HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-10-08-AC-min
October 8, 2007
Minutes
Town of Lexington Appropriation Committee
October 8, 2007
Place and time: Police Station Guard Room, 8:00 p.m.
Members present: Alan Levine (Chair), Rod Cole (Vice Chair), John Bartenstein
(Secretary), Deborah Brown, Richard Eurich, Michael Kennealy, Susan McLeish, Eric
Michelson, Rob Addelson (ex officio, non-voting)
Also present: Patrick Mehr
Proposed Shire TIF agreement
1.. Patrick Mehr raised concerns about the two
agreements (200/300 parcels and 400 parcel), in particular a concern whether they
provide adequate protection against Shire locating its manufacturing elsewhere in the
next year. He posed a question about the consequences under the TIF if Shire doesn’t
ultimately develop the manufacturing facility (planned for parcel 400). Rob Addelson
responded that the TIF is meant to be an incentive to develop all three parcels, to locate
manufacturing here, and to carry out the complete capital investment that Shire has
described, although there is no binding language in contract currently.
Discussion ensued about the specifics of the two agreements. The Committee
concluded that the $3.1 million in mitigation payments should be enforceable if either
one or both agreements are carried out, otherwise we will have to re-evaluate our position
on support/approval. It was agreed to add a paragraph about this in our report.
Rob Addelson raised an issue about the 400 parcel. In order to create this parcel,
the current 400/500 parcel must be subdivided (hence the separate contract). Patriot
Partners has just submitted a lot plan that also shows changes to the 200 and 300 parcel
lot lines. This is troublesome to Town Counsel in terms of drafting the TIF agreement to
make sure there’s appropriate language describing the parcels. This impacts base values
and increments, so Rob also wants time to review the implications with the Assessor. He
said that Town Meeting may be asked to approve the fundamental terms and conditions
of the agreement and authorize the BOS to negotiate and execute a final agreement
consistent with the fundamental terms and conditions of the October 10 drafts.
Deborah expressed reservations about presenting this to Town Meeting in this
way, and suggested that there would likely be great resistance to approving the proposal
without specific language and a final agreement. She also felt it important to run the
scenarios with new base values so the Committee can confirm that the financial
projections won’t materially change. Others shared these concerns and Rob agreed to
communicate these concerns to the negotiating team.
Voting on Articles
2. . Susan added her votes to Articles 2, 3, 4, 5 making all
votes 9-0.
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October 8, 2007
Report approval.
3. The Committee voted 8-0 to approve the most recent draft
of its Report to the Special Town Meeting as edited and subject to any additional non-
material editing changes.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Brown
Approved January 9, 2008
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