Note: The following quotations may have been edited slightly for grammar and clarity.

22 years ago, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill. In Natick, this bill would fund open spaces and recreation, historical preservation, and affordable housing. It would make our town more climate-friendly, beautiful, and equitable, and it is affordable to Natick residents. Yet, Natick has still not adopted it. 

This year, we have the opportunity to change that. Over two decades after being passed by the state, the Community Preservation Act is back on the Natick ballot.

“The Community Preservation Act in Natick would raise over a million dollars a year, and all of that money would go right back into our town, doing the most important things…and, most importantly, it makes us available for state grants that will match how much money we raise,” said Nate Lord ’23.

As a member of Natick’s Trails Committee, Nate has a personal stake in the CPA passing. The Trails Committee’s budget is currently a measly $11,000 a year, which is not nearly enough to allow them to achieve their goals. As Nate puts it, “People don’t generally think that we need money to do pretty much anything. When you’re on limited funds it’s really hard to get done big projects cause you’re spending it all on the small things, like, oh, we need to replace a chainsaw…and you’re not saving money to purchase new properties or redo bridges or build boardwalks. So that could take our open space to the next level.”

In terms of open spaces and recreation, funding from the CPA would allow for projects in acquisition and creation, rehabilitation, or preservation. It would let the Trails Committee build boardwalks and bridges, make Natick’s trails more accessible, and fight environmental threats such as flooding and invasive species. Specific projects they have in mind include installing a boardwalk in Pickerel Pond and raising awareness about the location, creating an overlook in the town forest, and rebuilding root trails that got flooded when Route 9 was redone. With the CPA, Natick would have more space for families to hike, bike, and walk; would be able to compete with neighboring towns that have already adopted the CPA; and would be a more beautiful place overall.

Outdoor places wouldn’t be the only ones improved by CPA funding; the bill’s money also goes towards historic spaces. Historic spaces projects can be in acquisition or restoration. Acquisition includes obtaining historic resources and landscapes, buying preservation easements (the rights to use someone else’s land for a specific purpose), and matching grants. Restoration includes improving the condition of historic places and documents, adapting the use of historic sites, and making historic sites more accessible and environmentally-friendly. In Natick, CPA money would help restore monuments and memorials and improve preservation planning. Specifically, the town could save Sawin House—which has played a role in complex parts of Natick’s history, from colonialism to abolition activism—from being demolished.   

The CPA would also make Natick more equitable, as the third of its key areas of focus is affordable housing. Natick has not escaped the nationwide affordable housing crisis, and a lack of funding from the town has made this issue hard to address. Ganesh Ramachandran, who serves as the Vice Chair of the Natick Affordable Housing Trust Fund and has been leading CPA efforts for the past 14 months, said, “[The] CPA provides a predictable source of funding to be able to do [affordable housing] projects. Not only do we need funds, we need predictable funds. We can’t have the funds one year and not have the money the next year.” CPA funding allows towns to improve their affordable housing by acquiring and rehabilitating housing sites, conducting pre-development activities (such as appraisals and getting permits), building and preserving the houses, increasing the capacity of the development by hiring planning staff and professional services, and providing financial assistance to possible residents. Specifically, Natick wants to provide homes for veterans, seniors, and young families; acquire and revamp the unused Eliot School property; improve the Housing Authority; and make housing more accessible to people with disabilities.

If the CPA is passed, Natick residents would enjoy all of these benefits without having to pay much extra money. The CPA budget for each town comes from a 1-3% surcharge on property taxes; Natick has proposed a 1% surcharge. Low-income housing and low-income senior housing are exempt from this surcharge, ensuring that the CPA does not harm the very people it is trying to support. The first $100,000 of any property is exempt as well. This means that a person owning a home worth $606,000, which is Natick’s average, would pay the 1% surcharge on $506,000 of their house’s value, which comes out to only $67 extra each year. With each person’s surcharge pooled together, Natick would have raised $1,407,877 in Fiscal Year 2022, had the CPA been in place then. This number includes the matching grants for which Natick will be qualified if it adopts the CPA. Natick residents have been contributing to the pool of money the state has to match these grants for the 22 years since the Massachusetts legislature passed the CPA, without receiving any of the CPA’s benefits.

Right now, about 65% of Massachusetts residents live in a town or city that has adopted the CPA. Between them, these CPA communities have raised more than $2.65 billion. This money has preserved 32,566 acres of open space, kickstarted more than 3,000 outdoor recreation projects, made over 6,700 appropriations for the preservation of historic spaces, created upwards of 8,700 affordable housing units, and supported 12,700 more units. So why hasn’t Natick adopted this bill?

The CPA appeared on Natick ballots in 2006, but was not adopted. “Everyone seems to have a different explanation as to why, but, in the years since, we’ve missed out on a lot of funding that could have done a lot of good for the town. We’ve had discussions over the years, but never felt we had the ability to get this moving forward again until now. Perhaps the reason as to ‘why now’ is that all three groups [open spaces and recreation, historical preservation, and affordable housing] have experienced so many lost opportunities as funding has become tighter in the regular Town budget,” said Martin Kessel of the Open Space Advisory Committee. 

This past spring, the Natick town meeting voted 104-16, with one abstention, for the CPA to be on Natick midterm election ballots. Midterm elections are on Tuesday, November 8th, and the CPA is question number five on Natick ballots. If Natick residents vote to approve the bill, the town meeting would establish a Community Preservation Committee (CPC), whose members would be appointed by the Select Board. From Fall 2022 to Summer 2023, the CPC would draft plans for funding and implementing the CPA. On July 1, 2023 (the beginning of Fiscal Year 2024), the CPA surcharge would begin, the CPC would evaluate project proposals, and the town meeting would have to approve the CPC’s recommendations for projects. 

According to Nate Lord ’23, the best way to get Natick residents to vote for the CPA is to raise awareness about it. Many people will vote against the CPA, or not vote either for or against it at all, just because they don’t know what it is, or because all they know is that their taxes will be raised (even if they can afford that). Thus, voters need to know that the CPA is a good thing with tangible benefits. For instance, parents may be more likely to vote for the CPA if they know it would create and maintain spaces for their kids to hike, bike, and simply spend time outdoors. 

Although most Natick High School students cannot yet vote, almost all of us have a parent, guardian, or other contact who can vote in Natick. Therefore, the easiest thing we can do to raise awareness and support for the CPA is to tell these people about it and encourage them to vote for it (and to tell their friends to do so as well!) Natick residents can also sign up here to get a lawn sign endorsing the CPA and to indicate availability for further volunteering, such as holding signs on election day, passing out flyers at the Farmer’s Market, helping to fundraise, and/or spreading the word on social media. And, of course, every person who can vote should. 

As Nate puts it, “[The CPA] is something that I feel like is just general goodwill for the town of Natick, and I think that that’s gonna be something that shouldn’t be argued about, because it’s just making our town a better place for people to live, people to work, and it’s just—it’s just a great thing… Natick residents should vote for the CPA because it kinda just makes sense.”