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RE: Planning Office for Urban Affairs (continued) BOARD OF APPEALS HEARINGS August 7, 1973 The five regular members of the Board of Appeals met in the Selectmen's meeting room at 7;30 p.m. to continue the executive session (so-called), which is open to theup blic, except that spectators cannot interrupt or dis- rupt the procedures as the Board members discuss and deliberate in an attempt to come to a decision on the petition of the request of the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, Inc. for a comprehensive permit under the provisions of Chapter 40B, Sections 20-23, for the construction of sixteen town -house type dwelling units upon approximately 97,801 sq. ft. of land located at 56 to 60 Worthen Road, said land being the northwesterly portion of Lot 9A on Map 57 of the Property Map of the Town of Lexington, made by James W. Sewell Company, Old Town, Maine. Construction of this housing is proposed to be financed by the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency and it is intended that the dwelling units will be made available to persons of low and moderate income, without regard to age, eligible for federal or state subsidy programs. Notice of this date was posted on the bulletin board of the Town Clerk and the Lexington Minuteman newspaper printed advice of the meeting in the headlines on page 1. The Board had invited Mr. Donald K. Irwin, building inspector, to attend to give the Board further information about BOCA versus the Lexington Build- ing and Sign By -Law. During a half hour questioning and according to a letter ' he wrote to the Board and other materials in which he explained that BOCA is an organization which has been working for several years to prepare a code which will hopefully be accepted by towns, cities and states, a room full of people including a reporter from the Lexington Minute Man Publications listened. If BOCA is accepted it would succeed the Lexington Building Code. Mr. Irwin said that in some cases BOCA is less strict than our Lexington Code. He repeated that he could give no recommendations to the Board in the case of these 16 units until working drawings and specifications were prepared for his study. Mr. Irwin could offer no guarantee that commission members would not come out with some- thing entirely different then the BOCA code which the Planning Office (petitioner) said they would follow. (see file folder for letter and other materials) The Chairman read a letter from Palmer and Dodge, legal counsel for the town. A review of all the testimony and supporting documents presented at`the July 31 hearing was carefully done. All material including a transcript are in the petitioner's folder in the Board of Appeals' office. Finally it was moved and seconded, by Mr. Sheldon and Mr. Brodhead that the petition be granted with the reservation that if the vote were favorable that conditions could be imposed if deemed necessary. After a short discussion the motion was lost by a vote of 2 to 3, those in favor being Mr. Sheldon and Mr. Brodhead, those opposed being Mrs. Morey and Messrs. Wadsworth and Nickerson. (see the final Denial issued for details of findings and reasons for denial) Respectfully submitted, Z- cla_� Evelyn F. Cole, Clerk