Can CPA Fund Private Projects?

Have you ever wondered if CPA funds can be used to fund projects on privately-owned property? This question comes up frequently for historic preservation projects, such as restoring an historical society’s house museum, preserving windows on an old YMCA building, or restoring an old tavern that’s now a private residence. The answer is, it depends.

The Community Preservation Act does not prohibit use of CPA funds for projects on privately-owned property. However, the Anti-aid Amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution does prohibit the use of public funds to private entities for private purposes (Mass Const. Amend. Article 46 s.2, as amended by Article 103). But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it!

The key concept to understand is that public funds are prohibited from being used for private purposes. Any expenditure of public funds must be used to advance a public purpose. As the Department of Revenue points out in a February 2007 letter to the Town of Norfolk, the preservation of historic assets are generally understood to have legitimate public purposes. A variety of federal and state programs provide historic preservation grants to private non-profit organizations, and typically the public purpose is served by the acquisition of a historic preservation restriction. Likewise, many CPA communities are now requiring permanent historic preservation restrictions as a condition of funding preservation projects on private properties.

Another example to support the use of public funds for a privately-owned resource, is the USS Massachusetts case. As cited in the same DOR letter, state funds were granted to rehabilitate the USS Massachusetts for use as a memorial and museum (Helmes v. Commonwealth, 406 Mass. 873). The Supreme Judicial Court found the expenditure was for a legitimate public purpose since the museum would be open to the public.

The bottom line is this: CPA funds can be used to fund a project on private property if the project is advancing a public purpose, such as the public acquiring a deed restriction, providing public access to the property or some other benefit.

View the February 2007 DOR letter to the Town of Norfolk on private projects

View description of a Newton CPA project combining historic rehab of private home to be converted to mixed-income housing