PEPPERELL — A decision on whether to adopt the Community Preservation Act will go before voters at the annual spring election after being passed at a special town meeting on Saturday.
By adopting the Community Preservation Act, residents of Pepperell would see an additional tax surcharge on their real estate. The surcharge would be for 1%, however the first $100,000 are removed from the cost. If a home costs $400,000 only $300,000 would be subject, officials said.
Through adopting the CPA, Pepperell would be one of the state’s communities able to receive money back from the state. Town administrator Andrew MacLean said the state returned about 32.3% to CPA communities this year.
The funds from the CPA would be used to protect open space, wildlife, public waterways and promote conservation.
Ronald Nutter was one of the article’s main opponents and expressed concern that taxes in town were going too high and argued the CPA would only further decrease the town’s tax base by protecting land from development. Nutter also said he did not see a demand for increased recreation space. However, he did acknowledge the need for more affordable housing.
Craig Hansen refuted the claim about the need for more recreational space and encouraged voters to cast a “yes” vote.
“We have a softball program in town that is exploding with participants that need a field to play on and that they don’t have one. We have soccer, baseball, football. Lacrosse is growing. These organizations need space for these children and there are even adult leagues as well that need space to play,” Hansen said. “Recreation open space is of huge importance. There’s a recreation master plan that’s out there that the town commissioned years ago, and we can’t execute on some of the recommendations from that plan because we don’t have the resources to do so.”
Arguments in favor of the CPA also came from members of the town’s Historical Commission, Affordable Housing Committee and the Nashoba Conservation Trust.
Brian Keating from the Affordable Housing Committee said the CPA would bring investment to Pepperell. The CPA working with the Affordable Housing Trust could help “break the boom-bust cycle” in housing.
“When you have investment in your community, you see office parks and industrial parks and a vibrant Main Street. People coming in with good jobs, because (employers are) competing for the people who are able to live in town comfortably and affordably at all price points, at all income levels,” Keating said.
Finance Committee Chairman John Ladik was another opponent of the article.
“One of the things I hear from everybody is ‘we need more development in town to lessen the tax burden on those folks paying real estate taxes.’ Well, this is your chance to try to see if that will work. So that’s my reason for voting against this,” Ladik said.
Finance Committee member Quinton Cutler disagreed with Ladik’s assessment and said he was in favor of adopting the CPA. He also supported bringing the question to the town election to get a more representative say from the town.
The warrant had 12 articles in total and 10 passed. No action was necessary on articles 7 and 11 as they were contingency plans should articles 6 and 10 fail. Among the articles passed was one to approve a five-year lease purchasing agreement for the fire department to purchase a new ambulance.
Fire Chief Brian Borneman said the ambulance his department was replacing was from 2012 and the vehicle currently has about 106,000 miles on it. By the time the department acquires the new ambulance, the one in need of replacement will have closer to 115,000 miles. The current ambulance has a trade-in value of about $7,000.
The town also voted to approve the financing of its street light conversion project. The town is replacing 409 street lights with new LED ones and will find the project with money saved on the energy consumption costs. MacLean said the lights will last about 20 years and come with a 10-year warranty.
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