Attempts to kill affordable housing funds fail

The largest of the three funding proposals brought by the Community Preservation Committee was for $700,000 to contribute toward renovation of community housing at Waldo Court at 50 Linden Street . The 12 two-bedroom units were built in the early 1930s and are in need of considerable repair and upgrading, said Committee Chairman Jack Morgan . The state has already chipped in $1.6 million toward the work.

The Committee also asked to give $350,000 to the Wellesley Housing Development Corporation , which seeks to establish new affordable housing opportunities in town.
Wellesley’s Community Preservation Act fund, collected primarily from town taxpayers through a 1 percent annual surcharge, has approximately $5.6 million . The funds are designated for projects that promote the availability of affordable housing, and preserve community sites and open spaces.

Jack Morgan, chairman of the Community Preservation Committee, said he was aware of "some opposition" to the Waldo Court funding, prior to the meeting. But he said he was "surprised by the intensity" of the opposition at the meeting and that "No one had come forward before last night in opposition to the [housing development corporation] grant."

The Committee said its plan to recommend contributing $100,000 to the restoration of an old railroad bridge between Wellesley and Newton in Wellesley Lower Falls had become moot. Morgan said the state has notified the town that it will pay the full cost of fixing the bridge.

The Committee also decided against asking Town Meeting to approve $50,000 to come up with a plan for improving community housing at Barton Road . Morgan said the Committee “strongly supports” the development of a plan, including one that would bring more affordable housing units to almost six acres of adjoining town property. But the town’s Advisory Committee said the recommendation was not developed enough yet and the Preservation Committee agreed to work with other town agencies and departments to develop a more “robust” proposal to bring to town meeting next year.

Town Meeting on Monday (March 30) approved a $115.8 million budget for fiscal year 2010 –and one that will require no override by voters of the state’s Proposition 2 1/2 law. The law requires any tax increase higher than 2.5 percent of the previous year’s budget to be first approved by voters. The FY 2010 budget is less than one percent higher than the FY 2009 budget.

Annual Town Meeting is an opportunity for various town agencies to report on how well they’re doing. The town-owned Wellesley Municipal Light Plant was able to boast Tuesday about its reliability –only 42 minutes outage per year compared to New England’s average of 285 minutes per year, according to Michael Humphrys , chairman of the plant’s Board of Commissioners . Humphrys also noted that the town’s demand for electricity has gone up dramatically –30 percent -- since 1996 even though the population has remained essentially stable.

Town Meeting reconvenes Monday when it will take up a much-anticipated debate over whether to build a free-standing senior center. The $6.4 million proposal comes at a time when the economy is in its worst recession since the Great Depression and the town is just launching into its largest capital building project ever –the construction of a brand new $130 million high school.

But seniors –who comprise about 21 percent of residents—say the town is not doing enough to help its growing senior population.

The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Middle School .