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Home My WebLink About2025-10-28-SLC-min.pdfSustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of Meeting of October 28, 2025 A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held by Zoom conference. A quorum of seven was present throughout. Members Present: Cindy Arens (chair), Celis Brisbin, Lin Jensen, Andy Joynt, Kavita Ravi, Rick Reibstein, Todd Rhodes (vice-chair), Kavitha Venkatesan, Dan Voss Members Absent: None Staff Present: Maggie Peard Other Attendees: Mark Sandeen, Paul Chernick, Bob Creech, Jeanne Krieger, Alan Levine, Rahini Konakanchi, Elnaz Khosraviani, Ricki Pappo. ————————————— SUMMARY OF VOTES: 1.IN FAVOR: Send a letter in support of a few state bills that would help empower municipalities with utility and infrastructure projects and advise the Select Board to do the same. ————————————— Cindy called the meeting to order at 6:03 pm. Approval of past meeting minutes. The draft minutes of August 26 were unanimously approved as written. Welcome to New Member: •Cindy welcomed Kavita Ravi to the Committee. Comments from residents; emails to committee mailbox; new business •Andy described $25K grant funding received by LexCAN/Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL) from the MassSave Community Outreach Program for 7-9 month outreach and language translation to support the HeatSmart program. •Maggie reported that Level-3 chargers have just been activated behind the CVS in the center of town. The cost is $0.45/kWh and will charge at the rate of 300 miles/hour. There will be overstay fees to ensure availability. Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of October 28, 2025 •Rahini Konakanchi said that SustainabLY has 16 members this year and they are applying to compete in the Mass Energize Youth Climate Solutions Challenge. Sustainability & Resilience Officer discussion and updates. Maggie reported on the following: •BEU-D Annual Report o The 2024 BEU-D Summary was published in October - 86% of the affected building owners are reporting. o Maggie plans to look at the buildings that have been reporting over the years to see if there have been changes to the same buildings over time or if the change in EUI is due to new entrants, like Takeda and MIT Lincoln Labs. o Maggie commented that the state’s large building energy reporting program started this year and she will compare the results once that report is published. Lexington’s BEU-D program would be a good foundation for building performance standards (which the state plans to do too) if the Town wanted to consider that approach. •Solar Capital Integration Policy o The policy was approved earlier this year and Maggie is assessing every capital project submitted for approval to identify the projects that are exempt from the policy, those that Maggie will recommend exemption, and those that will require a full evaluation in accordance with the policy. o One site is the new Harrington sports fields. There are already solar canopies on the adjacent parking lot. Todd recommended that other opportunities for solar on the site should be evaluated. o Lin asked if solar could be considered for land acquisition projects. This year there are no acquisitions proposed. o Maggie commented she will look farther out in the Capital Plan in the future. This year she focused on those being proposed this year due to the recent passage of the policy. o Mark recommended that Maggie look at Clarke because the roof may be replaced soon and may be an opportunity to change/upgrade the solar. Diamond has been limited on the solar it can install due to Eversource (local transformers). o While not currently proposed, the DPW building is also being considered for solar. o Also, no funding is being requested for the Muzzy Lot. Maggie will look into the status of that project. Lincoln parking lot redesign seems to be on hold. •Waste Reduction Task Force .2 Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of October 28, 2025 o The Town received Technical Support funding from Mass DEP to further assess waste program improvements (like trash metering). o Looking at a July 2027 rollout of the program with automated collection, which will require that the Town purchase standard sized bins (partially offset by potential $300K DEP grant). o The plan is to bring the framework of the program to Town Meeting in the spring of 2026, and make a technical correction to current bylaw to remove ‘free’. o Details of the program, like the size of bins and how to address overflow (e.g., purchase of bags, renting bins, etc.) will be formulated over the coming months with community input. •MVP 2.0 o Hired five local liaisons to support community outreach. o The first meeting will be this coming Thursday. •Low Income Solar o Working on getting approvals from DOER and DPU – the Select Board already gave their approval. o Kavita asked about model bylaws being considered by the state for solar and BESS (Battery Energy Storage Sytems). •Fleet Electrification o Maggie presented her annual report assessing the trends in transitioning gas light-duty vehicles (2% BEV, 44% ICE, 54% hybrid/PHEV) and cargo vans to electric (40% EV, all new this year). As gas vehicles are retired, they are being transitioned to BEV, PHEV, and hybrids. o As the number of vehicles increases, the charging infrastructure will need to increase. o The program has received $97,500 from Mass EVIP to support the transition. o The committee discussed charging stations at the schools. Maggie identified that any requests would need to be taken to and approved by the school district. o Maggie identified that the chargers are a cost to the Town due to the cost of the installation, maintenance of software, etc. though a recent switch to non-demand charge utility rate should improve the situation. o Mark asked about electrification of heavier vehicles. Maggie has not focused on those categories of vehicles. .3 Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of October 28, 2025 o Mark recommended that Level-3 chargers be installed at the Police Station as a priority, though in the meantime perhaps Police vehicles could use the new Level-3 chargers in the center. •Neighborhood Electrification o Maggie discussed non-pipeline alternatives (NPAs) as an effort not to replace aged gas pipelines. Newton, for example, has been successful in working with the utility to not go forward with a replacement and electrify the neighborhood instead. o Maggie is working with Tufts to work on a project in the spring to support Neighborhood Electrification. State Bills •Cindy presented a letter to recommend that the Select Board endorse a few state bills that would strengthen local authority over gas-utility street work, infrastructure replacement, and networked geothermal projects: •S.2248 / H.3446 – “An Act Relative to Municipal Voices in Gas Utility Work”, •H.3564 – “An Act Relative to Infrastructure Replacement Projects”, and •S.2249 / H.3539 – “An Act Relative to a Tactical Transition to Affordable, Clean Thermal Energy” •Kavitha recommended that the letter also be sent to the TUE (Telecommunications, Utility, and Energy) Committee. •Committee voted to send the letter to the Select Board and TUE Committee. Solar Installation Trends •Todd reminded the committee of the discussions from last year about the rate of solar installations in town to support the state’s goal of solar providing one-third of the state’s energy demand by 2050, and the plan to trend installations annually to confirm that Lexington is on track. There are some gaps in the 2024 data because the state data on Class I REC installations is incomplete. The team working on the trending hopes to close those gaps and present to the committee in a future meeting. Building Projects •Police Station Solar Canopy o Maggie identified that solar panels have been received for the building. The solar canopy has not yet been started. •Lexington High School .4 Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of October 28, 2025 o Cindy identified that any VE discussions will not begin until the new year. o Mark and Kavita discussed challenges of implementing the solar and battery systems in a timely manner. Battery sizing depends on the Eversource Interconnection Service Agreement (ISA), which dictates grid export limits. o Kavitha asked about SLC’s role in communicating the value of the solar and battery systems to the community. o The committee discussed scheduling a meeting to prepare a statement for the LHS design (Article 8) to be presented to Town Meeting the following week. Next Meeting: The next meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee is scheduled for 5 pm on November 3, 2025. The committee voted to adjourn at 8:45 pm. Respectfully submitted, Todd Rhodes .5