2012-03-15-HPB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

# _ Lexington Housing Partnership Meeting Minutes for March 15, 2012 Attendees: Ken Kreutziger, Chris Kluchman, Wendy Manz, Florence Baturin, Mary Haskell, Betsey Weiss, Harriet Cohen, Melinda Walker Chris Kluchman chaired the meeting; Harriet Cohen took the minutes. The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm. 1. Open Meeting Approval of Minutes for December 15, 2011: ■ Several clarifications to the minutes were proposed and accepted. ■ The motion to approve the minutes as updated passed unanimously. 2. Housing Forum — Wrap up /Follow up The Lexington Housing Partnership (LHP) noted the large turnout to a successful forum. The LHP believes that the forum met the LHP's goals of conveying information about affordable housing in Lexington to a diverse set of attendees. There was brief discussion of having another forum at a later time and what could be done to improve the content and reach of the forum, for example, by ensuring that LexMedia would be available to record it. At the forum, the LHP had committed to posting the PowerPoint presentations at the LHP web site. Ms. Cohen said she would send the presentation in PDF format to the LHP for posting. 3. Busa Property The LHP noted with some concern the acrimonious nature of comments on various town list - serves related to the use of the Busa property, with the concern slightly mitigated by the observation that at least there is now discussion of housing policy. The LHP discussed ways in which to elevate the email exchanges to focus on the facts, and, in anticipation of a decision by the Board of Selectmen (BoS) at its next meeting, to advocate for our position of eight affordable housing units on the property. The LHP observed that there has been a process in which the Busa Land Use Proposal Committee ( BLUPC) heard discussions and deliberated over Busa land usage, and then presented their proposal to the BoS. The proposal presented by BLUPC represents a compromise that provides open space, affordable housing and farm land. In this proposal, Map 20 Lot 38 on Lowell Street is the recommended site for affordable housing. The LHP endorses BLUPC's proposal. The LHP concluded that the most effective action it could take now would be to write a letter to the BoS with its endorsement of the proposal, and then post an online version of the letter to relevant list - serves. The following motion was made and was approved unanimously: On behalf of the LHP, Ms. Kluchman will write a letter to the Board of Selectman in support of the proposed usage of the Busa property and specifically supporting the use of the Map 20 Lot 38 parcel.