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Minutes from Capital Expenditures Committee Meeting 01/18/11, 8:OOam, Town Office Building, Rm 111 Members Present: Bill Hurley, David Kanter, Shirley Stolz, Charles Lamb (Chair) Member Absent: Ted Edson Other Attendees: Deb Mauger (Selectman), Bill Hays (Lexington Housing Assistance Board [LexHAB]), Joel Adler (Community Preservation Committee [CPC]), George Burnell (Selectman), Pat Goddard (Director, Department of Public Facilities) Documents Presented and Reviewed: Capital Request Summary (LexHAB) Fire Headquarters Options Report to Board of Selectmen (BoS) Discussion of LexHAB Request to the CPC for a $450K Set -aside The recent way of LexHAB's approach to adding affordable rental units was to pay interest on the mortgages for those acquisitions until that liability could be eliminated by funds from the Town's Community Preservation Fund (CPF). This amounted to $1,600 /month x 10 months or more (could be a total of $22.5K). They also lost rent (on the order of $5.5K) while clearing all the State requirements regarding affordable housing and eligibility for inclusion on Lexington Subsidized Housing Inventory (LSHI). They also need a second closing to add deed restrictions and a mortgage ($1.5K —$2.OK in extra legal costs). There is also the lost opportunity of an earlier providing of the housing as the unit can't be occupied until the second closing. Deed restrictions can't be placed on the unit until Town Meeting has closed. The set -aside approach simplifies the whole process, saves funds (whether the CPF's or LexHAB's), reduces the burden on the Planning Department's in -house staff (as they help LexHAB with the paperwork), and provides housing to the needy sooner. The actual acquisitions would need to be approved, in advance, by the BoS. The Committee suggested that LexHAB verify that streamlined process really works in other towns and also recommended that the project guidelines, along with including the CPC as an advisor to the BoS in the project- approval process, explicitly be included in the presentation of the Article to the 2011 Annual Town Meeting (ATM) and in the CPC report to that Meeting. (We intend to include those points in our Report to that Meeting.) LexHAB is only asking for $450K this year, but might want more in the future. The CPC has given no assurance about any future funding, but would entertain year -by -year submittals by LexHAB. Discussion of Lexington Fire Department (LFD) Headquarters Equipment Floor & Modular Office Space (Pat Goddard) The range for shoring the floor is $150K— $450K. $10.6K of an existing appropriation is being used to do a study to shrink that range. The estimate for modular offices out back of the Headquarters is $106K, but that doesn't include any required site work (e.g., plumbing, etc.). $7.3K of an existing appropriation is being used to do a study to get a better handle of the all -in estimate. The request to the 2011 ATM will be for the upper ends of the current estimates (i.e., $700K; $450K for the floor & $250K for the modular, all -in). The Committee will be especially interested in reviewing the space -need component that's included in the modular - related study as to exactly how much additional space is needed and, equally important, Page 1 of 2