Asphalt in Boston schoolyards could be replaced with grass, trees and gardens, providing a more comfortable environment for children and neighbors.
The Opera House and other deteriorating theaters along Washington Street could be renovated and preserved for thousands to enjoy each year.
And 97 apartments in five buildings along Westland Avenue in the Fenway could be renovated and kept for young and elderly residents with varying incomes.
Those are just some of the projects that a group of advocates are hoping to fund with a higher property tax increase in Boston.
The advocates, part of 42 organizations and development groups in the Campaign for a Better Boston, are supporters of the Community Preservation Act – a law they say can bring up to $52 million to the city in two years.
The CPA allows communities to set up a fund to create and preserve affordable housing, green space and historic sites by imposing up to a 3 percent surcharge on annual real estate taxes and getting matching funds from the state.
As of last week, the Campaign for a Better Boston had collected close to 30,000 signatures to place the CPA on the Nov. 6 ballot, according to Florence Hagins, director of membership services at the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance.
Some 17,000 signatures are needed to get a question on the ballot, representing 5 percent of Boston’s registered voters, said Hagins, who is also the chairman of the Committee for a Better Boston. The signatures must be turned in by Sept. 25.
Currently, 31 cities and towns have approved the CPA, and several others will be voting on the measure this year.
“There’s about $14 million in match money that the state will provide,” said Marc Draisen, president and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, which represents the 70 CDCs in the state. “If we don’t grab it, they’re [state leaders] going to send it out to the suburbs.”
In Boston, the tax surcharge would be 2 percent, costing the average taxpayer, with a home valued around $233,000, an extra $18 a year, according to MAHA’s Hagins.
More than 60 percent of Boston’s senior citizens would be exempt, supporters said, and low- and moderate-income households would also not be affected. For example, a family of four earning less than $52,500 will be exempt, as well as elderly couples earning less than $56,000.
Thirty percent of the money collected would be split evenly for affordable housing, historic preservation and open space projects, while the remaining 70 percent can be used for any of those types of efforts.
“Certainly in terms of open space issues, the Community Preservation Act represents a new opportunity to bring resources into parks and open space that the city of Boston does not currently have,” said Valerie Burns, president of the Boston Natural Areas Fund, a nonprofit citywide land trust that owns 39 community gardens in the city.
Burns explained that the city’s Parks Department uses its budget to maintain existing parks and has been creative in finding corporate sponsors for downtown parks and acquiring federal and state grants for projects.
However, many projects requested by residents go unfunded because the city doesn’t have adequate resources, she said.
‘Public Role’
One of the ways the CPA could help is by providing money to preserve land owned by private institutions that are considering selling their property to developers. Recently, educational and religious institutions in difficult financial situations have turned to selling their assets, including property, to stay afloat.
Burns points to properties like Hellenic Hill, which overlooks Jamaica Pond and borders Brookline and Jamaica Plain. Developers have long eyed the land, part of which is owned by Hellenic College, for housing.
She also said money could be used to preserve the campus of St. John’s Seminary in the Allston/Brighton section of the city. Neighbors have used the property as a park for years.
“These open spaces are under private ownership, but they have a real public role and benefit,” said Burns.
In addition, the CPA could help fund the creation of small parks within walking distance of people’s homes in areas like Dorchester’s Jones Hill or Bowdoin and Geneva streets. Furthermore, money could be used to address environmental contamination and reclaim land around the Mystic, Chelsea and Neponset rivers, said Burns.
Bike and walking trails and open spaces also could be created along the rivers in spaces that were once heavily industrialized but are now abandoned or not used as much.
While advocates foresee businesses being hit the hardest by the tax hike, many business owners are already embracing the CPA because it can provide more affordable housing for workers.
“We appreciate the fact that there is some concern within the business community,” said Albert Rex, executive director of the Boston Preservation Alliance and a member of the Committee for a Better Boston.
However, Rex points to studies showing that Boston business owners are concerned about retaining employees and about the rising cost of living expenses, including housing costs, that are keep employees from moving into the city. The CPA will help address those issues, he said.
The extra tax would generate $2.8 million just for historic preservation, he said. That money could be used to preserve and create affordable housing within the old Hotel Dartmouth in the heart of Dudley Square in Roxbury.
The state’s Department of Neighborhood Development has already given $1 million to Nuestra Comunidad Development Corp. to create 60 units of affordable rental housing and six units of commercial space at the former hotel.
But Draisen, of the Massachusetts Association of CDCs, said $1 million isn’t enough for the entire $12 million project, which involves the acquisition and rehabilitation of the existing building and the construction of new units nearby.
Draisen said the Hotel Dartmouth project would certainly be a priority for affordable housing advocates. Other priorities would be helping the Fenway Community Development Corp. purchase five buildings along Westland Avenue to preserve 97 units for mixed-income households and providing money to develop affordable housing and green space on a vacant lot on Banton Street in Dorchester.
Also, CPA money could be used for the Urban Village, a proposal that calls for the construction and renovation of several thousand units of mixed-income housing in the Fenway area. The project was proposed several years ago and has received the support of Fenway residents, said Draisen.
There are also 20 acres of vacant buildings and land at the site of the former Boston State Hospital in Mattapan that have been very difficult to develop into affordable housing, but with the help of CPA money that may be more doable, he said.
“We need to be forward-looking,” said Draisen. “If the city of Boston is really going to build for the 21st century, then we need to make a good business investment.”
Stanley M. Smith, executive director of Historic Boston Incorporated, believes the CPA can be just as valuable in preserving historic buildings that provide housing.
Historic Boston has raised $350,000 to renovate the exteriors of the deteriorating Alvah Kittredge Park Row Houses in Roxbury, said Smith. Two of the four Victorian townhouses are now owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and one is owned by a 93-year-old man who has lived there since 1946.
About a year ago, Historic Boston did a feasibility study and discovered it would need about $1.2 million to purchase the homes and convert them into eight two-bedroom condominiums that could be sold at market-rate prices.
Smith said another priority would be to save three historic buildings owned by Mission Church in Roxbury, including a former Catholic high school and convent. The church wants to demolish the buildings and construct a high-rise, which would provide revenue to keep the church going.
In addition, money could be used to save and rehab the Opera House, Modern Theatre and Paramount.
“We see this as an incredible step to be able to plan more instead of being reactive,” said Boston Preservation Alliance’s Rex.
