Westport News

Affordable Housing Trust

Westport Housing Partnership

Final  Minutes, Meeting of April 21, 2011       approved April 28, 2011

Present:  Leonardi Aray(LA), Elizabeth Collins (EC), Craig Dutra(CD), Catherine Williams(CW), Warren Messier (WM)

Absent:  Brian Corey, Jr.

Also present:  Betty Slade, Acting Clerk

Catherine Williams, Vice-Chair called the meeting to order at 1:14 pm.

Minutes.  CD moved, WM seconded a motion to approve the draft minutes of February 14, 2011, and the motion was approved unanimously.  WM moved, EC seconded a motion to approve the draft minutes of March 31, 2011 and the motion was approved unanimously with CD abstaining because he was absent.

Resignation of Dianne Baron.  No formal letter of resignation has been received from Dianne Baron.  CW will carry on as acting chair.  EC moved, and WM seconded a motion to table discussion until more information is available.  The vote in favor was unanimous.

Betty Slade noted that she had given a CD with all the minutes to date of meetings of the AHT/WHP to Diane Pelland and another CD to LA to keep in the files.  She agreed she will send electronic versions of the approved minutes to all members and to Diane Pelland, the Selectmen's secretary, but LA will keep official records and attachments in hard copies for the files.  She will continue to post all the minutes.  CW should send agendas to Betty for posting on the website.

It was noted that the public meeting for the Noquochoke Village project will be at 7 pm on April 28th at the Macomber School.  LA will arrive at 5 pm and start setting up and will bring cookies and juice.  There will be a meeting of the AHT/WHP at 5:30 - 6:30 pm.   CW will check that the room is available at the early hour and inform the members.

Town of Westport Addendum No. 2 to Request for Proposals.  Disposition of Property at Noquochoke Development Site.  (Attachment 1 of these minutes.)  The points on this document were discussed in detail with LA leading the discussion.  LA stated that discussion with possible developers indicated that (1) there was a preference for all rentals because finding finance for home ownership was thought to be difficult by the possible developers.  WM disputed this.  (2) Another issue was who was going to clean up the site.  No resolution was reached.  (3) A third issue was that possible developers were not interested in the wetlands.  EC noted that she had contacted Peggy Stevens (WCLT) and Chris Detwiller (TTOR) and they had walked the site.  Peggy Stevens would be coming in with a proposal to deal with the wetlands. (4) Type of sewerage and water systems were discussed.  The fact of the overlay district allows for centralized systems and the Town is encouraging green development and alternative septic systems.

It was noted Oxbow has already pulled out.  Other possibilities are E.A. Fish Development and Trinity Financial - it would seem that larger developers would be more likely to bid.

CD moved and EC seconded that the new time line and responses be accepted as written with two exceptions:   (1)   D. Electronic Copies of the RFP.  "Please contact the Westport Town Administrator's Office, Ms. Diane Pelland" instead of the Westport Town Administrator, Michael Coughlin. (2) E. 4.  Response should begin:  Although we would prefer mixed rentals and homeownership, the Town will consider.....   The motion was carried unanimously.

4.  Material to be presented on next Noquochoke village site tour and briefing session.  There were no changes to this offered by the members.

5.  Adjournment.  CD moved, WM seconded a motion to adjourn about 2:30 pm and the vote in favor was unanimous.

The next meeting will be April 28th at 5:30 pm at Macomber School to be followed by the public meeting.

Respectfully Submitted,

Betty Slade, Acting Clerk

Attachment

1.  Town of Westport Addendum No. 2 to the Request for Proposals.  Disposition of Property at Noquochoke Development Site.