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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-13-PB-min PLANNING BOARD MINUTES MEETING OF NOVEMBER 13, 2018 A meeting of the Lexington Planning Board, held in the Parker Room, was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Chair Ginna Johnson with members Richard Canale, Charles Hornig, Nancy Corcoran- Ronchetti, Bob Creech and planning staff David Kucharsky present. Attorney Mina Makarious was present. *****************************STAFF REPORTS********************************** General Updates: Mr. Kucharsky gave an update on the planning positions status. Comprehensive Plan Update: The last World Café is Tuesday November 27 at the Community Center. ****************SPECIAL TOWN MEETING ARTICLE DISCUSSION***************** Article 2, Marijuana: Mr. Hornig will make the presentation to Town Meeting. Article 9, 7 Hartwell Avenue: The applicant has requested Town Meeting refer this article back to the Planning Board. Article 10, 55 & 56 Watertown Street: Mr. Makarious gave the Board an update on how to count the different types of units with respect to affordable housing. He explained to the Board that there is no guarantee of how units will be treated or counted as housing units by the DHCD and cannot predict how the Census Bureau will count them 12 years from now. Mr. Makarious then explained the probability of how things could be counted based on past information. National Development made two offers: to increase the number of affordable units and to reduce or eliminate the number of kitchen facilities. The Board discussed the presentation for Town Meeting. The Moderator explained that the Planning Board has 20 minutes to making a presentation. It was decided that Mr. Creech, Ms. Johnson and Mr. Hornig would each do part of the presentation. Mr. Creech shared his presentation of the report with the Board, Ms. Johnson was concerned that it did not reflect the actual concerns of other Board members so Ms. Johnson will do a presentation recommending Town Meeting turn down the project and have them come back next year with a smaller scale project and more affordable units. Mr. Canale said the problem is the Board did not have enough time to review Mr. Creech’s report and the Board does not have time to craft a joint report right now. There was also concern that the Board did not get enough information or input from the Page 2 Minutes for the Meeting of November 13, 2018 Housing Partnership or any other housing advocates to evaluate the impact it would have on housing. The Planning Board should meet with the Housing Partnership and the Board of Selectmen to work together on this project. The only data the Board had to work with was the Housing Production Plan. Ms. Corcoran-Ronchetti said at the last meeting of the Housing Partnership had discussed favorably this project and they are meeting tonight to vote. Ms. Johnson said there was concern that Town Meeting might view this as the Planning Board being against this project, but she really just wants more time to improve the plan. Mr. Hornig said this was filed five months ago and there has been a lot of time to review and talk about this. He was very concerned about having two reports and if there was the minority report it should be smaller and subsidiary to the main report, otherwise it would give the wrong message to Town Meeting. Economic diversity was also discussed as a concern regarding this project and discussed bringing the percentage of affordable housing up to 25%. Mr. Hornig asked if the Board’s position is still recommending this project that is in our report. The Board discussed re-voting their recommendation to Town Meeting and withdrawing the original report. A straw poll reflected that there were four votes to recommend Town meeting not approve this Article. On a motion of Mr. Canale, seconded by Ms. Corcoran-Ronchetti, it was voted, 4-1 (Mr. Hornig opposed), to reconsider the Planning Board’s previous votes on the Article 10 to Town Meeting. On a motion of Mr. Canale, seconded by Mr. Creech, it was voted 4-1 (Mr. Hornig opposed), to recommend disapproval of Article 10 to Town Meeting. On a motion of Mr. Canale, seconded by Mr. Creech, it was voted, 5-0, to inform Town Meeting that the distributed report no longer represents the Board’s decision the opinion of the Planning Board’s decision. The presentation of the new report of the Board would be made by Ms. Johnson and Mr. Hornig will present the opposing view. The presenter should explain that they want the applicant to come back with a revised project for the Spring Annual Town Meeting. On a motion, duly made and seconded, it was voted to adjourn the meeting at 7:15 p.m. The meeting was recorded by LexMedia. The following documents were used at the meeting:  Draft Reports to Town Meeting Nancy Corcoran-Ronchetti, Clerk