The bill is designed to enable cities and towns to establish reliable and adequate funds for acquiring, creating, and preserving open space, historical structures and landscapes, and affordable housing.
Any municipality can vote to accept The Community Preservation Act.
This surcharge will not be included in any calculation of total taxes for Prop. Once a municipality has adopted a Community Preservation Act it must establish a 5-9 member Community Preservation Committee to recommend local spending priorities for open space, historic structures and landscapes, and affordable housing. The Community Preservation Committee must include one member of the conservation commission, local historical commission, local planning board, local parks commission, and local housing authority. The local legislative body will then vote on whether to authorize spending for those recommendations. Once a municipality has adopted The Community Preservation Act, revenue collected from the property tax surcharge is deposited into the local Community Preservation Fund.