City Council

Council Holding Special Meeting on Creating Historic District, Changing Name of Delta & Community Preservation Projects

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Charlie BreitroseWatertown’s City Hall. Three items will be covered during a special City Council meeting next week: a petition to create a historic district on Main Street, a petition to change the name of the delta in Watertown Square, and to consider the recommended project from the Community Preservation Committee. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 21 at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chamber in Town Hall, 149 Main St. The name of the delta will discussed first, followed by the historic district proposal, and then the CPC projects. People can also participate in the meeting on Zoom.

Government

Help Shape Watertown’s Future by Taking Community Preservation Survey

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The following announcement was provided by the City of Watertown:

Help shape Watertown’s future in the areas of open space, community housing, outdoor recreation, and historic preservation. Learn about the first Watertown Community Preservation Act (CPA) projects to be recommended for funding in the process too. Please take a few minutes to complete our survey to inform the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) in updating the Community Preservation Plan. According to CPA law, we must hold a public hearing and prepare an annual update of the Preservation Plan—that means hearing from you. Take the survey –  Community Preservation FY 2021-22 Community Survey

Thanks in advance for your input.

Community Preservation Committee

See Proposals for Community Preservation Projects at Upcoming Forums

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City of WatertownOne of two historic paintings in Watertown’s City Hall. An application has been made to the Community Preservation Committee to repair and preserve the paintings. Three projects applying for funds from the City will make presentations to the Community Preservation Committee in coming weeks. They would be the first projects to receive money from the Community Preservation fund. The funds come out of the Community Preservation Fund, which was created after voters approved the Community Preservation Act in 2016.

Affordable Housing

UPDATED: Community Preservation Committee Seeking Applications for Potential Projects

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The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) seeks applications for potential projects to be funded by Watertown’s Community Preservations Act funds, and informational meetings have been scheduled for potential applicants. 

The money raised from a 2 percent surcharge on Watertown property tax bills can be spent on projects in four areas: open space, outdoor recreation, community housing, and historical preservation. As of June, the CPA Fund had nearly $9 million. 

The CPC takes applications and recommends which projects should receive funding, but it does not initiate, implement or manage projects. Community Preservation funds can be used for the following types of projects:

buy, create, preserve open space and rehabilitate and/or restore open space that is  acquired or created using CPA funds;acquire, preserve, rehabilitate, or restore historic resources;acquire, create, preserve, and support community housing; andacquire, create, preserve, and rehabilitate and/or restore passive and active outdoor recreation facilities. Projects can be done on public or private property, said Watertown Community Preservation Coordinator Lanae Handy, but the applicants must have permission. 

“If they are a local group interested in doing a project on town property they need to get the consent and support of the Town,” Handy said. “They can’t just apply for funds if they don’t have the approval of the Town.”

Similarly, applicants may have to get permits and approvals for other types of projects before getting funding. 

Town Departments can also apply for projects using CPA funds, Handy said, but they cannot be projects that already have approved funding.

Government

Watertown Community Preservation Plan Released, Committee Wants Public’s Reactions

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A shot of the cover of the Community Preservation Committee’s Draft Five Year Plan, released in late April. Watertown has several million dollars to spend on projects to acquire land for open space and outdoor recreation, create affordable housing and preserve the Town’s historic structures and resources. The Committee that will make recommendations on how to spend the money recently released a draft of the plan that will guide which projects will get funded. Last week, the Community Preservation Committee made the draft of a five-year plan available for the public to read (see it here). The Committee wants to know what Watertown residents think about the plan, and will host a meeting on May 20 at 7 p.m. to gather input.

Community Preservation Committee

LETTER: Why We Need More Trees in Watertown

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The Washington Post yesterday included an article about how climate change is worsening right now during the pandemic. It is not stopping for us to fight the pandemic or for anything else. Despite a temporary clearing of smog, the writer says, “the romantic vision of nature “healing” itself was always an illusion … carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are the highest they’ve been in human history, and possibly higher than in the past 3 million years. The specter of man-made climate change looms all the more ominously over a planet in the grips of a viral pandemic.” The authors go on to talk about “giant plumes of Saharan dust that wafted over the Atlantic …

Around Town

Public Invited to Help Create Principles for Watertown’s Community Preservation Process

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The Community Preservation Committee is determined not to let the COVID-19 pandemic slow progress toward awarding the first set of projects, but before that can happen they have some work to do and are seeking the public’s help to do so. The next step is a Webinar on Tuesday, June 30 from 6-7 p.m., which is being held in lieu of the second public forum. (See more information about the webinar and how to register below). In January, the group had a public forum to hear what types of projects residents want to see the Community Preservation funds used on. They also did an online survey and held focus groups in March just before for the shutdown, and had planned a second public forum in April but that had to be cancelled, said Lanae Handy, the Community Preservation Coordinator.

Around Town

Watertown Cable Show Finds Out the Latest with the Community Preservation Committee

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In the latest episode of Watertown Cable show Inside Watertown, Elodia Thomas, second from right, and Lanae Handy (right) joined hosts John Airasian, left, and Charlie Breitrose to talk about the Community Preservation Committee. Two people deeply involved in Watertown’s Community Preservation Committee were the guests on the latest episode of Watertown Cable’s Inside Watertown. Elodia Thomas, chair of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC), and Lanae Handy, the CPC’s Community Preservation consultant, joined co-hosts Charlie Breitrose and John Airasian at the Watertown Cable Studio, recently. They talked about the latest happenings with the group who recommends how the town’s CPA funds are spent. The CPC recently held its first public forum (see video here), where attendees learned about what the CPA funds can be spent on, and then had the chance to gave ideas for projects they would like to see in Watertown.