Republican Governor Approves State Tax Credits for Noquochoke Village in Westport
‘Affordable Housing’ Plan May Lead to 2,000 People Packing into Lincoln Park
by Mary Lou Daxland
President, Massachusetts Republican Assembly (MARA)
It is a known fact that Governor Baker never spent much time campaigning in the state’s South Coast region. After all, Fall River and New Bedford are Democrat strongholds that have all but destroyed their industrial base and are now hailed as “welfare cities.” Sitting between the two cities are Westport and Dartmouth. Westport has been trying to keep its town as a “right to farm” community and the Westport Republican Town Committee (WRTC) -a conservative committee- has been fighting for years to keep it that way.
Governor Baker came out with a statement after approving the Noquochoke Village state tax credits that would have been expected from a Democrat governor: “By increasing affordable housing production, and stabilizing working families, low-
income senior citizens and homeless families or those at risk, these housing awards will strengthen communities across Massachusetts.” REALLY, Governor? How about bringing jobs to the South Coast and then we would not NEED affordable housing. How about reading the fine print before you sign on the dotted line? How about having one of your over-paid staffers that is a Democrat or a RINO research these towns that you are giving tax credits?
Governor, you have just put the town of Westport one more step closer to going bankrupt. Our school system has been taken over by liberals that are in the tank with the teachers’ union. Because you did not keep your campaign promise to do “everything you could to STOP Common Core,” Common Core is now killing the school budget of Westport, not to mention other cities and towns across the state. Couldn’t you have put pen to paper to write an executive order to stop Common Core like Governor Christie did?
Over half of the 8th grade this year is not going to the Westport High School. In some cases we are now going to be paying to send students to Dartmouth. The town in years to come is not going to be able to afford any more transfers.
Governor, you have now given money to Noquochoke Village Project (NVP) that should never have started. Over a decade of bait and switch has cost the town of Westport tax dollars that have been poorly spent. The current affordable housing in Westport has complaints coming from the residents of how poorly the construction is and things are falling apart. Nothing seems to be done about these poor people, but yet we are going to build more affordable housing?
The NVP has been going on for over a decade. With the Liberal Left in town trying to form it into part of Sustainable Development, of which affordable housing is a pipeline to that end. The WRTC has stopped Green Communities in the past (another pipeline of sustainable development) with their big, one-time check payment that puts more restrictions on building codes (i.e., stretch codes). Once the check has been cashed and spent, your town is now under more restrictions than you can imagine.
The NVP started out being single-family purchased homes and now has blown out to be 50 rental units with 25 % being offered to nonresidents of Westport. This project is less than a city block from Dartmouth where the old Lincoln Park property is being developed into the poster child for sustainable development. There is one 4-story apartment building for senior housing and one 4-story affordable-housing apartment building with another to follow soon. Part of the property is single-family homes that are on postage-stamp lots. When this project is completed, there could be up to 2,000 people living on what was once Lincoln Park – a place where people from another time came to play to get out of the cities of Fall River and New Bedford, where factories once offered good paying jobs to their citizens. Now a traffic light and a traffic flow pattern are being changed to facilitate this crown jewel of sustainable development.
Over the years, the ongoing NVP has violated the bylaw change that was approved at the town meeting on May 26, 2009: 19.8 Building Requirements for Multi Family Dwellings – In the Noquochoke Village Overlay, no more than 12 dwelling units in any residential buildings; the maximum shall not be more than 120 feet. No one seems to know why this somehow has not come up.
The property has a wetland issue and Westport has asked and has been denied by the town of Dartmouth to hook into its water and sewer. Why would Dartmouth want to help Westport when it is building a city less than a block away? Their water and sewer systems have been maxed out.
Suddenly the perk test results come back that NVP is good to go – yet nothing in the field was perked. If the perk test has passed, then why is there now talk of an “alternative system from Bio-Microbics – a pilot bio-barrier program?” The Mass DEP has stated it is the first it has heard of it. The planning board has approved this pilot program, but is waiting for the state to come back with the DEP approval.
Governor, were you too busy trying to raise funds to remove conservatives from the State Committee – which backfired as the balance is now the same on the committee – that you could not have taken more time to research this tax credit? The million two hundred thousand of dark money that you raised to remove the conservatives from the SC would have been spent better on helping the down-ticket Republican conservatives get elected to town positions that could stop this liberal left agenda. But there again, Governor, you are a liberal Democrat with an “R” next to your name and all you care about is getting re-elected in 2018.
Sorry, Charlie. There will be many Republicans in Westport and all over the State “Blanking Baker in 2018.” ♦
