At its final meeting last June, the Board of Selectmen began consideration of a proposal by one of its members that the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust be eliminated. Aside from potential public relations issues, however, there were significant impediments to an abrupt termination of the trust. In particular, the trust owned both the property at 166 Littleton Road and a substantial bank account.
lnstead, through a series of steps over the intervening months, the trust has in effect been reconstituted as a subcommittee of the Board of Selectmen. Four of the seven trustees are now selectmen, and the trust may now have a selectman as its chair. Since a majority of the Board of Selectmen is three members, the trust is now, as a practical matter, controlled by any three of the selectman-trustees.
The property on Littleton Road, which had been acquired with the objective of development in a manner that would include affordable housing units, is now to be divided into and offered for sale as conventional (1.5-plus acre) building lots.
The selectmen have also made it clear that while they support the idea of building housing for seniors on land adjacent to Hildreth House, they do not want the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust involved in this potential project. The idea currently under consideration, as l understand it, is to make the town land available to a developer in return for the developer’s providing an expansion to Hildreth House consistent with the planned phase two of the Hildreth House improvement project. With this approach, the developer would be unlikely to have the additional margin needed to include affordable or moderate-income units in the project.
Under these circumstances, I see the effective roles of the minority of the trustees who are not selectmen to be limited to (a) assuring a quorum whenever one of the selectman-trustees is unable to attend a meeting and (b) relieving the selectman-trustees of the duties of both treasurer and secretary of the trust.
Since I do not see these roles as a reasonable use of my time and energy, I am—reluctantly and sorrowfully—resigning as a trustee of the Harvard Municipal Affordable Housing Trust Fund, effective immediately.
Bruce Nickerson
Stow Road
