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PLANNING BOARD MINUTES
<br />MEETING OF MAY 2, 2001
<br />The meeting of the Lexington Planning Board held at the Museum of Our National Heritage began shortly
<br />after 7:00 p.m. with Chairman Galaitsis, members Davies, Harden, Planning Director Garber, and
<br />Assistant Planner McCall - Taylor present. Philip Herr and Sarah James, of Herr and James and Associates,
<br />planning consultants co -led the evening's discussions. Members of the Comprehensive Plan Advisory
<br />Committee — Tom DeNoto, Karl Kastorf, Jeanne Krieger, Wendy Manz, Jerry Moloney, Lee Sinai, and
<br />Susan Solomon, Elaine Dratch, and Iris Wheaton— were present as well as Peter Bunzick, 39 Vine Street,
<br />and Debbie Tyson, a Clark University student.
<br />COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING
<br />Lexington citizens participated in a workshop to view the Town's planning process through the "lens" of
<br />community sustainability, and to identify additional steps the Town might take to move toward this goal.
<br />In reviewing the proposals that have already emerged in the comprehensive planning process and also the
<br />Vision 2020 process, it became clear that many planning proposals already further this goal. Many
<br />creative suggestions developed to augment or enhance existing proposals.
<br />Using a framework of four sustainability objectives introduced at the onset of the workshop, participants
<br />worked in four groups that corresponded to the four elements of the Comprehensive Plan, applying the
<br />principles to their particular topic – Land Use, Economic Development, Housing, and, Natural Resources.
<br />The sustainability objectives are based upon an approach to sustainability known as the Natural Step,
<br />developed by a group of scientists in Sweden. Those same principles are also the guiding objectives for
<br />the American. Planning Association's Planning for Sustainability Policy Guide. In brief, the objectives are
<br />to support or develop planning policies and approaches that 1) reduce dependence on activities that use
<br />fossil fuels, underground metals, and minerals; 2) reduce dependence upon activities that use chemicals
<br />and other synthetic substances; 3) reduce dependence upon activities that encroach upon nature; and, 4)
<br />meet human needs fairly and efficiently, giving priority to basic needs (food, water, shelter, means of
<br />livelihood, etc.)
<br />Finally, participants identified particular actions they felt to be of highest priority for the Town to move
<br />toward. The results were an interweaving web of actions that can serve both to interrelate those four
<br />elements of the Comprehensive Plan and to guide Town actions more toward sustainable practices.
<br />In the continuing comprehensive planning process, participants will be exploring additional strategies
<br />through which the Town might use sustainability objectives as a means of providing interrelationships
<br />and internal consistency among the range of Town policies and practices. One idea that emerged strongly
<br />was that the Town could make itself into an exemplar through re- orienting municipal practices and
<br />operations in the direction of these four objectives. This notion, among others, will be explored in the
<br />next phase of the planning process.
<br />Results were tabulated by first organizing ideas by sustainability objective, then by the topic groups in
<br />which attendees participated (making clear the willing creativity of groups in going outside the borders of
<br />their assignments). Each group selected five items as being of the highest priority, and, by next "voting"
<br />with red dots, all those participating gave farther priority to their favorites among those selected items.
<br />Of the 78 actions listed, the participants gave highest priority to the development of more sidewalks and
<br />bike paths throughout town to encourage less car use. Passage of the Community Preservation Act was
<br />cited within the context of natural resources, economic development and affordable housing. Actions with
<br />the next priority level were revision of zoning to encourage energy - efficient development that is
<br />clustered, multi - functional with retail services, and the promotion of non - mansionization.
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