Land Bank gets voter approval for $35 million-loan
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
With little discussion, Town Meeting voters sent the Land Bank home Monday night with a resounding affirmative two-thirds voice vote that authorizes the town to back the Land Bank when it takes out bonds totaling $35 million so it can remain competitive in its primary mission of buying open space.

"It's always encouraging to see how much support the general public gives the Land Bank," said Land Bank Executive Director Eric Savetsky.

Still, there were a couple of skeptics who had reservations about the necessity of the article and wondered aloud about loan default fail-safes. Curtis Barnes questioned the Land Bank's continued need to purchase undeveloped land, harkening back to when the Land Bank got going in 1984 and hinting at what he thought were the meager funds the property transfer tax would generate.

"I thought, naively, what we would do is collect two-percent on all real estate sales, and when the money came up we would go buy some land," he said.

Island attorney Jamie Ranney worried about what would happen if the Land Bank defaulted on its loan, but Finance Director Connie Voges said that as a last resort, as would be approved by the voters, the town would cover that debt.

"If the Land Bank could not pay back its bond, then the town would have to assume that debt," she said.

Savetsky said the Land Bank employs several back-up plans to ensure that it makes good on its loans without the town's help.

"There will be an agreement between the town and Land Bank that if we are spending the money on things other than open space we have to keep a one year's supply of debt service in an account as a cushion," he said. "And then, if after the first year goes by and we still can't meet the obligations and the town has to step in, we would still have to pay the town to cover any amount that the town has to pay out."

Currently, the Land Bank is paying off $9 million

in outstanding debt. I