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Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of June 25, 2019
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held in in the Hudson
Room of Cary Hall. A quorum of five was present.
Members Present: Marcia Gens, Rick Reibstein, Todd Rhodes, Dan Voss, Charlie
Wyman
Members Absent: Celis Brisbin
Other Attendees: Paul Chernick
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 pm.
1. Review of Action Item list
Todd reviewed the Action Item list and updated the committee on progress on various
fronts:
Paul and Todd met with Sean Dugan (Public Information Officer) to discuss how
better to communicate the advantages of Community Choice; Sean explained that
he has launched two email communication subscriptions that may be helpful;
Todd and Paul will get back to him with a roughed out communications plan.
Todd explained that Charles Hornig of the Planning Board is waiting patiently for
comments on possible zoning changes to remove impediments to solar
installations; Dan and Paul will put their heads together and return to our next
meeting with their recommendations.
The Integrated Building Policy is almost complete; one more meeting is needed to
finalize the language. Once in place, the next task is a Building Operations Policy.
Paul’s appointment to SLC is expected on July 8. Revision of the charter will be
taken up by the Select Board at a later meeting; they requested that our draft be
revised to incorporate the contract approval language from the Energy
Conservation Committee charter since ECC responsibilities are essentially being
folded into SLC.
A special meeting is needed the week of July 8 to discuss the Waterstone and
Bridges development with their staff (as required by Town Meeting). Todd will
confirm they’re available July 8. Dan will invite Charles Hornig to attend and will
consult with the Planning Board on the status of the project before the meeting.
Dan reported that the Town Manager reviewed our comments on the draft job
description for Sustainability Director and adopted many of them. Dan proposed
one additional comment: that the Sustainability Director serve as liaison on the
SLC and participate in setting goals and actions under the Sustainable Action
Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of June 25, 2019
Plan. Mark Sandeen forwarded to the committee the comments of Kate Hanley
(Concord Sustainability Director) on the job description; the committee reviewed
them briefly and was in general agreement. Todd or Dan will coordinate with
Mark and Ricki Pappo before getting back to the town manager.
Hanscom Air Force Base is seeking to install a gas meter on the line into the base
so that it can better identify losses through reconciliation with end-point meters.
The town apparently has just a handful (three?) feeder lines into town, and a
similar exercise would be possible if those lines were metered. Dan or Todd will
follow up with John Livsey and will try to identify the party at Hanscom
responsible for their metering effort in order to compare notes.
Todd reported that efforts are underway to authorize Peregrine to update their
baseline for the Getting to Net Zero report. Funds are available, and a letter is
needed as to why Peregrine should be the sole source.
2. Review and approve minutes of previous meeting
The minutes of the meetings of May 28, May 31, and June 13, 2019, were all
approved as written.
3. New Business
Marcia explained that the Farmer’s Market on July 9 will have a focus on
sustainability, with the opportunity to have a Sustainable Lexington table. Paul
and Charlie may be able to assist.
Marcia and Todd met with Mina at Cary Library, whose beat includes outreach;
she is the contact if you want to do outreach through the library
A9 Green in East Lexington does home energy assessments; they’d like to work
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with us somehow, and will be meeting with Todd and Celis on the 9.
4. Sector Updates
Four sectors were discussed in varying levels of detail: waste, land use and natural
environment, food, and transportation. The value of establishing good baselines
for each was stressed. Particular notes:
o Waste: the value of graphics and compelling statistics (we throw away
enough each week to cover the Green to a depth of …) in communicating
the magnitude of the problem to the public
o Land Use and Natural Environment: need for a land base to satisfy various
town needs (conservation, schools, etc.) and ways to manage the trade-offs
between them
o Food: how much comes from town, local, regional sources? The potential
of soil for carbon sequestration
o Transportation: components of a baseline and how to track them;
methodology used in Compact of Mayors for tracking carbon from
transportation sources
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Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of June 25, 2019
Dan mentioned that we should reserve time at our July 8 meeting to talk about committee
goals to be presented on July 11 at the facilitated meeting of committee chairs.
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Next Meeting: Meetings will be held in July the week of the 8 (primarily to meet with
the proponents of the Waterstone and Bridges project; date not yet finalized) and on July
30 (regular monthly meeting).
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Charlie Wyman
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