Whereas, the East Bay Community Development Corporation did file with the Town of Barrington Planning Board an application for an affordable housing permit (Permit) dated March 25, 2013 to develop property on Sowams Road (Palmer Pointe), and

Whereas, the Permit application form did include a question asking - “Will the project be subsidized by the [Barrington] government”, where the answer provided by EBCDC was “YES”, “Tax Abatement”, and

Whereas, there is no known public record that the Barrington Town Council “will” be approving a Tax Abatement for Palmer Pointe or that the matter has come properly before the Town Council, and

Whereas, it has been represented that Palmer Pointe is not economically viable without Tax Abatements and, as such, will cause undue economic hardships and unfair and disproportionate burdens upon Barrington taxpayers, and

Whereas, the Barrington Planning Board is now moving forward with completion of the Palmer Pointe application without resolution of the Tax Abatement question, and

Whereas, a Tax Abatement would be a property tax subsidy paid by existing residents of Barrington, and

Whereas, financially equivalent property tax subsidies are not provided to affordable homeowners such as residents of Walker Farm, where property taxes are in excess of $3000 per year, and the rental Tax Abatement can equate to annual tax bills as low as $500 per year, and

Whereas, Barrington is already the highest taxed municipality in the state when measured on a per capita basis (excluding the summer resident communities of Jamestown and Block Island), and

Whereas, an affordable rental project that may be created under imminent financial jeopardy without approved tax abatements is not consistent with the Town of Barrington’s Comprehensive Community Plan, and

Whereas, it is within the purview of the Planning Board to assess the economic viability and impact to residents of such projects, and

Whereas, there are matters on the May 22, 2013 Financial Town Meeting agenda, such as Full Day Kindergarten, that should be a priority over corporate subsidies to affordable developers, and therefore

Now come we the undersigned to respectfully demand and petition that the Barrington Town Council shall move immediately to vote and deny a tax abatement for the proposed Palmer Pointe project for the afore-stated reasons and because we believe this tax abatement unfairly disadvantages many existing low income residents in Barrington, and because further property tax abatement's beyond those already granted to the Sweetbriar affordable housing project will create unsustainable and costly growth in a town that is already too highly taxed to absorb such growth.

Sincerely,

Gary & Mary Ann Morse

2 Westwood Lane

Barrington, RI