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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-07-30-SLC-min Town of Lexington Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of Meeting of July 30, 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: Paul Chernick, Marcia Gens, Todd Rhodes, Dan Voss, Members Absent: Celis Brisbin, Rick Reibstein, Charlie Wyman Other Attendees: Joe Pato, (Board of Selectmen) The meeting was called to order at 7:10 pm. 1. The committee approved the minutes from the July 8, 2019 meeting. 2. The committee reviewed and updated the Action Item list. 3. Dan identified that Doug Lucente has requested the draft update to the Sustainable Lexington Committtee charter be revised to include language that specifically addresses the energy for municipal buildings because that was an element of the Energy Conservation Committee’s charter that was required by Town Meeting. The committee agreed to add that language to the charter and to send the draft to the Board for approval. 4. Dan provided an update on the Integrated Building Policy. Jim Malloy had identified that the stakeholder group of reviewers had agreed to the policy, but some updates to the attachments were still being discussed. Then the Permanent Building Committee recommended some additional edits to the policy. Dan will follow up with Jim Malloy to recommend that the policy be approved as agreed by the stakeholder group. 5. The committee has not received direct feedback on the status of the Sustainability Director job description or plans for the search. Todd will contact Ricki Papo and Mark Sandeen to identify whether they have forwarded the comments from the Concord Sustainability Director on to Jim Malloy. 6. Dan identified that plans for solar panels and storage at Hastings are being developed. 7. Todd summarized the discussion at the Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) regarding the proposed revisions to zoning bylaws to promote solar energy in parking areas. EDAC invited Boston Properties’ Sustainability Director to the meeting. He described Boston Properties approach to sustainable initiatives. Regarding solar canopies, EDAC identified that tenants see it as an amenity (covered parking), eases snow removal, and protects the top deck of parking structures – greatly reducing costs. The downsides discussed included up-front costs and reduced flexibility for making future changes to the parking area. Overall, EDAC members appeared to be in favor of the removal of restrictions but did not appear to be in favor of requirements. As a side note, they discussed that they could be interested in requirements for EV charging stations. 1. Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of July 8, 2019 8. Regarding the effort to promote the proposed draft of the solar panel by-laws, the committee agreed that we should bring a proposal for a warrant article to the Board of Selectmen in the fall for consideration in the spring Town Meeting. The Energy Sector team will take the lead and Todd will provide support. Marcia and Dan both identified that they have contacts who worked on the Watertown bylaws and will reach out to them to get input to the process they followed to get their rules established. 9. The committee discussed the nomination of a representative to the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. Joe identified that that committee’s primary criteria for membership was geographic diversity and they were looking for a representative from Precinct 1. Marcia had a recommendation and would reach out to her. 10. To begin the process of updating the Sustainable Lexington Plan and presenting priorities to the Board of Selectmen, Todd offered to provide each Sector Team with the information they needed to identify and assess potential programs/projects. Then the committee will meet to assess the consolidated list of priorities. The committee will plan to present the list of priorities to the Board in the fall. 11. Sector Activies.  Marcia provided an update on the Toxics and Waste Sector activities and plans by the Town to submit a request for a grant to educate residents about recycling.  Regarding Transportation, Todd described a concept around using electric busses to better connect Lexington residents to key, local mass transit nodes (e.g., Lincoln, Winchester, MC Anderson, and Waltham train stations). Next Meeting: Our regular monthly meeting time will be set as the last Tuesday of the month th instead of the 4 Tuesday. The next meeting of the committee will be August 27, 2019. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm. Respectfully submitted, Todd Rhodes 2.