2017-04-19-EDAC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Town of Lexington Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) Minutes of Meeting April 19, 2017 A meeting of the EDAC was held on Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at 8:00 a.m. in the Parker Room of the Town Office Building. Members Present: George Burnell, Rick DeAngelis, John McWeeney, David Pronchick, Sig Tullmann, Narain Bhatia, Kevin McGuire, Charles Minasian Staff Present: Melisa Tintocalis, Carol Kowalski Liaisons Present: Charles Hornig, Joe Pato Members Absent: Tom Dusel, Larry Smith MOTIONS None ACTION ITEMS 1.Work with a sub-committee to develop content for a June 2017 Economic Development Summit with the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board; include the following volunteers Kevin Maguire, George Burnell, Charlie Minasian, and Charlie Hornig. MEETING NOTES Town Meeting Charles Horning reported that Town Meeting approved Article 43; however, the article did not include the by-right FAR of .35 nor did it include a fast-food service by-right. Charles reported that the Board of Selectmen had wanted the floor area ratio to be higher than what the Planning Board was will to accept. Town Meeting approved the floor area ratio to go above .15 with a Special Permit. Additionally, the Board of Selectmen wanted to include fast food services as a by-right use in the CRO district to enhance the potential for more amenities, however, the Planning Board opted to include the use only with a special permit. Economic Development Summit Melisa Tintocalis reported that given the different responses by the Board of Selectmen and Planning Board to Article 43 the Town Manager suggested there be and economic development summit in June to discuss if there is general agreement on an approach to economic development. The committee members suggested that it would be helpful to start the development of the summit content with an understanding of the Town’s current financial condition. Joe Pato suggested it would be helpful to outline the summit by explaining the forthcoming debt, review the relative growth rates, and discuss what might be options to stimulate commercial growth. The committee members then discussed and itemized key points of data that they agreed should be included in assessing the existing conditions of commercial environment in the Town. These included: