Community Preservation Act Funding - Public Comment Period

[francescadavis.livejournal.com]

I received this email today.  This is the fund collected from the property tax surcharge.  Those monies will be dispersed and if you have thoughts, now is the time to be heard.

Good evening,

The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) received 15 applications for Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds totaling $8.8 million in December and wants to hear from you about which should receive funding. Please send your comments to Emily Monea at emonea@somervillema.gov or Emily Monea c/or SomerStat, 93 Highland Ave., Somerville, MA 02143.

You can review the project proposals HERE as well as the applicants’ presentations from the community meetings. Comments will be accepted through 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 31st.

Please forward this email to anyone who may be interested in joining the CPA conversation.

Best,

Emily

Emily Monea
Community Preservation Act Manager
Mayor’s SomerStat Office
City of Somerville
617.625.6600 x2118
somervillema.gov/cpa

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Comments

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

How much money is there to distribute?

To summarize the 15 projects briefly:
West Branch Library—$6 million
City Hall renovations—$600,000
Prospect Hill Tower renovation—$500,000
Prospect Hill Park rehabilitation—$85,000
City Archives, process permanent collections—$43,000
Milk Row Cemetery rehabilitation—$17,500
American Tube Works, national Historic Historic Register nomination—$7,000

Mystic Water Works, 25 affordable housing units—$500,000
Temple B’nai Brith accessability—$450,945
First Congregational Church, deferred maintenance—$280,000
Somerville Museum, capital improvements—$168,191
Community Growing Center upgrade—S52,090
School garden classrooms—$45,373
Healy School to the Mystic—$45,000
58 Bow Street, exterior restoration—$15,000

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

It's shocking to me that the city is considering spending money on supporting religious groups. Isn't that in violation of the 1st Amendment?

"The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion to another ... in the words of Jefferson, the [First Amendment] clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect 'a wall of separation between church and State' ... That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach"

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Preservation monies regularly go to religious institutions. To the extent that they are historically or architecturally significant, this seems appropriate to me, as it serves a governmental interest that's secular in nature.

If you want a much more detailed take on this, I found this on Google:
http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=hpps_papers

The article discusses federal money, so the constitutional issues are different, though the underlying principles are more or less the same.

[francescadavis.livejournal.com]

I don't have an issue with a religious organization getting funding. Though, I would hope the funding goes to projects that benefit the community-at-large versus a small portion of the community. The Library and City Hall would be priorities for me over the church.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that the total amount to be distributed is in the neighborhood of $750,000.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

What happened to the rest? At one point, I read that there was $4.9 million to distribute?

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

As I understand it from this press release (http://www.somervillema.gov/news/city-seeks-grant-22-mil-affordable-housing), 45% of that $4.9 million ($2.2 million) was designated for affordable housing projects. Of the remainder, about $735,000 has been designated for "recreational land projects," the same amount again for "historic resources preservation," and around 1 million remaining that hasn't been designated yet. (see this chart (http://www.somervillema.gov/cpa/proposals)) The proposals being voted on now are all in the historic resources and/or recreational land categories.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

...so the $750k that I was quoted elsewhere was a little misleading, but it refers to the fact that any particular project proposal in the "recreational land" or "historic resources" category is competing for a share of that $735k.

[francescadavis.livejournal.com]

There is a useful chart on the city's website that illustrates funding available, allocation and total requests. It is here (http://www.somervillema.gov/cpa/proposals).

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I believe that's the same chart I linked to in my comment directly above....

[francescadavis.livejournal.com]

Apologies. I missed that link.

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

Thanks, everyone! The table on page 5 of this presentation makes it all clear to me.

http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/CPC_01.12.15_presentation.pdf

[gruene.livejournal.com]

I think the bond proposal on page 10 is interesting. Would let you fund a bunch more projects upfront, but limit your ability fund future projects.

On first glance I'm opposed to it. Unless there's strong evidence that the most of the preservation projects can't wait a few years, I'd rather let those who don't get money this time apply again later. Borrowing the money ties our hands and leads to less overall funding. (Since we'd have to pay interest on the loans.)

[mem-winterhill.livejournal.com]

Ah, damn. I was hoping someone had a proposal to save the Somerville house with the first residential phone line evah.

http://boston.curbed.com/archives/2014/11/someville-house-host-of-first-home-phone-needs-callers.php

I hope that doesn't get sliced up badly.