HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-01-08-SLC-min Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of January 8, 2021
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held by Zoom conference.
A quorum of nine was present.
Members Present: Cindy Arens, Celis Brisbin, Paul Chernick, Marcia Gens, Rick
Reibstein, Todd Rhodes (vice-chair)
Members Absent: Archana Dayalu, Dan Voss (chair), Charlie Wyman
Other Attendees: Stella Carr (Sustainability Director), Amanda Loomis
(Planning Director), Shiela Page (Asst. Planning Director),
Sandhya Iyer (Economic Development Director), Mark
Sandeen (Select Board), Mary Hutton (Mothers Out Front),
Ricki Pappo (Lexington GWAC), Lin Jensen.
The meeting was called to order at 9:11 am. Todd referenced the opening statement
requested by the Town Clerk, and all members responded that they could hear.
1. Review of Hartwell Innovation Park (HIP)—Proposed Bylaw
• A new draft of the proposed bylaw as posted by the Planning Department on
January 7, 2021. It was noted that the new draft has more strongly worded
requirements (e.g., "shall" and "must").
• The committee discussed the requirement for EV charging stations, which
currently calls for charging stations at 10% of total parking spaces and 25% of
parking spaces being "charging ready" (i.e., infrastructure in place to install
chargers). Given the State's plan to end the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by
2035, the need for charging stations will increase (if approved). Therefore, the
committee recommended increasing the requirement to 25% installed and 50%
charger ready. The committee also recommended that Level 2 chargers be
required. Market forces may push for levels beyond these requirements.
2. Review of Lexington-LEED HIP Checklist
• C. Brisbin and C. Arens provided an overview of their recommendations for how
the Lexington-LEED checklist from the Integrated Building Design &
Construction Policy could be revised to meet the needs of the HIP.
• M. Gens identified that the Sustainable Landscaping group has been discussing
approaches for adding guidance for landscaping practices. The committee and
Planning discussed that a line item for Sustainable Landscaping could be added to
the checklist once the criteria is defined.
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Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of January 8, 2021
• A. Loomis identified that this approach will be very helpful and would likely be
added to the Design Guidelines.
3. HIP Design Guidelines
S. Iyer identified that the Design Guidelines are scheduled to be released for
review on January 21 with a deadline for feedback of February 4. Planning will
work to share an early version (without all graphics, etc.)with the committee
prior to the 21" so that there is sufficient time for review.
4. Clean Heat/Fossil Fuel Warrant Article
C. Arens provided an overview of the updates to the article completed by Town
staff. The updates do not affect the content of the article, but they make it more
clear that Town Meeting will vote separately on the Home Rule Petition portion
and the bylaw portion.
• The committee voted 5-0 in support of this version of the article.
• The Select Board will be approving the language for articles going to Town
Meeting on January 11.
Next Meeting: The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Sustainable Lexington
Committee will be on Tuesday, January 26, 2021, at 6 pm.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:45 am.
Respectfully submitted,
Todd Rhodes
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