Wilber School Redevelopment Committee

November 7th, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Approved December 12th, 2005

 

Committee Attendees

Jim Goldsmith – Chair

Marilyn Z. Kahn

David DePree – Chair

Bob Levin

Michael Baskin

Marcia C. Liebman

Craig Edwards

Melissa Mills

David Gordon

Joel Tran

 

Guests

Stephen Crane  - Consultant

Paul Lauenstein – Planning Board

Jeanette Keating

Barbara Nadler - Library

 

Meeting Initiation

Meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm by Dave DePree.

 

Meeting Minutes

  • Tran/Edwards moved to accept October 17th minutes as amended. Committee unanimously approved.
  • Tran/Edwards moved to accept October 24th minutes as amended. Committee unanimously approved.

 

Overview

Tran stated that in 1993, the town voted to declare the Wilber School property, to be surplus property but, because the sale in the 1990’s fell through, a new surplus vote is needed at Town Meeting to authorize the sale of the property. Tran stated that according to Gelerman, can issue the RFP without a formal Town Meeting vote as long as the proposal is acceptable to the Selectmen; Town Meeting can vote to accept or reject the developer/tenants.

 

Abatement

Baskin reviewed his PowerPoint presentation for Town Meeting. The committee commended him for his efforts.

 

DePree reviewed the old financial analyses for the Wilber School and prepared a new one for mixed-use residential and commercial space. This was done to estimate costs and return on investment. He looked at the numbers from a for-profit perspective and determined a specialized developer may be needed to make this project profitable.

 

Consultant Crane stated that a non-profit developer such as the Architectural Heritage Foundation seeks more non-traditional forms of funding and may be able to make redevelopment work. The trade-off would be an increase in the time it takes to complete the project.  Goldsmith suggested a Sharon based non-profit group which would be a separate entity set up on behalf of the town where the town keeps the land. The non-profit entity would put construction financing together.

 

Liebman suggested taping into the Comm Preservation Act Funds. Another source is the Historic Preservation Funds; however, the Wilber is not on the historical register and thus can not receive tax credits. There was also a concern that if the Town owns the property, no tax is involved, so the question of tax credits becomes moot.

 

Crane asked about the town’s commitment to leasing the site. If subdivided, could the committee convince the Selectmen areas of the property could be sold? Goldsmith stated that there is a portion of people that will not let the property go as it is emblematic of seeing the old Sharon slip away. Tran stated the bottom line is to see what the free market will do by getting a response to the RFP.

 

Crane distributed a draft RFP which was nominally reviewed at the meeting; deeper analysis will be done at the next meeting after committee members have had a chance to review the document. The committee will then provide Crane with updated comments via email which Crane will compile and present back to the committee. It was determined that there are 4 sessions remaining in his contract.

 

A short discussion ensued regarding in what format the responses to the RFP would be received. Crane advised against requesting lots of sketches but stated that minimum criteria can include site plans.

 

Administrative

As the committee secretary has recently taken another job within Sharon, Liebman discussed rules surrounding dual employment within the town. This position has already been advertised and the only respondents (other than the current secretary) were already town employees. Committee agreed there is no one else to do the secretarial work and paperwork was signed by Goldsmith to ask for exemption from dual employment restriction.

 

Future Meetings:

  1. Monday, November 14th, 7pm Town Meeting, Sharon High School Auditorium (front left hand (when facing the stage) section reserved for committees)
  2. Monday, November 21st 7:30pm Library, Room TBD

 

Liebman/Tran moved to adjourn meeting @ 9:20 pm; unanimously approved.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Rachelle F. Levitts