This originally ran in the New Bedford Standard Times on March 28, 2009
GUEST VIEW: Community Preservation Act does great things for Westport
By Warren Messier, Chester Adams, Elizabeth Collins and Betty Slade
Warren Messier is chairman of the Westport Community Preservation Committee, Chester Adams is co-chair, and Elizabeth Collins and Betty Slade are members.
The Community Preservation Act provides remarkable opportunities for Westport and is an extraordinary investment for the town. Its purpose is to benefit the community by preserving and retaining its unique characteristics with three categories for funding: open space (including public recreation), historic preservation and community housing.
The CPA can provide for accessibility to these areas under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Any project submitted to the Community Preservation Committee for consideration must meet a strict set of regulations to insure it meets the criteria of one or more of the categories. Town Meeting must approve all project funding.
CPA funds are guaranteed and outside of the state budget process. They cannot be cut by the governor or Legislature. As other local aid is cut, CPA dollars will increasingly be some of the only funds around that communities can count on. Importantly, CPA allows a community to leverage additional state and federal funds to bring to bear on projects the community needs to do, like dredging in the river.
One example is that the Department of Conservation and Recreation has more than matched CPA funds for the restoration of the Horseneck Lifesaving Station. Bear in mind that CPA funds include those from the surcharge on real estate taxes plus the state match, which provides a very good return on the town's investment. Further, individuals who own property with a value of $500,000 in 2009 would pay a surcharge of only $55 per year or less, but receive personal and social benefits worth far more than that amount.
Through fiscal year 2008, CPA net project funding has been $2.9 million, with the state contributing nearly half of these funds: 52 percent allocated to open space, 15 percent to historic preservation and 33 percent to community housing. There is also overlapping among the categories; a project may contribute to more than one classification. For example, community housing may also serve a public recreation need, or an open space project may incorporate historic preservation.
Over 163 acres of land in Westport have been purchased for protection of wetlands and waterways, saving farmland for farmers, public recreation and community housing. CPA funds have provided a leveraging role by providing $1.32 million (including $660,000 in state matching funds). As a result, CPC has been able to partner with the Westport Agricultural/Open Space Trust Council ($345,000) and the Westport Land Conservation Trust ($1.065 million). The town has been awarded state self-help and other grants ($400,000). So taxpayers in Westport only paid 27 percent of the costs of this land, which benefits the whole town, while others paid 73 percent of the costs.
Among the 163 acres purchased, a well-situated six-acre property has been obtained to abut a town-owned property of 25 acres and allow for a viable and attractive community housing site on the Noquochoke River (so-called Perry-Quinn property.) This project will also provide recreational walking and fishing to the public.
Community housing for residents of Westport is an important CPC goal, and CPC receives essential input from the Westport Housing Partnership Committee and the Planning Board. Such undertakings can be complicated and often run into unexpected delays. This area has had earlier contamination. Work to clean the site is nearly completed. An RFP will be submitted soon and abutters notified. Reserves are set aside by CPC for these purposes.
The CPC is also funding for the state-sponsored ongoing estuaries assessment and preservation project dredging of the river at the docks, both of which benefit from state and/or federal funding.
Seventeen projects involving town-owned historic buildings and other significant buildings and activities have been funded under the historic preservation category. These projects include the Westport Town Hall, Wolf Pit School, Town Farm, Friends Meeting House (the burial place of Captain Paul Cuffe), the Waite-Potter Chimney (shown on the Town Seal), the Horseneck Lifesaving Station (Westport's only), 101 historic cemeteries and the Bell Schoolhouse, which is the home of the Westport Historical Society. Additionally, restoration and protection of maps in the library, markers at historical sites in Westport, and historical signage on corners have added to the understanding of the significant history of the town of Westport for residents and visitors alike.
The people of Westport have also expressed their support for the restoration of the Oscar Palmer Farm on Adamsville Road and its return to farming. Town Meeting has allocated $400,000 to that endeavor. The land trust recently purchased the farm and is working with the CPC and other groups to restore the buildings and sell the property to a farmer.
Information about Westport's CPC is available at the town Web site, in annual reports and at town meetings. If anyone has questions, please contact CPC chair Warren Messier. Everyone is welcome at the meetings on the second Thursday evening of the month at town hall.