HomeMy WebLinkAbout1947-12-18PLUM G BOARD MMING
December 18, 1947
Presents Worthen, Rudd, Ferguson, Richards and Cromwell
Mr.Blackeeell presented orally his reports (to be delivered later
in printed form) on tax title property and on the zoning by-law. Dis-
cussion of these matters took up the entire meeting.
Respectful3Z submitted
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Richard P.Cromwell
erk
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PUMU NG BOARD NOT
December 18,1947
Present: Worthen, Houdlette, Richards, Rudd and Cromwell
The Board had been asked to consider the desirability of issuing
a permit to the above to operate a bus route from Bedford Street, through
Simonds Road, Burlington Street, through. Hancock and back to Bedford
Street.
The Board decided to advise the Selectmen of various considerations
that should weigh strongly agti.nst the projects
1. Hancock Street is closed, for reasons of safety, to vehicles of
over two tons.
2. Residents of Hancock Street to Adams say that they do not need
nor want bus service.
3. In general the streets in and to the area served are too narrow
and otherwise unsuited.
' 4. If this license is granted where is the logical stopping point
short of running busses to and through all residential areas in
the town? The town would become busier, noisier and in every
way less like it has been.
5. Busses stimulate construction. This is not undesirable as such,
but why stimulate construction in areas that would have to be
reached through desirable residential areas that would not want
nor need service?
6. If, nevertheless, it is desired to run busses to the area in
question let it enter at Simonds and leave at, say, Revere. But
there are arguments against this. Streets are not suitable.
Residents on these streets near Bedford would be subject to new
hazards and no benefits.
A group of real estate dealers met with the Board. kr.Mclntosh
left with the Board certain suggested revisions of the zoning by-law having
to do with the merging of lots. These were designed to remedy situations
like thiss Three adjoining lots of 50 -foot frontage each may now be built
upon because of the date of the original subdivisions. However, if the
lots are merged to create two 75 -foot frontage lots they may not be built
upon. The Board told the group that it would consider these and other sug-
gestions made to it by the real estate group.
Mr.Blackwell addressed the joint meeting and described certain methods
of doing away with undersigned lots over a period of time.
Respec mi.
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Ri .Cromwell,
Clerk
IREPORT OF THE PLANNING BOARD
December 31, 1A7
To the Honorable Board of Selectmen
Lexington, Massachusetts
Gentlemen:
The report of the Planning Board for the year 190
is submitted herewith.
Eighteen -regular meetings have been held this
year, in addition to six joint meetings with the Board
of Selectmen or other committees. The Board accepted
with regret the resignation of Mr. Nickerson, a member
since 1936, and Mr. Rudd was elected by the town to fill
the vacancy. The major efforts of a year of considerable
activity and progress may be outlined as follows:
Six subdivisions, none of major proportions,
were reviewed in their preliminary stages, in which the
Planning Board (as constituted locally, under the statutes)
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acts in an advisory capacity to the Board of Survey, which
board gives final approval to those plans carried to com-
pletion by the developers. The total number of lots in-
volved was very substantially lower than those laid out
in the previous year, and the fact that building permits
increased would indicate that a greater amount of new
residential construction has been on streets already
existing.
For the first time in many years the Board has
operated on an increased budget, a circumstance made
necessary and desirable, in our opinion, by the antici-
pated rapid growth of the town during this period and
the corresponding problems facing the Board which require
study. Engineering assistance was obtained by the Board
in its joint studies with the School Committee on two pro-
jects: adjustment of land -taking for the new high school,
and the selection of a site for a new elementary school.
In addition to field trips the Board also prepared a
population density map, showing the location of all dwell-
ings in the town. This man is brought up to date at in-
tervals and, having served its immediate purpose in the
study of school sites, should prove useful on other pro-
blems and t,o other groups as well.
The Board has completed a new master plan and '
a system of maps, this project being undertaken by our
planning consultant. Many town departments and com-
mittees have in the past sought assistance from the
Planning Board, which has been handicapped by lack of
comprehensive, detailed, and readily available up-to-
date maps. Most of this material exists in various
forms in the town offices, but it is not coordinated
nor in a form such that it can be obtained or used with
effectiveness. The new plan system includes such basic
data as land use, zoning, streets, sewer and water mains.
A further part of these maps is a Careful survey of tax
title properties, a complex problem on which we are pre-
paring recommendations to the town.
With the assistance of its planning consultant
the Board has undertaken a re-examination of the present
zoning by-law and subdivision regulations, a comprehen-
sive study which we feel warrants and necessitates pro-
fessional advice at this time in order to abhieve sound
results. The Board's recommendations may include further
amendments, the first of which were adopted by the town
at the annual March meeting and were writtentto prevent
certain subdivision practices which are evasions of the '
Zoning by-law and circumvent its intent. One phase of
this examination is a study of the expansion of business
areas in the center, parking, and traffic; these consid-
erations are definitely related, and attention has been
given to this problem over a period of time because: we
gre of the opinion that definite action is required.
The Concord Turnpike has received attention
from the Board, in an effort to establish by the use
of plans and aerial maps a uniform policy for future
subdivision development adjacent totthe highway. In-
asmuch as this is not a limited access highway, the
Board hopes (with its state and local associations) to
encourage a service road plan which may do much to pre-
vent ehaotic, unsightly, and hazardous conditions which
otherwise could develop. We have also been called upon
by the Cambridge Planning Board to endorse its recommen-
dation to the state for a future highway extension from
Alewife Brook Parkway via Lechmere Square to the proposed
central artery. It is believed that this highway would
be of benefit to the suburban communities served by the
Turnpike by avoiding present congested in -town areas.
The Board has been requested during the year to
make recommendations, or haaevoluntarily reported, on
' numerous subjects, among which are: rapid transit,
a national cemetery, street names, bus route petitions,
and parking meters. Presently under consideration are
plans to participate in the project to extend census
tracting to the metropolitan area of greater Boston.
The Planning Board expects to face further problems in
the coming year and to terminate as effectively as pos-
sible the work already started, in order to assure a
sound base for a rapidly growing Lexington.
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Respectfully submitted,
Edwin B. Worthen, Jr.
Richard P. Cromwell
Clem H. Ferguson
Elmer C. Houdlette
Gordon D. Richards
Thayer Rudd