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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-01-16 ( MINUTES OF THE MEETING Community Preservation Committee January 16, 2002 Location: Nantucket Atheneum Members Present: Ginger Andrews; Ken Beaugrand; Richard Brannigan; Norman Chaleki; Polly Miller; Barry Rector; Neville Richen; Frank Spriggs I. Barry Rector called the meeting to ordered and established that there indeed was a quorum. Polly Miller agreed to take the minutes of the meeting. II. Every board member present approved the agenda. ( 11\ Approval of minutes from 01/09/02 was postponed until these minutes could be distributed and read by all members. The board then decided to do some more research into the ethics questions that have been raised previously as to who may vote on which projects. Barry passed out personal disclosure forms to those persons who needed them to be recorded with the Town Clerk. Ginger Andrews had to leave the meeting early, stating a conflict with a regularly scheduled Con Com meeting. In addition to conflicts with regular meetings, Ginger stated that personal conflicts continue to prevent her from giving her full attention to this board. She will seek a replacement from the Con Com to attend the next meetings. She left at approximately three o'clock IV. Maryanne Worth, Coordinator of Human Services, made a presentation to the board. She passed out more information 'and gave an overview of her proposal citing a dwindling lack of funding from other sources including the Town of Nantucket. She stated that her organization is using Martha's Vineyard's apparently successful project as a model. The Town of Nantucket has already donated several lots to be used for the project, although there is still work to be done to reconfigure ,some of these lots to accommodate the building plans. Their non-profit arm, a Health and Human Services Coalition, which expects to have non-profit status in place by March, will actually own the buildings and hopes to have these buildings in place in 1 1/2 - 2 years. The Coalition will raise monies for the buildings, future funding and endowment, some of which monies may come from renting space to outside entities and expects the project to eventually become cost efficient. ' ( V. Ken Giles spoke on behalf of Habitat for Humanity. Habitat has built and/or renovated over one hundred thousand houses all over the world. Mr. Giles pointed out that this program is not a handout but a hand-up. 'His is a bare- bones organization with all funds to directly to building homes not to offices or office expenses. The family selection procedure is done by advertising meetings for the public to come and learn about the projects and take out applications. Habitat then interviews prospective homeowners and subsequently hold a lottery 1 , . ( to determine the winner. The houses are modest (1100 -1200 sq. feet). Their local board consists of twenty-one diversified individuals ready to start upon receipt of funds to cover over and above what they can get in donated building materials. Mr'. Brannigan brought up the question tithing which is an integral part of Habitat's guidelines whereupon 10% of any money we might donate would go to the main organization to help build homes in another part of the world. Some of the members were concerned that this might cause a problem with CPA monies in that the monies might not stay in Nantucket, much less Massachusetts. There will be further evaluation of this issue by Mr. Rector through the CPA in conjunction with the local Habitat board. Land for this first project will come through the Nantucket Housing Authority which will retain the ownership of said land, the house on the land will be leased with a lease of ninety-nine years, assuring continuity of the commitment to low/moderate income housing in essential perpetuity. There are some outstanding legal issues on the land to be resolved but Mr. Giles did not seem to feel this would affect the time line to start building. Mr. Giles also assured us that there will be a guarantee that no house built on Nantucket will ever be able to be sold for profit and will stay low/moderate income housing, citing an incidence on the mainland where that became an issue. Questions arose about the five year request for funds and Mr. Giles seemed to feel that even one year of commitment would be welcomed. ( VI. Renee Ceely represented the Nantucket Housing Authority, stressing the need for a Housing office. She asked for start-up funds, saying that the office should eventually become self funding through the collection of management, transfer and other such fees to be collected by the Office. Many questions came from CPC board members asking for more information about several of the budgeted items, including rent. It was suggested that this office might find housing in a future building of Health and Human Services. Mr. Rector suggested that the project be more solidified in time to dovetail with Town meeting. Mrs. Ceely defended her legal budget citing needs to cover a lot of boilerplate and documents to cover rental agreements, ownership agreements, cooperative apartment leases, etc. all part of legal ramifications arising from . assuring that all types rJf housing set aside to be low/moderate income policed using Housing Needs Covenants. As to the third of her four part presentation, she is seeking funding to pay for septic systems on three parcels of land owned by the Town to be transferred to the Housing Authority for eventual development of long-term affordable housing. These lots will lose their Title V protection on January 1, 2003. At Mr. Rector's, Mrs. Ceely will seek more accurate costs for these septic systems. Of the four requests, Mrs. Ceely felt this was the second most important, following the previous request for an Office. She assured our board that these lots will stay low/moderate income housing in perpetuity through a reverter - that is if the tenants are found to not be in compliance, the ownership will revert to the Town. In addition, there will be deed restrictions on each piece. She reiterated that these legal questions are part and parcel of the need for a . Housing Office and legal assistance in developing deeds, restrictions, etc. Christine Silverstein spoke along with Mrs. Ceely for the discussion on gap r- 2 . . ( financing, explaining that this part of the project is dependent on having a Housing Office to administer it. The amount of money requested is much less than what is needed but is enough to make a difference. It should help four to six or more families the first year. It is expected to be a self-renewing fund, only needing money to set it up. The fourth part of the presentation seeks monies to start up a fund for rehabilitation/code improvements, a plan which would complement all programs administered by the Housing Office and which would also be a revolving fund, self sustaining and renewing. The amount of money requested is much less than needed but enough to make a difference. VII. Joe McLaughlin spoke on behalf of the application from Sherburne Commons which will be loc~ted on a twenty-acre site at 21 South Shore Road. This organization plans a complex that will include a minimum of twenty-two percent of its housing dedicated to low income individuals, expecting to be self- sustaining and eventually profitable, essentially underwriting the low income portion of housing with other residents who can afford to pay a premium to live there. As far as identifying low incqme residency, Sherburne is looking to Landmark House as a guide. They have scheduled a comprehensive review for the public on January 30, 2002. ( VIII. Frank Jewell represented the Nantucket Atheneum, appealing for funds to properly restore that part of the exterior fabric of the building which dates from 1847; specifically that part which in 1996, when extensive renovation was done to the interior, was in fact only painted over to temporarily improve the exterior. The CPC board was somewhat confused by the various bids and figures outlined in different places in the proposal. Seeking clarification, Mr. Jewell offered that the Atheneum is leaning towards employing Landmark Services, Inc. which seems to offer the most realistic and complete 'renovation package in their bid. He also explained that the Atheneum has received an offer to match funds to a maintenance endowment subsequent to the original document outlining another matching grant to renovation. Mr. Beaugrand asked if the Atheneum can proceed with less money if the CPC cannot recommend funding the entire request and the answer was positive in nature. IX. Dave Kilfoil, General Manager, and Bambi Mleczko spoke to Nantucket Ice's proposal which was couched as an either/or proposition. The CPC members favored viewing the request as much as possible from the standpoint of a capital expenditure which means attaching the request to completing the structure rather than to endowing the rink. The CPC board digressed temporarily into the definition of the CPA guidelines and how these guidelines might affect this type of proposal. Mr. Rector said the Boston office is exploring these kinds of questions and is still defining the guidelines themselves. We will have to wait for clarity from the CPA. ( X. Nantucket Youth Hockey's spokesperson outlined the needs for their type of program which asks for start-up funds for a Youth Hockey program. Their 3 . . ( group would use the new Nantucket Ice facility but stand on its own as a club under the auspices of U.S.A. Hockey which requires this kind of separation in order to register with their organization and receive sanction as part of the U.S.H.A. Youth Hockey is in the process of applying for non-profit status which should be in place by Town Meeting. Bill Snowden does not anticipate that Youth Hockey will return to ask for additional funding; that the new organization should be able to fund itself in the future. Mr. Brannigan expressed concern that giving money for this type or organization could be precedent setting for other sports groups. Other board members questioned various aspects of the proposal, especially travel, expenses, trophies, and banquets. ( XI. Mrs. Silverstein spoke to the original request for funding put together by Mr. Snowden entitled "Town Employee and Resident housing on Town land" under the auspices of the Nantucket Resident Housing Partnership and c/o Nantucket Housing Authority. In brief, Mr. Snowden, in the interest of time and deadlines, hastily put together this proposal. Mrs. Silverstein thanked him for his hard work and asked the CPC board to accept the same proposal but from the Nantucket Board of Selectmen. Because the Selectmen have not had a chance to vote on this proposal themselves, Mr. Snowden suggested that we accept the new amended proposal subject to the Board of Selectmen's approval and we seemed to be in consensus on this point. Mrs. Silverstein said she would attend the Selectmen's meeting this evening and try to have the proposal heard. Mrs. Silverstein presented the request as a bare-bones request for less than originally specified ($89,000.00 rather than $200,000.00). The Committee received more information including a included a list of town properties that have been already dedicated to this type of housing and further identified as using Town water and sewer; thereby eliminating the cost of septic systems. Mrs. Ceely and Mr. Chaleki were concerned that the list of properties might not be accurate and might especially include those already targeted for Housing Authority use. Mrs. Silverstein felt this could easily be straightened out with the help of Matt Fee who was un.able to be present. She apologized for the speed with which information had been put together. Mrs. Silverstein said any monies received for this request would eventually return to the CPC and Mr. Richen questioned this. Mr. Rector will check with the CPA to see if we may fund a revolving fund. Mrs. Miller suggested that the fund,S might be able to revolve back to the town to fund future housing needs. ( XII. There followed a lively discussion and much confusion over which programs might fall under the CPA guidelines. Mr. Rector stated that he was seeking info from the main CPA Office in Boston to lend some clarification to CPA guidelines. Mr. Rector also stated he was working with the main CPA office to try and have them send a representative to the Island to help the Committee with questions, if so desired. More questions arose again among several board members about voting. Mr. Richen read a statement from the Town Clerk stating the opinions from that office which he then gave to Mr. Rector. It appears that this voting issue is still cloudy and needs clarification from higher up. 4 ( XIII. THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23, AT THE LAND BANK from 2-5 pm. The meeting adjourned just past five o'clock p.m.. r Respectfully Submitted, Polly Thayer Miller r-- ( 5