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CAPITAL EXPENDITURES COMMITTEE REPORT TO NOVEMBER 13, 2018, STM(2018-1)
<br /> Warrant-Article Explanations and Recommendations
<br /> Cites of the "Town Warrant" refer to the "TOWN WARRANT, Town of Lexington"for the
<br /> Special Town Meeting on November 13, 2018.
<br /> Special Town Meeting (STM) 2018-1
<br /> ARTICLE 3: Fund
<br /> APPROPRIATE FOR Authorization Funding Source Committee
<br /> CENTER Requested Recommends
<br /> STREETSCAPE DESIGN
<br /> $650,000 Cash (see below) Approval (6-0)
<br /> "To see if the Town will vote to raise and appropriate a sum of money to pay costs of design,
<br /> engineering and architectural services for the Center Streetscape, and all other costs necessary or
<br /> incidental thereto; determine whether the money shall be provided by the tax levy, by transfer
<br /> from available funds, by borrowing or by any combination of these methods; or act in any other
<br /> manner in relation thereto."
<br /> "DESCRIPTION: These funds will complete the design work on the Center Streetscape
<br /> design."
<br /> (Town Warrant)
<br /> The Center Streetscape Project is intended to restore and improve the Town Center's sidewalks;
<br /> lighting; tree cover; pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular access and safety; and general
<br /> attractiveness for residents, visitors, and local businesses. Originally designed as only a Center
<br /> Business District sidewalk project, the initial 25% design work was funded with $240,000 at the
<br /> 2012 Annual Town Meeting (ATM), and the rough estimate of the total cost at that time was
<br /> $3,600,000 to $4,000,000. Since then, the project has been through several public reviews and
<br /> redesigns, with substantial changes to the scope of the project and its associated estimated design
<br /> and construction costs.
<br /> At the time of the 2013 ATM, the costs were estimated, in the 5-Year Capital Plan, at $300,000
<br /> to complete the 100% design, and $3,500,000 for construction. The project was still called a
<br /> sidewalk project and was limited to the north side of Massachusetts Avenue from Depot Square
<br /> to the Town Office Building. At the 2014 ATM, $600,000 was appropriated to reach a 100%
<br /> design, with construction funding then estimated to be $6,675,000. This cost estimate was
<br /> considered a placeholder by the Town, because the scope had already increased to include other
<br /> streetscape improvements (such as lighting), and the previous design work had not yet been
<br /> updated.
<br /> At the February 10, 2016, Budget Summit, a presentation estimated the total cost of the project at
<br /> $8,500,000. Because of continuing concerns about the program's scope, no further design work
<br /> was done at that point. Instead, at its meeting on February 22, 2016, the Board of Selectmen
<br /> (BoS) formed the Ad Hoc Center Streetscape Design Review Committee, to pull together and
<br /> review all aspects of the project and to seek more community input before proceeding to a new
<br /> 25% design. In 2017, the BoS adopted almost all that committee's consensus recommendations,
<br /> and the project has proceeded to a revised 25% design using the previous funding, with a
<br /> considerably different set of design elements than those represented in the previous 25% design.
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