CPA Adoption Success: Lakeville Votes to Become 188th CPA Community

CPA adoption efforts in 2022 are off to an amazing start - after months of campaigning from local advocates, the town of Lakeville succeeded in adopting the Community Preservation Act during their spring election yesterday. The town will now become the 188th community to adopt the CPA program.

The story behind Lakeville's CPA campaign is nothing less than the most impressive turnaround in the history of the CPA program. During the town's initial adoption attempt in 2006, the measure was soundly defeated at the ballot with 74% voting NO. Sixteen years later (almost to the exact day!), the strong grassroots efforts from local advocates achieved a complete reversal. Lakeville voters passed CPA adoption with a remarkable 78% voting YES, which is now the second highest success percentage at the polls in the history of the CPA program. The final tally was 1071 voting YES, 296 voting NO, which means the town will adopt a 1% CPA surcharge with exemptions for the first $100,000 of residential and commercial property, as well as for low-income and low/moderate-income senior homeowners. Their local surcharge is expected to raise approximately $200,000 annually, and the town will also be eligible for annual distributions of additional funding from the statewide CPA Trust Fund.

Lakeville may be the first community to adopt the Community Preservation Act in 2022, but with two more communities voting on adoption later this month, as well as many other cities and towns looking towards the state election in November, it's very likely we'll have even more to celebrate later in the year.