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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-07-08-SLC-min Town of Lexington Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of Meeting of July 8, 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: Celis Brisbin, Marcia Gens, Todd Rhodes, Dan Voss, Charlie Wyman Members Absent: Rick Reibstein Other Attendees: Paul Chernick, Ricki Pappo, Judy Otto, Charles Hornig (Planning Board), Bob Pressman, Steve Senna(National Development), Michele Lambert(Lambert Sustainability) The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm. 1. Presentation by representatives from National Development on the Project Descriptions and Sustainability Goals for the Bridges and Waterstone Development projects on Watertown Street. • Dan set the scene with some background and history on Sustainable Lexington. Steve Senna then reviewed the history of the site and described the project team, the nature of project, and the commitments made to the Selectmen, Town Meeting, Belmont Country Club, and neighbors. These place strong constraints on what they can change, but while they are two years into planning and design, it is early in the design of their systems and they are open to doing what they can. Michelle Lambert walked the committee through the sustainability design process and reviewed where they are on various topics. • The initial assessment for solar and geothermal is not promising, but they are continuing to look at it. They asked if the committee could share information about the geothermal system at Hastings, and any other information that could assist them in evaluating options. • There was discussion about the importance of incorporating red list issues, which are not well covered by LEED, into the design process. • Dan asked about their resiliency planning and ability to withstand an extended period without power. Mr. Senna responded that they've looked at various options and will rely on diesel generators with a 48-hour supply on site and reliance on contracts for resupply. • Celis said that he would like to see their energy modeling and recommended that National Development investigate available funding for sustainable systems and hoped they could go beyond LEED silver to produce a model result. Mr. Senna replied that they can't afford all they would like to do, are constrained by commitments made to other 1. Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of July 8, 2019 parties. He noted that they were here for 18 months without hearing much from the sustainability community, while they heard from many others. They plan to pursue their commitment to meet LEED Silver and will consider additional recommendations, but many constraints are already in place. • Mr. Senna and Ms. Lambert agreed to keep the committee apprised of progress on their plan and to meet with the committee again once they have progressed farther with their energy modeling and decisions about the properties. 2. Review committee goals for the Selectmen Annual Goal Setting. The committee discussed possible goals to present to the Selectmen in the meeting on Thursday and agreed on the following: Support the implementation of the Sustainable Action Plan. Specific recommendations to the Board of Selectmen include: • Support the hiring of a Sustainability Director—the job description is currently being developed by the Town Manager. • Approve the Integrated Building Policy, which is scheduled to be finalized by the stakeholder group in July 2019. • Support the development and approval of the high performance building operating policy. • Support actions identified in the Net Zero Emissions Roadmap, which describes the long-term direction for town activities, and ongoing programs such as Community Choice, Lexington Energy Challenge, and Solar Task Force initiatives. • Participate in Net Zero Building overview training to be better positioned to consider proposed building design options. The Sustainable Lexington Committee will help to facilitate the sessions. • Actively support efforts to update zoning bylaws to encourage the implementation of solar energy. • Consider for approval the recommended Sustainability Action Plan activities that will be presented to the Board of Selectmen in Q4 of 2019. • Facilitate communications and cooperation between Town Departments and Sustainable Action Plan sector teams to advance approved actions. • Work to better inform the community about pending decisions that could affect the Town's sustainability (e.g., new buildings, infrastructure projects, etc.) early in the process so that input on sustainable options can be provided. 3. Review proposed bylaw changes to address solar installations • Charles Hornig's list of possible amendments to the Zoning By-Law to promote solar energy and remove impediments to solar installations was discussed in detail. It was 2. Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of July 8, 2019 agreed to change "area"to "lot" in section C of the proposed motion, after which the committee endorsed the proposed changes. Charles explained that he had another priority for the coming year—the revision of Hartwell Avenue zoning—and leaves it to the committee to decide whether to take the lead in promoting the proposed changes. The committee agreed that it would take on the job of promoting the changes to the bylaws. Next Meeting: Our regular monthly meeting time will be set as the last Tuesday of the month instead of the 4h Tuesday. The next meeting of the committee will be July 30. The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 pm. Respectfully submitted, Charlie Wyman 3.