2022-01-13-LCC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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30% fewer restaurant seats than in 2019. Dawn McKenna alerted us that this affects our revenue from the meals tax. Casey noted the “incredible new space” at Omar’s. Doug Lucente gave a detailed presentation of how the SB has allocated ARPA funds so far: 25K public health, 50k food insecurity, 100k, temporary health measures, 90k mental health, 315k LexHab acquisitions, 115k Vine Street property. Center Related: 250k small business assistance, 150k cultural and non- profit, business can apply for 25k and cultural and non-profit can apply for 15K. The online application opens early next week. Doug emphasized that this funding is round one and will stay open until funds run out. Charles Hornig gave a presentation (see file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/MBTA_Community_Housing.pdf) regarding the new state law on MBTA communities. The Planning Board is looking at changing the parking requirements, and is also looking at the parking lot on Merriam Street (Depot Lot.) Later on the PB will look at East Lexington and other commercial districts. There was an extended discussion of the impact on Lexington Center. The comments were all in support of the rezoning of the center for more housing. Pamela Lyons and Dick Brown agreed to attend meetings of the Planning Board. Some rezoning might be on the warrant for Spring 2022 Town Meeting. Jerry discussed committee membership: Everyone agreed to recommend Eric Ballard to the Select Board for appointment to the Center Committee. We will be losing Mike Boudett to the Capital Expenditures Committee. We will still have two vacancies. Then we discussed goals and workplan for 2022: Pam S. suggested zoning and parking lots – improving the Center’s physical infrastructure; Mike suggested making the Center more family friendly; Dick suggested encouraging tourists to go downtown – tourism is important to the Center. As always we discussed parking: Fred suggested that we keep parking passes free for another year. The Center Committee voted Seven to Zero to recommend to the Select Board to maintain the current status of parking passes (free) for another year. The CC