During a meeting Tuesday, Sept. 26, the Select Board heard four requests relating to the Community Preservation Committee. The requests will be brought before voters at the fall Town Meeting, and collectively call for a half million dollars in spending. 

Article 10 - Marks Cove Vista. Elise Leduc-Fleming, the executive director of the Wareham Land Trust, presented a request for $250,000 from community preservation funds for the Land Trust’s Marks Cove Vista project, located at 120 Cromesett Road.

Leduc-Fleming said this project involves 3.5 acres of forested land and salt marsh.

“This parcel is of high conservation value,” Leduc-Fleming said. “It contains wetlands; it contains Biomap2 Critical Natural Landscape; it falls entirely within the Plymouth Carver sole source aquifer.”

Additionally, once acquired the Land Trust plans to build an accessible trail down to a waterfront view area and a conservation restriction will be placed on the property.

The Trust may receive funding from the state’s Conservation Partnership Grant Program, which would reduce the reimbursement request.

Article 9 - Chapel Lane. Lynne Sweet of LDS Consulting presented a request for $150,000 for an affordable housing rental project of six three-bedroom homes on Chapel Lane. 

Sweet said the developers were successful in obtaining a permit, but financing the building has proven difficult with rising interest rates and construction costs.

She added the developers are able to support $1.4 million of the project, but need an additional $700,000 to reach its goal.

Toward that $700,000, the project already has $50,000 in funding from the Affording Housing Trust. A request for $308,000 from the Neighborhood Stabilization Fund will also be submitted in the upcoming weeks. There is also $150,000 invested by developer Steven Beauchemin, with an additional $50,000 in equity.

Article 12 - Affordable Housing. Affordable Housing Trust Chair Carl Schulz presented a request for $150,000 to be authorized for the Trust.

Schulz said the Trust started off the Fiscal Year with $197,000 in its budget, half of which will go toward rental assistance for Woodland Cove residents. 

Then, $50,000 will be going toward Beauchemin’s Chapel Lane project and another $50,000 is anticipated to go toward a second project by the same developer.

Schulz said this leaves the Trust with no remaining funds.

He added as per state law, 10% of community preservation funds must go toward affordable housing projects. Authorizing this funding will give “the town the flexibility to respond quickly to opportunities that arise without having to continually go back and wait for Town Meeting.”

Article 11 - Westgate property. Conservation Administrator Josh Faherty presented a request for $26,000 in community preservation funds to build an observation deck as well as fix the path at the Douglas S. Westgate Conservation and River Walk property.

Faherty said the project costs more than anticipated because it was determined the foundation was not strong enough to support an observation deck so additional work will be required for stabilization.

Conservation Commission Chair Sandy Slavin said the property’s path is on a “fairly steep grassy hill,” which the group would like to make more accessible.