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Photo Mary Ann Bragg
Repairs to the east side of Provincetown Town Hall could be paid for by Community Preservation Act funds. |
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Town seeks a third of CPA funds
Mary Ann Bragg
Banner Staff
Large chunks of the town of Provincetown’s Community Preservation Act funds will be sought for use, in a presentation planned by Town Manager Keith Bergman.
Bergman will seek $1.9 million for low-cost housing units in the Cape End Manor nursing home expansion project. He will seek $750,000 towards the purchase of land in Truro, to protect the town’s South Hollow water well fields. He will also seek $750,000 to pay for structural repairs to Town Hall.
The town Community Preservation Committee, which recommends CPA spending to Town Meeting, will meet with Bergman on Thursday. “I want to keep an open mind,” CPC chair David Nicolau said earlier this week. “I’ve been reviewing some of the information, and there are eight [people] on the board. So I’m not sure. I really want to stay open until I hear everything.”
In a ballot vote last May, the town approved the three-percent property tax surcharge that provides at least half of the town’s revenue in the CPA coffer, and with state matching funds the town expects to garner $7.5 million over 20 years. (So far, only $25,000 has been appropriated for use by Town Meeting.)
Most of the town’s CPA money is reserved for affordable housing, $6 million in total, based on a Town Meeting vote last April, and Bergman’s proposal for low-cost housing at the Manor would capture one-third of that reserve. In the Manor expansion bid by New England Deaconess Association, now under consideration by town officials, there are 19 assisted and independent living units reserved for low-to-moderate income individuals. Bergman’s proposal would pay for those.
The benefits of using CPA money for the Manor proposal are many, Bergman said. The overall financial burden of the Manor project on property taxpayers, estimated to be $3-4 million, could be reduced. The Manor project could be partly paid by CPA state matching funds rather than by Provincetown property taxpayers alone. And CPA funds are one of the few public money sources that can be spent on private endeavors such as that of New England Deaconess. (A deed restriction for the affordable housing units would be placed on the Manor property in perpetuity if CPA money were used, Bergman said.)
In the 2004 town Community Housing Report, which provided the framework for spending the $6 million in CPA funds, the town is to create 144 units of affordable housing over the next five years. Forty-four of those units must qualify as affordable under the state Chapter 40B law, and Bergman said that his proposal for the 19 Manor units would do that.
(The 2004 Housing Report also called for 100 more units to be constructed, primarily rentals, with a one-third split between low/moderate, median and middle income. A locally based non-profit is to be formed, according to the report, as the principal recipient of the CPA money, and the priority for any affordable housing projects should be rehabilitation of existing properties and rental subsidies.)
Over 20 years, an estimated $750,000 will accumulate in the town’s CPA fund for open space spending, and Bergman wants to use that entire amount to help purchase a 4.23-acre subdivision in Truro next to the town’s South Hollow water well field. With the unexpected presence of iron bacteria in two of the eight wells there, town officials have said they may need to drill new wells closer to the southern property line. If the wells are moved, then the abutting subdivision will be needed to provide a state-required, 400-foot buffer zone.
With the spending request for open space, Bergman said one benefit is that the town’s CPA funds may be used for property purchases in other towns, whereas the town’s Land Bank funds cannot. (There is also a house on the Truro subdivision that could be relocated for use as affordable housing, he added.)
Finally, Bergman is planning to ask the CPC for $750,000 to pay for repairs needed to Town Hall, under the heading of historic preservation. Over 20 years that exact amount is estimated to accrue for historic preservation uses in the town’s CPA fund. The structural repairs needed include replacement of the wood sills along the building’s eastern foundation. Town Hall was constructed in 1885 and 1886.
Because the CPA is a new concept in Provincetown, the CPC has been in an organizational mode in the last several months. CPC chair Nicolau said that the board is beyond the halfway mark in developing its guidelines for accepting spending proposals. “We’re not quite done with that,” he said. “I know everybody’s on a timetable but I know that the board’s not going to make any rush decisions.”
Bergman, on the other hand, is seeking a commitment in time for April Town Meeting.
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Jan 6th, 2005