Marino Makes CPA Presentation

By Adam Swift

Winthrop could join the other 189 communities in the state that have adopted the Community Preservation Act by 2024.

At this month’s Town Council meeting, Town Manager Anthony Marino gave a presentation on the Community Preservation Act (CPA) and what the town would have to do to adopt it.

“I believe in it, and I believe it is a great asset that the state provides for a lot of communities,” said Marino. “It needs the vote of the town to bring it forward.”

The CPA is a smart growth tool that helps communities preserve open space and historic spaces, create affordable housing, and develop outdoor recreational facilities, according to Marino.

The CPA also allows communities to create a local community preservation fund with money that is raised through the imposition of a surcharge of not more than 3 percent on property taxes. Marino said most communities recently have gone with a surcharge of one to one-and-a-half percent.

Marino said there is an exemption on the first $100,000 of a homeowner’s property value.

The state offers matching funds to communities, with the current rate sitting at 35 percent.

If the CPA was in effect for the current fiscal year, Marino said it would have raised about $286,000 through the surcharge, and another $100,000 through state matching funds.

The CPA funds can be rolled over from year to year, according to Marino, and can also be used as funding against longer-term bonding.

Some types of projects that can be funded through the CPA include the historic renovation of town buildings, such as the E.B. Newton Town Hall; recreational field work including playgrounds; gravestone restoration at town cemeteries; the creation of affordable housing; and the purchase of land to serve as open space.

“We did a program in my old town on the South Shore where we did a bunch of historic gravestones, and we used the CPA funds to go in and restore all of those,” said Marino.

The Town Manager said he talked to people in the state’s community preservation office, and they recommended the town establish a CPA study committee before deciding to bring a CPA vote to the ballot.

The community preservation office also recommended holding the ballot vote during a presidential or midterm election year, when there is a better chance the act will pass.

“Obviously, it is extra money in your tax bill, and nobody wants to see that, but with the matching funds we’ve got coming up, it seems to make a lot of sense,” said Marino.

Council President James Letterie said the CPA would allow the town to complete some projects it hasn’t had the ability to do before.