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Thursday, February 24, 2000 Fwd:Draft Minutes-Feb 15 Page:3 developed, would clearly harm open space values. The largest parcel, the Arlington/Lexington Great Meadows, consists of 183 acres. o Major reasons for preserving open space are 1) Preserve Town character, 2) Protect 'ildlife and wild areas, 3) Provide open space for use by residents, and 4) Protect ,wetlands (for flood management and water quality) . o Patterns of residential development and landscaping contribute to the loss of biological diversity in Lexington. (Recommended reading: Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of our own Back Yards by Sara Stein. ) . o Open space can be saved by direct purchase, transfer, receipt of gift, and conservation restrictions (e.g. buying development rights) . o Securing funding for those parcels that must be purchased will be a challenge. 5. In discussion of the reports the following questions and comments were provided for consideration by the subcommittees: o We need to further understand the potential for increasing tax revenues from commercial property. How do we decide if the commercial tax rate is too high or too low? Is there any way to stabilize this income so that it doesnOt vary greatly with the state of the economy? o What fraction of people visiting Lexington Center are from out of town? How do we balance use of Lexington Center by Town residents versus its role as a regional shopping center? o Having a mix of businesses that adequately serves the needs of residents is important. For example, people feel that restaurants and a movie theatre are important, but might not care if there were one less real estate office. How can we ensure a good mix of businesses. o We should acknowledge that commercial centers in adjacent towns are important resources for Town residents. For example, not all shopping needs have to be satisfied by transporting residents into Lexington Center. o We should consider peak hour traffic as a different problem from non-peak traffic. o Our final report should try to reconcile land use figures that seem to be inconsistent. For example, the Planning Board and the Conservation Commission seem to have different ways of counting the amount of open space left in Lexington. o A cooperative agreement with Arlington regarding the Arlington/Lexington Great Meadow could protect this major parcel of open space. What possibilities in this regard would Arlington accept? 6. Mike Hanauer provided a brief explanation of his memorandum entitled "Lexington Sustainability and Implementation" . In discussion of this memorandum, the Working Group noted that it contained items that could be useful when extracted and included in subcommittee reports. It was suggested that sustainability could be addressed by writing a statement that would indicate that we are aware that the future evolution of the Town of Lexington will be influenced by the national (and international) movement toward sustainable practices. 7. Plans for completing the environmental scan were discussed. It was noted that there is overlap between the topics addressed by the various subcommittees. It was accepted that this can be resolved when the individual reports are merged. The following procedure was adopted: o Subcommittee chairs should provide a final revision of their reports to Karl Kastorf (using the email address kastorf@shore.net) by Sunday, February 20. o The submission should indicate which paragraphs the subcomittee thinks are important for inclusion in the final environmental scan. Keep in mind that the final scan will be about 5 pages long, which implies that less than one page can be devoted to each subcommittee topic. o Karl will merge the submissions into a draft master copy. He will then pass this copy on to other subcommittee chairs for their review and revision. This process will procede _in an ad hoc manner to achieve quick turn-around given that some people may be traveling r unavailable on particular days. All original material, whether included in the draft environmental scan or not, will be retained in an appendix so that no information will be lost to the Group. mail box:/Macintosh%2OHD/System%20Foider/ Preferences/Netscape%20Jsers/