Spring 2014 CPA Town Meeting and Election Results Recap

May 21, 2014: It has been an exciting and optimistic spring season for the Community Preservation Act, as 12 communities scheduled a vote on either initial adoption of CPA or an increase in their CPA surcharge.

Five towns, including Egremont, Arlington, Boxborough, Otis and Newbury, approved warrant articles on CPA adoption at their Town Meetings by majority vote. These communities will ultimately decide on whether to adopt the Act this fall at their next regularly scheduled elections. Egremont and Otis will try for a 3% CPA surcharge, while Arlington and Newbury are slated to vote on a 1.5% surcharge. Boxborough is on the ballot with a 1% CPA surcharge. This will be the first adoption attempt for all five towns.

The spring adoption season for CPA is not over yet. Two more communities, Berkley and Abington, will take their turns voting on CPA adoption at their Town Meetings scheduled for June 2nd and 9th, correspondingly.

In addition to all the adoption buzz, four communities voted at their Town Meetings to increase their current CPA surcharge levels. Subsequently, two of those towns, Manchester and Conway, also had ballot elections in which they made their surcharge increases official. Both towns increased from 1.5% to 3%. Amherst and Essex will vote at the ballot next fall on their proposed surcharge increases. Amherst hopes to follow suit and increase from 1.5% to 3%, while Essex is trying for a 0.5% to 1.0% increase.

The sole community to vote against CPA this spring was Marblehead, where initial adoption of CPA was defeated at Town Meeting.