Planning Board Minutes 1992-05-18

Browse Search

PLANNING BOARD MINUTES MEETING OF MAY 18, 1992 The meeting of the Lexington Planning Board held in Room G-15, Town Office Building, was called to order at 7:37 p.m. by Vice-Chairman Domnitz, with members Davison, Grant, Planning Director Bowyer, Assistant Planner Marino and Secretary Tap present. Mrs. Wood arrived during Item 79. Mr. Williams arrived during Item 80. 79. Review of Minutes: The Board reviewed and corrected the minutes for the meeting of May 4, 1992. On the motion of Mrs. Davison, seconded by Mrs. Wood, it was voted 3-0 to approve the minutes, as amended. ************************ PLANNING DIRECTOR'S REPORT *********************** 60. Staff Reports a. APA National Conference: Mr. Bowyer reported on the American Planning Association's conference held in Washington D.C. , May 9-13, at which he conducted a workshop on capital improvement programs. He described the content of a number of the other sessions he attended and the issues discussed. b. U.S. Census Bureau Data User Conference: Mr. Marino reported that there is a great deal of information in printed form available from the Census Bureau. When the CD player in the Planning Department is operational, the Town may also purchase the CD which contains all of the data for New England. In connection with this, Mrs. Davison related that she had attended a Cape Cod Commission meeting and had seen equipment that displays geographic information system (GIS) data. Mr. Bowyer said that many towns, like Lexington, have a great deal of data like that in the Cape Cod GIS, but the ability to integrate and retrieve it rapidly remains to be accomplished. Mr. Marino has made a notebook full of statistics on Massachusetts and surrounding towns and it is available for anyone who wishes to see it. More will be available in the future. c. Lowell Street Site: Mr. Bowyer reported that Peter Kelley has purchased the D'Arrigo property, 5 acres of land overlooking Middlesex Mall. The staff was approached by Gary Larson who told them that the developer intends to submit a subdivision plan, probably a cluster subdivision, but would also like to bring a rezoning petition before Town Meeting next year. They would like to do a multi-family development, some of which would be affordable housing. Mr. Bowyer feels that it may be worthwhile to repeat the type of process that was used with Lexington Ridge which he thinks was very successful on the Town's part. This included. 1) the Planning Board and other boards and committees thinking independently about the site even before specific propos- als were submitted, to look at what objectives would be desirable for the site, and 2) to then work with the developer and the other boards and commit- tees, e.g. Selectmen, LexHAB, Conservation Commission, etc. , toward those goals. Mrs. Davison hopes that the process will involve the neighborhood. According to Mr. Williams there is a very vocal group of abutters, . He reminded the