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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-01-28-PB-min PLANNING BOARD MINUTES MEETING OF JANUARY 28, 2009 A regular meeting of the Lexington Planning Board in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room, Town Office Building was called to order at 7:30 p.m. by Chairman Hornig with members Galaitsis and Canale, and planning staff McCall-Taylor, Henry, and Kaufman present. Ms. Manz was absent and Mr. Zurlo joined the meeting in progress. *******************************TOWN MEETING************************************* CM and NFI District Changes, Article 44: At the beginning of the meeting Mr. Galaitsis stated that he felt sick, and informed the chairman that he would depart as soon as a quorum was achieved without him. Mr. Hornig said he wanted to reach a consensus with the Board about what should be presented at the public forum next week. Mr. Galaitsis restated his desire that the articles presented to the public and Town Meeting contain specific and measurable controls of traffic impacts on nearby residential areas. Without numbers he would have trouble supporting this. Mr. Canale asked for clarification on when an applicant requested a special permit if the intent would be a site plan review as opposed to a site plan approval. Mr. Hornig said if a special permit and site plan review were needed the mechanics for this would be addressed under the rules of section 12 with the Planning Board as the Special Permit Granting Authority (SPGA). Mr. Galaitsis expressed concerns about developments over 10,000 square feet and without any explicit upper limit not requiring a special permit. Mr. Hornig said run of the mill development should not require a special permit. Mr. Zurlo joined the meeting at 7:45 p.m. and Mr. Galaitsis left the meeting shortly after that. Mr. Zurlo said signs should be included on the list of triggers for a site plan review. Mr. Canale said standing signs should be added as a trigger for site plan review. Mr. Zurlo said that the Board should establish a lower tier review for site plan review that would not be onerous. Page 2 Minutes for the Meeting of January 28, 2009 Mr. Canale questioned why in Table 2 the minimum yard adjacent to a residential district was changed from 100 feet to 50 feet and stated he would be more comfortable with that change if instead it could be waived by special permit. Mr. Zurlo saw no benefit to that. Mr. Canale said the Board had not discussed a floor area ratio (FAR) greater then .35 and was looking for justification of the .40 FAR being proposed in this presentation. Mr. Canale said decisions needed to be made by the Board of Selectmen in order for this plan to work. Ms. McCall-Taylor said she would work with Mr. Canale to draft a proposal to present to the Board of Selectmen for adoption regarding guiding principles and priorities of the transportation plan. Mr. Hornig explained the reason .40 FAR was used because it was a LEED minimum s he interpreted it. Mr. Zurlo said he could support between .35 and .40 FAR. Mr. Canale said that he could not support a .40 FAR. Transportation Management Overlay District: Mr. Henry discussed the changes and explained the bare bones of the plan were in section C(4). Mr. Zurlo said he was not sure the overlay was the right way to go especially when the language was so complicated. There was also a concern about section (5)(c) and the monies collected within the district; where would they be spent? Mr. Hornig explained that monies collected within the overlay district would be collected from the generators of the impacts and would be spent on what was related to the impacts it created, even if outside the district. Mr. Canale said that the Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) would be disappointed about how the fees maybe defined because it appeared to be ruling out operational and maintenance costs. Mr. Henry said that in the plan the Board could determine what would be acceptable items in the toolbox or omit what would not work. Mr. Canale said that TAC would want some assurance that a requirement would be made for a certain level of transit being financed and would want some funding for Lexpress to help reduce single occupancy vehicle trips. They might be flexible as to which transit solution would be financed as long as there was something put in the plan. Mr. Hornig said the Board could refer to the current list, but was not sure if they want everything on the list. Mr. Canale inquired about changing the name from TMO to something else. Map Boundaries: The map boundaries shown for the proposed district included the CM zone, the CRO zone along Bedford Street and Lincoln Labs. Minutes for the Meeting of January 28, 2009 Page 3 Beal Company, Three Ledgemont; Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): Ms. Susan Yanofsky, Economic Development Officer, came to the Board to update them on the status of the mitigation negotiations. The MOU would run with the property and would not be spelled out in the PSDUP. The MOU would request payment up front and the performance measures would be included in the special permit as a standard to be met. Ms. Yanofsky said she looked at past mitigations for some trend, but could find none and then reviewed what others were doing and used those scenarios to help determine what would be needed for mitigations. ***********************PLANNING BOARD ORGANIZATION SCHEDULE***************** The Planning Board schedule was distributed. *********************************** STAFF REPORTS******************************** A copy of the fiscal year 2009 Commonwealth Capital application showing a score of 96 was distributed to the Board; it was 21 points higher than our last application filed in 2006. On a motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn the meeting at 10:44 p.m. Richard Canale, Acting Clerk