Medford council committee reviews Community Preservation Act funding recommendations, refers most items to regular meeting; UU item severed

Medford City Council Committee of the Whole members on Monday reviewed the Community Preservation Committee(CPC) recommendations and voted to refer the set of funding requests to the councilregular meeting, with one project—the Unitarian Universalist Church exterior restoration—severed for separate consideration.

The CPCmanagement presentation and applicants covered a slate of projects funded from MedfordCommunity Preservation Act (CPA) revenue, including a $250,000 initial tranche for the newly established Affordable Housing Trust, design completion money for Oak Grove Cemetery restoration, a $526,000 estimate to resurface Placehead Park tennis courts, $98,285 for Condon Shell lighting improvements, a $322,500 council chamber window restoration request (funding-source change discussed), $2.4 million for Shiloh Baptist Church ADA improvements (phase 2), $99,000 for Unitarian Universalist Church exterior restoration, and $100,000 for ABCD(Action for Boston Community Development) Medford move-in rental assistance.

Why it matters: The CPC has recommended these projects for CPA appropriations; the committeediscussion advanced the items to the regular council meeting for formal appropriation votes. Several items involve historic preservation and accessibility upgrades and at least one request (the Affordable Housing Trust seed funding) is intended to position the city to leverage further state or federal grants.

Applications and key points

- Affordable Housing Trust (request: $250,000). Aditi Mogul, staff to the Affordable Housing Trust, and Lisa Ann Davidson, chair of the trust, described the trust as newly established by an ordinance adopted last year and developing a five-year action plan. Mogul said the $250,000 would serve as initial "seed money." She described possible uses including applying for technical-assistance grants (mass-housing predevelopment grants in the $50,000 to $100,000 range that require a 10% local cash match), site feasibility and predevelopment work on city-owned parcels, land acquisition, down-payment assistance, and support for rental-assistance programs. Mogul said, "We are requesting $250,000 from CPC. We hope that this request is approved." The transcript does not specify the AMI percentage the trust would target for some future down-payment or rental programs; the detail is listed as not specified.

- Oak Grove Cemetery building restoration (design completion request noted in discussion: approximately $84,000). DPW Commissioner Tim McGivern said a design-development phase funded last year produced conceptual work and a study; an additional amount would complete design and produce construction ("shovel-ready") documents. McGivern said the early construction estimates are in the $5 million to $8 million range but that the exact construction cost will be known only after the design documents are completed.

- Playstead Park tennis courts resurfacing (estimate: $526,000). McGivern presented the project as a full resurfacing of five courts (about 22,000 sq ft). He described large base cracks that have developed and explained why resurfacing now is more appropriate than repeated patching: "Once these large cracks develop, it indicates that there's a problem much deeper, a foot or two or more down in the pavement itself." Councilors noted the courts are heavily used by the high school team and recreation groups and that the facility currently generates rental revenue (exact rental revenue amounts were not specified in the meeting).

- Condon Shell lighting improvements (request: $98,285). Manager Teresa DuPont summarized Director Bailey's presentation: replacing nonfunctioning stage fixtures, adding pathway lighting from the parking lot, installing permanent fixtures to replace string lights used at the farmers market, and enabling remote control for staff. Councilors praised potential safety and overtime-cost savings from modern systems and cited Musco-style lighting efficiency.

- Council chamber window restoration (previously funded in a different account; request to change funding source to CPA). DuPont explained a proposed funding-source change: use CPA funds for the historic-preservation work and preserve the city's stabilization (emergency) funds for true emergencies. That shift would require a separate appropriation action (and, if funds had previously been appropriated from stabilization, the mayor will need to request rescission of that appropriation so the CPA funding can be used instead). Facilities manager Paul Riggi said the vendor is ready and the windows are in poor condition; shades/curtains would be a separate item.

- Shiloh Baptist Church ADA improvements, phase 2 (request: $2,400,000). Project representatives Cliff Singleton and Bill McIntyre described completing design and moving toward construction to add an elevator to the lower section, enabling a daycare operator to lease space and increasing accessibility. DuPont and councilors framed this as historic-preservation and community-benefit work; DuPont noted CPA rules condition funding so it cannot be used to restore religious imagery and that CPA has been used in other communities to restore church elements consistent with public-benefit criteria.

- Unitarian Universalist Church exterior restoration (request: $99,000). Liz Ammons of the UU Church described the building's architectural and civic history and listed community uses: a food pantry serving 70to 90 clients weekly, low-cost rooms for AA and Al-Anon, community orchestra and Tai Chi classes, and other programming. Councilors discussed conflict-of-interest and ethics considerations because two councilors said they are affiliated with the UU Church; those councilors indicated they would abstain from the final vote if they felt unable to participate.

- ABCD Medford move-in assistance (request: $100,000). Joshua White, director of housing and homelessness prevention at ABCD Boston, said the program provides first- and last-month rent and support services to households that live in or want to move into Medford and meet the program income limits. White stated the programgoal "would be to serve at least 19 households in the city with a cap of $4,000 per household." The transcript did not specify the exact percentage of area median income (AMI) used to determine eligibility; that detail is not specified in the record.

Committee action and next steps

Councilor Callaghan moved to sever the Unitarian Universalist Church application from the packet and refer the UU paper to the regular council meeting; Councilor Scarpelli seconded the motion. The committee called the roll and the motion passed. A subsequent motion to refer the remaining CPC papers (all other projects) to the regular meeting was made and carried on a roll-call vote. Several councilors said they would abstain from the UU vote at the regular meeting if they felt it necessary; those potential abstentions were noted in the discussion.

What the vote does not do: The Committee of the Whole did not appropriate CPA funds at this meeting. The actions were procedural referrals to advance the CPC recommendations to the next regular council meeting, where formal appropriation votes will occur and where individual councilors may choose to vote, abstain or recuse themselves as appropriate.

Quotes (sourced from the meeting)

- "All of the applications that you're about to hear have been approved and recommended for funding by the CPC," said Teresa DuPont, Community Preservation Act manager, introducing the slate.

- "We are requesting $250,000 from CPC. We hope that this request is approved," said Aditi Mogul, staff to the Affordable Housing Trust, describing the trust's request and intended uses.

- "Once these large cracks develop, it indicates that there's a problem much deeper," said Tim McGivern, DPW commissioner, explaining why full resurfacing of the Placehead Park courts is required rather than repeated patching.

- "This would also install pathway lighting...it would allow for the recreation department to manage it via remote app," DuPont summarized for the Condon Shell lighting project.

Ending: The committee advanced the CPC package for formal consideration by the City Council at its next regular meeting, except for the UU exterior restoration, which was severed for separate consideration. If the council approves appropriations at the regular meeting, several projects will require additional administrative steps (e.g., securing construction funding after design completion, mayoral paperwork to change prior stabilization appropriations).