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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1970-02-16-BOS-min 10 77 SELECTMEN'S MEETING February 16, 1970 A regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen was held in the Selectmen' s Room, Town Office Building, on Monday evening, Febru- ary 16, 1970 at 7 30 P.M. Chairman Cataldo, Messrs Mabee, Kenney, Greeley and Bailey were present; Mr. Legro, Town Counsel ; Mr. O'Connell , Special Assistant to the Board, Mr Burke, Superinten- dent of Public Works, and Mrs McCurdy, Executive Clerk, were also present Ar O'Connell reported to the Board that he had talked with Rev. Aetaxas of the Greek Orthodox Church regarding the request for the annual ten mile race to commence at the Minute Man monument at 12 00 Noon The Board had questioned the starting time because it might interfere with church services but Mr. O'Connell had checked with all of the churches and recommended 12 30 P.M., as he Race felt it would not interfere with any of the services Permit Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to grant per- mission to the Greek Orthodox Church to Conduct the annual ten mile race, commencing at the Minute Man monument., at 12 30 p.m. Rev. Metaxas had requested that a police cruiser escort the leading runners to the Arlington line and the Board agreed that Chief Corr would be notified to make arrangements for a cruiser to escort them Ar O'Connell reported to the Board that he had met with Mr. Burke and Mr McSweeney regarding the old "res" and a set of recom- mendations of what can, and should, be done on a one-year trial basis have been prepared; they are waiting for a plan from the "Old Recreation Committee Res" The Chairman asked if they had gone over the equipment that has been ordered and if everything is in? Mr. O'Connell replied that they had everything except the flow circulator dr O'Connell reported to the Board on the 911 emergency system. He said that he had reviewed it with the Telephone Company and they say it is quite expensive; they are submitting the detailed cost and backup Chief Corr doesn't think we need it Mr O'Connell said 911 that he would like to look into it as the Police, Fire and Civil De- System fense would have to be connected with extra special lines, over and above what they have; now, they are all on one hookup Nr Bailey said that 911 calls come into one point and someone there has to fan them out to the Police, Fire and Civil Defense. Nr. O'Connell is to continue to look into the system 1 1 578 Mr O'Connell said that he had received the notice of a public hearing, with respect to municipal collective bargaining, Collective to be held at the State House on February 19, 1970 1 Bargaining The Chairman explained to the Board that he had written to Hearing Mr. O'Connell and Mr Legro, asking for their comments regard- ing the hearing. Mr O'Connell felt that the Town should be represented. Mr. Legro agreed and said that he planned to attend the hearing. Mr. O'Connell said that he had talked with Mr McSweeney and there was only one plan in existence on the Hayden Avenue Conservation area, and this is a land court plan on Valleyfield Mr O'Connell had asked Mr. Brown of Conservation to be here to- night as there is little opportunity left to discuss this be- cause there are no plans The Hines' option calls for the plans to be drawn up after the option is exercised by the owner The Chairman asked Mr. O'Connell to get together with Mr Hayden Avenue McSweeney and Mr Zaleski on these Hayden Avenue options. Options Mr Legro said that on the Crawford option, the land on which the Town has an option is front land that borders on Hay- den Avenue to the 850' line, this is one that we can't exercise the option on and he proposed to talk with Mr Crawford' s attorr ney tomorrow The Chairman asked if Mr Legro agreed that we should ask for an extension? Mr Legro agreed but said that if the extension isn't given, these options expire at 5 o'clock on February 20th. The Chairman said that we can vote to ask for a 30-day ex- tension and, if not granted the extension, we can get together this week to vote on whether to exercise the options or not Mr Legro said that we don't need a vote to request the extension The Chairman read a letter from the Chairman of the Plan- ning Board requesting the amendment to their budget of 1970 for professional consulting services, as the previous request Planning for a senior planner had not been approved The request was Board ( I) for an increase from $270 to $4,270 to permit the use of Budget consultants for limited scope studies of housing needs, open space preservation, subdivision traffic patterns and for specialized soil and drainage studies of problem areas in new subdivisions; (2) to restore the salary of sumer planning in- tern at the previously established rate of S- II-D for 15 weeks. After discussion, the Board agreed to an increase to $2500 for item 340 in Account No 1600. Board of The Chairman read a letter from the Chairman of the Board of Appeals Fees Appeals, in answer to the recommendation of our Board for a fixed fee schedule, rather than their suggested sliding scale e) Z-11 Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to inform the Board lof Appeals that the Board agrees with the recommended charges for Board of Appeal hearings, as follows 11 Retain present $20 charge for renewals 2. Charge $35 for new variations, permissions and requests for signs 3 Charge $50 for any Finding and Determination 4 Charge $250 for any petition for low or moderate income housing The Chairman read a letter from Attorney Tropeano regarding the acceptance by the Town Meeting of Mason Street and stating that any grant of easement given by the developer, who installed the sewer across Wilson Farm land, cannot and does not include the Wilson land across which the developer installed the sewer The Chairman said that as he understands it, that 20' strip Wilson Farm was still within the sewer easement that the Town now holds Mr Legro showed a plan of the sewer easement and said that the sewer installed by the developer from Mason Street to its con- nection wiith an existing Town sewer is wholly within a sewer ease- ment acquired by the Town in 1959 or within a sewer easement in land within the subdivision owned by Benjamin Franklin Homes, Inc at the time that it granted the latter easement to the Town The sewer does not trespass on any of the Wilson Farm land Mr Legro was requested to write to Attorney Tropeano and Mr Legro agreed to handle the matter. The Chairman read a letter from Attorney Tropeano regarding the proposed building line on Wallis Court and certain parts of Massachusetts Avenue; the letter states that, in his opinion, the Town should pursue this through zoning rather than through the establishment of a building line and thus subject the taxpayers Wallis Court to untold thousands of dollars in damages The Chairman said that he has discussed this letter with Mr Legro and has asked the Planning Board to send us their comments Mr. Zaleski submitted a letter from the Planning Board which stated that it is of the opinion that building lines and the pay- ment of damages are more equitable than the zoning restrictions advocated by Mr Tropeano The Board agreed with the Planning Board' s opinion and a letter is to be sent to Attorney Tropeano informing him of the decision of the Board The Chairman read a letter from the Chairman of the Permanent Building Committee regarding the question of a proposed access Access Jr road from Waltham Street for the new Junior High School . High School it was agreed to refer this to the Planning Board and the Traffic Safety Committee for a recommendation for the location of an access road, and to so inform the Permanent Building Committee Traffic The Traffic Safety Committee Chairman was discussed and it was Safety agreed that Mr O'Connell is to come back to the Board on next Mon- Comm day evening with a recommendation for a Chairman The Chairman read a letter from the Workable Program Director regarding the expiration date of May I , 1970, forms to be signed for re-certification have been submitted to us. Workable Mr Greeley asked if our Workable Program lapses, can we Program still continue the rent supplement? He felt that this is the only thing we need the program for and if we can keep the rent supple- ment going some other way, we don't need the program It was agreed to write to the Planning Board and ask if we would lose any of our rent supplement if we do not become re- certified for the Workable Program Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to certify the character of the following, who have applied for Certificates of Incorporation Cert of Lester E Goodridge, Jr 24 Freemont Street lncorp Marie H Goodridge 24 Freemont Street Anthony L Mancini 115 Reed Street "Education World, Inc " Harold C Currier 18 Preston Road "Bay Point Shooting Preserve, Inc " The Chairman informed the Board that the Tax Collector re- quests that we abate the submitted list of uncollectable ambu- Ambulance lance bills for 1967, in the amount of $ 189, most of the people Bills are from out-of-town and it has been impossible to collect from them It was agreed to write to Town Counsel , asking if we have the right to turn over the list to a bill collector and pay a fee to him The Chairman said that a request has been received from the Lexington Lexington Golf Club for a renewal of their Club Liquor license Golf Club Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to sign the Club Liquor license and application to the ABC for the Lexington Golf Club The Chairman recommended that the Board appoint Mr Zehner as Fence Viewer for the Town, to fill the unexpired term to Fence March 31 , 1970 caused by the resignation of Jack Garrity Viewer Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to appoint Louis A Zehner as Fence Viewer for the Town, to fill the unex- pired term of Jack Garrity to March 31 , 1970. Sidewalk Mr Greeley said that he was concerned about the lack of Policy policy on when we have a sidewalk on a street and when we do not 681 II/ He didn't care, particularly, whether we have this on Bloomfield Street ut, before we are involved, we should have the Planning Board or the Traffic Safety Committee recommend a policy When we are at 0 street hearing, it sounds as though we are extemporizing when we say, it is our best judgment and it is right, but we don't have anything to fall back on The Chairman said that on Bloomfield Street, we will decide that when we vote to lay out the street We will write to the Planning Board and the Traffic Safety Committee for their opinions on a sidewalk policy The Chairman discussed Route 2 and said that he had called the Gov,ernor' s office for an appointment to discuss his position on the extension of Route 2 The Chairman feels that we cannot accept the Governor' s position to discontinue the construction of Route 2, and he wanted to discuss this with the Governor Route 2 Mr. Greeley asked if we should invite Belmont and Arlington to go with us? Tho Chairman replied that, if and when we do get the appoint- ment, we feel we should go alone to the first meeting and, if we can't grt any satisfaction out of this meeting, we will invite Belmont, and Arlington to the next meeting. The Chairman informed the Board that a letter on the Winthrop Road tax land has been received from the Planning Board, request- ing that the Public Works Department dig up to five trenches to expose soils to a depth of 8 - 10 feet in certain designated loca- tions The letter further requests that Mr. Burke and Mr McSweeney give written recommendations as to the suitability of soils in various parts of the site for the construction of housing for the elderly and, also, the correction of any problems which may exit in this area This information was requested for use Winthrop Rd in formOilating the Planning Board' s report to Town Meeting Tax Land The Chairman said that Mr Burke is not an engineer and the question is, do we want to get in the position of making recom- mendations when we don't know what the final project is going to be? If we go to Town Meeting, based on this decision, we are looking for trouble The Planning Board, at this stage, should be concerned with only the use of the land and not the suitability for construction Mr. Greeley said that if Mr McSweeney can give advice on soil and sub-soil , this is as far as we should ask him to go The Chairman asked if he meant so many feet of peat, clay ‘ or hard pan? Mr Greeley replied in the affirmative This Chairman said that this is what it should be limited to This letter asked for correction of any problems that may exist in the ,area, they are talking a substantial job Mr. Mabee said that this is because there are no funds ITha Board agreed that Mr Burke and Mr McSweeney would be instructed to go in and dig some test holes and come back with a soil report Mr Stoico and Attorney Richards met with the Board Mr Richards said that they are involved in Town Meeting Article 102, which calls for the rezoning of a 30-acre parcel of land easterly of Maple Street, beyond the apartments owned by Mr. Maloney This is currently a vacant parcel and con- sists of two parcels that are subdivided The picture here would be different than Sanderson and Bryant Roads as they now have been approved A portion would be subdivided in fif- teen lots and the other portion in fifteen single family resi- dence lots; an extension of the application for the subdivision runs to March 17, 1970 There has been a good deal of talk and dissension about the building of dwelling houses or attached homes in the Town for the purpose of accommodating low or mode- rate income housing people. We are not concerned with the current application by the Planning Board for the installation in the Town of an RH zone because we are not discussing subsi- dized houses, as such Mr Stoico has 30 acres and proposed to build 204 of the town house type and there would be a sub- stantial amount of open land. These buildings are not exactly a new venture, these are what they were building in the late 17th century on Beacon Hill . They are attached units and would be sold individually, in the price range of $ 18,000 for a dwell- ing unit, to approximately $28,000. Mr. Stoico had proposed to offer a certain number to the Lexington Housing Authority if they are desirous of acquiring them, the purpose being, if one Stoico Housing or more were to be acquired by them, they could be leased to a person qualifying under moderate income and they could occupy the dwellings Subsequent to this, we have some persons in mid- income who would be able to purchase one or more of these at a rate extended by 20 or 40 years under the type of program that might be offered. We have no commitment from the Housing Authority This area would accommodate 30 dwellings; zoning would accommodate more Mr Stoico met with a representative of HUD, the Commission on Urban Responsibility and the Planning Board to discuss this particular matter. The Article is a Citizens' Article and we felt that the Board would be more than a little interested in what is going on In my opinion, this is a new venture, in that public financing can provide housing for people in lower or moderate income bracket Where can you find a new, two-bedroom house for $ 18,000? To provide this type of housing and make it avail- able to the Housing Authority, we originally did not plan to put in a single bedroom apartment, in the sense of being an attached house, but there is some demand for a single bedroom dwelling which could be added on to the housing proposed here. Mr Stoico would be willing to make 51 available to the Housing Authority That, basically, is the program, it is not a development for the renting of apartments or any corporation would be holding 'sofa '' ' the whole bit and renting them out The program offered is one to be able to buy a home with two bedfooms for $ 18,000, and some of them woiId have three bedrooms. Mr. Greeley asked if the so-called town house frame is con- structer with fire walls? Mr Richards replied in the affirmative Mr. Greeley asked about carports Mr.1 Richards said that most of them would have car ports; there i a sufficient area for open parking of 201 cars and there would be car ports for 105 cars The Chairman asked if -he was looking for a variance on the buildind code? MrV Stoico said that he would be, the law calls for apartments to be urder 2nd class and he will go to the Board of Appeals to build 3rd class. The Chairman asked what is the difference in the conditions for the 25% you would make available to Housing. Mr Richards said that we have designed one or more apart- ments which would have somewhat less in the interior design; the overall footage would be the same but there wouldn't be as many cabinetS, etc. to keep it down to the $ 18,000 level The Chairman asked if they sell the house to the Housing Au- thority for $ 18,000, what would you sell it to the other fellow for? Mr Richards replied, $ 18,000 The Chairman said that they are giving Housing the first crack at it, why stop at 25%? Mri Richards replied that whether the rules are right or wrong if you have more than 25% of the lower price in an area, you are building a lower price development The Chairman said that they wouldn't say, no, if Housing wanted 25 of the $25,000 ones. Mr, Richards agreed. Tho Chairman asked what they felt the project is going to cost? Mr Stoico replied that they anticipate a cost of slightly under $1 M If Housing does purchase 50 or 51 , he didn't know what tax advantage they have. Mri Richards asked if Housing bought 10 at $ 180,000, what dif- ference would they be paying to Lexington in property tax that 10 individr}als buying at the same price; if there is a difference? The Chairman said that we get a payment in lieu of taxes, based on the amount of money taken off the tax rolls. Mr4 Richards said that as far as he is personally concerned, this is a rather daring project; if a new, attractive reasonable type of !housing can be built within this range, we are sure there will be a demand for it and it might satisfy some of the demands a suburban area like Lexington might have. If the Housing Authority is able to purchase the two bedrooms in the $ 18,000 class and then lease ii , it might be an answer to a problem we have had. The Chairman asked how long it would be for total construction? 84 Mr Stoico said that they would be available about a year from today; most of our construction would be starting, actually, in late summer, due to a lot of preliminary work on roads We have two banks we have been talking to and, subject to a better understanding with the Town, they will commit themselves The Chairman thanked them for meeting with the Board and Mr Stoico and Mr Richards retired. Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to go into Executive Session for the purpose of discussing, deliberating or Executive voting on matters which, if made public, might adversely affect Session the public security, the financial interests of the Town or the reputation of a person After discussion of matters of financial interest to the Town, it was voted to go out of Executive Session. Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn at 10.45 P.M A true record, Attest -2:—)1/P))r) Executive Clerk, Selectmen