Community Preservation
Committee
Judge Welsh Hearing Room
September 27,
2005
9:00 a.m.
Members Present: Elaine Anderson, Mona Anderson, Tim Hazel, Stephen Milkewicz, Nancy Jacobsen, and Winthrop Smith.
Members Absent: Bill Dougal and Eric Dray (both excused)
Others:
M.J. King and Laura Shufelt
The meeting
was called to order at 9:05 a.m.
M.J.
King, the chair of PRO, (25-27 Bradford St. project) spoke to the
Committee. He’s read the goals of the
Committee and his application seems to further the goals of his
organization. He spent some time in the
library and indeed – Eugene O’Neill was involved with this property in the
Barnstorm Theatre. He also would like
the group to firmly establish the cost of units. Additionally, there are 13 units and not the 9 listed in the
application. He will look into other
financing. He hopes his application
will be competitive and achieve the goals of the Committee.
Mr.
King was thanked for his input.
Tim
Hazel announced that he will step down as vice chair and would like to nominate
Win Smith for the position.
Motion: Nominate Win Smith to become Vice Chair of the CPC.
Motion by Tim Hazel Seconded by Mona Anderson Vote in favor 6-0-0.
At
this time Elaine Anderson asked Laura Shufelt to present “Affordable Housing
101.”
Laura
had many hand-outs which served to simplify her presentation. She told the group that there are basically
two schools in housing development:
rental and home ownership by acquisition of existing homes or new
construction.
The
easiest projects would involve new construction and home ownership. Her many hand-outs clarified the process
immeasurably. She had examples of real
cases and told the group how the amounts were derived.
On
site acquisition the land costs can be anywhere from 0 to $50K/unit (maximum is
50K/unit for it to be affordable) and if you go over $30K it means you have to
have a lot more subsidy.
The
valuable lessons went on and some of the hand-outs were thought to be guides
for future projects. Laura said that
she always works with one of the forms.
EA feels it will be an extremely valuable worksheet.
She
further explained that the county (Barnstable) will give you up to less than
$100K per project and you may be able to get $50K per unit from the state. She also said that there are other sources
out there that can provide you with money.
Some
plans fail to attain fruition because the subsidies are not available.
Elaine
Anderson was thrilled with the guidelines Laura presented and noted that, “Now
we’ll all be on the same page with these guidelines that we have to work
with.”
Laura
cautioned (on funding) that no one town is going to get a lot of projects
funded in any one year. It may just
take a little longer and some times the market just won’t wait. If there are 7 units or less there are some
local town subsidies that might provide funding. Usually it’s a rehab.
Elaine
then asked about the other letters of intent.
“I have a question for the CPC on letters of intent. If the applicants want to convert it into a
full-blown proposal in time for the January 15th deadline, will this
be allowed?” We need to be very clear
on continuity, fairness, etc. So, are
there any comments from the committee on the LCCCDC application to change it
into a January 15th deadline?
It is a 6-unit proposal for 29 Alden Street. Do we want to hold to our original intent, that as a Letter of
Intent (LOI) it is open for the January meeting. Any comments?
Win
Smith responded by citing three reasons:
1.
We
are the bank and we are going to have to rely on all other boards in town to go
over all these proposals so we can’t be rushed.
2.
Anyone
who saw the time deadline coming could have come before us and explained (that
would have been the opportunity).
3.
Legal
problem: if we open the door to one
applicant to change from a letter of intent to a full blown application… there
just isn’t the time to allow this.
Mona
Anderson agreed – “You can’t start making exceptions!”
Tim
Hazel had a different view: “We’re here
to do it – why become obstructionists – just accept the rush!”
Win
said to Tim that we are not killing this deal.
It is our first go round and this is where we iron out the kinks. There was anxiety to get some money
flowing. Tim is anxious to start the
ball rolling and maybe we need to be clearer.
Laura
said that it’s less a position of obstructionist and more of time – we have 17
days to have a warrant open for the November town meeting. She thinks the application must be clear and
that having been said that the application must be received by Sept 15th
to be heard by town meeting. There is
no site control so we can’t even be clear on whether this proposal should be considered. We have to say that they have to wait.
Motion: In order to be consistent with the announced date, time, and site control (one of the major points) we, therefore, based on time constraints, cannot support a conversion from letter of intent to a full proposal.
Motion by Elaine
Anderson Seconded by Mona
Anderson
Voted 5-0-1 abstention
(Steve Milkewicz).
Laura’s
suggestion was that the Committee set up a grid stating how much is being asked
in each category. That would be a good
starting point. Laura further liked the
idea of assigning projects to definite groups or committee members and having
them take the project apart and look for all pertinent information.
Elaine
would like to proceed with assigning projects that are viable to different
committee members. It has to be made
clear to applicants that we are their last step, meaning that other funding,
site control, ZBA, etc. have to be cleared before they come with the final plan
to the CPC. But Hawthorne School of Art
looks as though they are the most complete.
It was decided that Nancy Jacobsen would work with Hawthorne because
there are time constraints.
Next
the PRO – Mona will work with them and see if they will be able to meet the
criteria.
Draft
letters were handed out to committee members for their approval. They were drafted by Elaine and will be sent
out to each applicant naming their liaison person. It was also decided that each proposal would be individually
referred to in the letters.
Motion: The draft letters were approved by the committee with the stipulation that each project would be named in each letter with the liaison person identified.
Motion by Tim Hazel Seconded by Steve Milkewicz Voted unanimously.
The
Provincetown Housing Group has two different proposals. It was decided that Tim Hazel would be their
point person since he knows all parties in the Housing Group.
It
was decided that Tim Hazel (possibly temporarily) would monitor the LCCDC
project.
Steve
Milkewicz will deal with the Kennedy Gallery.
PMPM
will be handled by Eric Dray and if he’s not available…. by Nancy Jacobsen.
Bill
Dougal will be the liaison for the Falmouth 704 Main Realty Trust.
On
Clem/Deb’s two projects: Win will
handle 83 Shankpainter and Elaine Anderson will handle their Cap’n Bertie
proposal
All
parties should be made aware of the January 7th deadline.
This
was mainly a discussion but do we want to present anything on the warrant?
Maybe Hawthorne School of Art? The
warrant closes on October 7th.
There’s a possibility that we could make that application complete by
then.
Win
said that we’ve mentioned in our plan – that there may be rental assistance or
first time buyer assistance. The only
way we can do it is if we have it in the warrant. Elaine said that it doesn’t have to be used but just made
available.
Motion: To proactively solicit an administrator for rental assistance or first time buyer assistance.
Motion by Tim Hazel Seconded by Steve Milkewicz Voted 6-0-0.
On
other matters, the town counsel’s opinion says that you can’t use “perpetuity”
in town zoning restrictions but you can use it for affordable housing
documents.
This
Board would have to make an approval for funding for the Hawthorne School of
Art. Nancy will go to the Historic
District Commission and find out if they have to have oversight.
Tim
Hazel said to go downstairs and see if they need Historic’s approval. Maybe we can say “contingent upon” (per Laura) – the award could be contingent
upon.
THE NEXT TWO MEETINGS WILL BE HELD ON:
TUESDAY OCTOBER 4TH 9:00
A.M.
TUESDAY OCTOBER 11TH 9:00
A.M.
The
October 4th meeting should be brief and will discuss the warrant
possibilities.
The
October 11th meeting will go over the surveys and/or interviews.
Motion: Approve the minutes of the September 20th
meeting as corrected.
Motion by Win Smith Seconded by Steve Milkewicz Vote 4-0-2 abs.
2 abstentions: Tim
Hazel and Nancy Jacobsen.
Nancy
wondered if a person had been forced to leave town for housing and move to
Truro – would that be a legitimate category to interview? Answer: Yes.
The meeting was adjourned by popular vote at 11:05
a.m.
Respectfully Submitted
E. Rogers Gaudiano
Approved
by: _____________________________ on ______________________
Elaine Anderson, Chair Date