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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-03-15-HPB-min# _ Lexington Housing Partnership Meeting Minutes for March 15, 2012 Attendees: Ken Kreutziger, Chris Kluchman, Wendy Manz, Florence Baturin, Mary Haskell, Betsey Weiss, Harriet Cohen, Melinda Walker Chris Kluchman chaired the meeting; Harriet Cohen took the minutes. The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm. 1. Open Meeting Approval of Minutes for December 15, 2011: ■ Several clarifications to the minutes were proposed and accepted. ■ The motion to approve the minutes as updated passed unanimously. 2. Housing Forum — Wrap up /Follow up The Lexington Housing Partnership (LHP) noted the large turnout to a successful forum. The LHP believes that the forum met the LHP's goals of conveying information about affordable housing in Lexington to a diverse set of attendees. There was brief discussion of having another forum at a later time and what could be done to improve the content and reach of the forum, for example, by ensuring that LexMedia would be available to record it. At the forum, the LHP had committed to posting the PowerPoint presentations at the LHP web site. Ms. Cohen said she would send the presentation in PDF format to the LHP for posting. 3. Busa Property The LHP noted with some concern the acrimonious nature of comments on various town list - serves related to the use of the Busa property, with the concern slightly mitigated by the observation that at least there is now discussion of housing policy. The LHP discussed ways in which to elevate the email exchanges to focus on the facts, and, in anticipation of a decision by the Board of Selectmen (BoS) at its next meeting, to advocate for our position of eight affordable housing units on the property. The LHP observed that there has been a process in which the Busa Land Use Proposal Committee ( BLUPC) heard discussions and deliberated over Busa land usage, and then presented their proposal to the BoS. The proposal presented by BLUPC represents a compromise that provides open space, affordable housing and farm land. In this proposal, Map 20 Lot 38 on Lowell Street is the recommended site for affordable housing. The LHP endorses BLUPC's proposal. The LHP concluded that the most effective action it could take now would be to write a letter to the BoS with its endorsement of the proposal, and then post an online version of the letter to relevant list - serves. The following motion was made and was approved unanimously: On behalf of the LHP, Ms. Kluchman will write a letter to the Board of Selectman in support of the proposed usage of the Busa property and specifically supporting the use of the Map 20 Lot 38 parcel. # _ Lexington Housing Partnership 4. Housing Production Plan The Metro West Collaborative Development (MWCD) has submitted a grant proposal for a regional and by -town analysis of housing trends. The proposal is intended to analyze trends in Lexington, Watertown, and Belmont. If the proposal is funded, the study will lead to suggested housing production plans for each of the towns. The BoS of each town must approve the housing production plan and then the Commonwealth must approve the plan prior to implementation. Assuming the work is funded, MWCD's target is to submit the proposed housing production plan for approval in the towns by the end of 2012 and for approval by the Commonwealth in the spring of 2013. The proposed work is sponsored by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). 5. Information for Town Meeting Bob Bicknell had suggested to Ms. Kluchman that the LHP provide a summary of its activities in the past year to the Town Meeting. This is consistent with LHP practices in previous years. The LHP agreed that such a summary should be provided and asked Ms. Kluchman to provide it. 6. Future Meetings • Hancock Church is a sponsor of the Lexington Housing Foundation. Jeff Kull of Hancock Church has indicated his intention to attend the April 26 meeting. We welcome Mr. Kull, as we do all interested town residents. • Suggested topics for future meeting agendas: • Brainstorm approaches to promoting the LHP agenda when new properties are available for purchase. • Invitation to Elizabeth Barnett: Ms. Barnett is a Lexington resident who wrote Carlisle's housing plan. It was suggested that we invite Ms. Barnett to the meeting to speak with us about Carlisle's housing plan and the process for creating the housing plan. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 pm. The next meeting will be held on April 26, 2010.