2000-06-12 Managing Growth Development and Open Space Working Group.pdf

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with low and moderate incomes. towns.The center contains the town's most important historic sites as well as a variety of public and Concerns about housing affordability in Lexington commercial buildings. The buildings in the center date back to the late 1960's and stem from specific vary in character and age,representing"the civic concerns. Long-term residents living on fixed- aspirations" of generations over three centuries. The incomes feel rising assessments may leave them center has benefited from town efforts in recent unable to afford their property taxes. High purchase decades to provide a more unified and pedestrian- or rental prices pose a strong barrier to low-and friendly streetscape in keeping with both its historic moderate-income households seeking to move to and contemporary character. Noted shortcomings are Lexington, therefore making Lexington a more litter and poorly organized parking. Satellite exclusively upper-income enclave.Town employees, commercial centers are also important: East and others who provide vital services for town Lexington,Countryside, and the Marrett residents,may be unable to afford to live in town, Road/Waltham St. intersection. These satellites vary making it more difficult for the town to maintain greatly in their state of repair and amenities. quality services. Transportation/Accessibility: Transportation is one Over the years,the town's efforts to address these of the major consumers of land in Lexington. concerns include support for publicly-funded housing Approximately 20%of the land surface is currently development,zoning amendments enabling devoted to transportation, and even more of the land "accessory apartments," deferral of property tax is affected by transportation. Transportation has a payments for income-eligible owners,and new major impact upon public open space rivaling that of regulations encouraging"cluster development." any other human activity. This is because of physical impacts(noise,air quality,etc.),safety impacts Commercial Development:Lexington is attractive (especially upon children and pedestrians),and social to commercial enterprise due to location(I-95 and Rt. impacts(adverse impacts on neighborhoods). An 2,Hanscom) and available infrastructure(fiber optic, important part of"public open space" is the space Cary Memorial Library's business research along streets and roadways- space that degrades capabilities,town center's restaurants). rapidly as traffic volumes rise.The morning and afternoon'school run'clogs Lexington roads;the high There are about 2400 firms in Lexington. They school parking lot overflows with single-occupant range in size from MIT Lincoln Laboratory with cars.Current transport systems and schedules for the 2200 employees to the single person shops. There high school,especially,lack widespread use or are 235 commercial building lots with only 2 vacant. support. Commercial building lots total about 745 acres;the buildings on these have about 5 million square feet of More than one-fourth of town residents do not have commercial floor space. the use of a car. This group includes children,the elderly,and others. The town has shown support for limited commercial development by"setting aside"zones on Hayden The only access to the Hanscom civil terminal is Avenue and Hartwell Avenue;those two areas Route 2A(Battle Road) which is a historic route and provide the bulk of Lexington's commercial tax is already congested with commuter traffic. The revenue outside of the center. current Massport office space proposal would add 700 trips per day. The main access to Hanscom Since 1984 the value,and therefore the tax revenue, AFB is via I3artwell Ave.The Hartwell/Bedford St. from commercial and industrial property in intersection is currently rated as failing. The Air Lexington has dropped from 20.8%of the tax base to Force is now bringing 1000 employees from Mitre,in a low of 11.3%in 1997.It has since rebounded to Bedford,back to the base,with a predicted increase 14.9%in 2000. of 800 car trips a day. Massport is proposing a 92,000 square foot office Environmental Quality: Middlesex County air building next to the Hanscom civilian terminal.This quality ranks officially as"Moderate,"or about 100 will require a parking facility to handle 350 cars. on an EPA scale of 1 to 300.In 1997 and 1998 only ozone levels briefly exceeded 100 on two days in Town Center:Lexington center is an upscale, August. Particulate matter emissions for Middlesex thriving commercial center that attracts Lexington County have declined from 129,000 tons in 1986 to residents as well as consumers from surrounding 44,000 tons in 1996. Managing Growth-21