HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-03-01--SLC-min Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of March 1, 2011
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held on March 1, 2011 in
Cary Hall. A quorum of three was present.
Members Present: Mark Sandeen, Chair
Ken Moraff, Todd Rhodes
Members Absent: Rick Abrams
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.
Minutes from the January 25, 2011 meeting were approved as amended
Mr. Moraff updated the committee on progress against the three actions identified at the
January 4, 2011 meeting. Responsibilities in O:
1. Assess proposed stormwater regulations: (T. Rhodes)
• Mr. Rhodes reviewed the proposed regulations. While the proposed
regulations are still on the DPW Engineering website as awaiting public
comment, is not clear whether the regulations are still in this phase of
review. Mr. Rhodes sent an email to DPW with questions, but has not
received a reply. Questions that the committee would like answered
include:
i. Does the regulation apply to "redevelopment", i.e., if a one acre
parking lot were to be repaved, would it be covered by this
regulation?
ii. What criteria is being used for the design storms? If old criteria are
being used, is it possible to develop enhanced criteria(e.g., a 50
year storm increased by 20 —30%)?
2. Contact other towns and UNH regarding implementation of stormwater
management technologies: K. Moraff will create a list and delegate tasks.
• Mr. Moraff identified contact in Franklin MA and Keene NH. Mr. Rhodes
will contact these individuals. He will also work to find a contact in
Leominster, MA.
3. Talk with Planning Board: K. Moraff and T. Rhodes
• Mr. Moraff will work to set up a meeting with the Planning Board and the
Conservation Committee.
Mr. Sandeen identified that the committee is scheduled to present a report of it progress
to the Selectmen on March 14, 2011.
Mr. Sandeen led a discussion of the revised proposal from NextStep Living and his
discussions with other service providers.
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• NextStep Living has responded to the questions that the committee raised
following the review of their initial proposal. The "Gusher" identification portion
of their offering is not currently available, but may be available in the fall. The
committee discussed the importance of collecting before and after information
from the homeowners so that the level of performance can be tracked. The
question was raised as to whether homeowners could sign a release so that their
energy provider (e.g., NStar, National Grid) would release their energy data—at
least in aggregate.
• Green Guild is a small firm conducts residential retrofits with the objective of
achieving 30 to 40% improvements. Their approach involves developing case
studies for each of the ten different types of homes commonly found in this
region. The assumption is that homeowners would be more willing to invest in
energy improvements by a case study the effectively represents their own home.,
Green Guild estimates that it would cost $160,000 to complete ten case studies for
Lexington.
• SageWell has taken IR photographs of selected homes in Lexington and is
interested in discussing how to use those photographs to drive homeowners to
invest in energy efficiency. One proposed approach would be to send postcards
with the IR image of the home to the homeowners with the homes in greatest need
of improvement (i.e., Gushers). The postcard would include the names of builders
that could be called to implement the improvements. Approaches for how
SageWell would be compensated for the images (and the postcards) and how the
builders would be selected need to be discussed further.
• Iblogix is a local firm that has a software solution to analyze the hourly energy
usage of commercial facilities. They would like to work with the Town to contact
local businesses and NStar to use their software to analyze the company's energy
usage and recommend improvement opportunities.
Following this discussion the committee voted to make the following three requests to the
Selectmen at the March 14 meeting:
1. Recommend to the Selectmen to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with
NextStep Living to start a program in September 2011 contingent upon their
Gusher program.
2. Request that the Selectmen support a pilot project with SageWell where 200 post
cards with IR photographs would be sent to homeowners. The postcard would
have the SLC website and the committee would pass on the lead to selected
builders.
3. Request that the Selectmen support a pilot project with Iblogix to meet with local
business and NStar to identify commercial improvement opportunities.
The three requests received unanimous agreement.
Mr. Sandeen presented a request from Mr. Burnell to consider whether a parcel of land
on Hartwell Avenue recently acquired by the town would be suitable for the installation
of solar panels. Much of the land appears to be wetlands, so there was discussion
regarding whether any construction would be permissible. Mr. Sandeen offered to discuss
the opportunity with his contacts involved in solar installations to identify whether this
parcel of land would be appropriate for such an installation.
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The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Todd Rhodes, Scribe
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