2009-11-02-CPC.min - Laserfiche WebLink

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addressed a request from the Historical Commission to use $10,000 in contingency funds from the Cultural Resources Study approved for FY 2008. She said the Historical Commission was requesting the use of the funds in order to apply for a grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC). She explained that under the 2007 appropriation, the consultant for the Commission had augmented and updated a nine volume set of historic properties in Lexington. In Vol. 1 of this series, there are descriptions of neighborhoods, among them mid-century “modern” neighborhoods. Ms. Fenollosa explained that based upon the work completed in the study, the Massachusetts Historical Commission suggested that Lexington seek registration of certain of these mid-century neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places. She said that only those neighborhoods and homes that wished to be included in the National Register would be listed. Ms. Fenollosa said her Commission believes the request to use the contingency funds falls within the scope of the original project as approved by Town Meeting in 2007. The $10,000 in funds would make it possible to apply for a matching grant of $15,000 from the MHC. The application for the th grant must be received by November 15, hence the concern by the Commission to have CPC approval as quickly as possible. There was considerable discussion about registering homes in neighborhoods, and whether the Commission knew if residents wanted the work to be done. Ms. Fenollosa said the additional work would only focus on Peacock Hill, where the neighborhood association has requested inclusion in the study. Ms. Weiss brought up her concern that the work may be outside the original scope of the CPC appropriation. After further discussion, Ms. Manz made a motion to authorize the use of $10,000 of the appropriation to apply for a State matching grant to do further research on the Peacock Hill neighborhood, so that it may become a neighborhood on the National Historic Register. The Committee voted (7-1) to support this motion, with Ms. Weiss voting against it. The Committee later revisited this motion, and Ms. Manz amended her motion to include the words, “and to include a contextual study for the neighborhood and homes currently outside the Peacock Hill neighborhood if neighbors consent”. This motion was voted on and approved, (7-1) with Ms. Weiss again voting in the negative. 5.Request for Timely Appraisal Information – Ms. Weiss brought up the issue of the CPC’s review of appraisals for land acquisitions. She suggested a time period of 7-10 business days prior to a Town Meeting vote for CPC review of appraisals. She said this would eliminate the rush the Committee experienced last May, when the CPC received the appraisal for the Busa property the night before Town Meeting. This gave little time for the Committee to formalize their report and vote on the proposal. Similarly, the finance committees had to scramble to formally vote on the acquisition, and 3