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PLANNING BOARD MINUTES MEETING OF MARCH 31, 2021 Minutes of the Lexington Planning Board Held on March 31st, 2021, Virtual Meeting per Governor Baker’s Order at 5:05 pm Present: Charles Hornig, Chair; Robert Peters, Vice-Chair; Michael Schanbacher, Clerk; and Robert Creech. Also present was Amanda Loomis, Planning Director and Sheila Page, Assistant Planning Director. Melanie Thompson joined the meeting later. Mr. Hornig stated that this remote participation meeting was being held in accordance with Governor Baker’s March 12, 2020 Executive Order suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law to allow remote participation during the State of Emergency due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Mr. Hornig provided instructions to members of the public, who were watching or listening to the meeting via the Zoom application, regarding the process for making a public comment. *****************************TOWN MEETING********************************** Consideration of Proposed Amendments to Zoning Articles: Articles 39, 41, 44, and 45: There were no proposed amendments to Articles 39 and 41. Article 44: Robert Peters moved that the Planning Board approve the amendment to Article 44 as proposed which would change the threshold for requiring a loading bay for office uses in the Table of Loading Requirements to 10,000 square feet. Michael Schanbacher seconded the motion. The Planning Board voted in favor of the motion 4-0-0 (Roll call: Robert Peters – yes; Michael Schanbacher – yes; Charles Hornig – yes; Robert Creech - yes). MOTION PASSED Article 45: Ms. Arens presented a proposed amendment from the Sustainable Lexington Committee on height limitations based on energy use. Staff Comments and Questions:  Ms. Iyer said they reached out to many developers and others who said the goal was to get to a place we all could agree on, the 15 BTU was too prescriptive, we should be more flexible, and it would send the developers elsewhere. It would be better to do this on a case-by- case basis. We do not support adding building code language to the zoning bylaws.  Ms. Loomis said they spoke with a lot of people, did a lot of research, and kept getting other numbers. Staff was not against sustainability, but this was a very