Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-07-11-LCC-min Town of Lexington Lexington Center Commi?ee th Minutes for the mee?ng of July 11, 2024 beginning about 8:40 am in the Parker Room, Town Office Building, Massachuse?s Avenue, Lexington Massachuse?s. Members a?ending: Eric Ballard, Richard Brown, Upasna Chhabra, Frederic Johnson, Jeffrey Lyon, Pamela Lyons, Kat MacDonald, Innessa Manning, Jerold Michelson (Chair), Pamela Shadley Liaisons: Jill Hai, Select Board, Sandhya Iyer, EDD, Dave Pinsonneault, DPW, Captain Chris Barry, LPD, Jay Abdella, EDC Guests: Mike Harris, Ting Fang, Danit Netzer, Liza Shirazi, Revival Café, Heather Hartshorn, COC We began with the DPW update with Dave Pinsonneault: the newly installed parklet needed some modifica?ons due to new streetscape sidewalk height, ramp and other mods are in place. Fred Johnson noted the “industrial look” of the new parkle?. Dave explained that the old model is no longer available. More plan?ngs for the planters to so?en the look are underway. Jerry Michelson noted that he has received some ques?ons about the new loca?on from some businesses. We need to make clear that the parklet occupies a public space. Because Muzzey Street is one way from Mass Ave this is a par?cularly good loca?on – no cars turning onto Mass Ave at this loca?on. Ross Morrow is working on designs for the Muzzey Street parking lot. Some effort to determine if solar is feasible. Jeff Lyon brought up the height of delivery and waste disposal trucks. Dave noted that the booth in the Depot Lot will be removed next week and that a crosswalk will be painted across the entrance and pedestrian signs will be added. Some parking lot tree and weedy growth has been taken care of. The DPW is down eight people right now. DPW isn’t ge?ng a sufficient number of applica?ons to fill open posi?ons. Bench for bumpout bus stop at Cambridge Trust. From John Livsey to Jerry – it costs abut $1500 to $2000 to dedicate a bench with a total cost of about $5k including installa?on. Jay Abdella was introduced as out new economic development coordinator. The Select Board approved a new liquor license policy. Lexington has requested addi?onal licenses which are working their way through state government. Hips?tch will open soon. Ta?e is moving quickly to open – front façade is installed. Liza Shirazi of Revival, which opened in April, outlined the difficulty of moving through the Lexington permi?ng process – it is much easier in Boston and Watertown and Cambridge. She described the process as “long and painful” mul?- step with redundancies – pinpoin?ng the nature of the HDC and the ZBA. She would have liked to do more in the back but addi?onal ameni?es would have triggered addi?onal expenses. Jill Hai asked if Ms. Shirazi could dra? a memo for the Select Board detailing the process and the s?cking points. “What did they have to do, what did they give up in order to open.” Fred suggested – as he has done many ?mes before – that the Center be removed from the jurisdic?on of the Historic District Commission. Sandhya Iyer noted that the process is be?er than it was before (not kidding!) because the BOA is no longer part of the process and that overall Revival moved quickly through the process. We then discussed a dra? joint memo from the Center Commi?ee and the Economic Development Advisory Commi?ee to the Select Board. The memo follows up on the recommenda?ons of the review of Lexington Center: The Journey Forward. The EDAC would like to have info regarding retail vacancies tracked – the Center Commi?ee thinks of this a private informa?on and it is important to maintain good rela?onships with property owners. Innessa Manning took us through the main elements of the memo. A lively discussion ensued with minor edits suggested. The dra? will now go back to the EDAC for their review. The Center Commi?ee voted 10 to 0 to support sec?ons 1 and 2 of the memo with minor edits as discussed and to support sec?ons 3 and 4 of the memo as wri?en. Fred noted that we need be?er ways of communica?ng news about the Center – he lamented the structure in front of Cary Hall as a missed opportunity to have an electronic sign and urged that it might be replaced. Captain Chris Barry took us through a brief verbal tour of the new police sta?on – personnel are s?ll se?ling in – lots of requests for the new community room – the parking situa?on has not yet jelled- and promised us a tour down the road. Jerry noted that the commi?ee would need a new note taker beginning in September. Sandhya discussed the inclusion of Lexington Center (along with East Lexington) in a grant for property owners/tenants to improve their backfacing facades (which look out onto the Minuteman Bikeway. The Center Commi?ee voted 10 to 0 to support including Lexington Center in the Ease Lexington Beau?fica?on Grants program. The Center Commi?ee voted 10 to 0 to approve the minutes for the mee?ng of th June 13, 2024. And with that we adjourned at 9:59 am.