2014-10-BOS-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Selectmen’s Meeting - October 6, 2014 They showed drawings of the proposal to build a four or five level office building and six to seven level parking structure on property that they currently own and which is currently a paved area. The proposed plan will allow Cubist to grow through at least 2020. They will be proposing a FAR larger than they have for Phase 1 to allow flexibility to move forward with their future needs. Cubist would like to bring their request to the next Annual Town Meeting or an earlier Special Town Meeting if one is scheduled. Ms. Ciccolo noted that 46 of Cubist’s employees live in Lexington and she hopes as Cubist expands preference might be given to Lexington residents which provides a good quality of life for the employee, the community and is good for Cubist to have their employees close by. Mr. Kanter, Town Meeting Member, looks forward to seeing specificity with respect to the proposed build out. Report from Wendy Manz on Visitor Center Renovations At the 2014 Annual Town Meeting funds were approved for the renovation and possible expansion of the Visitor Center. A consensus on the program for the Visitor Center has not been reached. Ms. Manz agreed to meet with the various tourism stakeholders to understand and evaluate the various programming options. Since Ms. Manz completed her report, the Town has taken over the daily operations of the Visitor Center, which was previously operated by the Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Manz, after discussing with Mr. Valente, started the conversation with stakeholders to answer the question: what tourism program is appropriate and what would be the appropriate renovations to support that program. She also felt tourism should be discussed more broadly because of the differences of opinion on how to proceed. She talked with members of the Tourism Committee, Center Committee, Chamber of Commerce, Historical Society, and a number of citizens in town who have participated in one of these groups to see if she could get a sense of the areas where there was consensus and disagreement and how best to move forward. Her report is a detailed account of her discussions with the stakeholders. She felt it was not her place or ability to come up with specific proposals regarding tourism, but has portrayed points of view and concerns and has proposed an approach to move forward to a consensus. The threshold questions are: 1.Does the Town of Lexington wish to pursue tourism, either as a source of revenue or for other reasons? 2.If so, what benefits do we expect to realize from doing so? 3.What resources does the town have to offer tourists? 4.What is the cost (in both labor and money) of preserving, maintaining, and presenting each of these resources and how does it compare with the benefits of doing so?