|
|
| CPA Update |
July/August 2009 |
|
Greetings!
We'll start this issue with a short trivia question: What's the single most valuable document for evaluating CPA projects? We vote for the Department of Revenue's CPA Allowable Uses Chart. This handy chart illustrates exactly what types of projects can and cannot qualify for CPA funds. We encourage all Community Preservation Committee members to download a copy for easy reference. A simplified version of the CPA Allowable Uses Chart is also helpful for presentations. |
| CPA News |
|
|
CPA Trust Fund Update
The statewide CPA trust fund continues to register a slight upward trend in revenues. May 2009 collections were up just a bit over May 2008, marking the third consecutive month of increased collections as compared to last year. While the total fund balance is still well below last year's level at this time, we are encouraged not only by the trend, but by the fact that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue recently raised their first round CPA Trust Fund Match projection to 30% (click here for more information). To see the month-by-month collection figures, click here. We will continue to monitor the trust fund revenues each month, and report on the figures in future issues of CPA Update.
CPA Financial Reports Available for all CPA Communities
Have you ever wondered how other communities across the state structure their CPA budgets each year? Or perhaps you're looking for a snapshot of how much money other CPA communities allocate for each CPA purpose, or what their year-end CPA balances look like? Two spreadsheets from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) provide a look at these figures. The Appropriations and Reservations (A-4) Sheet details each community's CPA budget. CPCs can learn what other CPA communities appropriate for administrative costs, which communities have debt service obligations and other budgeting information. The CP-2 Data spreadsheet, compiled from information submitted by CPA communities to DOR, details all fund activity by fiscal year. Note: Use the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheets to see figures from each fiscal year.
CPA Legislative Update - SB 90
We need your help on Beacon Hill! As you may know, the Community Preservation Coalition is working hard to support SB 90, An Act to Sustain Community Preservation, which will provide a much needed increase in the matching funds for all CPA communities, as well as other needed improvements to the Act. There will be a public hearing on SB 90 at the State House in September, and we'll need a large contingent of CPA supporters on Beacon Hill that day. We'll also need as many supporters as possible to submit written testimony on the benefits of CPA. We'll let you know the date of the hearing as soon as it is scheduled. An impressive showing at this hearing will be a huge boost to our efforts to get this bill passed. We hope you can be there! |
|
Needham Town Hall:
Largest CPA Project Ever Tackles Complex Financing Issues
on Path to Rehabilitation
|
|
 The largest appropriation of CPA funds for a single project was recently approved by residents of Needham. At Town Meeting in May, residents gave their stamp of approval to the Community Preservation Committee's (CPC) recommendation to restore Needham Town Hall using $15 million in CPA funds This project demonstrates the town's commitment to CPA and historic preservation, and the willingness of many town boards to work together to tackle tough issues and find solutions for financing this complex project.
|
|
"Green" CPA Projects:
Working with CPA to Create Sustainable Communities
|
|
By Jennifer M. Goldson, AICP
As momentum grows for global environmental solutions and
sustainability, our national and state governments, as well as many
forward-thinking private businesses, are beginning to focus more on
green initiatives. Likewise, in many Massachusetts communities,
Community Preservation Committees (CPCs) are becoming more focused on
how to encourage green CPA projects, and are placing more of an
emphasis on sustainability.
CPA itself is
inherently green, in that it encourages smart growth and incorporates
elements of sustainable development- such as preservation of open
space, and rehabilitation and reuse of existing historic structures. But
many CPA projects, such as the development of community housing, can be
more green if a conscious effort is made to incorporate green-design
elements and sustainable practices.
|
|
Preserving Barns and Rural Landscapes |
|
By Michele Barker, 
Western Mass. Circuit Rider
Preservation Massachusetts and the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Reprinted, with permission, from Preservation Massachusetts' June 2009 Newsletter
As the song goes, "June is bustin' out all over..." When I look over the list of projects I've dealt with as Circuit Rider for Western Massachusetts, however, I'm tempted to change those lyrics to "Barns are fallin' down all over..." About 15-20% of the projects I've seen over the past year have involved barns in varying stages of disrepair, which (to continue the Rodgers & Hammerstein theme) can often be "a puzzlement."
From 18th-century English barns with silvery-gray weathered siding, to rambling Dutch-gabled dairy barns of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to massive Connecticut River Valley tobacco barns with their swinging-plank ventilation systems, Massachusetts barns are a quintessential part of our New England landscape. Unfortunately, many are becoming part of that landscape in an all-too-literal way. Swaybacked and foundered like a plowhorse worked beyond its prime, they slump off their foundations or slowly crumble to the earth.
|
This Issue's Featured CPA Project: Pell Farm in Grafton
|
|
 The project featured at the top of this newsletter and in the photo to the right is Pell Farm, an open space project in Grafton. Grafton adopted CPA in 2002 at 1.5% and has completed more than 40 CPA projects.
Pell Farm is a 153-acre farm on the Grafton/Upton line that connects existing conservation land in Grafton to the Warren Brook Watershed Conservation Area area in Upton, creating a 400-acre block of protected land in the middle of Massachusetts. The land is now owned by the Town of Grafton, and the Grafton Land Trust will hold a permanent conservation restriction on the property.
CPA Funding for Pell Farm was approved unanimously at Grafton Town Meeting, demonstrating the town's commitment to conservation and CPA. The town voted to spend $400,000 in CPA open space funds and bond $1.2 million; an additional $500,000 came from a state LAND grant.
The property is a mix of open and wooded land that includes a Christmas tree farm, shown in the picture above. The Pell family will continue to harvest and sell Christmas trees for ten more years; the town is currently working on a management plan for future use, including wildlife habitats, recreation, and agriculture.
The Town of Grafton worked with the Trust for Public Land on this transaction. To read about TPL's involvement in the Pell Farm project, click here.
Photo credits: Gerry Monkman
| |
|
To unsubscribe from this newsletter, click on the "Safe Unsubscribe" link below. We will immediately remove your email address and you will no longer receive CPA Update.
For any other changes, such as updating your email address or adding additional recipients, reply to this email and let us know what changes you'd like to make. |
|
|
