Planning Board minutes 1989-06-05

Browse Search

Minutes for the Meeting of June 6, 1989 3 152. Affordable Housing Options Committee; Pine Meadows - Meagherville Site Development Committee, discussion: The Board discussed a memo to the Planning Board from the Planning Director, dated May 31, 1989, about the two committees to be appointed under the approved Article 55, of the 1989 Annual Town Meet- ing, and the call for a "town wide affordable housing plan". Mrs. Uhrig commented there appeared to be a lot of work to be done, and asked whether any of the work done last year by then Planning Aide, Joseph Marino, would be useful. The Board discussed the justifications listed favoring a town wide plan. Mr. Bowyer noted that while the gathering of data for the study is time consuming, there is another major element of work that can be very time consuming also, and that is decision making by public officials in order to reach consensus on what the town wants in affordable housing, and this plan is adopted by town officials. In response to a question from Mrs. Klauminzer, as to how detailed this plan should be, Mr. Bowyer said it should be an implementation plan that would set targets for the number of affordable housing units that ought to be build in Lexington, as well as how fast this should be accomplished. The plan should also identify and group sites in priority groups, and get quite specific as to reasonable densities, impacts on town services, schools, utilities and neighborhoods Mr. Bowyer reported that the work done by the committee working on revisions to Chapter 774 recommend changes in the procedural rules of the Housing 1 Appeals Committee to essentially provide rewards and incentives to those towns who are sincerely making an effort to produce affordable housing and were not getting credit for local initiatives that did not use state of federal programs. There are items that will be required to verify this efforts, and one of these will be a housing plan. Mrs. Klauminzer reported she met with Selectman Jack Eddison, and the Planning Director last week, and one of the items discussed was various goals and policies of the different town boards and committees. They discussed forming gone sub-group, within the Affordable Housing Options Committee, to look at possible conflicts between housing objectives and other town goals and policies; and another sub-group to examine techniques for creating affordable housing, with identification and prioritizing of sites to happen later. The meeting was adjourned at 10: 23 p.m. Eleanor Klauminzer, Clefk