Agenda and Minutes 2010-11-17
City of Northampton
Community Preservation Committee
210 Main Street, City Hall
Northampton, MA 01060
Community Preservation Committee
DATE: Wednesday, November 17, 2010
TIME: 7:00pm
PLACE: City Council Chambers, 212 Main Street (BEHIND City Hall)
Contact:
Fran Volkmann, Chair, Community Preservation Committee
Franv@comcast.net
Sarah LaValley, Community Preservation Planner
slavalley@northamptonma.gov
(413) 587-1263
Agenda
Public Comment
Chair’s Report
Minutes
November 3, 2010
o
Financial Update
Request for Budget Reallocation – Bean/Allard
Florence Fields Budget
Committee Discussion of Applications and Funding Recommendations
Agriculture & Conservation Commissions – Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program
o
Conservation Commission – Turkey Hill
o
Conservation Commission, Conservation Fund
o
Friends of Hampshire County Homeless Individuals
o
Historical Commission, Local Historic Preservation Restriction Program
o
Lilly Library, Window Restoration
o
Recreation Commission – Florence Fields
o
Tree Committee, Tree Census
o
Valley CDC – Predevelopment Loan
o
Valley CDC - Housing Production Support Program
o
Begin Funding Recommendations
Other Business
For additional information please refer to the Community Preservation Committee
website: http://www.northamptonma.gov/cpc/
Community Preservation Committee Minutes
November 17, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm
Place: City Council Chambers, 212 Main St.
Members Present: Fran Volkmann, David Drake, Downey Meyer, Katharine Baker, Brian
Adams, Don Bianchi, Joe DeFazio, Lilly Lombard
Staff Present: Sarah LaValley
Fran called the meeting to order at 7:01 PM.
Public Comment
Lilly recused herself and left the room.
Tusie Gastongay, spoke in favor of CPA funding for community gardens at Florence Fields.
Additional garden space in Northampton is needed, and they have many benefits. Tusie read
a testimony from Johanna Jalbasen, a community gardener at the state Hospital gardens,
who also supports additional gardens.
Rebecca Fletcher, GrowFood Northampton, spoke in favor of the Florence Fields project.
Lilly returned.
Chair’s Report
Fran informed the Committee that she visited City Council to talk about the North Maple Street
project. Don noted that Fran did a good job explaining the situation to the Council, and accepted
responsibility on behalf of the CPC for any miscommunication.
Katharine asked if any additional follow-up is needed. Fran said that an op-ed piece could be
done, which Don has volunteered to write.
Fran provided highlighted some agenda items for upcoming meetings:
December 1: ConsCom implementation plan for retroactively addressing Conservation
Restrictions
December 15: Elections for next Chair and Vice-Chair.
Lilly asked if the full funding round, including Council votes, will be complete by then. Fran
replied that they should, but if not, both the old and new chairs would attend.
Fran informed the Committee that Bill Breitbart will be the new mayoral appointee to the CPC
once approved by City Council.
Minutes
November 3, 2010
Don presented one item for clarification.
Katharine moved to accept the minutes, seconded by Don. The motion carried unanimously.
Financial Update
Sarah informed the Committee that there is approximately $975,000 available at the current
round.
Sarah presented a pie chart showing where CPA funds come from.
The Committee discussed leveraging, and it was suggested that the chart be clearly labeled to
show that the leveraged fund amounts are provided by applicants in their project
applications.
Request for Budget Reallocation – Bean/Allard
Lilly recused herself and left the room.
Fran suggested that it is not appropriate to discuss the Florence Fields application out of order,
but the request for reprogramming can be discussed now.
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November 17, 2010
Joe asked if the application period has closed, and if it’s no longer appropriate to consider any
changed information.
Downey stated that there are two separate issues: one is the repurposing of the previous, but
related grant, which introduced ambiguity to the current Florence Fields Application. If the
repurposing is allowed, then that will reduce the amount being requested by the applicants.
Don suggested that consider revised numbers wouldn’t violate any fairness.
Katharine suggested that a clearer process be developed that establishes strict guidelines.
Wayne Feiden, Director of Planning and Development, recapped that several grants were received
for the Bean Allard property, including an APR grant that had a higher than expected state
matching percentage. The changes allowed additional funds allocated by the CPA to be freed
up.
Wayne stated that there are two ways to consider the request: as a request for reprogramming of
the budget, or to decide that no approval is needed.
Wayne provided an overview memo of the budget reallocation request (filed with the Florence
Fields application).
The state does not participate in community gardens programs, so that portion can’t be funded
with the grant application, so GrowFood Northampton will purchase the land, and it will be
leased by the City.
It’s now proposed to reallocate the additional CPA funds which are now not needed for design and
soft costs into construction. These proposed amounts are $60,860 for Florence Fields,
$6,316 for Community Gardens Water, $10,000 for bike lane/path, and $61,458 for the 2012
PARC grant.
Joe summarized that there are additional, unanticipated funds available, which could be returned
to the CPA general fund, and it’s proposed that these to be allocated to construction. Wayne
noted that if the money is returned and not awarded to the Florence Fields project, $118,140
in grant funds would be lost.
Wayne noted that it’s most likely that grant funds were received due to the great deal of
community support and the CPA
Fran asked how it is that CPA funds are being used for design, since it doesn’t appear that design
costs are part of the budget or Council resolution.
Wayne replied that the design costs were part of the soft costs as proposed in the project
application, and there was also an additional Council resolution in August that specifically
addressed playing fields and construction costs.
The Committee discussed how the months-long application process and discussions boils down to
a few documents: the council resolution, contract, and application documents.
Sarah pointed out that the budget provided in the original application did provide for field design
in the soft cost and staff time items.
Downey noted that while the Committee spends a great deal of time discussing applications and
making funding decisions, a relatively small amount of that is spent crafting the
recommendations and council resolutions.
Fran expressed the desire for a clearer process that does not result in confusion later down the
road.
Fran asked if the money could be returned and re-applied for later. Wayne replied that the
Florence Fields application was just that.
Downey asked if an out-of-sequence application for the funds could be done in enough time to not
have to return the $118,000 in PARC funds. Wayne explained that an additional application
is not necessary, because if the funds are returned, the Florence Fields application has already
requested what is necessary for construction costs.
Katharine asked for a clear definition of reprogramming. Wayne referenced the original
application budget, noting that funding was provided to certain tasks. Some of those funds
are now being requested to be allocated to construction instead of the originally listed items.
Joe suggested that the applicants hold the primary responsibility for project expenditure
David added that in this case, there were many stakeholders with different interests, and it seems
as though those were all satisfied, so there does not appear to be a disconnect with what was
approved by Council.
David moved to reprogram the Bean/Allard funds as requested in the memo, seconded by Joe.
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November 17, 2010
Brian asked if reprogramming had been done for other projects. Sarah noted that Valley CDC
asked for a reprogramming of funds for one of the SRO projects, to eliminate a line item and
move funds to other line items, and this was approved by the Committee.
The motion carried, 4-3.
Downey asked Wayne what the application amount is now for, Wayne replied that it is now for
$273,294 due to the approval of reprogramming.
Lilly returned.
Florence Fields Budget
This will be discussed later, in the order previously agreed by the committee.
Committee Discussion of Applications and Funding Recommendations
The committee considered funding in the hierarchy order established at the last meeting, and
worked on draft recommendations.
Lilly Library
The Committee agreed on full funding for the shopping cart.
Turkey Hill
The Committee agreed to full funding.
Hampshire County Friends of Homeless Individuals
The Committee discussed the number of units, noting that the application specifies 5-6.
The Committee discussed project costs, and David noted that it would be helpful to know all of
the total project costs, not just the CPA-funded portions
The Committee added additional conditions regarding affordability, and proof of assurance of
funds from other sources as listed in the application.
Valley CDC Housing Production Support Program
Downey suggested that the program be funded for two years instead of three, with the
understanding that they could re-apply then if the program was successful. Funds could then
be increased to the predevelopment loan program, which has already been proven successful.
The Committee agreed to place the funding in the shopping cart at that level.
Conservation Fund
The Committee discussed a condition related to agricultural lands and the Agricultural
Commission. A previous Conservation Fund condition required that the Conservation
Commission work out a process with the Agricultural Commission prior to the expenditure of
funds for land containing prime agricultural soils. Wayne stated that the process agreed upon
is that both Commissions must approve such purchases.
Valley CDC Predevelopment
The Committee agreed to place the item in the shopping cart for $80,000
Valley CDC Housing Production Support
The Committee agreed on $50,000.
Historic Preservation Fund
The Committee added a condition that all properties must be visible to the public.
Florence Fields
Don asked how much money could potentially be diverted to the next round without affecting the
project. Wayne replied that money will not be needed until July, but grant applications will
be much stronger if the requested match is shown. It’s not known at this time when grant
cycles for Land and Water and Self-Help will be. Pre-committing funds, but not awarding
them until the next round could also be an option that would allow the award to stay in the
CPA reserve.
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November 17, 2010
Fran suggested that pre-funding for future rounds is not the best practice for the Committee,
since all applicants should have an equal opportunity for consideration.
The Committee discussed potential funding scenarios.
Downey noted that the project leveraging is extremely high, and part of that success was having
CPA money in hand to seek grants.
Joe: so what is really being requested is seed money to apply for other grants, but not for an
actual project cost at this point.
Don suggested that if the Committee intends to fund the entire project at some point, perhaps it
should be funded entirely now.
Wayne noted that borrowing is also an option, and there is a great deal of political support for the
project.
Joe suggested that the funding be placed in the cart at the $130,000 level discussed at the last
meeting.
Downey pointed out that the grant round may be announced early, and not provide enough time
to apply in the next round.
The Committee agreed to the $130,000 figure.
Tree Committee
The Committee agreed to place the item in the shopping cart for $5,000, limiting the number of
signs.
David moved to set the CPA wallet (budget) size for the round at the $613,720 amount currently
in the shopping cart. Seconded by Downey.
The motion carried unanimously.
Don moved to approve all of the project funding at the amounts in the shopping cart, and to
finalize the recommendations. Seconded by David. The motion carried unanimously, with
Lilly abstaining.
Other Business
None.
The meeting adjourned at 10:29.
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November 17, 2010