2016-05-06-AC-STM2-STM4-rpt (supplement)

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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE-STM 2016-2 AND STM 2016-4(PART 2) Special Town Meeting 2016-2 Analysis and Recommendations The Warrant for Special Town Meeting 2016-2 has one unresolved article. Article 2016-2.2: Land Purchase — 20 Pelham Road Funds Requested Funding Source Committee Recommendation $8,000,000 GF Debt Approve (7-1) Background The property at 20 Pelham Road was formerly known as the Armenian Sisters Academy, a private K-8 school. It is comprised of about 8.4 acres of land with a mostly one-story school building constructed in 1959, with two paved driveways and two small paved parking lots. Roughly four acres of the plot is cov- ered by woods, with a small clearing on the west side of the building. The large wooded area includes roughly 2 acres marked as wetlands by the Mass Dept. of Environmental Protection. The building offers slightly less than half the classroom capacity of other Lexington Public Schools elementary schools; it presently includes space for 10 classrooms, as well as a large two-story gym, a cafeteria, and administra- tive offices. The property abuts the new Community Center adjacent to the old carriage house. The School Committee and other Town officials became interested in purchasing the property after the Academy closed in June 2015 due to dwindling enrollment. The Town's interest in the property is based on its potential to satisfy the current and future facility needs of the Lexington Public Schools, and/or possible municipal facility needs. This interest is driven by the Town's strategic needs, i.e., that the Town's public schools are already overcrowded and facing rising enrollments, and that important munici- pal facilities including the Headquarters Fire Station and the Police Station need to be renovated or re- placed. New sites may be needed for schools, for the school administration, for the Town's preschool program, for the fire and police stations, or for swing space for various projects. At present, the Town has very limited options to develop new facilities for either school or municipal needs, including the acquisi- tion of land. Potential Uses The acquisition of the 20 Pelham Road property will not solve an immediate problem commensurate with its cost to the Town, furthermore no long term use of the property has been identified. Instead, the acqui- sition is expected to give the Town an alternative location for a range of possible facilities as a number of both major and medium-scale capital projects evolve. Opportunities to acquire useful property for the Town are always fleeting. These opportunities must be considered as they arise, and they are rarely coordinated with the timing of the Town's long-term needs. When such properties are not acquired by the Town, they are usually sold to private developers, preclud- ing any future chance for acquisition. Currently, the Town has very little in the way of unused property at locations that are considered practical for school or municipal facilities. To develop short- and long-term options for the locations of new facili- ties, the Town may consider acquiring a limited number of strategically located properties. To do this, the Town must proceed in a timely manner when such properties become available, even when the final use cannot be determined at the time of acquisition. There are inherent risks in this strategy. The Town's capacity to handle additional debt service on large property purchases is constrained due to existing and anticipated capital expenditures. Acquiring any 2