Newton Conservators Inc

“Newton Conservators Policy for Conservation Restriction Monitoring is as follows: 1. Conservation Restrictions (CRs) are monitored by a team of Newton Conservators Directors with assistance from other Conservators members. Monitoring is done on each property at least once per year, usually in the fall. 2. Owners of the properties, including the responsible city agencies, are contacted and invited to accompany the monitors on their site visit. 3. Reports are prepared by the monitoring team and submitted on a form that was voted on and approved by the Board of Newton Conservators, which includes maps, notes, and photos. The form includes all areas that need to be examined for compliance for each CR and includes room for recommendations. All such forms are signed by the monitoring team and kept both in paper and electronic form. 4. The completed forms are reviewed and edited by a designated board member and copies are sent to the property owner and city agencies along with a list of any problems noted and recommendations for needed work. 5. If any problems are found with the properties are found during the monitoring visit, follow up with the owner takes place. If need be, the properties are reinspected. 6. If CR violations continue, the Newton Conservators may resort to legal means to bring a property into compliance with its CR.”

“Newton Conservators holds 9 Conservation Restrictions, 8 of which (85.9 acres) are on city-owned property and did not take any tax deduction. The largest city property is a 75-acre golf course; the others are open spaces acquired by the city with Community Preservation Act funds, which required the city to grant a conservation restriction to an outside organization. The 9th CR is on a 1.58 acre private property. The CRs themselves do not appear on our financial statements. In addition to the CRs, we also received in prior years 2 gifts of land (0.8 acres in total) for conservation purposes - these properties appear on our Balance Sheet with a value of $1 each, For all the CR properties and owned land, Newton Conservators conducts annual monitoring and produces reports, per our CR Monitoring policy. In 2021 the City of Newton used Community Preservation Act funds to provide Newton Conservators with a $30K grant to establish a CR Monitoring investment account that will pay for monitoring and legal defense costs in perpetuity for 3 of the CRs on properties acquired with CPA funds. The $30K is on our Balance Sheet as a segregated investment asset account and as a temporary restricted asset account.”

“For 2 city-owned properties on which Newton Conservators holds the CR, there are city-funded escrow accounts at a local bank to provide for our costs of monitoring and enforcing the CR in perpetuity. The escrow accounts appear on the Balance Sheet on Part X Line 15 (Other Assets) - they are the only items on that line. They are offset by an equal amount of liability - shown on Part X Line 21.”

“The endowment funds are used to maintain our owned parks (which are open to the public), cover necessary expenses for CR monitoring (for properties without escrows or monitoring funds) and to provide for potential acquisition of open spaces for public benefit.”