2023-10-17-HPB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Against: none Ms. Cohen clarified that, per Joe Pato, it was not of interest to the Select Board as to how the RETF relates to the two Lexington home rule petitions regarding a housing surcharge. Mr. Pressman expressed his concern that the letter was not sufficiently informative for the Select Board. Ms. Manz will send the letter to the Select Board and copy the Housing Partnership Board. 5. Discussion of advocacy for Housing Resources Officer Position Ms. Manz reminded the HPB that the HPB has consistently advocated for a Housing Resources Officer. Ms. Manz spoke with Ms. McCabe, the Lexington Planning Director, who thought a Housing Resources Officer was not needed at this time. Given the current workload, the Planning Office is not able to integrate a Housing Resources Officer at this time. Ms. Kowalski, Assistant Town Manager, also felt that this was not an appropriate time to hire a Housing Resources Officer. Ms. Heitz recommended that we ask Ms. McCabe to ensure that the tasks to be identified for a Housing Resources Officer can be accommodated by current Planning Office staff. Ms. Heitz also recommended that we ask for a contact from the Planning Office to respond to questions from the HPB. To this point, questions from the HPB to the Planning Office staff frequently have gone unanswered because the staff is so busy. Mr. Hornig asked whether it would be appropriate for the AHT to employ a Housing Resources Officer rather than the Planning Office. He noted that if there are housing tasks that need to be done by the Town and the Town isn’t doing them, it would be helpful to have a list of those tasks. Mr. Pressman noted that the Amherst AHT employed a half-time consultant for four years. He also noted that he and Mr. Hornig where present at the Select Board meeting when Maggie Peard, the Town Sustainability and Resilience Officer, presented. He said that this demonstrated what a person with a dedicated housing portfolio could do. There are still good reasons to have a housing officer. The HPB agreed that the HPB would create a list of tasks and then ask the Planning Director if that work is covered. Ms. Weiss and Ms. Heitz agreed to draft the list of tasks, using the Housing Resource Officer position description previously written by the relevant working group. 6. Review and approve final Draft Property (formerly Land Acquisition) Policy Recommendation for Select Board Ms. Manz presented the draft Property Policy Recommendation. It incorporates suggestions from the stakeholder groups. The draft also incorporates suggestions from Mr. Hornig and others on the HPB. Mr. Zhao recommended that the phrase “stakeholder group” be changed to “stakeholders”. He also recommended that if a stakeholder withdraws from discussion of a property that the