Chatham Town Meeting Preview

$16.6M Police/Annex, Affordable Housing Articles Top Chatham Warrant

CHATHAM --- Ratification of new designs and additional funding for a new police station/annex complex, zoning amendments designs to encourage affordable housing and changes to the town’s waterways bylaw in response to an investigation by the state Inspector General’s office last year are among the 36 articles voters will address in the annual town meeting next Monday, May 12.

Other measures topping the warrant include eight requests for community preservation funding, a general bylaw expanding the area merchants can display items outside of their shops, funding for dredging of Mill Creek, and appropriation of the town’s share of a $3.6 million project to rebuild the runway at Chatham Municipal Airport (see separate story).

While there’s “enough there to make it interesting,” Town Manager William Hinchey said the warrant doesn’t contain any blockbuster items or major policy shifts, at least any that haven’t already been thoroughly vetted by selectmen and other town boards.

“A budget within [Proposition] 2½ is always a good thing,” he added, noting that the $31,418,512 operating budget, which includes a $9.1 million school budget, is balanced without the need for raising property taxes above the amount allowed by law. Debt service accounts for $6.9 million, or 19.6 percent of the budget. Only three new initiatives are proposed within the operating budget --- $55,000 to increase staff at the community center, $20,000 for an emergency notification system, and $10,000 for next year’s Maritime Festival. Because costs are outstripping new revenues by $350,000, some budgets were reduced and some proposals deferred, including funding for additional staffing anticipated under the town’s five-year staffing plan.

The capital budget seeks $1,761,989, drawn from free cash. For the first time, this budget includes school department capital items. Capital items include a new street sweeper, a dinghy dock at the fish pier, funds to reconstruct the town-owned Sylvan Gardens conservation property, and $100,000 to pay relocation expenses for the town annex departments. Voters will also address a $2.8 million water department operating budget.

With the next big capital initiative --- the expansion of the town’s wastewater treatment plant and sewering of the town --- on hold pending final designs and a determination on how the work will be financed, the only major project on the warrant is the police department-annex complex. The concept of a new police station and annex, as well as $15.5 million, was approved at last year’s town meeting and a subsequent debt exception election. But voters didn’t like the design of a single building for both functions and sent officials back to the drawing board. A design review task force split the project into two structures, moved the buildings to the front of the George Ryder Road site, and reduced the overall size by 3,613 square feet. Article 14 seeks voters approval of the new plans, which selectmen endorsed in February.

The delay increased the cost, however, and Article 15 seeks authorization to borrow $1,140,051 on top of the $15.5 million for the two buildings. In addition, Article 16 asks voters for authorization to borrow another $276,000 for equipment and storage facilities for the two buildings. Bonding of both expenditures requires approval at the May 15 annual election.

Chairman of Selectmen David Whitcomb said he was encouraged by Harwich’s recent experience with its proposed police station, where bids were $1 million lower than anticipated. “I’m hoping this is going to be a favorable building climate and both estimates will be higher than we need,” he said of the Chatham PD/annex proposal.

A suite of zoning amendments designed to encourage construction of affordable housing appear as Article 31 on the warrant. The amendments allow creation of up to 12 affordable apartments in single family homes annually, with special permits issued by the zoning board of appeals. Also included is an amnesty provision, whereby apartments that are presently illegal can be legitimized if they are made affordable. Other amendments allow affordable apartments incidental to commercial use and the conversion of guest houses into affordable units. All are designed to help the town reach the goal of having 10 percent of its housing units classified as affordable. Both the planning board and selectmen endorsed the bylaw changes, but the finance committee has recommended indefinite postponement, saying the amendments need more work.

The finance committee is also recommending voters turn down a general bylaw amendment that would allow businesses to display items outside stores within five feet of Main Street, if the shop has a setback of 10 or more feet. Selectmen endorsed the bylaw 4-1.

The changes to the waterways bylaw contained in Article 34 are the result of “a lot of hard work,” Hinchey said. The waterways advisory committee spent months revising the regulations after a December 2006 report by the state Inspector General’s office investigating how boatyards handle moorings. The report recommended the town exercise greater control over how boatyard moorings are issued. The resulting regulatory changes give the town additional oversight of those moorings and set up a statutory appeal process, under which the board of selectmen will hear appeals of those aggrieved by decisions of either boatyards or the harbormaster, who is responsible for assigning moorings.

There is one land acquisition initiative on the warrant, split into two articles. In Article 17, voters will be asked to authorize $125,000 from the land bank fund to purchase .47 acres of open space on Valley Farm Drive, off Barn Hill Road. Article 18 seeks a similar amount from in community preservation funds. Both amounts will be combined with $50,000 from the Chatham Conservation Foundation, Inc., to meet the $300,000 price of the parcel, a building lot that abuts the Valley Farm conservation land purchased by the town in 2006.

There are six other community preservation funding requests on the warrant: $35,000 to digitize newspapers at the Eldredge Public Library; $1,000 for an interpretive sign at the Training Field Triangle; $45,450 to continue the historical commission’s historic property survey; $60,000 for technical assistance for affordable accessory apartments; $54,000 for a generator at the congregate housing facility on Crowell Road; and $25,000 for administrative costs.

Another CPA article seeking $250,000 for the affordable housing trust fund established by the town in 2006 has run into opposition from the finance committee. Selectmen, who supported the measure 3-1, were slated to discuss the issue Tuesday (see separate story).

Other articles include $125,000 to dredge the mouth of Mill Creek, also subject to approval of a capital exemption question on the town election ballot; adoption of the 2008 update of the Pleasant Bay Resource Management Plan; revised sewer regulations; a petition zoning bylaw amendment to allow several camps to be stored on a single parcel on North Beach; and a petition article seeking to supplement the $100,000 in the capital plan for treatment of Lovers Lake and Stillwater Pond by another $105,000. Initial plans call for partial alum treatment to reduce phosphorus, but neighborhood residents want both ponds treated. Last week, a motion for the selectmen to endorse the petition article failed by a 3-2 vote.

Whitcomb urged residents to read the warrant booklets mailed to all voting households late last week. It includes a fiscal summary explaining how the policies of the board of selectmen lead to the items included in the budget and warrant.

“There’s an awful lot of information and we go through a lot to put it in there,” he said.

The annual meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Chatham High School gymnasium on Crowell Road.

5/8/08