Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-01-27-MGWG-min.pdf Subject: minutes from 1/27/2000 Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 12:44:52 -0500 MINUTES OF WORK GROUP MEETING Title of Work Group: Managing Growth: Development and Open Space Date, Time and Location of Meeting: January 27, 2000, 7:00-9:00p.m. Town Hall Room G-15 Members present: Suzanne Caton, chair, Marianne Lazarus, vice-chair, Gerry Moloney, Donna Rossi, Mike Hanauer, Karen Longeteig, Larry Belvin, Ed Vail, Karl Kastorf, John Frey, Tom Harden, Ione Garing, scribe pro tern Glenn Garber, staff Members absent: John Andrews, Gary Fallick, Lee Sinai Date, Time and Location of next scheduled meeting: February 3, 2000 7:00-9:00p.m. Room 111, Town Hall Distributed Information: Mike Hanauer handed out additional printed information, Building Sustainable Communities, to help us understand realistic goals for Lexington. Issues addressed: The Minutes of January 20, 2000 were approved with Larry Belvin's name added to absent list. There was a brief discussion about the Web site. Karl Kastorf is working on it. The working group discussed questions prepared by the 20/20 Vision Work Group Orientation. The following notes were taken on a flip chart by Suzanne Caton: Lexington's Historical character ? what is historic character? ? things related to April 19 ? things related to "typical New England" town ? intact residential areas reflecting distinct architectural periods We should maintain public areas related to history. Historic Districts are Ok. Preserve historic character of more modest neighborhoods to control/prevent mansionization. Discuss this further. The answer to the question "Should Lexington's historic character advise future development?" is YES. Town Center Role ? should provide place to meet and greet ? make Lexington a life long town for all ages Role of shopping center ? Stop and Shop our only food store ? look at successful shopping centers (not malls) to see what kind of business we should encourage in town center Role of small neighborhood stores ? affected by zoning laws? ?town should encourage critical mass of small businesses in certain areas Improve sidewalks to encourage pedestrians, cycle traffic, and discourage car traffic. Add infrastructure to improve "walkability" ? commitment to "walkability" ? lighting improvements Current state of town center is good. Do we want to keep size stable, discourage further growth or encourage growth? Second story (above businesses) development for housing ? parking problems can be dealt with by parking permits for nighttime ? would it change character of center too much? ? zoning changes can affect (encourage) this No increase in amount of parking for commercial use. Change way parking is provided. Put parking underground and use space for other uses. ? satellite parking lots with bus connections ? good night time lighting. Role of Town Center/ other commercial centers ? restaurants, stores, theater are good ? diversity of types of shops ? loss of useful stores like variety stores Get town to market itself to increase diversity of stores. Current planned activities are good for community feeling. ? town center is a treasure for events Too much traffic affects pleasure of sitting outside. ? slow down and reduce amount of through traffic through center. Worthen Road was supposed to do that? What happened? Town center is used by pedestrians. We should make it more useful for them. Affect of bike path on traffic/parking ? should we do something about parking (out of the center) for bikers to leave their cars? Through traffic vs destination traffic ? encourage destination , discourage through traffic ASSIGNMENT: Read environmental scan on page 6. 1 Subject: addendum to minutes Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 13:37:24 -0500 From: "Suzanne Caton" <Suzanne.Caton@sybase.com> To: lnbelvin@world.std.com, gary_fallick@waters.com, jwa@alum.mit.edu, tharden119@aol.com, karl_kastorf@wgbh.org, malazarus@worldnet.att.net, edvail@aol.com, jmarino@ci.lexington.ma.us, mbaker@ci.lexington.ma.us, ggarber@ci.lexington.ma.us, mnordby@ci.lexington.ma.us, halyardbld@aol.com, Donna.T.Rossi@saic.com, lsinai@worldnet.att.net, michaeha@quintus.com, flmerrill@sasaki.com, heather_sweeney@mma.org, mmccall@ci.lexington.ma.us, klongeteig@aol.com, "Suzanne Caton" <Suzanne.Caton@sybase.com> Hello all, Mike Hanauer noticed that the minutes did not mention our discussion of sustainability and Mike's suggestion that we adopt the League of Women Voters sustainability statement as a guiding philosophy for Lexington 2020. This is my recollection of the discussion. Please feel free to add to it or correct it. After getting any feedback from you folks, I will propose that the following text (or a revised version) be added to last week's minutes. ************************************ The group discussed what the term sustainability means and how it might apply to our workgroup's vision statement. Mike Hanauer proposed that the group adopt the League of Women Voters sustainability statement as a guiding philosophy for Lexington 2020. (The sustainability statement is contained in the handout that Mike distributed at the beginning of the meeting.) Several group members expressed opinions that the LWV statement is too vague. They felt that in order for us to adopt any sustainabilty philosophy, it must be more specific and directly applicable to Lexington and its problems. At the end of the discussion, the group agreed that they would not adopt the LWV statement but would continue to discuss the issue and address it in our final vision statement.