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Home My WebLink About2000-01-20-MGWG-min.pdf MINUTES OF WORK GROUP MEETING Title of Work Group : Managing Growth:Development and Open Space Date,Time,and Location of Meeting: January 20,2000,7:00 p.m.—9:00 p.m.,Town Hall Room 111 Members Present: Donna Rossi Suzanne Caton Ione Garing Mike Hanauer Maryann McCall-Taylor John Frey Karl Kastorf John Andrews Gary Fallick Fred Merrill Jerry Moloney Ed Vail Mairanne Lazarus Karen Longeteig Members Absent: Tom Harden Lee Sinai Date,Time and Location of next scheduled meeting: January 27,2000,7:00 pm-9: 00 p.m.,Town Hall Room G15 The Meeting was called to order by acting Chairperson Suzanne Caton at 7:05 p.m. Distributed Information: One page handout by John Andrews mapping Solutions/Obstacles/Visions of a town. Ione Garing had a list of background materials to read,however,not everyone on the subcommittee received vie e-mail or the Lexington web. Issues addressed and agreements made: 1. Minutes of the last meeting were approved. 2. We discussed briefly the"final draft"of the workplan. Questions came up..."should we add the subcommittees now", "what is the plan of attack for the work plan", "not sure we are doing the right thing"etc. after quick discussions it was decided that we should move on with the agenda and tackle the questions listed in the handout"Lexington 2020 Vision Work Group Orientation" 3. Ione Garing reported on a list of suggested background readings that are available at the Lexington Library,The Lexington Web Site or you can borrow them from Ione. Some suggested readings were a. Town of Lexington Budget from FY 2000 b. Population of Lexington.... Sio-Economics Characteristics of Lexington c. Zoning By-Law of the Town of Lexington d. Land Use Change in the Eighties e. Lexington Growth policy Additional lists of suggested readings will be distributed to the working group. Fred Merrill suggested that "we concentrate on going forward and not reading all the manuals. There are a lot of manuals but you will get bogged down trying to read everything." Also, during this discussion the issue of the Lexington Web site came up and the difficulties of members trying to log on or receiving information. 4. Next the working group started to discuss the questions listed in the"Lexington 2020 Vision Work Group Orientation." Suzanne Caton took the following notes on a flip chart Goal: For Residential Traffic/Transportation • Provide incentives to limit congestion/demand for transportation • Come up with limits to impose • Should we suggest zoning changes to allow mixed residential/commercial • What kind of mixes should we encourage • Encourage more residential development near center • Make life-long residency possible • Encourage zoning changes to discourage mansions • Subcommittees • Transportation Goal: For Re/Development Residential • Cluster housing? • Mansions? • What is current population&should it be limited? • Minimize loss of open space • Generally,minimize impact of traffic • Should there be limits on size,height? • Should current proportions be maintained? • Cluster developments • Single family homes • Elderly housing • Affordable housing(Lexington does not now meet state requi ments) • Should we encourage more density in(cluster)housing to reduce environmental impact • Should Lexington be an example for rest of country • Control traffic to control physical character • What causes demand for transportation Goal: For Commercial Development • Explore increasing commercial taxes • Rebalance Commercial growth vs.residential growth • Use tax rates to encourage types of commercial growth • Do we want to increase the number of Lexington residents • Who also work in Lexington • What kind of commercial development to encourage • Increase the ability of people who live in Lexington to work in Lexington • What are current numbers • Encourage development of small service providers in residential areas Goal: For Open Space • Should town preserve existing open space,public&private • How to make it happen • Funding • Change patterns of development • Active program to acquire i.e. 1%more each year • Complete conservation commission plan • Require advertisement of open spaces for sale----agricultural land • Funding mechanisms for buying open land should be creative,more long-term because Land is long-term investment 5. At 8:45 the subject of commercial flights out of Hanscom AFB was discussed. The working group spent approximately ten minutes on this subject. It was decided that another working group would handle this and similarly the area towns are working the issue. 6. At 8:55 we summarized the events of the meeting. The working group is still not ready to assign subcommittees. It is felt that we still have time in order to do this. Plus,we still have questions from the"Lexington 2020 Vision Work Group Orientation"to discuss. 7. Meeting was adjourned at 9:00