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Greetings!
As we all know, the statewide CPA trust fund is directly tied to real estate activity. With the arrival of the spring real estate season, monthly revenue figures for the trust fund are finally showing an upward trend. Read all about it in this issue of CPA Update, along with other helpful CPA information and articles for your community. |
| CPA News |
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CPA Trust Fund Update
Good news - the statewide CPA trust fund is trending upwards! The trust fund year runs from September through August, and while collections were down year-over-year during the first six months, March and April both posted modest increases as compared to last year. The total fund balance is still below where it was last year at this time, but we are encouraged by the trend seen in the last few months. To see the month-by-month collections, click here. We will continue to monitor the trust fund collections each month, and report on the figures in future issues of CPA Update .
CPA Legislative Update - SB 90  We continue to work every day to promote and gather support for
An Act to Sustain Community Preservation (SB 90). Momentum is building, as groups associated with CPA causes are signing on every day to support this legislation. So far, we have a diverse list of supporters, ranging from the Massachusetts Recreation and Park Association to the Essex County Greenbelt Association, to the Pembroke Watershed Association. We're actively seeking endorsements; if you're part of a group that might be interested in endorsing SB 90, please complete this form and return it to the Coalition. We expect a legislative hearing to be scheduled in September. CPA Legislative Update - Other Bills Amending CPAThe Coalition has finished combing through all 6159 bills that were filed on Beacon Hill this year in order to identify any proposed amendments to CPA. We have identified two dozen bills on CPA that we will be tracking and potentially offering written or oral testimony on. A growing theme is bills that propose expanding CPA to allow green energy and similar projects, as well as bills that duplicate some of the changes proposed in our comprehensive CPA legislation, An Act to Sustain Community Preservation (SB 90). As in past years, the Coalition will send out legislative alerts if any potentially harmful CPA bills begin to gain traction. For more information on any proposed CPA legislation, please contact the Coalition. |
Avoiding Conflicts of Interest
An Overview of the State's Conflict of Interest Law
for CPC Members |
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 By Jennifer M. Goldson, AICP
A common concern of Community Preservation Committee (CPC) members is potential conflict of interest issues between service on a CPC and other activities in which they are involved. These concerns can be addressed by becoming familiar with the Massachusetts Conflict of Interest Law and knowing when and where to seek advice.
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| Windows of Opportunity:
Repair - Don't Replace - Older Wood Windows |
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 By Rebecca Williams, National Trust for Historic Preservation
When planning for CPA historic preservation projects, the discussion often includes: "What are we going to do about these old windows? Should we replace them or repair them?"
Repairing historic windows is more economical and environmental than you might think, and almost always the right choice. In this market-driven economy, we are constantly barraged with ways to buy our way to "go green." Each year, Americans demolish 200,000 buildings. That is 124 million tons of debris, or enough waste to construct a wall 30 feet high and 30 feet thick around the entire U.S. coastline. Every window that goes into the dump is adding to this problem. Doesn't it make more sense to make good use of what we already have instead?
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Designing Affordable Housing Assistance Programs
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The town of Lexington recently came to an impasse on how best to support its affordable housing goals. Lexington's CPC wondered whether CPA funds could be used to further homeownership through the development of a homebuyer assistance program. Faced with many questions, they engaged a consultant, Karen Sunnarborg, to produce a study of affordable homebuyer assistance programs in other communities. Affordable Homebuyer Assistance Programs: A Survey of Other Massachusetts Municipal Programs surveys homebuyer assistance programs operating in 12 communities, many of which make use of CPA funds.
Lexington hopes to capitalize on the experience of other communities, summarized in the study, to develop a program that suits its own affordable housing needs.
To view the full study, click here. |
| This Issue's Featured CPA Project:
Teacher Housing on Nantucket |
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 The project featured at the top of this newsletter and to the right is twelve units of housing for teachers on Nantucket. The units are owned by the Nantucket Education Trust (NET) and managed by Housing Nantucket.
Nantucket adopted CPA in 2001 at 3%. To date, the Nantucket CPC has approved over 100 projects, including innovative home moves and historic preservation projects.
Funded from a variety of sources, including $200,000 in CPA Housing funds, the featured housing units were built to attract teachers to Nantucket, where year-round housing is extremely expensive. This project is an example of different organizations working together: through an agreement with the NET, Housing Nantucket applies its existing knowledge of property management to ensure good living conditions, allowing the NET to focus on public education issues.
In addition to providing support to this project, Nantucket has used CPA funds to support the operation of Housing Nantucket. | |
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