Seventy-five cities and towns (shaded in blue) in Massachusetts have approved implementing the Community Preservation Act since it was passed in 2000, including 10 municipalities that voted for the measure in the Nov. 2 elections.
Coming after voters in 10 Bay State communities approved a measure to increase property taxes for affordable housing development, open space acquisition and historic preservation, a coalition of supporters is preparing to mobilize next year to mount a campaign to place the Community Preservation Act before Boston voters in 2006.
The effort comes three years after Boston voters rejected the Community Preservation Act. The measure, pitched by a broad coalition of about 60 groups, would have added a 2 percent property tax surcharge to create a fund for affordable housing, historic site and open space preservation and was expected to generate about $28 million for Boston in the first year.
Three years later, with 75 communities having passed the measure, and dozens of municipalities statewide receiving millions of dollars in state matching funds to add more affordable housing and preserve parks and farmland, supporters are hopeful that the Community Preservation Act has gained enough momentum to succeed in Boston and other communities.
“We’re very serious about putting it on the ballot in 2006,” said Thomas Callahan, executive director of the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance and a key proponent of the CPA.
When the CPA first appeared on the ballot in Boston, it was largely untested because only about two dozen communities had passed it and it was too soon to see its benefits in those towns, according to proponents.
“Now it’s got a track record that it works,” said Bill Lee, counsel to the conservation finance program for the Trust for Public Land.
Communities that adopt the measure can tack on a property tax surcharge of up to 3 percent. In Boston, advocates claimed a 2 percent surcharge would have added about $17 to the average tax bill.
Callahan says that an aggressive $1 million advertising campaign, spearheaded by Fidelity Investments and other businesses opposed to the measure, scared taxpayers into believing that their tax bills would have escalated much more at a time when the state was in the midst of a recession.
But now that many more towns and cities have been able to utilize the CPA and state matching funds for open space, historic preservation and affordable housing goals, the measure may have wider appeal in Boston and other cities, supporters say.
“We’re looking at ways to make the case strongly to the business community and to the residents that this would be a great thing for Boston,” said Lee.
As the economy continues to improve and as state aid to Boston continues to decline, voters will begin to realize that the CPA is a source of funding they can tap into for neighborhood parks and housing, Lee said.
‘Creative Uses’
With the help of the CPA, more than 630 housing units have been created and 165 historic sites and roughly 4,400 acres have been preserved since 2002, according to information provided by the Community Preservation Coalition.
“The more people are seeing the creative uses around the state, the more momentum that does build in communities that haven’t yet passed it,” said Callahan.
Some $75.8 million in state matching funds has been distributed during the last three fiscal years to towns and cities that have adopted the CPA, according to the Community Preservation Coalition. That includes $30.8 million that the state delivered just last month for fiscal year 2005 to 61 communities. The state matching funds come from fees collected on each document that is recorded at registries of deeds throughout the state.
According to Chris Saccardi, assistant director of the Community Preservation Coalition, interest in the CPA is widespread and growing. Two weeks ago, all 10 communities where the CPA appeared on the ballot – Barnstable, Concord, Groton, Hadley, Hanover, Middleton, Needham, Northborough, Sharon and Wilbraham – approved the measure.
“We have never had this rate of success before so we were really excited,” said Saccardi.
Lee, of the Trust for Public Land, said the results show that “voters in Massachusetts are willing to pay a little more in taxes in order to get that state match and because they know what the money is going to be used for.”
Every one of the 10 communities that approved the CPA is adjacent to a town that has already adopted the measure, noted Saccardi. At least 10 more, including five towns on Cape Cod, are scheduled to vote on the CPA next spring.
Saccardi said those Cape towns are taking advantage of an amendment to the CPA passed by the state Legislature this summer that makes it easier for Cape communities to switch from the Land Bank – a Cape Cod program that is funded by a 3 percent surcharge on real estate property taxes for the express purpose of acquiring conservation land, open space and land to protect public drinking – to the CPA.
Meanwhile, a total of 49 communities – including Boston, Framingham, Malden, Waltham and Woburn – that have voted on the measure have rejected it. In at least two towns where the CPA failed during the first time it appeared on the ballot – Wilbraham and Sharon – it passed during the recent Nov. 2 election.
Callahan is hoping Boston follows suit. “We still need the local resources that CPA would bring in Boston,” he said.
Callahan acknowledges that property value reassessments and cuts in state local aid that have led to higher taxes will continue to be an issue for voters.
Still, he maintains that there are “enough voters out there if they know what the fee will be and they know what the potential benefits are, that they will support it. That’s our challenge, to get the word out there to enough voters.”
Increased voter participation among Boston’s minorities could help the effort, according to Callahan. The Community Preservation Act lost at the Boston polls in 2001 with 43 percent of voters opposing and 32 percent supporting it. Voters in 12 wards and 110 precincts voted for the effort, according to Callahan.
Callahan said the measure was largely supported in wards – parts of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan – with heavy concentrations of minorities.
Recent elections which yielded victories for minority candidates such as City Councilor Felix Arroyo, who is Hispanic, and Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral, who is black, saw heavy voter turnout in some of those mostly minority neighborhoods that supported the CPA three years ago.
“We think that bodes well” for the campaign, Callahan said.
Communities that have adopted the CPA are expected to spend about $60 million on affordable housing, open space and historic preservation during this fiscal year. About 34 percent of the money, or more than $20.5 million, will go for housing. That’s more than was spent on housing in the previous two fiscal years combined.
However, last year, housing received a bigger portion of the CPA funds. Of the $23.8 million spent by communities last year, 40 percent went for affordable housing, while 39.7 percent was set aside for open space.
Open space is again slated to receive 39 percent, or $23.6 million, this year. Another 20 percent will be set aside for historic preservation and 6 percent for restoration
In Newton, where the CPA was passed in November 2001, aldermen recently approved $2.5 million in CPA funding to purchase the Angino Farm, the last remaining farm in the city. The property will be used as a community farm, where residents would be able to purchase annual “shares” for approximately $500 and receive in-season produce throughout the growing season.
In nearby Wayland, Town Meeting voted earlier this year to use CPA funds to buy 2.75 acres from the federal government and improve the site so it can be used for 16 affordable housing units. The land, site of an old Nike missile installation, was available to the town for free if the use were solely open space protection. But voters decided to pay for the land so that housing could be built on a portion of it.
Meanwhile, Cambridge is using some CPA money to purchase land in another town. The city has approved $1 million to purchase 16 acres in Lincoln in order to protect the source of Cambridge’s drinking water.
Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.
