HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-02-03-EDAC-min Town Of Lexington
Economic Development Advisory Committee
February 3`'d, 2021
Draft minutes for the meeting of February 3rd, 2021. This meeting was held remotely pursuant to
Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of G.L. c. 30A, section 18
and subsequent orders imposing strict limitations on the number of people who may gather in
one place.
Members present: Rick DeAngelis (Chair), Larry Smith, John McWeeney, Charles Minasian,
David Pronchick, George Burnell
Liaisons and Town Staff: Mark Sandeen (Select Board), Jill Hai (Select Board), Charles Hornig
(Planning Board), Bob Creech(Planning Board), Sandhya Iyer (Economic Development
Director), Amanda Loomis (Planning Director), Casey Hagerty (Economic Development
Coordinator), Sheila Page (Assistant Planning Director)
Guests: Keir Evans (BxP), Ben Myers (BxP), Catalina Padilla(BxP), Cindy Arens, Todd
Rhodes, Ed Nardi (Cresset Group)
Rick, Ben & Keir stared the conversation by encouraging the efforts of engaging the
development community during the Hartwell rezoning process. Keir said that, "Set a really
effective way to encourage development, and, you know, I wish that there were some other
towns nearby that would follow your guys examples so our applause on that effort." Rick
discussed HIP zoning bylaw and the clauses and wanted it to be less prescriptive, "What I think
we would be looking for as a, as a landlord and developer would be the best way I can describe it
is like a less prescriptive way to get there, it's really helpful for the town is to establish." Keir
provided examples from projects that BxP has led in the City of Boston "there are examples of
this I'm thinking, particularly in Boston's I just went through just went through a permitting
process there, where the city recognizes that some of the things that it was asking for are either
not yet achievable, or are prohibitively expensive from a technology standpoint but of the
technology is coming in a couple years right so they put a large demand on a project I was
working on there to be able to meet that forthcoming requirement in a few years, so it meant, you
know, demonstrating that we had put in place." They continued discussing the Sustainability and
Electric Vehicle charging station requirements in the bylaw and pointed out that, "the reality of
implementation are I think sometimes overlooked by policymakers in the community that don't
understand the technical limitations that we have before us today." They further discussed the,
"the potential initial costs and operating costs associated with those compliance pathways"that
are in the current Sustainability standards associated with Hartwell Rezoning.
Mark Sandeen proposed an offline conversation to discuss this further. Sandhya volunteered to
coordinate a meeting.
Rick continued the conversation and said, "I think this is like such an important conversation and
I'm happy to see Lexington leading." He also mentioned that this is setting the stage but"this
will evolve". He continued, "hopefully we can put something together that is helpful to
developers as well as to the environment." Rick mentioned some of his project experience from
2012- 2013 and mentioned about the number of EV chargers that they installed in the project.
"And, you know, we're now up to 2%. You know I have eight and a in a lot of 400 cars." "Do I
have more demand than that. Not right now, but I know you know we're seeing it come up so
you know we've, we've increased our Transformers in the building. It does raise havoc it did, it
causes your loads to be imbalanced on your on your electricity, your three legs of power. So it
does need some planning ahead." He mentioned that Boston Properties sent a memo to the staff
regarding these Sustainable provisions and comments on the draft zoning bylaw.
Charles Hornig and Sheila Page requested to send all the comments to the planning board to be
addressed at the public hearing either directly or in writing to Planning Staff.
Jill Hai reminded that as the EDAC, "is advisory to the Select board, it would be helpful if you
sort of put this in writing to us as well."
Charles reminded regarding Article 16, "that the zoning changes that were made last fall did take
effect on Monday."
The meeting continued with the next agenda item with a presentation from Ed Nardi regarding
Boston Sports Club and the bankruptcy. Ed mentioned two short terms leases with the Swim
team and Tennis club. He then presented his high-level concept for a mixed use "multifamily and
commercial all kind of in the range of three to 350,000 feet on the nine acre site", which will
incorporate "approximately 180 units and about 160,000 feet of commercial." He also mentioned
height being a challenge for this site and staff recommendation to reduce the height to 70 ft.
Larry supported the idea of a mixed use with retail component that support the commercial
district. He added that it is crucial to have a retail component to this site.
John mentioned that there have been conversations with the abutting Drummer Boy
condominiums. Ed continued with the plans and mentioned traffic circulation and access as well
as commercial and housing component of the design concept. He closed by saying that he will be
working with town staff after Town meeting to solidify the plans.
Next on the agenda was a presentation from Cindy and Todd about Article 29 "a home rule
petition to basically start, start the transition for our buildings to no longer use fossil fuels."
Cindy continued the presentation and stating, "Why do we have to do that well the state already
has a Global Warming Solutions back to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050." The town has plans
on "getting to net zero emissions plan." This article "applies to his new construction and major
renovation, only." She further mentioned about the exemptions by stating, "we're basically
saying that you can't use no new fuel connections fossil fuel connections in new construction or
major renovations defined as for commercial 50% or more of the gross floor area for residential
75% of more of the gross for area. And the other exemptions are for large buildings greater than
10,000 square feet." She also mentioned that"there's also time to plan because of it being a home
rule petition that we expect and we have written into the draft language that this wouldn't take
those this would take effect no sooner than December of 2022".
Next on the Agenda was Economic Development Office updates. Sandhya provided updates
about the Center Streetscape project and Grain Mill Alley Bike Node project.
The EDAC decided on a date for the next meeting in March as the first Wednesday.
March 3rd 2021.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sandhya Iyer
Economic Development Director
Approved 3/3/2021