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Home My WebLink About2017-10-17 BOS Packet - Released Board of Selectmen October 13, 2017 Town of Lexington 1625 Massachusetts Avenue Lexington, MA 02420 Re:44 Adams Street (Parcel abutting Chiesa Farm) Dear Board Members: As you know, SelectmanPeterKelly approached me severalweeks ago, expressing an interest that the Town buy 44 Adams Street. This was the site of a small Cape Cod house where John Chiesa, Sr.lived and which abuts an area of open land, subject to a conservation restriction and popular for walking. I purchased this property with a partner, each of us having equal interests. At the point Peter and I talked, the building permit wasin process, anew house designed by a local, respected architect,and construction scheduled to begin. Having grown up in Lexington, worked on the Chiesa farm as a child, and being a lifelong friend of John Chiesa’s son, all planswere put on hold so the Town could consider thepurchase. My partner and myself had already spent over a million dollars buying the site, engineeringanddeveloping it, andhaving the house designed. We agreed to a potential purchase price that would allow us to recover what already was spent, but far less than what we would have made completing the project as planned. It’s become clear that available funds from the Town, if approved,will be far less than expenses alreadypaid. All this causes me to conclude, even if authority is given touse some $650,000.00 of CPA funds for the purchase, and some funds are donated by individuals, the likelihood of raising money to meet the needed purchase price which recoups costs plus a significantly reduced profit percentage is remote and unlikely. Ipostponed the start of construction so the Town could consider this as I, like Peter Kelly and others, saw the value in exploring this option.Unfortunately, the numbers arenot thereand not even going to be close. I submit the Board not go forward this coming Monday with the vote scheduled at our Special Town Meeting and withdraw the proposed Article on this matter. Best Regards, Mark Barons MEMORANDUM TO: Board of Selectmen FROM: Lexington Tourism Committee: DATE: October 12, 2017 RE: Visitors Center Funding Options CC: Carl Valente, Town Manager; Capital Expenditures Committee; Appropriations Committee; Carol Kowalski, Melisa Tintocalis, Megan Zammuto After multiple stakeholder meetings, the Committee believes that the Schematic Design meets the programmatic needs approved by the Board of Selectmen. The next steps are to fund Design Development (DD) and Construction Documents (CD) at the Special Town Meeting this month. The Committee is appreciative of the Selectmen vote (4-1) and staff support to move that $150k be appropriated for Design Development at the Special Town Meeting. In order to meet the goal of shovel in the ground in November 2018 with a completion date of April 2020 for reasons previously discussed, we believe additional funding is warranted. th At our meeting on October 5 2017, the Committee unanimously voted to request that the Board increase the motion at the Special Town Meeting to $350k. This increase would allow the CD phase to continue as soon as the Board is comfortable with the Design post DD (estimated to be mid-February). Without this additional funding, the project would come to a halt and have to wait until at least April and possibly July to continue. In a meeting with the Town Manager last week, he indicated that were the Selectmen to approve this request, funding would likely be through debt. That means there would be no impact on the FY18 budget. Given this, is there any reason not to appropriate the full design funds of In the meanwhile, the positive economic impact of tourism is undeniable. Over the coming months we will seek data on the before and after economic data from areas that have built new visitors centers in recent years to present to the Board. The Committee shares the belief that it is appropriate to fund the new Visitors Center using public-private resources thereby providing balance between use of tax levy dollars and the needs for other town capital. Since July the Committee has been investigating and discussing reasonable options to help support the project. Our strategy is to find funds to (1) lower the amount of principal to be bonded and (2) to identify annual new revenue streams until the debt is paid in full. There is a one-two year window to raise principal funds on a project like this. Using a strategy similar to the model for renovating the fields at Lincoln Park in which the Recreation Department raised fees and then committed annual funds from the Recreation Enterprise Fund to make an annual payment to help service the debt, the Tourism Committee is committed to finding a mechanism to create similar annual contribution towards repaying the bond that will be issued for a new Visitors Center. 1 | Page Using the data that provided by the Finance Department, our preliminary projections are based on: Estimated total project cost including sitework, design team and temporary facility as of September 2017: $4,517,000 Yearly interest to service a 20 year bond at 4% in highest year: $ 180,680 The following suggested possibilities for funding were reviewed with the Town Manager. While no commitments were made, it was acknowledged that they were a reasonable place to start an analysis. In particular several of the items under section 2 are things that could be implemented by the staff in the coming year. Others would require discussions with the various entities. Preliminary conversations with some of the organizations have already begun. 1. One-time sources: a. Further refinements to the Design PBC already recommends $202K b. CPA - Battle Green Master Plan design and site work c. CPA Diorama Preservation d. CPA USS Lexington Preservation e. Federal Funds f. State Funding g. Grants i. Mass Cultural Council Facilities Fund ii. iii. American Battlefield Protection Program iv. Community Endowment of Lexington h. Donations i. Crowd Source Funding ii. Town Residents direct appeal iii. Hotels, Corporate and Local Businesses direct appeal iv. Local organizations direct appeal v. American Bus Association vi. American Lodging Association vii. Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau (GBVCB) viii. Greater Merrimack Convention & Visitors Bureau (GBVCB) 2. Annual Contributions towards debt a. Liberty Ride Revolving Fund b. Lexington Chamber c. Ask for $1 per visitor at cash register during sales (124k visitors annually) d. Facilities fees i. Liberty Ride Tickets ii. Cary Hall event Tickets iii. Others 2 | Page Another possible source would require a policy discussion. While the Town generally does not dedicate revenues to particular sources, we do believe that in this case, it is worth considering dedicating a percentage of Hotel growth revenue as an acknowledgement that tourism contributes to some level of the Hotel tax revenues which in FY2017 was $1,056,493. Over the last seven years new growth has averaged approximately $100k. Salem, as an example, dedicates 40% of the total Hotel tax collections annually to support Tourism efforts. We know that the new growth in Hotel tax is primarily a combination of filling vacant rooms on weekends, and increase in hotel room pricing. One-third of a week would roughly be 30%. Taking the $100k average new growth and applying the 30% could provide $600k or more over 20 years towards the Visitors Center project. While for many reasons including other pressing capital projects, targeting all of the Hotel tax would not provide the flexibility Lexington needs in managing their resources for financial stability. Considering a percentage of the new growth In Lexington as an investment in economic development we believe is a reasonable. During the coming months we hope this policy questions can be discussed in the broader Between now and the Annual Town Meeting the Committee believes that working with staff and our tourism partners, a reasonable public-private partnership strategy can be more fully developed. Ultimately, this will help Town Meeting feel confident about investing in a new Visitors Center. We appropriation to $350k. 3 | Page NotesHotel tax collected FY01-FY10, new tax added beginning FY11no meals tax collected FY01 - FY10Work on modernizing VC started in FY2011 First VC programmatic report submitted 1/20/2012 699,217 388,879 1,088,096 $ $ $ New Growth FY11-FY17 5,711,240 3,084,182 2,990,815 8,439,824 8,702,054 11,524,006 $ $ $ $ $ $ Actual Hotel/Motel Tax Revenue Total Hotel Tax Revenue FY01-FY17Total Meals Tax Revenue FY11 - FY17Hotel Tax Revenue since programmatic report started in FY2011Meals Tax Revenue since programmatic report started in FY2011 Updated: October 17, 2017 PBPB SCSC CECCEC ACAC YYYYYYYYYYYYY IPIPIP W DLDL YYYYYYYYYYYY R IPIPIP W MCMC YYYYYYYYYYY NN IPIPIP W JPJP YYYYYYYYYYYYY IPIPIP W PKPK YYYYYYYYYYYYY IPIPIP W SBSB 1 JPJPJP DLDLDL PKPKSBPKSBSBSB MCMCMC PRESENTPRESENT ARTICLE POSITIONSARTICLE POSITIONS Open Space Affordable Housing 2017 SPECIAL TOWN MEETING - 22017 SPECIAL TOWN MEETING - 3 SPECIAL TOWN MEETING 2017-2Reports of Town Boards, Officers, CommitteesAppropriate for Hastings School ConstructionAppropriate Design Funds for Lexington Children's Place/20 Pelham RoadAppropriate Design Funds for Fire HeadquartersAppropriate for Temporary Fire Station ConstructionSPECIAL TOWN MEETING 2017-3Reports of Town Boards, Officers, CommitteesAmend Zoning Bylaw - 45, 55, 65 Hayden Avenue (Owner Petition)Amend General Bylaws - Rereational MarijuanaAmend Zoning Bylaw - Recreational Marijuana MoratoriumAmend FY2018 Operating, Enterprise Fund and Community Preservation Budgets Establish and Appropriate To and From Specified Stabilization Funds Amend Revolving Fund Authorization Appropriate Design Funds for Visitors CenterAppropriate for Solid Waste Collection Equipment Amend General Bylaws - Distribution of Town Election/Town Meeting WarrantAppropriate for Lexington High School Security System Design Appropriate Community Preservation Act Projects - Appropriate Community Preservation Act Projects - Appropriate for Authorized Capital Improvements ARTICLEArticle 1Article 2Article 3Article 4Article 5ARTICLEArticle 1Article 2Article 3Article 4Article 5Article 6Article 7Article 8Article 9Article 10Article 11Article 12Article 12Article 13