Middleborough has always tried to do the things that the CPA was designed to help us with. Pratt Farm, Soule Homestead, and more recently the Gibbs and Freitas properties are examples of this. It might appear that somehow we manage to acquire open space and historic properties when we need to by scrambling at Town Meeting to borrow the money.
But how many properties have slipped away because we knew the money wasn’t there or wouldn’t be ratified at town meeting due to a lack of funds?
The CPA provides a way to better plan for the strategic purchases that preserve our history and prevent unwanted development that strains our services and schools. Even better, it gives us some level of matching funds from the state. But what if the state pulls all the matching funds or changes the law?
Due to the popularity of the program(140 towns have adopted it), I don’t think it likely. But even if they did – We would still benefit from being able to better plan our purchases – purchases the we tend to do anyway. We would save money because we wouldn’t have to borrow money to buy important properties.
And if they change the law? We can opt out of the program. Around 140 cities and towns have adopted CPA – including many affluent and influential communities. I’ve been told, and agree, that the political pressure to maintain CPA and improve it is huge.
CPA was specifically designed to help us with some of our most pressing problems such as:
Open space preservation
Like other towns in Massachusetts, Middleboro has seen huge growth in recent years. Unlike most other towns, we have an enormous amount of land. We’ve been forced to sit back and watch 40B developments get forced on us. We’ve watched beautiful farms and wooded areas get bulldozed to make way for housing. Remember that each child introduced in our school system costs around $9,000 dollars to educate. This requires more teachers, more buses, more schools, and more cost. Every piece of land we preserve is money that we won’t have to spend in the future and rural character that will not be lost.
Historic preservation
We’ve watched historic buildings like the C.P. Washburn building fall into disrepair only to be unceremoniously demolished when we turned our backs for a moment. The historic Green School is slowly rotting away. In the historic Muttock section of town near Oliver Mills, is the Peter Oliver house on Plymouth Street – an historic jewel that cannot be replaced once it is lost. The town has talked of it’s commitment to preserving one of the last great agricultural areas in Southeastern Massachusetts – historic Thompson Street. Upkeep and acquisition of historic homes and land requires more than commitment – it requires money.
Community Housing
By state law, 10% of our housing stock must be affordable housing. For every 100 homes that are built, we are required to provide 10 units of affordable housing. When we are below the 10% minimum, we become a target for 40B development. We lose our local control and are exposed to unpredictable costs as children are introduced in the school system at an unpredictable rate. With CPA, we could decide to provide affordable housing for our deserving seniors and control our own destiny while providing for deserving elders that bring little impact and wisdom to town. The town of Marion got $7.7M in state funding to expand senior housing for an outlay of just $500K in CPA monies. That’s a return of $15 dollars for every $1 of CPA money.
Recreational facilities
It’s no secret that budgets are tight. One of the first victims of budget cuts is always our chronically underfunded Parks Department. CPA funds can be used to create new recreational facilites. A proposed changed to the law, if passed, would also allow the monies to be spend on existing facilities as well.
At the last Town Meeting, a number of people talked about the teens hanging out downtown and the need to provide recreational opportunities for them. The Parks Department with help from CPA monies could do that. Recreational facilities enhance our quality of life and we have some wonderful potential facilities. Other towns have created new sports fields, skateboard parks, hiking trails and much more. CPA money would give us the ability to enhance our recreational opportunities – if we so choose.