The Marion Affordable Housing Trust’s ongoing work with the Barrett Planning Group for Housing and Community Engagement Services will focus on the property formerly occupied by Lockheed Martin Corporation.

            Discussion on that topic dominated Tuesday night’s scheduled AHT meeting, but all town boards, commissions and committees will be represented on a subcommittee formed by Town Planner Doug Guey Lee to focus on the property. Members include: Cynthia Callow, Dr. Ed Hoffer, Jennifer Francis, John Waterman, Margie Baldwin, Nancy McFadden, Will Saltonstall, Terri Santos, Jay McGrail, Alanna Nelson, Harry Norweb, and Norm Hills.

            The group will eventually engage the public on the subject, as the town forms a strategy and an approach regarding the Lockheed Martin property.

            According to AHT Chairperson Terri Santos, the trust put together a Community Preservation Committee in order to garner funding for a feasibility study to look for properties for housing earmarked for senior citizens at market rates.

            Meantime, Lockheed Martin announced it would be closing down, making its large piece of property available for such consideration.

            Also on the AHT agenda was discussion about a broader piece of education awaiting members, and that is their acquaintance with and opinions on the proposed Style Growth District Overlay Zoning bylaw first rolled out on April 1.

            Hills, the principal author of the bylaw and leader of the Codification Committee, summarized the bylaw for the trust membership, crediting the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) for its work.

            In specifying Residence C or Residence D housing, Hills told the AHT membership that the key is a specific process and piece of land in developable areas.

            The three main points of the proposal are: 1. to make the land usable; 2. to give the developer incentive to provide senior or affordable housing; and 3. to maintain open space.

            The bylaw is set up so that four units per acre is the default density limit but that, if senior housing is involved, more units per acre are allowed up to eight per acre. The bylaw includes a Step 9 that proposes up to four-family lots and, if located on Route 6 would be allowed mixed use.

            “At least two elements have to be in the design,” said Hills, noting stipulations around dimensional requirements, design standards, that the units be hooked up to town sewer, that they meet stormwater-management requirements and minimize disturbed areas.

            Parking is also addressed in the proposed bylaw, in some scenarios a vehicle could be parked up to 150 feet from the unit or in a common garage.

            Open space requirements would stipulate a contiguous arrangement of the unit with the open space and strict rules on who would own and/or maintain the open space.

            “The bottom line is we’re trying to provide a bylaw that can be used,” said Hills, noting that developers won’t need 50 acres or a 200-foot setback. “It’s just not going to work.”

            He told the trust that the study done by SRPEDD indicated that there is a significant number of parcels could be available for this kind of development and encouraged the members to review the proposal and make comments.

            In answer to Santos’ question about the multi-family Residence B designation, Hills said that the process has not gotten that far. “If this goes through, then we’d have to do something about the multi-family one because this one wraps it all up,” he said.

            Given the discussion of affordable housing, it was noted that affordable units at Heron Cove Estates, which has applied to build on a local initiative application (LIP) have increased in price.

            “As time goes on, they’re going to get more expensive,” said Hills.

            At the request of the Select Board, the AHT held a discussion on its goals and visions.

            Santos put in the members’ packet for Tuesday night’s meeting an old Housing Trust brochure from 2010 and asked the members to suggest three ideas for achievable goals. For example, the past effort that resulted in the creation of the CERTA transportation service in town.

            In instructing the membership toward what can be considered and what cannot, Santos said that someone had suggested assistance on a down payment for a rental property, but she explained it is difficult to put Community Preservation funds toward something like that unless it’s a deed-restricted property.

            Also noted were ramifications of the fact developer Sherman Briggs has pulled his application for a permit to build market-rate housing off Spring and Mill streets. Per the town’s bylaw and Briggs’ former proposal, going forward would have resulted in Briggs writing the AHT a $150,000 check in lieu of including affordable units. Santos acknowledged that the application is presently off the table.

            Hills, who will help bring the file up to date, plans to bring a rough draft to the next AHT meeting.

            In other business, the AHT approved the payment of $4,400 for services provided by the Barrett Planning Group.

            The next meeting of the Marion Affordable Housing Trust is scheduled for Tuesday, January 11, at 6:00 pm.

Marion Affordable Housing Trust

By Mick Colageo

            Mattapoisett’s Special Town Meeting began on Monday night with a tongue-in-cheek comment from longtime moderator Jack Eklund. “We have a slogan this year … land of the brave, home of the free cash.” However, the amount of free cash the town is enjoying presently is no joke, approximately $2,000,000.

            That sum has come from conservative spending and grants received from federal programs meant to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

            Through long months of studying and reviewing financial needs, cash receipts and federal grants by the Finance Committee, Select Board and Capital Planning, that conservative approach was maintained as the warrant was drafted. In the end, the process produced a Fall Town Meeting warrant hovering around $1,400,000, nearly all of which was passed and all of which would be stashed away in stability funds before the night was over.

            However, one non-cash related article, Article 9 that would accept the amended and restated Regional Agreement of the Old Rochester Regional School District, garnered the most attention before it, too, was passed by Mattapoisett voters.

            Coming forward to explain with as much brevity as possible the complicated funding methodology of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) was ORR School Committee Chairperson Heather Burke, who spoke to the need of reviewing and bringing up to date the 1986 agreement, then moved onto the matter of funding.

            Burke confessed that, although she had been serving on the committee for a number of years, it took her a long time to fully understand the formulas used by the state for Chapter 90 funding. Of the updated agreement, she pointed to four significant changes: start and stop dates of school committee terms, the creation of a capital improvement stability fund, use of three-year rolling enrollment figures, and the one-man, one-vote agreement.

            Questions of how cities and towns are evaluated by the state for funding arose from the floor, prompting response from ORR Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howard Barber to address Town Meeting. Barber’s pace summarizing the complex processes including socioeconomics and a myriad of other factors prompted at least one plea from in the audience to slow down. Barber apologized, acknowledging that for him such matters come easily but appreciating the need to help others in understanding the formula.

            Barber offered to stay on site after adjournment of Town Meeting for discussion with voters for as long as necessary, but Town Administrator Mike Lorenco brought closure to the matter. “There is nothing we can do to change this calculation, it is set by the state,” said Lorenco.

            Article 9 passed with 64 yes votes and one no.

            Article 10, Approve Establishment of Stabilization Fund by Old Rochester Regional School District, previously passed at town meetings held in Marion and Rochester, was passed. This fund would be supported by the three district towns and managed by the ORR School Committee for capital repairs, renovations and improvements to ORR District school and associated facilities.

            Article 11, Sewer Effluent Treatment $180,000, passed with little comment after Water and Sewer Superintendent Henri Renauld explained the additional expenses now owed to the Town of Fairhaven. In a follow-up, Renauld talked in greater detail about why costs are soaring, pointing to about the impact of sump pumps.

             “One of our main concerns driving these costs up is the fact that many homes continue to have cellar drains or sump pumps connected to the sanitary sewer,” he said. “These pumps can pump thousands of gallons of groundwater into the sanitary sewer, which in turn must travel through numerous pump stations until it reaches the treatment facility. Then it must all be treated as sewer effluent due to the fact it has been mixed with the sewer effluent in the transmission mains and pump stations.

            “The cost of sewer will continue to rise as new state mandates require communities to lower nitrogen output into our oceans to help protect the environment. However, to continue to add thousands of gallons of groundwater will only cause increased cost to the treatment process, and eventually those costs will be placed upon our residents.”

            Passed for stabilization funds was Article 2, Debt Stabilization $150,000, and Article 3, Capital Stabilization $150,000. Other expenditures tucked money into OPEB Liability funding, $100,000, which now holds approximately $2,000,000, and Article 8, $50,000 for Grant Matching needs for projects deemed small enough to be handled outside the town meeting process.

            Article 4, Cyclical Annual Property Revaluation and Town Mapping, passed for $36,000, a sum not acted upon during Town Meeting due to a pending decision of what impact COVID-19 will have on local coffers.

            Other expenditures previously deferred but now passed were contained in Article 7, Capital Improvement Project Funding. Committee chairman Chuck McCullough said that a $650,000 new fire engine needs to be brought forward one year due to long lead times. He said that 18 months is currently being quoted for fire apparatus as well as for large trucks such as a Ford 550, $70,000, needed for the Highway Department. Also on the Capital Planning list and requested for approval on this night was a price tag of $40,000 for repairs to the Transfer Station loader.

            Supplemental Funding to the FY22 budget was in Article 6 for four categories, $35,000 for unexpected additional employee benefits, $15,000 educational employee incentive (for CDL training of Highway Department for four staff members), $50,000 for town building repairs and renovations, and $7,000 for a new voting machine required due to redistricting by the state.

            Article 5 also amended the FY22 budget by $57,000 with $30,000 being allocated for the Finance Committee Reserve Fund and $27,000 for a new part-time staffer for the Accounting Department.

Mattapoisett Special Town Meeting

By Marilou Newell