History of Amendments to CPA

The Community Preservation Act has been amended twelve times since being signed into law in September of 2000. Click on the links below for details on each amendment.

• Chapter 24 of the Acts of 2021: Amended CPA to allow the acquisition of land held for railroad purposes for use as a recreational rail trail.
• Chapter 41 of the Acts of 2019: Amended the fees collected at the state's Registries of Deeds to provide increased revenue for the CPA Trust Fund.
• Chapter 218 of the Acts of 2016: Clarified the procedure municipalities use to issue CPA exemptions (also amends the 2006 Affordable Housing Trust Law to clarify how CPA funds are transferred and used by Municipal Affordable Housing Trusts).
• Chapter 503 of the Acts of 2014: Clarified procedure for calculating local CPA surcharge when a taxpayer receives exemptions.
• Chapter 139, sections 69-83 of the Acts of 2012, An Act to Sustain Community Preservation: Added an additional $25 million for the statewide CPA Trust Fund in FY 2013; expanded flexibility for recreational projects; added an optional $100,000 exemption for commercial and industrial property; made numerous other technical and clarifying amendments.
• Chapter 182 of the Acts of 2008: Clarified procedure for collecting the CPA surcharge at the Registries of Deeds.
• Chapter 393 of the Acts of 2006: Provided a mechanism for granting CPA exemptions to members of cooperative corporations.
• Chapter 289 of the Acts of 2006: Added "acquisition" of community housing as a CPA allowable use.
• Chapter 38 of the Acts of 2006: Added "documents" and "artifacts" to the definition of historic resources in Section 2 of the CPA legislation.
• Chapter 491, section 2 of the Acts of 2004: Authorized communities to appropriate CPA funds to an affordable housing trust fund (see page 3).
• Chapter 46, section 38 of the Acts of 2003: Clarified that CPA acquisitions of real property interests are exempt from Chapter 30B procurement laws; provided procedures by which the value of CPA acquisitions is established (see page 35).
• Chapter 165 of the Acts of 2002: Clarified that CPA funds may be used to rehabilitate historic resources.

Related Legislation:

• Chapter 218 of the Acts of 2016: Amends the 2006 Affordable Housing Trust Law to clarify how CPA funds are transferred and used by Municipal Affordable Housing Trusts (also clarified the procedure municipalities use to issue CPA exemptions)
• Section 298 of Chapter 149 of the Acts of 2004: Legislation that allows Cape Cod communities to convert from the Cape Cod Land Bank Program to Community Preservation Act (Modified CPA).