Community Preservation
Committee
Judge Welsh Hearing Room
August 9, 2005
9:00 a.m.
Members Present: Elaine Anderson, Mona Anderson, Wm. Dougal, Stephen Milkewicz, and Winthrop Smith.
Members
Absent: Eric Dray, Tim Hazel, and Nancy Jacobsen
The
meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m.
Keith Bergman grabbed the opportunity to thank the committee for showing up at the BoS meeting last night. He wanted everyone to look at the Town of Provincetown’s web site. There is already a caption (and article) inviting people to submit applications for funds for community housing and historic resource projects.
Doug
Taylor asked to speak to the group as a private citizen and put forth preliminary
thoughts that he’s already discussed with Win Smith. He owns a non conforming lot at 877 Commercial Street with a
small garage on it. He’d like to keep
the garage and he thinks he can have two small affordable housing units of
about 700 sq ft each with an additional wee unit – facing north – as a studio
unit. He would want the studio unit to
be a free endowment for an artist.
Affordable units would be rentals; this plan would accommodate his needs
by having his garage remain there.
Bill
Dougal asked pertinent questions, i.e.- what would you anticipate the lot
coverage? (over 40% - It now has about 30% lot coverage.) Bill then said it’s the BoH who would
determine whether an unvarianced Title V system could be installed on the
lot.
Win
Smith then said he wants to donate a cottage as his commitment to his library
pledge.
Doug
continued by saying that this would all be done in perpetuity. He estimates that the funding need for this
would be in the $250K range. Doug said
he would privately help if funding were not available. Bill suggested that the potential in this
proposed project is that we could use this as a model for smaller scale
buildings.
KAB
said that the committee might want to target areas that could get sewer
hook-ups.
Elaine
Anderson thanked the group for their participation in the BoS meeting and she
felt that the CPC group plan was so well presented and organized – that we did
achieve what was wanted. Today – one of
the issues is – how are we going to get the word out? It is already on the website but should we advertise in the
Banner, some mailings to residents, to all the Committees and state that
applications are available here? It’s
an exciting time for this committee.
Elaine wants to turn around the gloom and doom attitudes and show people
that this is possible.
Suggestions: Bill said he would start more basically and
he sees this as a community-wide effort.
We have loads of people in this town who have land for development and
probably did not attend town meeting.
Some don’t even know that a CPA has been enacted. There’s a big opportunity here and if we put
this in a way that it is a funding opportunity – if they want to sell their
land? – He can think of 3 or 4 people who have significant land holdings who
he’d like to approach. Wants to stay
away from the connotation that it will be yet another affordable housing
project. We’re trying to create a new
approach here. But, there is negativity
toward anything about affordable housing.
There are people who have the land but can’t do much with it because of
local by-laws. We all know people who can
be approached.
Win
then asked, “Would you and Mona give us some thought on acquiring real
estate? Should you go to Ruth G. and
offer to meet with all the brokers? We
need a positive flow rather than a negative approach?”
Bill
said, “There are probably six or seven people who are representatives from
certain offices who could carry the ball.”
Elaine thinks this would be a worthy effort.
The
date for application submission took up a great deal of discussion time. The projected date for proposals has been
set for September 15th which may not be doable for anyone interested
in submitting a proposal. It was
decided to maintain the date of September 15th but to state that a
letter of intent would also be a way to proceed.
Bill
feels that the committee is not quite ready to pass judgment on any proposals
mainly because the criteria have not been set in place. He would like to see this as plans driven
from the top down (i.e., criteria, rules, etc. in place) rather than driven
from the bottom up with no clear direction and just submissions with no
guidelines in place.
KAB
– even if you get a proposal by Sept 15th – it would be difficult to
push it through town meeting. He suggested having a pre-application by the
date, review the applications, and then invite applicants in to further
elaborate on their plans.
Laura
was hoping that – for September 15th – we’d have a couple of
projects already in the pipeline.
Elaine
said that since this is a new concept – with new tax dollars – we don’t have
any precedents to guide us. KAB said
the missing piece is that there is no seed money to move the plans along.
Bill
doesn’t want to set up people for failure.
We can’t just give out development money without knowing what is being
planned. We don’t have any firm
criteria for what is being planned.
Bill kept repeating this request……….. criteria is needed before plans can be submitted.
KAB
said that your strength is in looking at: – size – density – mixed-use – 100%
affordable. These are the buzz words
that Elaine heard this at last night’s meeting.
Bill,
repeating his former caution, said that we have to start sending signals from
top down instead of bottom up. Let’s
set the criteria and then entertain plans.
So that when we ask for plans the people know just what we’re looking
for.
Win
would like to involve lawyers and architects in the applications. Bill stated that we may ask for guidance
from Doug Taylor.
Laura
said that a lot of density concerns are site specific and trying to put that in
writing is difficult. She would caution
against being too specific.
Mona
asked (of Keith) “Do we have tax title land that we can donate for a
project?” Answer: Only 951 Commercial Street and he hopes
there’s already a development plan in process.
Bill
again said that - wherever possible – there should be a sewer connection. Shankpainter Road is not within the Historic
District but he would recommend that most projects go through HDC for some
guidance. Laura said that they should
be cautious before setting up too many groups.
Elaine
asked, “Have we agreed that by September 15th we should be
requesting pre-application letters of intent?”
Elaine said she hates to shut the door on small projects. KAB said that you may just want to amend
your application rules. EA wants to
keep that date open and offering it as a place for small applications.
Laura
suggested adding it to the end of booklet – (Sept 15th for letter of
intent and any small plan available).
Bill
wondered about the issue on Ken Weiss’ property? Ken wants relief from the deed restriction – he wants to provide
the funding and the possible foreclosing in order to eliminate the
restrictions.
Bill
doesn’t want to get involved in applications that don’t meet our criteria. Are we clear in having deed restrictions in
perpetuity? The group agreed, thus, no
negotiations – just has to meet our criteria.
We’re going to send it back until our criteria is met.
Mona
doesn’t want to get involved in negotiations – just plain criteria – or no
review until plans meet this.
EA
– we’re going to restate in our advertising that 9/15 is the date for completed
applications as well as letters of intent.
This way we know we are moving forward.
Bill
– regarding criteria – are those going to be attached? What do we want in our letter of
intent? They have to have some idea –
our sensitivities – consultative review of the historical commission, etc.
EA
– full application following letter of intent would be due would be on January
4th, 2006.
It
was agreed that ads would be placed in Banner, Cape Codder, e-mail blitz, Cape
Cod Times. EA further felt that we
shouldn’t say no to any media outlet.
WOMR, too.
Bill,
on the subject of advertising and/or making people aware, suggested that we go
back to the tax and funding and emphasize that. Get some quotes from the Fire Chief such as difficulty in
maintaining men – nurse from CEM, how difficult they find housing - a teacher,
etc. Mona wondered if we should
collect quotes? That has to be the
emphasis of the article. This is a way
for the entire community to get involved.
A 3 or 4 page brochure mailed to the tax payers would be
appropriate. Bill said, “We have to
create a sense of crisis in the community.”
Mona
and Win will work on the draft to send out (what this partnership is all
about). EA – when we get something we
want to produce then we’ll get funds.
EA
would need funding for a mailing. Bill
said that we can go to the bank and get money.
We’ll have a little business plan.
Laura
said the immediate need is for a press release. It’s meant to be the hook – not the whole story.
Laura
Shufelt announced that Provincetown is going to be honored in the Citizens
Housing and Planning Association as a group that does advocacy for affordable
housing and for our outstanding leadership.
Motion: Mona Anderson made a motion to approve the minutes as written. Win Smith seconded the motion and it was approved unanimously.
THE NEXT MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE ON AUGUST 23RD AT 9:A.M.
The
meeting adjourned at 10:30 A.M.
Respectfully Submitted
E. Rogers Gaudiano
Approved
by: _____________________________ on ______________________
Elaine Anderson, Chair Date