FCBA 9-9-08 JH Letter
City of Northampton
Community Preservation Committee
210 Main Street, City Hall
Northampton, MA 01060
September 10, 2008
Dear Loretta,
Although you and other representatives of the Florence Civic and Business
Association attended the Community Preservation Committee meeting on
September 3 and heard our funding recommendation, I thought it would be
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helpful if you had it in writing.
Normally, the CPC sends its recommendations directly to the Mayor. In this case,
because of the issue of the Preservation Guarantee, the Committee decided to send
its recommendation to the FCBA for your board to review and discuss. As I said at
the CPC meeting, I am planning on attending your meeting on Tuesday, October 7
and will be prepared to answer any questions your board may have.
I am enclosing three documents:
The draft cover letter to the Mayor which is part of every funding
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recommendation we make. This outlines the CPC review process and also
contains our conditions.
The draft funding resolution for the FCBA. This goes to the Mayor, and then
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City Council, along with the cover letter. You will see that in the “Whereas”
section we have listed the primary reasons why we believe your project
should be funded.
The Preservation Guarantee Guidelines document which the committee
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approved at its August 20 meeting.
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There has been some question about whether the Committee, in requiring a
Preservation Guarantee, is imposing a condition which was not specified in the
Community Preservation Plan we approved last November. However, on page 28,
Section D of the Plan we clearly state: “The Committee reserves the right to attach
conditions, and to require deed restrictions and additional agreements, before it
favorable funding recommendation.” Almost all of our applicants either already
have some kind of Preservation Guarantee already in place, or have agreed to one.
In this particular case, we would require the FCBA to sign a Memorandum of
Agreement (MOA) saying that it will permanently preserve the collection and make
it available to the public. We would not require either a Historic Preservation
Restriction (which would need be approved by the state) or a deed restriction. In
the Committee’s view, neither of these would be appropriate.
The Committee Preservation Committee believes strongly that community
preservation projects should have as long a preservation period as possible. In most
cases we expect a project to provide permanent preservation, because this is what is
in the best interests of the citizens of Northampton. The other three Historic
Preservation applicants which have been funded – First Churches, Forbes Library
and Historic Northampton – have all agreed to this.
As Mr. Ross wrote in his letter to us, your project will “preserve, archive, display
and make more accessible to the public, the general collection.” The Committee
believes that the FCBA collection is highly significant, and we hope that we will be
able to forward our funding recommendation to the Mayor after your meeting.
With best wishes,
Jack Hornor, Chair
Community Preservation Committee