Spotlight will be on Winslow Farm at STM

PROVINCETOWN — Earlier this week town officials prepared to convince voters that they should approve what may be the most contentious article on the Town Meeting warrant: the proposed swap of the town’s old community center for Winslow Farm.

The Special Town Meeting will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday at Town Hall, followed by the Annual Town Meeting. The property swap appears as Article 7 on the Special Town Meeting warrant.

Town Manager David Panagore presented the board of selectmen Monday night with what he called a “dry run” of a slide presentation he intends to show at the meeting, detailing the benefits of swapping the community center at 46 Bradford St. for the three-quarter-acre Winslow Farm property at 44-48 Winslow St., which includes a three-bedroom house.

The transfer of property would need to be approved by a simple majority vote.

James Savko, who owns Winslow Farm, made the trade offer on Feb. 5. In return for the swap, Savko wants permits to build four three-bedroom units, two two-bedroom units and a one-bedroom unit in the town-owned building on Bradford Street — all at market rate — and he wants the growth management gallons needed for it.

Linda Coneen, a founding partner of Cape Cod & Islands Appraisal Group, recently appraised the 19,700-square-foot former community center at $605,000, while the Winslow Farm property was valued at $2.3 million. The appraisals raised questions because in 2014 that same company appraised the community center at $1.25 million and Winslow Farm at $1.9 million. The value of the community center dropped, Coneen said earlier this month, because of zoning (only residences or a gallery could be located there); because she was told that only six bedrooms could be constructed by right; and because the building had significantly deteriorated in that time. The value of Winslow Farm went up, she said, because it includes a three-bedroom stand-alone condo and approval for the construction of four more three-bedroom units and one two-bedroom unit on nearly 3,000 square feet of land.

The community center is undesirable, Panagore said Monday, because it needs upwards of $400,000 in capital repairs; it’s in the historic district, which means development could be limited; and though Town Meeting authorized the sale of the community center back in April 2011, the town has since tried and failed to sell it twice.

But Selectman Cheryl Andrews previously argued that Savko clearly sees value in the swap or he wouldn’t have suggested it. If it’s approved, his 17-bedroom proposal would be subject to an economic development permit process for 1,200 additional growth management gallons. Besides the market-rate units, he would also receive a $500,000 federal tax credit for the difference in the assessed value of the two properties.

At the presentation Monday night, Panagore discussed a slide that summarizes what a “no to transaction” and a “yes to transaction” would mean to the town.

“No to transaction” includes a $600,000 deteriorating asset (the community center), which is zoned for seven units and would cost taxpayers $1 million to develop for housing. It would require a developer, which Panagore has found nearly impossible to enlist. It would also mean, Panagore said, that the town-owned VFW property, which has long been considered for a new police station, would require a loop road or a cul-de-sac. Furthermore, Panagore said, it would mean that the town could get Savko “at best” to create 10 to 20 percent of his Winslow Farm property as affordable housing.

Savko plans to create no affordable or community housing in the community center.

“Yes to transaction,” Panagore said, would mean that the town acquires a $2.3 million property that includes a new three-bedroom house and is zoned for 11 units. It would also mean that, because it’s adjacent to the VFW property, there would be a secondary egress that unlocks a better site should the town want the police station to go there.

Furthermore, he said, all the units built at Winslow Farm would be below market price — though a developer has not yet been contracted.

“You never know if you’re going to get a developer to do anything,” Panagore said by phone Tuesday. “The combined parcel of VFW and Winslow at least start having unit count numbers that make it attractive on its own.”

On Monday night he emphasized three things are needed to create affordable housing — land, money and a developer.

“The number one thing for me is land,” he told the selectmen. “If the idea is that we actually want to get parcels to build housing on, the more parcels the better.”

Though there may be some worry that a proposal for a new police station could sink the trade, Panagore said that the issue needs to be addressed.

“The location of the police station is an important part of the conversation, but it really shouldn’t be driving the discussion,” he said.

Three options will be discussed at Town Meeting: Option A includes building about 17 units of housing at the VFW and Winslow Farm; Option B includes building 12 units of housing at the VFW and Winslow Farm as well as a new police station; and Option C includes a 17-unit housing development at VFW and Winslow Farm with a police station, with five of those units of housing created in the current police station at 26 Shank Painter Road. Option C is Panagore’s favorite. (See related story on page XX.)

If Winslow Farm is acquired by the town on Monday, the development process would be led by the board of selectmen, which would look at financing, hold joint meetings with the planning board, receive public comment, and create a Request for Proposal that would include both a land development agreement and construction, Panagore said. The town’s planning board would be involved in site layout and unit count. Panagore would also like to contract a property manager right away, to either oversee the rental of the house on Winslow Farm or maintain it, if the selectmen decide it should be sold.

“If we don’t have a manager in place, it’s going to take us 18 months to get it on the market,” Selectman Chair Tom Donegan said. “We don’t want to open the windows and have it fall down.”

Selectman Erik Yingling, however, said that it seems obvious that the town should make it an affordable rental.

“All of this is going to be a public process,” Donegan responded. “In the meantime, we have a lot of listening to do and a lot of [thinking about] what is possible to do financially.”

The selectmen have said that if Town Meeting agrees to the swap and Savko’s plan comes to fruition, 100 percent of the real estate taxes from the former community center will go to the housing trust for the next 10 years, which, Panagore thinks, could generate about $200,000.