Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-06-23-SLC-min.pdf Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of Meeting of June 23, 2026 A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held on Zoom. A quorum was present throughout. Members Present: Cindy Arens (chair), Todd Rhodes (vice chair), Andy Joynt, Lin Jensen, Kavitha Ravi, Kavitha Venkatesan, Dan Voss, Celis Brisbin, Rick Reibstein Members Absent: none Staff Present: Maggie Peard Other Attendees: Joe Pato (SB liaison), Bob Creech (Planning Board liaison), Marcia Gens, Michael Boudett (CEC liaison), Wendy Heiger-Bernays (BOH) ————————————— SUMMARY OF VOTES: We did not vote on any items in this meeting. ————————————— The meeting was called to order at 6:02 pm. Approval of past meeting minutes. We approved the prior meeting minutes from April 28, 2026. Solar at LHS There will be a meeting with the designers to discuss plans for solar. Dan Voss will attend on behalf of SLC and will report back. Solar at Muzzy and Pine Meadows Golf Two solar projects have been brought to the SB under the CSIP policy to explore if we should move forward. 1) Muzzy Parking lot - this is in the historic district which raises the concern over increased cost. Maggie proceeded with a ROI calculation to present to SB and the next step will be to present to HDC at the July meeting before returning to SB. Cindy commented on how we should emphasize the reduction in operating costs we enjoy immediately upon adopting solar. Cindy also commented that we need to be forward-thinking about the types of assumptions we use to present the financial projections as well as anticipating the questions we may face regarding the financing approach (should bonding be an option?), the potential adjacent developments that could impact the site’s production (Clarke St project, which is 400-500 ft away), and Eversource’s ability to absorb production at this location. Celis suggested a summary for this project and comparable analysis of past projects. We discussed if SLC should put together a letter of support at this time or should wait to get June 23, 2026 more information from Eversource’s interconnection study and following the HDC presentation before we weigh in. Rick mentioned that we could put together a statement of enthusiasm for the project in general and describe the information we are looking forward to reviewing. We concluded to not put to vote the notion of a letter of support for this meeting and instead wait to evaluate additional shading analysis and Eversource pre-application response. At Pine Meadows, Maggie presented four different solar array options to SB. The canopy over the carport was viewed most favorably by SB. It is the largest and garnered unanimous support. Todd and Cindy raised the question of why the solar options were viewed as exclusive (a canopy OR a rooftop solar installation) when there is a feasible economic model to do both the canopy AND a rooftop installation. There will be a follow up to investigate if this is an option. The committee wondered if the approved funding was already maxed out with the canopy option, which would preclude adding an additional scope like a rooftop installation. If there is not sufficient appropriation money, we could perhaps consider a town meeting article to request further funding. Comments from residents; emails to committee mailbox; new business. A resident inquired if there could be a special exception under the new waste reduction policy for disposal of invasive plant species that should go into the trash (rather than compost). Maggie investigated and responded that there could be case by case exceptions for those exceeding their trash allocation in order to dispose of these plants, especially in the case of collecting invasives from Town land/conservation areas. Cindy brought forth a few items of new business. The developers at Hanscom have again delayed submission of their Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Report (SDEIR), and indicated that it will be submitted in the fall at the earliest. There will be dishwashers installed at Estabrook and Fiske over the summer and the addition of reusable dishware. Sustainability and Resilience Officer Updates Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) There were few public comments on the draft plan and this continues to proceed. A draft of the HMP has been forwarded to SLC. The MVP project will wrap up at the end of this month and will result in a $50K grant to fund the seed project. The most popular projects at Discovery Day were improving pedestrian and bike connections along with improving community connections. The projects that were signaled as most important in the most vulnerable community members was a desire to improve the availability and accessibility of emergency preparedness information. The final seed project idea is to create a web and physical tool kit of emergency information, a mailer that goes out to each home, and to host a kickoff event to broadcast the message. Waste Reduction and Modernization program Maggie informed us that the Town Meeting vote to allow fees for curbside trash pickup over a baseline was upheld because the number of votes cast to overturn did not meet the required threshold. The next steps are to provide a summary of potential program designs, results of June 23, 2026 community input, and input from SB of what types of programs we’d like to move forward with. Joe Pato indicated that the referendum vote delayed the schedule for making progress on program design. However, he urged that we make some progress on preparing for a contract procurement process and prepare very concrete proposals that can be presented to the community for feedback. The contract negotiation will undergo several rounds and will begin in the fall. We should have a short list of options to discuss with haulers as we enter into negotiations. Sustainable Purchasing Policy The SB passed the policy which retains our eligibility for MassDEP grants. SB requested that going forward we have more inclusion of committee input into what the policy would aim to achieve. The next steps are to bring the draft policy before various committees to collect comments. Rick commented that we may want to highlight the integrated building design policy that we have already adopted that eliminates red list products from our procurement process for construction. We could expand that elimination of red list materials to this policy and also focus on reducing toxicity and emphasizing green list products. Todd asked and it was clarified that this policy would apply to municipal purchases but not schools at this point. The School Committee will review and consider adoption as well. The discussion begged the question of whether we have a concrete summary of what the municipality is purchasing. There was a robust discussion of the tension between producing a policy that provides an education to municipal employees and arms them with the tools to take action versus a broad policy that requires employees to utilize a discreet set of guidelines. Continued conversation about SBC/High School Update Dan Voss and Mark Sandeen will be speaking to the designers next week about the solar design at the school. We have moved into a detailed design phase. There is still the potential for the size of solar to be put on the value engineering list. The design currently remains on budget even as certain items fluctuate. Construction fences are expected to go up July 6. Permitting issues are currently proceeding as expected. Cindy highlighted the importance of ensuring that we understand the point at which we will discuss red list items and the process for prioritizing non-red list items. Wendy suggested we ask Brookline to share the lessons they learned in going through this process. The key is to ensure that we do not compromise on these items and result in them being subject to value engineering. The concern arises in particular when there is a short timeframe around decision-making on materials and SMMA does not present options to avoid red-list items. Joe Pato commented that there is a wider range of construction activities at the high school that are falling under the mandate for non-red list items than there was for the police station. As a result, SMMA is expressing that there is more difficulty in identifying providers who can make a bid with non-red list items. Joe suggested that we speak with Mike Cronin and Chuck Favazzo about how we should approach SMMA. Charley Stevenson (Materially Better, formerly Integrated Eco Strategy) was mentioned as an expert that was used on the Police Station design and could be useful here. (Note: Turner Construction is mentioned as a partner with Materially Better) State Climate Bill Update The most recent update on the climate bill is that the proposed $1 billion cut to Mass Save June 23, 2026 remains in the bill passed by the House. The Senate members drafting the Senate bill do not want to include this level of cut so there is still a chance to influence this outcome. There is an opportunity to contact your senators to express the importance of retaining Mass Save funding. Review Resilient Lexington - Community Resilience (pages 18 and 19) We reviewed the existing goals, targets, and metrics of success. We agreed that this content is strong and comprehensive and that a nice goal would be to update our metrics and recognize what goals we have completed. Upcoming meetings: July 28 (Tue) - Regularly scheduled SLC meeting. The meeting adjourned at 8:36pm.