welcome all to the uh Wednesday April 3rd 2024 6:15 p.m remote participation meeting of the a affordable housing trust um in accordance with chapter two of the acts of 2023 suspending certain provisions of the open meeting Law oml Public bodies otherwise governed by the oml are temporary reliev from the requirement that meetings be held in public places open and physically accessible to the public so long as measures are taken to ensure public access to the body's deliberations through adequate alternative means this meeting will be live on Zoom the public May participate remotely by joining Zoom meeting ID 818 0509 7403 or by calling 92925 6099 for additional information about remote participation please contact Alicia hery at ay AR ma. ma. us or 978 [Music] 772-822-0151 go ahead Pat okay will second thank you calling made it and Pat um any discussion on the agenda hearing none we're going to do it by Hollywood Squares guys and now you all know that Cindy Lavin is in the upper left hand corner tonight Cindy how you hi thank you Colleen hi Bob hi uh Pat hi ch says I great next on our list is to approve the 22824 meeting minutes need a motion please I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting thank you Colleen second thank you Pat um any discussion or improve or Corrections edits I'll go with the great silence as saying none again thank you uh Cindy how do you vote hi Colleen hi Bob hi p is that I'm sorry Pat I missed I didn't hear you hi thank you and Sher says I next on our list is the um air rental assistance program update I know that Alicia Alicia do you want to do an update quickly sure so we have our 11 people we're still getting the landlords all lined up we had two start in um April and the rest are starting in May which is what happened last year too as we get the units approved and the landlords all in line we do have excuse me we do do have one situation where we're looking for um just some compliance of the unit but it looks like it should be fine great do you need any help or you all set um I'll let you know tomorrow when I make a few more phone calls thank you yeah I'll be I'll be away from my desk a good portion of the day just please call me on myself so I can help you out if you need it okay question yes what about the 12th um one doesn't come due until August thank you I thought that thank you okay so so either they will be in first place or somebody on the wait list will get it okay any other questions for Alicia on the rental assistance program at this point thanks again Alicia I know you've been doing Yen's work making sure to contacting the applicants contacting the um landlords and making sure inspectional Services involved thank you um next is a letter of support from Noah a Commons and Alicia I'm gonna take a quick overview of this so that you can save your voice thank you there is a funding gap for a comments Noah uh Phil giy at Noah got in touch with us and has asked asked and and has proposed that they're going to go to the Senate US Senate for um an e remark for $4 million for this project the Gap is for multiple reasons including inflation construction costs and stuff like that um they have asked for letters from the board of Selectmen and the affordable housing trust I sent out a draft letter um that was submitted uh a letter similar to that was submitted to the board of selectman last sen it there meeting and they approved it and in conversations uh it was pointed out to me that the letter um didn't exactly say it was from the Housing Trust so I went through and I edited the letter we're going to send a letter to Senator Mary and Senator Warren and we're going to probably send a letter to representative Trahan though it's gonna the funding will come from the other house but I'd like to make sure she's her office is on board with it um I sent the letters out today but because we're a meeting and it's got to go into the minutes I'm going to do a quick read if it's okay with folks um and I'll read the on who excuse me no go ahead sorry okay I know you I know you guys want to hear my delsa tones a lot huh so this is the letter it's Senator Elizabeth Warren um Washington DC regarding a letter of support for a Fed mark for a Commons 40b affordable housing dear Senator Warren the air affordable housing Trust expresses full support of the friendly chapter 40b 100% affordable housing development project Advanced by Noah the neighborhood of affordable housing known as air Commons a sustainable and affordable housing development acutely needed within the town of air the devans Enterprise Zone in the central Massachusetts region to effectively Advance this most worthy local Regional affordable housing development to the construction and completion phase the a affordable housing trust respectfully requests your support and leadership in securing a form million Federal earmark for air comments Noah proposes a 100% affordable rental housing development at 65 fitzburg Road air mass under Massachusetts chapter 40b with application for substantial project subsidy funding through the lowincome housing tax credit program the Massachusetts executive office of Housing and liberal communities eohc formerly the mass dhcd issued a project eligibility letter for the proposed project on 114 2021 the project proposes 106 units of portable housing at 100 100% located on a 10.6 Acre Site within a mile of the downtown a MBTA Commuter Rail station and an immediate proximity of the sof and save supermarket the project will serve as a model of passive house design principles traditional neighborhood design multimodal Transit oriented design will result in the preservation and protection of critical Wetlands native species and wildlife habitat on the Pittsburgh Road Corridor the planed project has gained the full support of the air select board air affordable housing committee Municipal departments stakeholder agencies and organizations along with the local community the 2022 air toown meeting voted to unanimously approve $400,000 of local community preservation act funding in support of air Commons on 112 2023 the air zoning board of appeals issued its approved comprehensive permit decision for this noteworthy affordable housing development project Senator Warren thank you and to our us us Congressional Delegation for your consistent support and leadership in advancing local and Regional sustainable healthful and environmentally sensitive affordable housing development and Redevelopment in the town of air in central Massachusetts respectfully Jeffy tilletson chairman a reportable Housing Trust and I promise I'll spell my name correctly when I send the letter out um so that's what the letter says if it's okay Alicia and Pat I never read the signature line I got it wrong so that's that's going to be the same letter obviously where it says Senator Warren it'll say senator Mary where it says Senators it'll say representative Trahan anything anybody wants to add to it yes Colleen yeah I think where you list all of the Town groups that supported the the project and it going for CPC funding you should add us to that list CPC no you say CPC has funded it but you didn't put the affordable housing trust in the I mean I know it's implied because we're writing the letter but I got it that you know support of the funding application yes and so what I'm going to do is I'm going to put it out in at ADH ah's uh support yeah yes I'll do that I don't want to I don't want I want to get Alicia she's not feeling well I want to get her I want to get through this so yes I will thank you that's goam I'll add the the affordable housing trust support to the letter that's good anything else I missed and good catch um Jeff I have a question and I don't know um if I'm just naive should anything be in there about what the town has already offered to these folks in way of um permitting that sort of thing that we've already approved UPF front or it yeah we've we do include that the town meeting has voted the 4 the requested $400,000 of local community preservation act funding um and we do we do include that the air zoning board of appeals has issued the comprehensive permit which is the green light for the project to go forward um what other would you my thought was at a charge is at a lesser rate you know what I mean show that we're even giving more support than what actually is on the surface and I'm just asking the question I I don't know how they look at that can I answer that yeah please do I I'm it's a little complicated Pat because um they're doing a formula on the water and the permitting okay okay and we are doing other things um interesting enough um some of the major you know staff people here are very environmentally sensitive or conscious because they' come from environmental groups so we decided to emphasize all the environmental okay because of where they were coming from we can always and we and and Phil decided to go for 4 million because he figures it'll get cut and the Gap is closer to two million okay all right just curiosity thank you no I appreciate it and to be honest with you this is if you if I'm looking at it from the standpoint of I want I kind of want to keep it to one page yeah and and if you once we throw the uh Town seal on here I think we're going to drop the point size a little bit so that it gets on uh it gets on one page and I and I want to put a copy on the bottom uh it's going to say carbon copy for Noah on it yeah um yeah I mean it's it's if you read it the average person if somebody found this on the side on the road walking down the street and decided to read it and they're the average resident they would have no idea what this thing says they know it's about asking for money but they wouldn't understand half of the uh the municipal speak right the other question I don't know again you're trying to keep it to one page so yeah I don't want to make worse than what it is but um with 20 years in the federal government they always said more signatures are better so I didn't know if our adding all of our signatures for the affordable trust we could do it all electronically um but again it's just a question I don't know how things work at this level and state level so I'm just throwing it at you because of past experience and I'm not trying to hold up the meeting Alicia I'm sorry you don't feel well oh no no no worry about it I like I like that I mean I the salutation will be on beh I can do it on behalf of the affordable housing trust um it I would like to do wet signatures um we have a deadline of Friday yeah yes need I'd really like to be by the end of tomorrow I'd really like to be getting it off to fil if people want to stop by and put a signature on it they're more than welcome all again I just was to do it electronically but no that that's fine I'm fine with it either way yeah thanks um anybody want to sign it we'll put a line I'm happy to put a line on it we have to get you get to the town hall by four tomorrow yeah sorry I didn't put that in up front bill was in the office late mid to late last week asking for this and um Allan and uh Alicia put it together for the select board and for us so did a great I mean Jeff if you feel like it's beneficial to have additional signatures on the letter I can certainly swing by town hall and sign it tomorrow late late afternoon probably 3:30 would be when I could get there but um if you feel like just one signature on behalf of the trust is good that works for me too I'm I'm a drift at this in I I I have I have no dog in the in this hunt to be honest with you Colleen if you just say on behalf of the affordable hous trust you know it it implies that I don't think having more signatures is going to give it that much more weight uh you know we're we're approving this letter Y I'll put on behalf of the air for affordable Trust yeah I mean if we approve it tonight I wonder if you also just add in a statement you know approved unanimously by the trust well let's vote it in and make that decision if we voted unanimously I would yes um good have a motion if there's no more discussion can we have a motion to approve the letter say what the wording is so I will in the second to last paragraph I will add that the um project also has the support of the air affordable housing trust the one where we list the other the other the planed project has gained the full support of the air select board well it says air affordable housing committee I'll put air affordable housing trust Municipal departments stakeholders stakeholder agencies and organizations along with the local community so that takes care of Colleen's first point and then the before the signature line it will say on behalf of the a affordable housing trust I'll I'll sign that um and uh I can put a note at the bottom adopted unanimously by the affordable housing trust um with today's date if you'd like if that's what we do I got shaking yes so moved thank you you could probably do one or the other you say shair affordable housing trust you don't have to say on behalf of those you but approved byly hopefully so it will say air affordable housing trust Jeffrey tilletson chairman okay yep we have a motion we have a second I didn't hear second thank you Bob moved by Cindy Mo seconded by Bob any further discussion hearing none Cindy how do you vote Colleen hi thank you Bob hi thank you Pat hi thank you and chair votes I making it unanimous for this for the meeting thank you very much guys for doing for doing that with us um hey Alicia I know you mentioned to me about the audit the other day and I forgot what you told me excuse me so David Alexander is no longer doing audits that's the person that I used to go to for the idfa um so we have reached out to our um our Auditors which we work with the town and we've sent them some and they're getting us an estimated price for how much it's going to cost we've set them some of the paperwork and so I should have something for you on that next next meeting thank you very much I'm going back to my agenda uh public comment is there anybody here who would like to make a comment hearing none um the upcoming meetings I'm going to pop open the other I think our next next meeting is I need to get to my email excuse me for a moment that's not opening bear with me one second is it May 29th Jeff I believe May 29th is and yes um the reason I was making sure is I put something on I just need to save I can't open another document yeah May 29th would be our next meeting and the expectation is it will be done all remote and there you go I lost everybody um May 29th and I for I forgotten the next day we the the day after that that we have selected um end of June yeah it's end of June what I'm trying to do is open a copy of the minutes that I just had open and uh I don't think we had picked Beyond May 29th but I think if I remember our discussion from the last meeting the expectation was we'd kind of stick with that last day of the month that this was the out of the norm meeting good catch that's exactly what it was we April 3D we we canceled the 327 the 424 and May 29 and the 424 got moved to April 2nd to April 3rd because of the townwide budget meeting and I apologize guys I got so many meetings going on with the warrant with the town meeting and everything else going on today I'm so May 29th at 6:15 is our next meeting with that um I'll and I I so that everyone knows I'll follow up on I had an open it an open Agenda item I did follow up with I did reach out and connect with everybody I did leave a voice message for James Steven um to find out if one night's better than the other night and also talk about what's going on now and um uh Sean apologizes work kept him away from us this evening he was able to go to the select board last night but um had he been here I'm sure he would have supported the letter because he supported it last night as a member of the select board and it's pretty much close it's pretty it's fa it's it's not the exact same letter but it's close Okay uh with that I'd like to wish Alicia of happy and quick recovery and um accept a motion accept a motion to adjourn we moved thank you all in favor by enjoy the eclipse please don't look at the sun on Monday