The Peter Faneuil House is earmarked for a $340,000 grant from the city’s fiscal ’20 Community Preservation Funds.
The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) has recommended awarding an Historical Preservation grant in that sum to restore the exterior masonry of the former school building at 60 Joy. St. that provides 48 affordable apartment units and is managed by Roslindale-based Rogerson Communities.
City Councilor Ed Flynn, whose district is home to the Peter Faneuil House, said he visited there around five months ago and described it as “an exceptional residential program that helps so many people,” during a virtual meeting sponsored by the City Council Committee on Community Preservation Act on Tuesday, May 5.
City Councilor Kenzie Bok also applauded the CPC for recommending the grant. “I’m also really encouraged to see how many affordable housing units were funded,” she said during the virtual meeting.
In addition, Councilor Bok commended the CPC for recommending that the Esplanade Association receive a $10,000 Recreational Use and Open Space grant to plant 27 mature trees in the park.
Elsewhere, the Greater Boston Legal Services Building, located at 197 Friends St. in the Bulfinch Triangle Historic District, is recommend to receive a $100,000 Historic Preservation grant for repairs to the facade of the building, while the Gibson House Museum, located at 137 Beacon St. in Back Bay, is also earmarked for a $95,000 Historic Preservation grant to restore the Victorian rowhouse’s ground-floor structural system and its brick underpinning.
In all, the CPC’s recommended distribution of funds for fiscal ’20 amounts to $24,309,000, consisting of nine Affordable Housing applications, totaling $15,750,000; 16 Historic Preservation applications, totaling $3,440,000; and 15 Recreational Space and Open Space applications, totaling $5,119,000.
Mayor Martin Walsh still must sign off on the recommended allocation of funds before distribution.
Boston voters approved the Community Preservation Act by voting “yes” on Ballot Question 5 in November of 2016, and the city subsequently created the Community Preservation Fund, which is funded in part by a 1-percent property tax-based surcharge on residential and business property tax bills and took effect in July of 2017.