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CPA Revocation Effort Fails in New Bedford After Mayoral Veto

Posted on: May 2, 2023 - 5:12pm

New Bedford City CouncilAn effort by the New Bedford City Council to place a non-binding CPA revocation referendum on the November 2023 ballot has failed. Mayor John Mitchell vetoed the measure, and the Council was unable to muster enough votes to overturn that veto at a late April meeting.

The revocation effort began in March when the New Bedford City Council voted to approve several non-binding ballot questions for the city's upcoming election in November. In addition to questions regarding rent control and mayoral term limits, one of these questions would have asked voters whether or not they wished to revoke the city's participation in the Community Preservation Act. However, the CPA referendum immediately garnered intense criticism from local CPA advocates, organizations, and municipal officials. In a scathing editorial response, Rick Kidder from One SouthCoast Chamber criticized the City Council for their "damaging" decision to promote a CPA revocation effort:

"The Community Preservation Act has been an essential tool in helping preserve and enhance open space, preserve buildings and making it possible to leverage funds for the purpose of building affordable housing units. To support asking the public to remove it undermines everything you would state as a purpose behind asking the public to answer a referendum on rent control. Losing this funding source is counter-intuitive on its face and leaves a void that would undermine your best intentions."

Two weeks after the City Council vote, Mayor John Mitchell responded by vetoing each of the three ballot questions. In a letter accompanying the veto order, Mitchell criticized not only the substance of the questions themselves, but the Council's decision to vote on these items without a public hearing or public demand for such referendums. In defense of the city's CPA program in particular, Mitchell stated that "[CPA] has enabled the City to complete a total of $15.6 million in preservation and open space projects, of which the City leveraged a total of $7.2 million of state and private funds – by any standard, a healthy return on investment.”

At the end of April, the City Council met again to take a vote on over-riding the mayoral veto for each ballot question. The 11-member board required a super-majority of eight votes in order to over-ride the vetoes, but in the end, none of these attempts were successful. And while the other two questions received a 6-5 vote not to override, the CPA question received even more pushback, with the final vote being 8-3 against an override.

New Bedford originally adopted the CPA program in 2014 with a 1.5% surcharge and exemptions for the first $100k of both residential and commercial property value, as well as a full exemption available for low-income and low-to-moderate-income seniors. Statewide, only three CPA revocation attempts have ever progressed to the ballot, and all three of these attempts failed by wide margins.

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