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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-11-10 SB-minSELECT BOARD MEETING Monday, November 10, 2025 A meeting of the Lexington Select Board was called to order at 6:30p.m. on Monday, November 10, 2025, via a hybrid meeting platform. Ms. Hair, Chair; Mr. Lucente, Mr. Pato, Ms. Kumar, and Mr. Sandeen were present, as well as Mr. Bartha, Town Manager; and Executive Clerk, Kim Katzenback. PUBLIC COMMENTS Patrick Mehr, 31 Woodcliffe Road, stated that, as evident from the Board’s tax classification package, the values of commercial properties are going down while the values of residential properties are going up. This will result in a shift of taxes away from commercial properties, raising resident taxes by more than what has previously been seen. This should be modeled moving forward. Also, regarding the percentage that rental apartment complexes pay in taxes, it appears that individual apartment units currently pay only 36% per square foot of what a single-family dwelling pays. In contemplating the large number of MBTA dwellings upcoming in Town, of which 88% will be rental units, it may be important to reconsider the 36% per square foot. SELECT BOARD MEMBER CONCERNS AND LIAISON REPORTS 1. Select Board Member Announcements and Liaison Reports Mr. Lucente stated that there will be a Veterans Day celebration tomorrow. This also marks the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. There will be a celebration tomorrow at 6 Miriam Street at the Church of Our Redeemer from 11am-1pm. He announced his intention to run as a candidate for reelection to the Select Board. Mr. Sandeen noted that he will also be running for reelection to the Select Board. 2. Lexington High School Project Update to Select Board Mr. Pato stated that the consulting team and staff have addressed some of the comments and questions raised at Town Meeting and that were circulated on social media in the aftermath of the meeting. The slide presentation was attached to the Board’s packet, and two video segments will be loaded to the project website. Mr. Lucente stated that there were some social media postings regarding the Lexington High School costs compared to the Burlington High School costs. The post mentioned that the cost per square foot for the Burlington project is about $911 and Lexington’s cost from the last presentation was $1,293. Given that both projects are on similar timelines, it would be good to understand the policy decisions at play with this comparable community. DOCUMENTS: Responses to TM Questions TOWN MANAGER REPORT 1. Town Manager Weekly Update Mr. Bartha stated that he and the Deputy Town Manager had the privilege and joy of attending the ICMA Conference in Tampa with two of Lexington’s young professionals, the Budget Director and Management Analyst, who were both attending their first conference. CONSENT AGENDA 1. Approve: One-Day Liquor Licenses - Spectacle Management, Inc., 1605 Massachusetts Avenue Friday, November 14, 2025 - V octave Saturday, November 15, 2025 - Jim Brickman Saturday, November 29, 2025 - Preservation Hall Jazz Sunday, December 14, 2025 - Eilleen Ivers Thursday, December 18, 2025 - Canadian Brass Sunday, December 21, 2025 - Irish Christmas To approve six One-Day Liquor Licenses for Spectacle Management, Inc. to serve beer and wine at Cary Hall, 1605 Massachusetts Avenue, for their Concert Series on November 14, 15, 29 & December 14, 18, 21, 2025. DOCUMENTS: Spectacle Event Diagram 2. Approve: One-Day Liquor Licenses - St Brigid Parish, 1989 Massachusetts Avenue Taste of Italy Fundraiser - Saturday, November 15, 2025 To approve a One-Day Liquor License for St. Brigid Parish, 1989 Massachusetts Avenue, to serve beer and wine at its “Taste of Italy” event on November 22, 2025, from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, in accordance with all applicable regulations. 3. Approve: Select Board Minutes To approve and release the following minutes: September 8, 2025 Select Board September 15, 2025 Select Board September 29, 2025 Select Board October 6, 2025 Select Board DOCUMENTS: DRAFT 09082025 Select Board Minutes; DRAFT 09152025 Select Board Minutes; DRAFT 09292025 Select Board Minutes; DRAFT 10062025 Select Board Minutes 4. Accept: Select Board Committee Resignation Housing Partnership Board: Sarah Morrison To accept the resignation of Sarah Morrison from the Housing Partnership Board effective immediately. DOCUMENTS: 2025.11.03 Sarah Morrison - Housing Partnership Board_Redacted 5. Approve: Select Board Committee Appointment Housing Partnership Board: Russell P. Tanner To appoint Russell P. Tanner to the Housing Partnership Board to fill a term ending on September 30, 2028, effective immediately. DOCUMENTS: Housing Partnership Board - Russell P . Tanner - Application & Resume 6. Approve: Proclamation Employee Recognition Day To approve and sign a proclamation for Employee Recognition Day to honor all Town employees and to recognize those employees with 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 40 years of service. DOCUMENTS: 2025 Employee Recognition Day VOTE: Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Select Board voted 5-0 to approve the Consent Agenda, as presented. ITEMS FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSIDERATION 1. Public Hearing: FY2026 Tax Classification Presentation Ms. Hai explained that this is the first meeting in the process of setting the FY2026 tax rates. The Board of Assessors and the Assistant Town Manager for Finance presented the FY2026 tax classification options and preliminary tax rates for the Select Board's consideration. The Fiscal Year 2026 Tax Classification Packet includes a summary of these options and supporting exhibits. This agenda item also serves the purpose of a tax classification hearing for the Board to take public comments on the tax classification options. She announced that the hearing will remain open until Monday, November 17, 2025, to allow for any additional public comments to be submitted to the Select Board prior to the Board voting the Tax Classification at their November 17th meeting. Ms. Hai opened the public hearing at 6:49pm. Ms. Kosnoff reviewed how the tax rate is calculated, which is the Town's total tax levy divided by its total assessed value. The total tax levy for FY26 is approximately $265M and the total assessed values are over $19B. Per the calculation, a flat tax rate would equate to $13.82 per $1,000 of value. This compares to $13.87 cents in FY25. The town of Lexington has had a historic practice of taxing to the levy limit. The total maximum allowable levy limit for FY26 is 3.49% or $265.3M over last year. Ms. Kosnoff explained that there are four options that the Board has available for setting the tax rate. The first is to select a shift between the commercial and CIP classes from 1% up to 1.75%. The second is whether or not to adopt an open space discount. This is not applicable in Lexington, because the Town does not have any property that is classified as open space. The third option is a residential exemption, If the Board decides to adopt one, it could be up to 35%. The fourth is regarding a small commercial property exemption, which could be adopted at up to 10%. She reviewed each of the potential options. Mr. Lucente asked about the resident’s question regarding the rental apartment complex tax rate percentage. Ms. Kosnoff explained that there are different methodologies of valuing property compared to the residential rate. Residential properties are generally valued using a market sales approach. For a property such as a large apartment building, the income approach is generally used. These methodologies are not different from what is used by other municipalities. These methodologies are as prescribed by the Department of Revenue. Mr. Lucente asked how the Town compares to other communities in the region regarding the commercial lack of growth that has been seen over the last couple of years. Ms. Kosnoff stated that Lexington is not an outlier at this point and may be faring a bit better than some. A main impact for FY26 is that 440 Bedford Street is fully constructed but not built out from the interior and is vacant. This changes the Town's overall percentage. Mr. Pato stated that, regarding the rental apartment complex tax rate percentage, constructing an arbitrary formula to make comparisons in the absence of how properties are actually assessed and used will create confusion. Shailesh Chandra, 10 Childs Road, asked about the proposal for the tax rate for residential homes and new apartments/condos for next year. Ms. Kosnoff explained that the tax rate between a residential, single-family home and an apartment would be exactly the same, as they are both within the residential class. All property classified as residential would have the same rate, proposed to be $12.31 if staying at the max shift, compared to $12.23 last year. Patrick Mehr, 31 Woodcliffe Road, stated that he believes Lexington should raise the rental apartment complex tax rate percentage because may have thousands of these units coming in which will make it impossible to balance the budgets in ten years. Olga Guttag, Precinct 6 Town Meeting Member, stated that today's presentation convinced her that the tax calculator on the project website for the Lexington High School is quite misleading. She asked that this be updated to include the annual tax increase that residents can expect from today's presentation. Jay Luker, 26 Rindge Ave, asked if other towns that implement the residential exemption ever experience any impacts on real estate demand. He asked if this potentially increases the price pressure on those towns and dampens the market for higher end homes. Putting increased price pressure on lower end homes could further make it so that young families with children are priced out of Lexington. holding off until those rates start to go up. Assuming the high school debt exclusion gets passed, he recommended starting the residential exemptions at smaller than 20% and determining some strategies to expand smaller rental opportunities. Dawn McKenna, 9 Hancock Street, stated that the tax rate has not always been so dramatically split. She also expressed concern about the valuations around apartments. She asked the Board to consider that it appears people at the lower end of the market may possibly benefit from some of a shift and also a residential exemption. Mr. Sandeen explained that he spoke with someone in Marlborough, which does not have a property tax exemption, but used to. Marlborough started phasing out the property tax exemption in 2005 and finally got rid of it in 2010. They determine that many long-term residents who had bought homes decades earlier were now over the median value of the home and actually being hurt by this. Marlborough determined that, as this was not age tested or means tested, many homeowners with high incomes or good liquid assets were having their property taxes lowered. Mr. Pato noted that Concord recently adopted the residential exemption and are reevaluating to consider whether or not this is a value to them. One of the recommendations from the committee was for the Town to pursue a means-tested senior residential exemption. It could be time for the Town to consider a Home Rule Petition for this, as Concord did. There was agreement on the Board to consider this further. DOCUMENTS: FY 2026 Tax Classification Presentation; FY 2026 Tax Classification Packet 2. Review: Amended Housing Partnership Board Committee Charge Ms. Hai explained that the Housing Partnership Board (HPB) is recommending updates to its committee charge and seeks Select Board approval. She stated that the HPB’s current charge provides for 13 voting members, including designated representatives from the Planning Board, Council on Aging (COA), Lexington Housing Authority (LHA), and Lexington Housing Assistance Board (LexHAB). The HPB proposes adjustments to reflect current participation and strengthen coordination among housing entities. Wendy Manz, Housing Partnership Board Chair, explained that the proposal is to change from four to six liaisons, for a total of 13 voting members. The request is also to convert the LHA seat from a voting member to a liaison position, as the Authority has been unable to appoint a voting representative for over a year. The request is to establish a formal liaison seat for the AHT, recognizing the value of their ongoing informal participation and alignment of housing policy efforts. Finally, to convert the COA seat from a voting member to a liaison position, formalizing the current arrangement with a COA representative who participates regularly but cannot serve as a voting member. Mr. Lucente asked about potentially lowering the total number of voting members from 13 to 11, for example. Ms. Manz stated that this would not be an opportune time to do so. Working groups were recently established to review a number of goals and the full membership is being utilized. VOTE: Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Select Board voted 5-0 to approve the amended Housing Partnership Board Committee Charge as proposed. DOCUMENTS: Memo - HPB Request to Update Charge, 2025.11.10 Proposed Amended Housing Partnership Board Charge, 2025.11.10 Proposed Amended Housing Partnership Board Charge - Redline 3. Update: Vision for Lexington Report on Local Election Voter Participation Analysis Jeri Zeder, of the Vision for Lexington Subcommittee, presented the group’s findings from its study on local election voter participation, in which causes of low voter turnout in Lexington’s municipal elections were examined. VFL also presented recommendations to increase civic engagement and voter participation at the local level. Key Recommendations for consideration from the Vision for Lexington Subcommittee include: 1. Establishing a Voter Turnout Task Force 2. Changing the timing of local elections 3. Promote Voting in Local Elections 4. Reducing logistical barriers to voting 5. Supporting the Town Clerk’s office in streamlining election administration and developing new voter engagement tools. 6. Advocating for legislative action on home-rule petitions related to ranked-choice voting and local voting rights for lawful permanent residents. 7. Improving access to data to better study and understand voter participation patterns. 8. Studying How to Foster Informed Citizenry. Mr. Lucente stated that there was previously a registration campaign for teens turning 16-17 in Town, hoping to encourage them to vote once able to do so. He asked about the results of that. Ms. Zeder stated that there was no data from that campaign. There needs to be additional education for people as they become voters. Ms. Kumar asked about comparing Lexington to other municipalities in terms of voter turnout. Ms. Zeder stated that election turnout is very low in all local elections, everywhere. Mr. Sandeen asked about engaging with the legislature to determine why there has been no action on ranked choice voting and voting rights for local elections for non-citizens. Ms. Zeder stated that this was not examined. Mr. Sandeen suggested getting the word out to people that voting for a Select Board member can have a long impact on what happens in State government as well. There is more impact to be had on voting at a local level. Mr. Pato stated that he would like the Town to continue pursuing increased voting, while also considering multiple ways of outreach and other ways of determining how to engage community members so that they value their community through engagement. Ms. Hai stated that she would like to move forward with the creation of a task force to study voter participation in Lexington for local elections. There was agreement on the Board. Mr. Lucente noted that a group in Town is working to establish a Lex Youth Civics group. There is interest in trying to put together a one-day seminar for high school students regarding how government works. Olga Guttag stated that she would like the Town to encourage canvassers speaking about registering and voting to people by going door-to-door. Secondly, if a resident requests a stack of paper forms from the Town Clerk's office to help people register or vote by mail, she asked that the Clerk honor this request. Dawn McKenna stated that her personal observation is that the amount of opportunities that youth have to be involved in elections, for example, that they are no longer allowed to elect their own school committee student representative, has changed people's attitudes regarding elections. This would be a good partnership to pursue. VOTE: Upon motion duly made and seconded, the Select Board voted 5-0 to accept the Vision for Lexington Subcommittee report dated August 22, 2025, regarding their study on Local Election Voter Participation and place the report on file with the Town Clerk. DOCUMENTS: Lex.Voter.Turnout.Presentation, Report - VFL.Local.Election.Voter.Turnout. ADJOURN VOTE: Upon a motion duly made and seconded, by roll call, the Select Board voted 5-0 to adjourn at 8:37p.m. A true record; Attest: Kristan Patenaude Recording Secretary