2002 Comprehensive Plan Executive Summary

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INTRODUCTION The summaries that follow are drawn from The Lexington We Want: Comprehensive Plan, First Four Elements, approved by the Planning Board in January 2002. That document provides a broad statement of collective intentions about the kind of Town that those involved want Lexington to be. It both frames overarching policy and outlines specific actions for implementation. This work builds upon a strong planning legacy that reaches from the Town's pioneering planning and zoning in the early 20 century to the contemporary Lexington 2020 planning process. Over that entire period Lexington's growth and change have been guided thoughtfully and creatively in a process to which the preparation of these four elements is one more contribution. This effort will be followed by many others, most immediately by preparation of the remaining elements included in the current statutory outline of what constitutes a comprehensive plan. This work has been carried out under the direction of the Planning Board, assisted by a Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC) created by the Board, and supported by staff and consultants. It is important to note that this Plan isn't a law or regulation or a commitment to funding or organizational change, but it does provide guidance for all of those, reflecting agreement about intentions among those charged with carrying out the Plan. The Lexington which people want has been revealed in many ways through this planning work, importantly including a range of public activities ranging from smaller focus group meetings to larger evening forums. There is a healthy diversity of views on the particulars of that future vision, but there is a clear thread on which there is wide agreement. Strikingly, the "Town -Wide Vision Statement" for the Lexington of 2020 as earlier articulated by the Lexington 2020 Core Participants Group would equally well stand as a Vision for this work on the Comprehensive Plan. That congruence in values expressed provides an affirmation for both efforts. Summaries of four Comprehensive Plan elements follow: Land Use, Natural and Cultural Resources, Housing and Economic Development. Each begins with a discussion of background information, then describes goals and objectives, and an agenda of implementing actions to be taken or at least explored. Some actions by their nature appear in multiple elements: much of the Land Use element is an abbreviated restatement of initiatives more fully outlined in the other three elements. There similarly will be convergence between some items in these elements and items not yet developed in the four elements still to come. No plan of this kind is ever "Final." The process of thoughtful and creative planning guidance will continue to evolve even after completion of the remaining elements.