Our Annual Report: The Coalition's 2022 Year-in-Review

Reflecting back on 2022, it was another exciting year for the Coalition's work on the Community Preservation Act. Here are some of the important CPA highlights from the previous year.

CPA AdvocacyCPA Advocacy: Another Strong CPA Trust Fund Distribution

2022 was the final year of the 192nd Legislative Session at the State House, and the Coalition was able to secure important funding on behalf of CPA communities.

The highpoint from last year was our successful effort to secure $20 million in state budget surplus funds for the CPA Trust Fund—but as is often the case when it comes to legislative advocacy, the path to a final sign-off for funding is never easy! While Senator Jo Comerford and Representative Ann-Margaret Ferrante both championed our bills to deliver additional funding to CPA and allowed the language to remain intact all the way through the Conference Committee’s state budget deliberations, the CPA section of the FY23 state budget was vetoed at the last minute due to some concessions requested from Governor Baker. Undeterred, the Coalition continued to advocate for this funding to be approved before the legislative session ended; thanks to these efforts, we succeeded in having $20M for CPA included in an economic development bill passed in October. And while it was too late for these funds to be included in the annual CPA Trust Fund distribution in November, the Department of Revenue was able to finalize a second distribution of funds in the final days of 2022. When the dust settled, all CPA communities received a base match of 38.5% in 2022.

And while we’re thrilled that the CPA Trust Fund was able to provide a similar match to the record-high distribution available in 2021, recent statewide trends mean that we may begin to see CPA revenue dip in the coming year. The real estate market has seen significant declines as interest rates have climbed, and this has resulted in the CPA Trust Fund experiencing a 20% decrease in year-to-year revenue during 2022. As 2023 begins with a new Governor and dozens of fresh-faced legislators starting new terms at the State House, the Coalition will continue its work to ensure that your local CPA program receives a stable state match for the future.

New Strategic PlanThe Coalition’s Strategic Plan: Updating Our Vision for the Future of CPA

The Coalition’s Steering Committee is in the final stages of updating our organization’s Strategic Plan—the last time this plan was updated was more than a decade ago, and the Community Preservation Act has experienced incredible growth and changing demographics during that time. There’s no better time than the present to begin preparing for the future, and so we are excited to be building a strong foundation for the next decade of our work on CPA.

Some of the themes that have risen to the top of our future priorities includes strengthening the Coalition’s financial structure, determining ways to make the statewide CPA program more equitable for different types of communities, finding better opportunities for communities to invest in all four of CPA’s project categories, and improving our technical assistance services through increased capacity for Coalition staff. We anticipate that the formal plan will be approved and adopted by our Steering Committee in the first half of 2023—we will provide more information on this exciting development in the coming months.

$3 Billion Raised for CPAUpdated CPA Statistics: An Historic Threshold is Reached - $3 Billion in CPA Funding

While CPA is a local program, with advocates generally working on projects solely in their own communities, it’s important to acknowledge the enormous impact that the Community Preservation Act has on statewide efforts for open space, outdoor recreation, historic preservation, and affordable housing. The Coalition spends hundreds of hours each year ensuring that legislators, municipal officials, state agencies, and the press all have access to a robust database that helps quantify and contextualize the amazing projects being funded across the 194 CPA communities.

Below we’ve included the newest statewide statistics available for CPA, but there’s one milestone in particular that we are very proud to announce: since CPA was signed into law in 2000, the program has raised over three billion dollars statewide, and has now funded over 15,000 individual project appropriations.

  • Over $3.15 billion has been raised to date for community preservation funding statewide
  • 15,069 CPA projects have been approved by local legislative bodies
  • More than 10,000 affordable housing units have been created with an additional 16,000 units supported
  • 34,204 acres of open space have been preserved
  • Over 6,700 appropriations have been made for historic preservation projects
  • Over 3,300 outdoor recreation projects have been initiated

Worcester CPA CampaignCPA Adoption: Big Wins for CPA Advocates Throughout the Year

2022 was a busy year for CPA adoption efforts across the state. In total, nine communities voted on CPA adoption this year, and seven of these campaigns succeeded at the ballot! In the spring, the towns of Lakeville and Pepperell both passed at the ballot thanks to energized and organized grassroots efforts. Then in November, the towns of Boylston, Natick, Shelburne, and Westborough also passed CPA in the midst of a high-profile state election. Lastly, after a years-long effort, the second largest city in New England, Worcester, also adopted CPA in November. This increased the total number of CPA municipalities to 194.

And while the Coalition is always happy to guide the enthusiastic volunteers working towards CPA adoption, our work isn’t finished once an election is over. 2022 was also an important year for our efforts to meet and train new Community Preservation Committees—throughout the year, we invested significant time in the communities that adopted the program in 2020 as they appointed members to their local committees and began the process of reviewing their first round of CPA project applications.

FY22 Coalition Financial ReportCoalition Operations: Personnel and Financial Report

One of the Coalition’s major projects last year was a statewide search for new CPA Community Representatives on our Steering Committee. After the Coalition transitioned to a membership organization back in 2007, we created several seats on our Steering Committee dedicated to allowing representatives from our CPA communities to help us guide our efforts to promote and protect the Community Preservation Act program.

Our Nominating Committee spent much of the summer and fall reviewing dozens of applications that were submitted, and while the interview process was difficult with so many qualified and enthusiastic candidates, the Steering Committee voted to appoint three new CPA Community Representatives at the end of 2022. We are thrilled to welcome John Brandt from Fall River, Andrew Morris-Friedman from South Hadley, and Jeff Treiber from Dennis as the newest members of the Coalition’s Steering Committee.

The Coalition completed another year on firm financial footing (see our budget summary report to the left). We are deeply grateful for the support of our member communities and thank them for their advocacy on behalf of CPA, as well as their work on hundreds of impressive housing, recreation, historic, and open space projects that were completed during 2022.