Community Preservation Committee Endorses Projects

By Aaron Pikcilingis

Each spring at Belmont’s Annual Town Meeting, Town Meeting members (TMM) consider projects recommended by the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) and vote whether to award each Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding.

TMM may choose to either fund the project as recommended, reject the project, or reduce the funding. CPA funding requires both the recommendation of the CPC and Town Meeting, so TMMs may not elect to vote for different projects or substantially alter a proposed project, nor may they vote to provide more CPA funding to a given project than is recommended by the CPC.

For FY2027, Belmont’s CPA surcharge will generate about $1.8 million and the state match will provide an estimated additional $300,000. Belmont’s CPC has recommended the following five projects for CPA funding.

Recreation

Community Path Phase 1 Right of Way Acquisitions — $500,000

This funding would support the costs of temporary and permanent construction easements for construction of the first phase of the Belmont Community Path. This section of path will connect from Brighton Street at the Cambridge line over the bridge at Belmont Center and end at the Clark Street Footbridge on South Pleasant Street. This phase also includes a bridge under the tracks connecting the Winn Brook neighborhood to the Middle and High School campus and the other community assets along Concord Avenue.

Community Path Phase 2 Design — $250,000

This funding would support the ongoing design of Phase 2 of the Belmont Community Path, which will run west from the Clark Street Footbridge and continue through Waverley Square, eventually connecting with Waltham and the rest of the Massachusetts Central Rail Trail. This funding would also unlock $1,000,000 in additional funding for the project from the federal government.

Brendan Grant Flagpole Grounds Project — $35,000

This project proposes to improve the area around the recently installed flagpole just outside the Brendan Grant baseball field. Improvements would include levelling the area and adding a patio and benches to make the area more accessible and appealing.

Community Housing

Sherman Gardens Redevelopment  — $2,100,000

This request is the first of a two-phase, $3,100,000 total request to support the reconstruction of Belmont’s public housing property at Sherman Gardens near Waverley Square. These funds, along with prior CPA appropriations for predevelopment, will serve as Belmont’s contribution toward this $75M project, most of which will be funded from outside sources.

Open Space

Beaver Brook Invasive Control — $80,000

This proposal would fund a three- to four-year effort to control invasive phragmites plants in the marshlands along Concord Avenue near the Lexington town line. The funding would support the design and execution of the program.

For more details on these projects, please visit the CPC page on the town website, under “CPC Documents” in the folder “Final Applications.”

To date, the Belmont CPA fund has supported numerous projects that have each provided a meaningful benefit. I would like to highlight a few recent projects that I feel are especially significant to our community.

Chenery Park Complex  (Recreation)

Currently under construction, the CPA provided all funding for redesign and reconstruction of the Chenery Park Complex. After collecting significant community input, this project will provide a revitalized park to serve the needs of the Chenery Upper Elementary school, nearby residential neighborhoods, and our whole community.

Belmont Community Path (Recreation)

The CPA has been the local funding source for the Belmont Community Path, allowing the project to secure millions in grant and federal funding to support a project that will serve to connect the parts of our community and connect us all to a growing regional network of multiuse trails. Phase 1 of the path, including the path under the tracks to the Middle and High School campus, is expected to begin construction this coming fall.

Historic Town Hall Complex (Historic Preservation)

The CPA has been critical to preserving our historic Town Hall complex, including the recent repair of a retaining wall along Concord Avenue at the Town Hall, preserving the slate roof at the School Administration Building, and much more.

Public housing properties at Sherman Gardens and Belmont Village (Housing)

The CPA has funded predevelopment work to support the redevelopment of our public housing properties at Sherman Gardens and Belmont Village. These redevelopment projects are a key step to creating new affordable homes in our community and to properly caring for the people who live in them. This year, the CPC has recommended funding to support the construction phase of redevelopment at Sherman Gardens — see below for more detail.

Without the dedicated resources of the CPA fund, it’s unlikely Belmont could have completed these projects or many of the dozens of others supported by the CPA fund. At best, we may have completed some of them at the expense of other capital needs that would have been competing for the same limited funding. To learn more about the projects Belmont has funded through our CPA, visit the Community Preservation Coalition’s database at bit.ly/BCF-CPA-DB

Belmont voters adopted the CPA in 2010, and we began funding projects for fiscal year 2014. Since its adoption, Belmont’s CPA fund has collected $17,533,224 from the local surcharge, plus $4,734,137 in matching state funds for a total of $22,267,361.

Massachusetts’s Community Preservation Act is a state law passed in 2000 that allows communities to impose a small property tax surcharge to fund local projects in three  community benefit areas:

• Community housing
• Historic preservation
• Open space and recreational lands

Belmont’s CPC is charged with overseeing these funds by soliciting applications for funding, reviewing applications for eligibility, and, ultimately, by recommending to Town Meeting which eligible projects are worthy of funding. This process typically begins in September and continues through January when CPC members vote on their funding recommendations. Each year, the CPC updates two documents that support this process.

The CPA Timeline, providing an outline of when each step in the process takes place.

The CPA Plan, which includes a CPA overview, guidelines for evaluating projects, and instructions for how project sponsors can apply and what the process will look like. The CPC accepts community input on the CPA Plan each spring and incorporates it into updates to the plan.

For more information about the CPC process in Belmont, the guidelines members use to evaluate proposals, and more, please visit the CPC’s page on the town website.

Finally, we encourage members of the community to submit project proposals. For questions, more information, or just to say hello, please contact us via email at cpc@belmont-ma.gov.

Aaron Pikcilingis is chair of the Belmont Community Preservation Committee.