Judge Welsh Hearing Room
Members Present: A.J. Alon (arr 5:30p), Elaine Anderson,
Catherine Reno Brouillet, Joe Carleo,
William Dougal (arr 4:40p),
and Molly Perdue (arr 4:35p).
Members absent: none
Staff: David Gardner
Others: Howard Burchman, Annie
Howard, Michele Couture,
Joe DiMartino, Martha Hevenor, Ted Malone,
Maxine Notaro, and Paul
Ruchinskas.
The Provincetown Community Housing Council held a public
meeting at
The meeting was called to
order at
Meeting Agenda
Minutes of the November 19th meeting.
Motion: Accept the November 19th
minutes as rewritten.
Motion: C. Reno Brouillet Seconded:
Elaine Anderson Vote: 3-0-0.
Minutes of the November 26th meeting.
Motion: Accept the November 26th
minutes as amended.
Motion: Elaine Anderson Seconded:
C. Reno Brouillet Vote: 4-0-0.
Comments/recommendations on RFP for
Joe C. had one concern. Go to the 4th bullet and he’s
concerned about putting in a chart. Just
take out the chart because it’ll bug the developer - just strike the
chart.
David G. said that the direction
from all the committees have been submitted to the Board of Selectmen (BoS) and
it will be up to the BoS to accept all the comments.
Motion: Move to accept the RFP
as changed.
Motion: Elaine Anderson Seconded:
Molly Perdue Vote: 5-0-0.
Ted Malone,
Ted Malone described his
presentation as informal. His plans have
been in the works for about 5 years and he is currently primarily focused on
the commercial portion which he’s very excited about. The overall plan is for about 40 units. Three units will be on
He has also looked at the
middle income – rental efficiencies. - $1,155/mo
for a studio, and $1,208/mo for a 1 bdrm - the numbers are big but he’s not
willing to take that reach yet. Ted also
said that you can’t do less than 20% affordable because there would be many
restrictions.
Now as far as responding to
the single bedroom unit desire. He has –
with his plan – taken advantage of the site; it is hilly so the plan is interesting. Some of the units are one floor and then he
also has 2 story townhouse style units.
He has focused on work space for 6 of the 20 units and these will have
flexible space. For financing purposes
they will be all bedrooms - 3 units will have 4 bedrooms but one of the
bedrooms could be used as a studio/workspace.
Over the whole sequence of
applications – the Planning Board has the most work to do on this. Ted said that he may need to tweak these
plans a bit and that’s why he is coming without a formal application. The Planning Board has been aware of this possible
proposal for quite a while.
Bill D. said that - as a
council – we’re trying to see where we go from here. We have the Ryan report and a “statement of
needs.” Rentals are the wave of the
future, and secondly – your company has the largest community applicant
list. We don’t know anything about it and
if we were to apply the Ryan report – this plan doesn’t fill the need. Bill is looking at it as a prioritization - looking
at it from a community standpoint.
Ted said that the John Ryan
report was in the abstract.
Bill D., still looking for the
LIST, said that he didn’t know how this council can assess need – because we
don’t have the list.
Ted said that any time there’s
an opening in his developments, we advertise and it’s filled immediately.
Bill, not to be discouraged
said - and of this list - how many are local preference? - a lot of this is
driven by fiscal realities.
Ted reassured him by saying
that any of the funding sources are going to be looking at an assessment of
whether the need is there. They will look
at the Ryan Report, Provincetown Housing Authority lists, etc. - so they will have
a very current knowledge of where the need is.
The predominate need is for one bedrooms and families are usually in the
median category. There are lots of
people who are single and are looking for a home. Furthermore, whenever Ted has a 3 bedroom
available – it goes begging for applicants.
Elaine Anderson asked for the actual
number of units in each category and that query was satisfied. Molly, too, asked for more specifics on the
mix and percentages.
Molly then asked if there was a
move-up – as in - do people in rentals then apply for ownership? Ted said that this does happen and he had
actually proposed that the Local Housing Partnership (LHP) set up a form of
priority for rental persons who would like to move up.
Bill D. asked if this project
was going to be a 40B. Ted replied that
no, it wasn’t. Then Bill asked if the
commercial component that you’ve completed is separately financed? Answer:
“Yes, it has its own title 5 so it won’t be part of the sewering and
will be separately financed.”
Bill, repeating the sentiment
that he had expressed many times before, said that there has to be a new level
of transparency – openness – partnership – etc. so that we can feel comfortable
– we don’t want to go to ZBA and render a negative finding.
C. Reno Brouillet asked – “What
is your intention of coming before us tonight?
Were you looking for a letter of support?” – Ted said. “No, not yet. He
wants to make sure that the Planning Board is more comfortable with this
plan.” Cathy Reno said - so this is
construed as an update only?
Ted was thanked by all for his
input.
Discussion on Bylaws with
The Planning Board arrived at
This combined meeting was
convened at
Annie H. said that she had 3
hand-outs for Smart Growth; they were to be copied and handed out to all
attendees after the meeting. She also
asked if the PCHC was dealing with the housing plan that was finalized on
Howard Burchman really wants
to focus in on the concept on filling in affordable housing. He continued by saying that we all have an interest
in overlay districts and Martha has brought forward a draft.
Martha H. read through her
hand-out which detailed 4810, the inclusionary housing by-law. This was evidently written as a follow-up
from the 4170 by-law. It would refer to
development of 5 or more units – main difference is use changes from
residential to commercial – and the intent is to create more affordable housing
opportunities.
When Martha got to the middle
of her reading of the 4-page document, Bill interrupted with a hypothetical
scenario and asked what ifs.......... At
this point Paul Ruckinskas tried to step in and respond. Since none of this was real – it seemed to be
an exercise only with no final conclusions just possible outcomes.
Then Bill jumped into the
tremendous H2b visa problems and thus he could foresee businessmen rushing to
sell or convert businesses that they couldn’t staff – still on a hypothetical
bent.
Molly P., in reference to #7
of this Section 4810 wondered why the PCHC wouldn’t be involved in any of these
decisions. A.J. agreed - we’d like to
have some kind of say in here. Martha said
that in this section we didn’t add in PCHC – it’s an oversight – and the PCHC
should be included in this.
Joe DiMartino said that we’ve been working with Martha and the idea is to
be able to afford these projects so the Town actually wins. Flexibility is the aim.
Bill who had been dealing in hypotheticals now said – “we have to have
real-life examples!” Martha said that
there has to be a plan - not just an idea.
Bill, continuing, asked how much money would “fees-in-lieu” contribute?
Joe C. said that none of this is a new concept. The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA)
benefited the city; it provides another option for people and he feels it’s the
right direction to go in.
Paul R. said that he has found that the penalty money just sits there. Mashpee has had money that they’ve had
sitting on for 3 years and it has yet to be spent.
Elaine A. said that #7 needs more clarification and she will take a crack
at rewriting it.
Ted said that one of the recommendations from the Housing Summit was a
buy-down program. If we had a program
established where lotteries were in place and then that unit would become
deed-restricted – it’s worth a thought.
The PCHC would like to hear
another version of 4810. Howard Burchman
said that they’d be happy to come back here and/or send the draft back to you.
Thank-yous were expressed all
around and it was promised that there would be another meeting.
Adjournment happened at
Respectfully submitted,
Evelyn
Gaudiano
Approved by
_____________________________ on ____________, 2007.
Joe Carleo, Chair