State Announces CPA Matching Funds for 2014

Published November 13, 2014 | Community Preservation Committee | Automatically Archived on 4/27/2015

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The Sudbury Community Preservation Committee (CPC) announces that it has received a 34% match from the state for funds raised under the Community Preservation Act (CPA). Based upon Sudbury’s FY14 CPA surcharge revenue of $1,646,001, the state match for the current year comes to $559,382. These funds are part of the roughly $36 million that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue will distribute on November 15^th to the 155 communities currently participating in the CPA.

Decreases in the state CPA fund this year were due to a couple factors:

1) Like in FY13, $25 million from the state’s budget surplus was proposed to be added to the CPA Trust Fund. Ultimately however, budget pressures over the summer led the legislature to pass an $89 million FY14 supplemental spending bill on October 31st, resulting in the smaller-than-expected surplus of $11.4 million into the CPA Trust Fund. Last year the Trust Fund had received the full $25 million from the surplus.

2) A decline in collections for the trust fund from recording fees at the state’s Registries of Deeds.

This is the 12^th year that Sudbury has received funds from the state Community Preservation Fund. The Town has approved 70 CPA projects in the eligible categories of Open Space, Historic Preservation, Affordable Housing and Recreation since the program’s inception in 2002.

Projects for funding at the 2015 Annual Town Meeting are currently under review by the committee, with public hearings scheduled for November 19 and December 17, 2014.

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Under the provisions of the Community Preservation Act (CPA), Sudbury established a Community Preservation Committee on 2002.

This Committee consists of 9 members, including a member designated from each of the following commissions or boards: Select Board, Conservation Commission, Historical Commission, Planning Board, Park and Recreation Commission, Finance Committee, and Housing Authority; and 2 members at large appointed by the Select Board.

The Duties of said Community Preservation Committee shall be to:

(1) Study the needs, possibilities, and resources of the Town regarding community preservation. The Committee shall consult with existing municipal boards, including the Conservation Commission, the Sudbury Historical Commission, the Planning Board, the Park and Recreation Commission, the Sudbury Housing Authority, or persons acting in those capacities or performing like duties, in conducting such studies. As part of its study, the Committee shall hold one or more public informational hearings on the needs, possibilities, and resources of the Town regarding community preservation possibilities and resources, notice of which shall be posted publicly and published for each of two weeks preceding a hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the town.

(2) Make recommendations to the legislative body for the acquisition, creation and preservation of open space; for the acquisition, preservation, rehabilitation and restoration of historic resources; for the acquisition, creation, preservation, rehabilitation and restoration of land for recreational use; for the acquisition, creation, preservation and support of community housing; and for rehabilitation or restoration of open space and community housing that is acquired or created as provided in this section; provided, however, that funds expended pursuant to this chapter shall not be used for maintenance. With respect to community housing, the community preservation committee shall recommend, wherever possible, the reuse of existing buildings or construction of new buildings on previously developed sites. With respect to recreational use, the acquisition of artificial turf for athletic fields shall be prohibited.

(3) Community Preservation Committee may include in its recommendation to the Town Meeting a recommendation to set aside for later spending funds for specific purposes that are consistent with community preservation but for which sufficient revenues are not then available in the Community Preservation Fund to accomplish that specific purpose or to set aside for later spending funds for general purposes that are consistent with community preservation.