On April 21, 2026, the Boston City Council Committee on Community Preservation Act (CPA), chaired by Councilor Enrique Peppen (District 5), held a hearing on Docket 0569 (appropriation of $32.6 million from FY26 Community Preservation Fund revenues for 45 recommended projects) and Docket 0758 (appropriation of $1,763,090 for FY27 administrative expenses and $39,587,798 in estimated FY27 revenues to be reserved). The hearing featured presentations from CPA Director Thadine Brown and Christina Keith, Director of the Neighborhood Housing Division, followed by council questions and public testimony from 15 individuals.
For the record, my name is Enrique Peppen, District Five City Councilor, and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Community Preservation Act. Today is April twenty first, two thousand twenty-six.gov slash city dash council dash TV and broadcast on Xfinity Channel Eight, R C N Channel Eighty Two and Files Channel Nine Six Four.cpa at Boston.gov and will be made a part of the record and available to all counselors. Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing. Individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up and will have two minutes to testify. If you're interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet near the entrance of the chamber. If you are looking to testify virtually, please email our central staff liaison Karishma at K A R I C S H M A C H O U H A N at Boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list. Today's hearing is on docket number 0569. Message in order approved an appropriation of 32 million six hundred thousand dollars from fiscal year 2026 Community Preservation Fund revenues for community preservation projects at the recommendation of the City of Boston Community Preservation Committee. The upcoming projects will aim to improve the quality of life across Boston neighborhoods. Plans include renovating playgrounds and enhancing or creating recreational spaces such as parks, community gardens, and urban farms. In addition, these projects will plant trees to grow the city's tree canopy, preserve historic buildings and artifacts, support program for affordable first-time home buyers, and construct new affordable housing units for residents. Together, these efforts are expected to deliver a meaningful and lasting positive impact on Boston's neighborhoods and communities. Docket number 058, 0758, message in order approved in an appropriation order in the amount of 1,763,090 for the administrative and operating expenses of the City of Boston Community Preservation Committee for fiscal year 2027. And a further appropriation order in the amount of 39,587,798 from the community preservation funds, estimated annual revenues for the fiscal year 2027 to be appropriated and reserved for future appropriation. These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and referred to the committee on March 18th, 2026. Docket number 0569 and on April 8th, 2026 for docket number 0758. So far, I've been joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councilor Flynn, Councillor Culpepper, Councillor Fitzgerald, and Council President Braden. I um like to welcome everyone to my favorite hearing of the year. Um it's an honor for me to be the chair of this committee. Honestly, just being able to see the amazing applications and groups and organizations that applied for CPA funding and seeing some in person here fills me nothing but with joy. Um the fact that we get to potentially fund so many great just projects across the city and all of our neighborhoods. So just wanted to thank you. I'm very much a fan of this, so thank you for also for providing this to all of our all of us here on the council. And what I would love to do is I'm going to pass it over to you to do a quick introduction to do your presentation. I'll kick it off to my colleagues for some QA, and then we will hear from our amazing community members later on. So Dean, the floor is yours. Thank you. My name is Thadine Brown, and I'm the director for the community preservation office. Good afternoon. My name is Christina Keith. I'm the director of the neighborhood housing division at the mayor's office of housing. So thank you all for having me and uh the CPA team today. Um, for the past eight years, I've been working with the CPA office and I've overseen all nine funding rounds, and it has been a privilege and a pleasure to support the residents of Boston. I would like to express my gratitude to the dedicated uh community preservation committee. Each funding round requires thoughtful deliberation, um, difficult decisions, and we deeply appreciate them their unwavering commitment to this highly competitive process. I also want to extend my appreciation to the CPA staff over here, Rakia Islam, Gillian Lang, Elizabeth Sanchez, Lauren Hahn, Liz Cook, and Simone Pope. The dedication and professionalism and care they bring to these roles every day are essential not only to the success of this year's funding round, but to how we run the CPA office on a daily basis. I'm grateful for the dedication they bring to this work. I would also like to thank the CFO and the City Treasurer for their leadership, along with all the city departments that continue to be valuable partners in this work. I will take the next 20 minutes to provide a detailed overview of the CPA process and the FY26 funding round, introduce the slate of 45 projects recommended for funding this year, and do a brief overview of the FY27 budget. And happy to address any questions. And Director O'Keefe will respond to any specific questions on the affordable housing projects. And so this first slide highlights the breakdown of funding allocation for FY26, which was a total of 32.6 million dollars. There was no reverted funds reallocated to the FY26 funding round. The committee allocated 50% of funding to affordable housing, 25% to historic preservation, and 25% to open space and recreation. For those who may not be familiar with Community Preservation Act, these next upcoming slides will give you a brief overview. So each year, 10% of funds must be allocated to each category historic preservation, affordable housing, and open space and recreation. Additionally, up to 5% may be spent on administrative cost. CPA funds are strictly limited to capital projects. CPA funds cannot support maintenance operations or programming.