval of Minutes
– The minutes from the meeting of February 3, 2011
were approved as amended by Ms. Manz and Ms. Fenollosa.
2.LexHAB Set-Aside for Housing Acquisition
– The Committee discussed the
Guidelines for LexHAB’s purchase of properties, specifically item # 10 in the
document, which calls for an acquisition or land purchase to be submitted to
the CPC prior to submittal to the Board of Selectmen. Mr. Kanter requested
that in addition to the CPC, the CEC also receive the submittal prior to the
Selectmen. Members discussed this proposal, and the fact that it implied that
the CEC had some “sign off” authority for projects. Ms. Manz pointed out
that only the Board of Selectmen have this power. Members discussed the
proposal, with Mr. Cohen commenting that he did not see a problem with the
addition of the CEC as a reviewing body. The Committee voted (9-0) to
approve the CEC amendment to item #10. The first sentence of item #10 now
reads, “When LexHAB identifies a housing unit or land for acquisition, it
shall submit a proposal to the CPC and the Capital Expenditures Committee
for comment prior to submittal to the Board of Selectmen”.
3.Muzzey Condominium Window Replacement Project –
Ms. Manz updated
the Committee on the Muzzey Window Replacement project. She stated that
Condominium Association had met, and that of the 34 unit owners involved,
18 were interested in the loan provided by the Town, 5 were not, and 11 had
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not responded. Of the eleven who had not responded, one person was in a
nursing home, and one was in Florida. The Committee discussed the project,
noting that there did not seem to be a “ground swell” of interest. This made
CPC approval somewhat tentative, since the project includes significant
administrative challenges, and would necessitate adding $20,000 to the
project cost to cover the legal work associated with drafting and recording
notes for the unit owners. Mr. Adler suggested that the owners seek Selectmen
approval to add the cost of the windows to the final sale price of individual
units – something which would not be allowed under the present deed
restriction. Mr. Cohen added that members of the Condominium had
approached the Selectmen several weeks ago with such a proposal, and that
there was some receptivity to the idea. There was a lengthy discussion of the
proposal, and of the pros and cons of CPC support for the project as it was
currently structured. Ms. Manz called for a straw vote from members to assess
their support of the present project as a no-interest loan to the 34
Condominium Association members who would need to replace their
windows. The straw vote was (7-2) in favor of continuing to support the
project as it was presently submitted.
4.Warrant Article to Reduce CPC Surcharge from 3% to 1%
- The
Committee discussed Article 17, which would give voters the opportunity to
reduce the CPC surcharge from 3% to 1%. Ms. Manz asked for a vote on the
Article, (0-9), which indicated unanimous CPC opposition to the article. Ms.
Manz asked members to consider asking fellow Town Meeting members to
speak in support of the 3% surcharge. It appears that both Article 8 (the CPA
article) and Article 17 may come up for discussion on the same night, April
th
6.
5. Updates -
Ms. Manz stated that she is planning to make an Article 2 report to
Town Meeting, which is an annual update on the Committee’s work and will
include the Committee’s position on Article 17. In subsequently presenting
the CPC warrant article, Article 8, she plans to briefly describe this year’s
CPC projects, then recognize individual proponents to present their projects in
more detail.
.
The Committee discussed the upcoming First Friday presentation by the
th
League of Women Voters on March 4 at 9:30 am., which will focus on the
CPC projects for FY 12. Ms. Manz requested that individual members be
present to respond to questions in their “areas of interest”. There was strong
member response, with many of the CPC members offering to attend. Ms.
Manz said the League presentation would be a good “dry run” for the TMMA
th
presentation scheduled for March 16.
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Mr. Kanter updated the CPC on the CEC votes on various CPA projects. He
stated that the CEC had voted (5-0) to support all the CPA projects, except the
LexHAB project (3-1-1), and that votes had not been taken to date on the
Battle Green Master Plan Implementation, the Leary funding proposal or the
Muzzey Window project. Regarding the Battle Green Implementation project,
Mr. Kanter stated that if the Plan is not approved by the Selectmen, the CEC
would still support the Battle Green Implementation work, though they might
vote to amend the project by removing the $15,000 expense related to the
restoration of the Hayes Fountain. Mr. Kanter said he had confirmed with Mr.
Pinsonneault, Operations Manager at DPW, that the cost would not increase
for this particular restoration, should the work be undertaken in FY 13.
Ms. Manz’ letter to the Minuteman Press in response to Article 17 was
approved (9-0), subject to final editing.
An upcoming meeting date was tentatively set for March 18th.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:40 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Nathalie Rice
Administrative Assistant
Community Preservation Committee
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