HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-08-26-BLUPC-min
Busa Land Use Proposal Committee
Minutes o 8-26-2010 meeting
(Approved on 9-28-2010)
Room 207, Town Hall
Member Attendees: David Horton, Chair; Pamela Shadley, Ginna Johnson, Bill Dailey, Deborah Strod, Ric
Fulop
Absent: Al Zabin
Audience Attendees who signed in: Janet Kern, Igor Tsvetkova, Bella Tsvetkova, Nicholas Briggs, Todd
Hay, Sergia Hay, Hank Manz
1.David Horton, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:10pm and opened the floor for audience
comments, which are held at the beginning of each meeting. Ms. Strod was asked to take
minutes, as the Committee will rotate alphabetically (and Mr. Manz would not be able to stay
the whole meeting, although he has kindly taken minutes previously).
2.Public Comment
Bella Tsvetskova, of 42 Lowell Street, asked the following questions (answers appear below each
question):
a.Is David Horton the permanent chair?
i.He is the interim chair for now.
b.Is a meeting with the Goldinger family within the charge of the committee? She thought
not. She is also against any landswap involving losing the entrance from Farm Road.
i.The meeting will be public, an open conversation. There is no agenda, and this
committee is not involved in negotiating anything. It was suggested by the
Town Manager that the committee meet with the Goldinger family.
c.Concern about opposition to the proposed Survey of the land at the last meeting
i.Mr. Horton cautioned that public comments should not address other’s motives
or behavior, and noted that the process resulted in a proposal with which
everyone is happy at this point.
d.Will the meeting with Arlington be open to the public?
i.Yes, the town manager has been invited to attend one of the scheduled, open
meetings.
3.Minutes
a.David Horton asked if there were any comments on the minutes of the prior two
meetings. None were raised. Bill Dailey moved that the minutes be approved.
Approval was unanimous.
4.Site Survey update
a.Hank Manz reported that the funding for the survey will come up for approval at
Tuesday’s meeting of the Selectmen. Although the Selectmen cannot sign contracts,
they do approve expenditures by this Committee. If approved, the contract will be
negotiated and signed by staff. Thanks were offered by the committee to Pam Shadley
for writing the specifications and reviewing bids. The lowest bid was significantly lower
than the original estimates, made by a responsible bidder, and is expected that
something close to the bid will be negotiated by the town. Ms. Shadley will check with
the Town Manager to see if it would be helpful for committee members to attend and
answer any questions at the Selectmen’s meeting. She offered to attend, as she is most
familiar with the bidding process and the reasons for the survey.
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b.If everything moves quickly, it may be possible that a draft will be available for the
th
September 15 meeting, but at the very least the final will likely be available for the
subsequent meeting.
c. Mr. Dailey asked if it was possible to include the Goldinger property in the survey. Ms
Shadley responded there is no authorization to survey private land. Mr. Horton added
that there is no proposal, it is just a meeting to see what might be on their mind, and not
that the town has anything to offer either. Mr. Dailey said that if there were anything to
consider, it would be better for this committee to have such information earlier rather
than later; Mr. Horton responded that he would invite the family to the next committee
meeting.
5.Communication
a.Ms. Strod reported that although non-overlapping vacation schedules prevented all
interested parties from meeting since the last meeting, progress was made. She met
with Donna Hooper, the Town Clerk, to review the Committee’s wishes in light of the
Open Meeting law and current functionality as well as the new Laserfiche record
keeping which will make available minutes and reports. Much will be possible on a
standard webpage, and, in addition, Mr. Fulop will also arrange a demonstration of
BaseCamp, a collaboration tool which might be useful for enhanced functionality in
communicating with the public and/or committee work, but the use of which would
need to be reviewed in light of the Open Meeting Law. The first priority will be to get
some of the conventional functionality up and running, and explore the enhancements
as a second step. Deborah will follow up on implementing the webpage, obtaining the
email address for the group and identifying who the staff member is who will receive
the emails and then forward to us.
6.Goldinger Family
a.As noted earlier, Mr. Horton had left a message for the Goldinger family, but had not
heard back. He will invite them to the next meeting of the Committee.
7.Communication with Arlington
a.As noted earlier, Mr. Horton invited Mr. Sullivan, the Town Manager of Arlington, to
choose a meeting for himself or another representative of Arlington’s interests to meet
with the committee at one of the scheduled meetings.
8.Design and Program Criteria
The Committee discussed criteria for analyzing proposals for re-use of the land, and the scope of
elements which it would be useful to hear about in proposals. The Town staff had been asked if
any standard criteria for review of land use proposals were established, and they said none, but
based on their experience, they suggested:
a.The Value/Benefit of the proposed re-use to the community
b.The impact of the proposed re-use on the neighborhood
c.The need for public utilities to get the re-use up and running (such as water, sewer,
drainage, power…)
d.Security requirements (fencing, police, other)
e.Ability to provide pedestrian access for the proposed re-use.
These were overlapping and supplementing the items listed in the charge of the committee as
review criteria:
a.Whom the use(s) will serve
b.How the use(s) is (are) consistent with any Town master plans
c.Impact the use(s) will have on abutters and the surrounding neighborhoods
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d.Environmental impact use(s) will have (such as, but not limited to, traffic, noise, dust
and stormwater runoff)
e.Types of public access to the property for the proposed use(s)
f.Impact on the riverfront buffer area
g.Impact on surrounding topography
h.Financial feasibility of the uses
i.Impact the uses will have on the Arlington reservoir
Further discussion among the committee included:
Mr. Horton added:
a.How much of the property would a group want to use – all or some?
b.Cost to the town
c.Cost to the proponents
Ms. Shadley added: Financial benefit to the town (taxes, fees, etc paid to the town)
Ms. Johnson added: there should be some referenc to Lexington’s Core Values (we will seek the proper
statement of these.)
Ms. Strod added: that her initial thoughts had been that the re-use should be legal, economically
sustainable, environmentally sound and good for the community.
Mr. Horton added: we should review the Community Preservation Act language as well.
In discussion what the scope of concept presentations/proposals should contain, Ms. Strod reviewed the
list the committee came up with last meeting:
Land use
Layout/site plan
Implementation cost (who pays)
Maintenance
Time frame
Benefit to the town including the public
Self-sustainability for the future
Remediation needed
Noise impact
Connectivity (to other nature trails and to roads/sidewalks)
In addition, the committee added:
Interaction of multiple uses
Parking needed
9.Plan for Open Forum on September 15
a.Introduction to the Committee and its charge – David Horton
b.Brief overview of the land and what we have learned about it so far – Pamela Shadley
(with visuals requested from Town Manager to be displayed on posterboard and one
comprehensive one to be projected with factors overlayed such as property boundaries,
wetlands, etc.)
c.Open Forum for anyone to speak for 3 minutes (or 4 minutes, David Horton will decide
which and then implement in advertising) about their ideas, hopes, opinions, vision, and
values for future use of the land. The Committee will primarily listen at this meeting.
This is explicitly words/talking and not presentations/drawings. This is explicitly open to
all, not by pre-invitation, and the committee will endeavor to publicize the meeting
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widely, as well as invite those with known interest in the land to listen to the general
public’s concerns, and have 3 minutes if they wish (recreation, conservation, community
farm, etc).
d.David Horton will chair the meeting. A podium will be at the front for Mr. Horton and
Ms. Shadley’s presentations, and where Mr. Horton will chair the meeting. The
Committee will be seated at a table at the front of the hall. A microphone for the public
will be set up in each of the two aisles among the public seating. The Committee will
request newsprint to scribe summary phrases about the comments; Ms. Shadley, Ms.
Johnson and Ms. Strod will share the scribing duties. Each member of the committee
will bring home a page of scribing notes and type it up in electronic format, and send to
Ms. Johnson who will combine them into one document for a record of the meeting.
e.Ms. Shadley will draft a short questionnaire to distribute at the meeting with some basic
questions (based on prior similar activities): such as how would you like the land to be
used? Would you partake of that use? Would you volunteer to maintain that use? The
Committee would also like the survey to be put up on Survey Monkey, in a manner
which complies with Open Meeting law.
f.Ms. Johnson will summarize the Evaluation Criteria and the Presentation Scope
elements into a form able to be distributed at the end of the September 15 meeting.
g.Vehicles for publicizing the forum (David Horton will draft a notice; encourage
individuals to pass along the information to people they think might be interested) e.g.,
i.TMMA email list
ii.Minuteman
iii.LexMedia – advertisement and video of the meeting
iv.Colonial Times
v.Mailing to abutters
vi.PATCH (email to abby@patch.com)
vii.Arlington Advocate
viii.LexingtonList (email list)
10.Format for the Oct 7 and Nov 4 meetings
a.10-15 minute ideas/concepts (concept presentations?) from parties who have a
commitment to carrying out a re-use.
b.Drawings and AV
11.Ms. Shadley moved that David Horton be elected as permanent chair. Ms. Strod and Ms.
Johnson simultaneously seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously.
12.The meeting ended at 8:45pm.
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