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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-12-09-FHC-min.pdf l Fair Housing Committee Minutes 12/9/92 Present Gerri Weathers, Chairman; Florence Baturin Mary Haskell Nicole T Herrmann ; Bob Pressman; Leo McSweeney, Selectman Steve Baran, Fair Housing Director (recorder ) Absent Jim Brannon Peter Brown; Leona Martin Minutes of 11 /18/92 The Minutes of 11 / 18/92 were approved Met State property Leo McSweeney came to discuss planning for Met State He explained that in June the Selectmen had revitalized a dormant Met State Task Force (Lexington, Belmont Waltham) with Leo now representing the Selectmen and Joe Marino as Staff Other Lexington citizens are David Williams, Joyce Miller, Natalie Riffin Marion Reilly, Jacquie Davison, Richard Canale and Shirley Frawley An interested party to the outcome is the Beaverbrook Watershed Coalition principally concerned with environmental ramifications John Andrews is a Lexington member The Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (Joan Blaustein, representative) obtained a grant of $36, 500 for the project A week earlier, the Lexington Task Force had presented its recommendations to the Selectmen * Site should be treated as a whole (as opposed to different recommendations for each Town) # Recommendations should conform to requirements for a clean environment * Options to be suggested to Selectmen on 12/ 10 Open space Mixed income housing including a community residence for the developmentally disabled and/or mentally ill Agricultural (a lot of the Waltham property has been used for farming by U/Mass and Minuteman Vocational ) L 1 Fair Housing Committee Minutes, 12/9/92 Page 2 The State is legally bound to follow the proper procedure 1 Department of Mental Health declared the property surplus on 12/ 15 (now under control of capital planning ) 2 Other state agencies asked if they wish to take over property 3 Local polling of ideas from municipalities 4 RFPs' for private proposals if none of the above wish to acquire the property Most of the buildings are in Lexington They would cost between 7 to 8 million to demolish ; some may have historical value and would go on National Register (making it impossible to tear them down) Total acreage is 340+ of which 85 (25%) is in Lexington 35 ( 10%) in Belmont and 200+ (59%) in Waltham Some large buildings are also in Waltham including the Gaebler children' s facility which has been closed Waltham is currently opposed to housing having rezoned its land 10 years ago for conservation and recreation They are inclined toward having a golf course as a source of revenue At the present time, there has been no constituency supporting housing The Fair Housing Committee members declared their preference for using the property for family housing Leo will inform the Committee of the priurities of the other communities The Committee considered what other groups were likely to be in support of housing LexHab WATCH ( in Waltham) Enablement Committee It was decided to convene a meeting of groups interested in supporting housing for Met State including the Belmont Fair Housing Committee, Waltham advocates and the Boston College Legal Assistance Bureau Celebration of Martin Luther King, January 17 Gerri reported that she had received a number of calls in relation to the forthcoming celebration commemorating the 30th 1 !' Fair Housing Committee Minutes , 12/9/92 Page 3 anniversary of Martin Luther King' s talk in Lexington and the 25th anniversary of his death fef 6ivil fighto The Committee further discussed the rationale for a Civil Rights Committee 1 Laws alone are not enough; they are dependent for effectiveness on public morality and awareness The letter of the law may be obeyed, but the spirit may be lacking Prejudice is nourished by myths and misconceptions, irrationality and hysteria Human Relations Committee It was decided to defer seeking action on the creation of a Fair Housing/Human Relations Committee since the Fair Housing Committee members had other priorities at the moment Florence announced that the Social Action Committee of Temple Israel makes allocations in January and would be receptive to supporting a Human Relations Committee Diversity Training ( There has been no response from the Police Department as yet in regard to Gerri ' s invitation to them to accept diversity training