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Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of December 11, 2019
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held in in the Selectmen’s
Meeting Room in the Town Offices Building. A quorum of seven was present.
Members Present: Cindy Arens, Paul Chernick, Marcia Gens, Rick Reibstein, Todd
Rhodes (vice-chair), Dan Voss (chair), Charlie Wyman
Members Absent: Celis Brisbin
Other Attendees: Joe Pato (Selectman), Ricki Pappo (Lexington GWAC), Ingrid
Klimoff, Charles Hornig (Planning Board), Beth Davenport, Susan
Foster, Mandy Smith (latter three individuals representing Mothers
Out Front)
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 pm.
1. Town Meeting articles. Todd explained the two routes for getting articles on the warrant
(citizens’ petitions and articles submitted through the Board of Selectmen). Members were asked
to report on any articles they would propose.
Rick reported that Ricki Pappo has agreed to serve on the committee’s new Toxics Use
Reduction Subcommittee, and that he met today with Dept. of Health staff. They together
agreed to develop a policy on toxics use reduction for the town that they will share with
Asst. Town Manager Carol Kowalski.
The Waste Reduction Task Force will be focusing on public education this coming year,
along with the Recycling IQ grant, and may want to propose an article next year but not
this.
Charles Hornig walked the committee through the details of his proposed Zoning By-Law
amendment article that would remove many restrictions on solar installations (setbacks,
height limits, site coverage, etc.). The Economic Development Advisory Committee has
agreed to support it; the Planning Board is considering it. Discussion focused on its
impact in residential areas, and whether the reduction in setbacks and other measures
might create opposition and a perception of overreach that might backfire, and concern
about the reduced benefit if trees are removed to install panels. It was agreed that the
committee would submit a letter of support (Todd will draft), with the understanding that
some of the details may get refined during the public hearing process with the Planning
Board.
Charlie reported (on behalf of the Land Use and Natural Environment sector) that they
had no articles to propose, but that the Tree Committee has been discussing one and the
Conservation Commission may propose a land acquisition, both of which we may want to
support.
Sustainable Lexington Committee Minutes of December 11, 2019
Ricki Pappo reminded us that GWAC last year proposed an article creating a revolving
fund for sustainability projects, but it was withdrawn because no one could figure out a
mechanism for achieving the goal of rolling cost savings over to fund new sustainability
projects, short of introducing a Home Rule Petition. The possibility of a Town Meeting
resolution was discussed. This led to a discussion about how to provide working capital
for grant applications; Joe explained that typically these are included in the budget
process, but at the moment no funds are proposed for FY21 for the use of the
Sustainability Director since it’s a new position. It was agreed that Dan would draft a
letter to the Selectmen asking that $20,000 be included in the FY21 budget for this
purpose.
2. Mothers Out Front. The representatives of Mothers Our Front were asked about their
interests and priorities. The Weymouth compressor station was mentioned; Rick suggested there
was more that could be done; towns could ask the state to sue FERC, raise visibility, put pressure
on governor, and MOF could ask us to respond. We talked about state legislation and statewide
issues; MOF could help coordinate and promote united action through resolutions by multiple
towns and sustainability committees. The committee’s list of state legislative priorities was
mentioned and the committee agreed to share it; while it was forwarded to the Board of
Selectmen, Joe suggested the committee make a date to come to the Board to present it.
3. Discussion of how the committee plans to address sustainable design of new commercial
developments. This discussion was postponed to the next meeting.
Next Meeting: The next meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee will be on Tuesday,
December 17 at 7 pm.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Charlie Wyman
2.