2017-04-24-CEC-ATM-STM1-rpt (incl Updates Errata)

Browse Search

CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO 2017 ATM&STM 2017-1 (with Updates&Errata) Five-Year Capital Plan The table on the next three pages summarizes the five-year capital plan that this Committee is submitting for Town Meeting's consideration. It reflects the expected FY2018 appropriations at the 2017 ATM and STM 2017-1 and the FY2019–FY2022 requests that this Committee contemplates. We started with the amounts and timing shown in the Brown Book, Page XI-4 &-5 for FY2018, and XI-32 for FY2019–FY2022. Those requests have been updated based on any information we received after it was published and we have made additional entries or changes in the out years where we feel,based on earlier studies, design&engineering (D&E) (also architect/engineer [A/E]) work, or the existence of a multi-phase project, that there might be future requests,but where there is no formal position taken by the Town. In that vein,there are important caveats to that table: • Please see the footnotes for information on the status of many of the entries and how this Committee's position differs from that presented by the Town in the Brown Book. • Excluding the many tens of millions of dollars of to-be-determined(TBD) entries, the total in this Committee's Plan for FY2019–FY2022 is almost $116 million. The TBD entries include future construction phases and yet to be determined elements of projects for which there may be additional phases not yet specified or significant unknowns in the cost estimates (e.g., the Lexington Public School Educational Capacity Increase or Center Streetscape Project). In addition, there are several items on the Projects Agenda for which planning does not yet allow reliable estimates, even for peacekeepers (including renovation to the Hosmer House, eventual repurposing of Town-owned unit in the Muzzey Condominiums). • The Capital Stabilization Fund(CSF) is receiving another meaningful appropriation for FY2018. (See Article 24) For several years we have been building the resources of this Fund so that we can use them toward mitigation of the tax impact of the debt service from our capital projects. Given the current proposed and possible out-year projects in our Capital Plan, it is expected that the use of the CSF to mitigate our debt service will fully deplete that reserve before the debt service for the projects currently contemplated in this Plan is completed. Additionally, an appeal to the voters to support exclusion of major capital projects from the limitation of Proposition 2'/2 is expected in the fall. • Compounding the challenge of the next five years, inevitably there will be "Big-Ticket"projects facing the Town in the years past FY2022 (e.g., the High School). • Because of the huge challenge this Town faces with regard to the renovation/replacement/renewal of its Capital Assets, this Committee urges the BoS to continue to refine a formal, Town-wide, Facilities Master Plan—including a financing plan. This Committee stands ready to assist in any way it can. • This Committee appreciates the Town's concern about citing a preliminary estimate for projects that are not yet well defined and, hence, the Town's out-year amounts generally do not reflect the costs in then-year dollars. As this Committee does not have the means reasonably to adjust current-year values to then-year values, we are using the Town's dollar values unless we have made a change for another reason—in which case there will be a footnote explaining that. 10