Community Preservation Committee

Overview

The Community Preservation Committee was established by a vote of Town Meeting in May 2014. The mission of the Community Preservation Committee is to:

• Study the needs, possibilities, and resources of the Town regarding community preservation pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 44B.
• Consult with existing municipal boards, including the Conservation Commission, the Historical Commission, the Planning Board, the Recreation Commission, the Agricultural Commission, and the Boxborough Housing Board in conducting such studies.
• Review the Town’s Capital Plan, maintained by the Finance Committee, and identify such overlap as may exist between Capital Plan prescriptions and community preservation proposals.
• Hold one or more public informational hearing(s) annually on the needs, possibilities, and resources of the Town regarding community preservation possibilities and resources.

Further, the Community Preservation Committee shall:

• Make recommendations to Town Meeting for the acquisition, creation, and preservation of open space, for the acquisition, preservation, rehabilitation, and restoration of historic resources, for the acquisition, creation, preservation, rehabilitation, and restoration of land for recreational use, for the acquisition, creation, preservation, and support of community housing, and for the rehabilitation or restoration of open space and community housing that is acquired or created.
• Recommend, wherever possible, the reuse of existing buildings or construction of new buildings on previously developed sites.
• Conform its proposed expenditures to the long term capital spending profile outlined in the Town’s Capital Plan, so as to moderate fluctuations in the Town’s direct and debt service spending.

The Community Preservation Committee may include in its recommendation to Town Meeting a recommendation to set aside for later spending funds for specific purposes that are consistent with community preservation but for which sufficient revenues are not then available in the Community Preservation Fund to accomplish that specific purpose or to set aside for later spending funds for general purposes that are consistent with community preservation.