The Community Preservation Act

The Community Preservation Act (CPA), M.G.L. Chapter 44B, was adopted by the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Cellucci in September 2000. CPA allows any city or town in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to adopt a property tax surcharge of up to 3%, the revenues from which are matched by State funds.

The combined money from these two sources are used for the following purposes:

 – Acquire, create and preserve open space

 – Acquire, create, preserve and rehabilitate recreational land

 – Acquire, preserve and rehabilitate historic resources

 – Acquire, create, preserve, rehabilitate and support community housing

CPA funds enable the Town to undertake projects with State matching funds in areas that would otherwise have been paid for with 100% local tax dollars or that the Town would have been unable to undertake or would have required a Proposition 2 1/2 override (e.g. open space acquisition, rehabilitation of historic Town buildings).