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Town of Lexington <br /> PLANNING BOARD <br /> Richard L. Canale,Chair <br /> 1625 Massachusetts Avenue Ginna Johnson,Clerk <br /> 1� Lexington,MA 02420 Nancy Corcoran-Ronchetti <br /> Tel(781)698-4560 Bob Creech <br /> Yr 1 plannin a)lexingtoinna.�ov Charles Hornig <br /> wwwlexingtoinna.gov/planning Michael Leon,Associate <br /> PLANNING BOARD REPORT <br /> TO THE <br /> 2017 ANNUAL TOWN MEETING <br /> ON ARTICLE 41 - REVISE DEFINITIONS <br /> RECOMMENDATION <br /> At its meeting of March 8, 2017, the Planning Board voted, unanimously, to recommend <br /> APPROVAL of Article 41. <br /> This report was accepted by a unanimous vote of the Planning Board on March 8, 2016. <br /> DESCRIPTION <br /> The purpose of this article is to address issues identified during the implementation of the <br /> gross floor area(GFA)requirements adopted under Article 41 of the 2016 Annual Town <br /> Meeting. Given the attention to floor area the development process now requires it is evident <br /> that a number of definitions must be clarified, revised, updated, or deleted to reflect the intent <br /> of last year's article. <br /> SUMMARY <br /> The genesis for this article is rooted in a discrepancy between the Massachusetts Building <br /> Code and the Town's Zoning Bylaw. The current definition of a crawl space in the Lexington <br /> Zoning Bylaw differs from the State Building Code definition of the same. This has led to <br /> large discrepancies in how GFA is measured in both the lowest level of and/or the top level <br /> of newly constructed homes. <br /> Secondarily, comparing the two codes' common terms revealed a number of other <br /> clarifications that will assist Town Staff with implementation the Town's Zoning Bylaw and, <br /> in particular, the requirements for gross floor area. <br /> PUBLIC OUTREACH <br /> Over the last year the Board held a number of public outreach events to discuss the articles it <br /> intended to bring to the 2017 Annual Town Meeting. The first event, a community <br /> workshop, was held in October of 2016, where a number of concepts and draft proposals <br /> were shared with the public. This was followed up with a more formal public information <br /> 1 <br />