Pittsfield Community Preservation Committee OKs 11 Applications
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Community Preservation Committee on Monday approved all but two eligibility applications for fiscal 2022 Community Preservation Act funding.
The 13 applications for recreation and open space, historical resource, and community housing projects were received this year with a total of about $927,000 requested.
Eleven of those proposals were found eligible with a total of about $717,000 in CPA funds requested.
Proposals include improvements to the Kirvin Park disc golf course, a lookout park on Francis Avenue, an improvement project for Morningside School, and a stained glass window restoration project at St. Stephen's church.
There was some question over the Morningside School application, which said the school is looking for a way to provide a safe space on the property for families to recreate. Mentioned in the application are a basketball court, gardens, sitting areas, and a gazebo.
It also mentions having the bars taken off the former Second Street jail, stating that having a building that looks like a prison next to where children play is troublesome.
Members of the committee questioned what the project would actually entail and felt the need for more information even though they deemed it as eligible.
City Planner C.J. Hoss also pointed out that they have to be cautious with St. Stephen's project because of the state Anti-Aid Amendment that prohibits the use of public funds to private entities for private purposes.
The two rejected applications requested monies for existing residential unit renovations and were found to be ineligible under CPA guidelines because they were not creating new affordable housing.
One was a $110,000 application from Michelle Manor Apartments at 40-52 Linden St. for needed renovations and the other a $100,000 application from G&W Rentals for 549 North St.
"My concern in deeming these eligible is that we could potentially be opening up Pandora's box to other applicants of private buildings and saying 'listen, we can access these funds if we commit X percent of our of our units to be affordable and you gave it to them why wouldn't you give it to us,'" Committee member Anthony DeMartino said.
"And placing an undue burden on staff to try to police something that becomes quite complex."
Hoss said the city is trying to create an affordable housing trust and believes applications such as these would be better suited for that.
The city applied for a technical assistance grant from Berkshire Regional Planning Commission for staff support and is currently going through the planning process. By late winter or early spring, Hoss said they hope to have a petition put forward to the City Council that would create the trust.
"We specifically built that into our new downtown zoning," he added.
"Where if developers are asking for a waiver from providing affordable housing units that they're least putting funds into a trust so that we can create our own affordable housing if we have to down the road or putting it towards projects from affordable housing developers or the housing authority."
In September, A CPA budget of $643,000 for fiscal 2022 was announced. The budget was originally around $743,000 but was reduced by $100,000 when the City Council approved an emergency out-of-cycle application over the summer from CT Management for the conversion of the Tyler Street firehouse into apartments.
Last year, the CPA applications were down in terms of overall funds requested. In FY21, the CPA budget was about $635,000, and the city-funded 12 of the 13 projects that applied for the monies totaling $487,407.60.
Hoss said that for FY22 the projects are all heavily reliant on CPA funding versus other funding options. The original total for proposals before rejecting two applications was about $927,000 with an overall project value of about $1,447,000.
There are currently about $694,000 available CPA funds and Hoss said that he would not recommend an allocation of more than $650,000 to keep a cushion.
The applications deemed eligible for FY22 CPA funding are:
- Berkshire Athenaeum/Tax & Vital Records digitization, $87,815
- Berkshire Theatre Group/Garage Facade restoration, $75,740
- City of Pittsfield Cultural Development/Lest We Forget mural, $15,000
- City of Pittsfield DCD/Clapp Park Little League Buildings, $9,500
- City of Pittsfield DCD/Kirvin Park Disc Golf, $7,500
- City of Pittsfield DCD/West Park Cemetery restoration, $15,000
- Habitat for Humanity/Francis Ave Lookout Park, $16,000
- Habitat for Humanity/266 Onota St, $150,000
- Habitat for Humanity/84 Robbins Ave, $140,000
- Morningside School/Inclusion Project, $50,000
- St Stephen's Church/Stained Glass Window restoration, $150,000
Tags: CPA,
