Maple Street Housing Project

Dear Wenham Voters,
We got our Town Warrant on Friday. Article 11 simply states:

To see if the Town will vote to appropriate from the Community Preservation Fund a sum of money for the purpose of providing partial funding of a senior affordable housing building in the rear of 62 Maple Street.

Did you know:

This 'sum of money' is likely to be $975,000. Our CPC (Community Preservation Committee) has recommended this grant at their last meeting. 

This is the sum requested by the developer, Harborlight Community Partners.
The Wenham Affordable Housing Trust (AHT) approved a grant request of $850,000 for the same project last week. This will go before the Board of Selectmen (BoS) days before Town Meeting. You will not have a say as to the use of these funds.

The BoS previously approved a $30,000 loan to the developer.

The three story, 60 unit, 17,000 square foot building will, most likely, be the largest in Wenham - except Gordon College.

This project would solve MGL Chapter 40B for the Town for a very long time. I believe we need 16 more affordable housing units to meet 40B's 10% threshold.

The only contingency on the $1,825,000 grant money is that the developer obtain a comprehensive building permit from the Wenham Zoning Board of Appeals. Larry Swartz, a committee member of the Wenham AHT, proposed that that the 60 units be considered 'affordable' in perpetuity as a condition of funding, but was overwhelmingly overruled.

If the ZBA grants the permit, the Town will have no stake nor say in the project, although we will have provided a large sum of money toward site acquisition and construction.

This is a very important project and the decision to move forward and provide funding should not be done without public discourse. CPA funds and money in the AHT are Town assets - your assets. 

Shouldn't we, Wenham residents, be provided with more information, a public meeting, perhaps, regarding this project?One of our Selectmen, Patrick Wilson, sits on the AHT. Shouldn't he make sure residents are aware of what's going on with regard to large sums of Town money and a project which impacts West Wenham residents greatly, and all of us, generally?

Openness and transparency are the most important issues in the upcoming election. This is only the most recent example of our Board of Selectmen not openly discussing issues that impact our Town. Not following through on two or three years of promises to form a search committee to fill the Town Administrator position on a permanent basis is another. Continuing to refuse to seek a full-time permanent Finance Director is also troubling. Last year's error ridden warrant, and Town Meeting were an abomination. This year's warrant has several errors that may preclude a vote on some of the articles.

Our form of government is as close to direct democracy as we can get. We should have more open and public communication regarding issues affecting our Town. For this reason, I wholeheartedly support Catherine Harrison for Selectman.

Please consider Catherine when you vote. She has the experience we need and the desire to make sure we get back to "government of the people, by the people, for the people".    

Sincerely,

Patrick Waddell
Great Pond Rd