Read through the FY2023 applications for Community Preservation Act funds

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

In response to a public records request, the town has placed all the FY2023 applications for Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds online. 

Link:  Lancaster FY2023 CPA Proposals

* 4PM Update:  there was one more application, from the Library, that the town was having some trouble uploading.  It may be on the website shortly, but in the meantime here's a download link.   It's over 100MB.  (I guess if you ask library professionals for paperwork, you shouldn't be surprised when you receive a book.)  Link to the library application.

These are all the applications that were received for FY2023: they may or may not receive funding in the end. CPA funds can be directed towards "open space, historic preservation, affordable housing, and outdoor recreational facilities."

Lancaster adopted the Community Preservation Act in 2020 and we started collecting the "CPA surcharge" with our tax bills in July, 2021.   As we adopted it, the surcharge is 1% of our tax bill, excluding the first $100K of taxed value.  

You can find the charge on your quarterly tax bill -- my surcharge was $52.74 this year.

This year the deadline for applications was December 15th, but according to an announcement on the town website the CPA committee extended the deadline to January 15th.   The Memorial School Re-Use committee's application is one that was submitted after the original deadline.

There's a section for these applications on the CPA committee website now, and the town administrator indicated she wants to make sure this remains a transparent process.   Hundreds of thousands of dollars will be distributed as the program progresses in town: what's funded and not funded will be something to keep an eye on.

The state maintains a database of CPA projects funded across the state:  it's interesting to peek at how other communities have used their CPA funds for:  https://www.communitypreservation.org/databank/projectsdatabase