II. Open Space and Recreation Committee Recommendations

To date, 65 communities have adopted the CPA and several CPA funded projects are already underway in neighboring communities. These positive findings were not available when Town Meeting last considered the CPA. Based on this research, the Committee quickly reached a consensus that it would be advantageous for Randolph to adopt the CPA.

It was also found that CPA adoption in other towns did not appear to be affected by previous overrides and did not affect subsequent overrides.

The Committee suggests that people interested in more information on CPA- visit the website of the Community Preservation Coalition or The Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs: 

Specific CPA Committee Recommendations

In the article for the Town Meeting Warrant, the Committee had to make two key decisions regarding exemptions and the surcharge amount.

• The committee recommends the $100,000 and low-income/low or moderate senior income exemptions from the property tax surcharge.
• The committee recommends a property tax surcharge of 2 percent.

The Committee felt that it was important to raise enough revenue to be able to undertake not only small projects but also larger projects with a significant impact. At 2 percent, the surcharge would be approximately $40 a year for the average household in Randolph, and would raise approximately $430,000 each year, not including the state match. The state would, for the foreseeable future, match Randolph dollar for dollar, totaling $860,000.

A 2 percent surcharge will provide enough revenue to fund large capital projects as well as other qualifying projects that are outlined in the Town’s Capital Improvement Plan.

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