HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-01-19-BLUPC-min BUSA LAND USE PROPOSAL COMMITTEE (BLUPC)MEETING
JANUARY 19, 2011
Town Office Building, Selectmen's Meeting Room
Attendees David Horton, Ric Fulop, Pam Shadley, Deborah Strod, Al Zabin, Bill Dailey
and Ginna Johnson.
The minutes from 1/5/11 were approved unanimously
The meeting started with public comments
Ken Kreutziger from Precinct 2 made a public comment. He is vice chair of the
Lexington Housing Partnership He wanted to point out that Bill Kennedy and he are the
two people who spoke at the original public comment meeting and that both the
Lexington Housing Assistance Board (LexHAB) and the Lexington Housing Partnership
have talked together about a paradigm shift in the production of affordable housing A)
They are looking at a greener approach. B) They are talking together about the different
roles that Minuteman Tech could provide to make it a greener architecture project
relative to affordable housing. He wanted to make sure the BLUPC knows they are not
working in a vacuum C) They see this as a shift to produce affordable housing that is
greener and with greater collaboration with the community
Betsey Weiss, of the Lexington Housing Partnership and member of the Community
Preservation Committee (CPC) Betsey was chair of the CPC when the acquisition of the
parcel was approved. She voted to support the purchase because she felt the #1 priority
was recreation, #2 priority was housing, and the #3 priority was community gardens (sic)
She would like to see a proposal using both the Busa land (Lowell Street) and Waltham
Street land for farming/gardening as suggested by Mr Pressman so the town can support
the most pressing needs (recreation and housing)
Bella Tzvetkova spoke and wanted to make sure we knew the CPC waited until the last
minute before notifying the neighbors and they did not discuss their plans with the
neighbors In her opinion, this was one of the reasons the selectmen created the BLUPC
The next part of the meeting was to meet with abutters Fabian and Analia Borensztein
residing at 60 Lowell St. Mr Borensztein provided a copy of his talking points As
abutters they are concerned about what happens in their backyard. They wanted
clarification that the BLUPC report will not be modified after being submitted, unless to
answer questions Mr Borensztein's presentation will be made available on the
BLUPC's web page
Next on the agenda was to review the interim report. We clarified that we plan to submit
it sometime in February
Old business Debbie Strod and Ric Fulop reported on the infeasibility of converting the
Hartwell location into playing fields due to environmental permitting concerns and
restrictions
Debbie Strod suggested we go through every report one at a time Starting with housing,
one question was the summary that the plans included a full size field. It should be
clarified if we can actually put a full size field in it. Al Zabin is of the view that there is
not enough room to do all three things His vote would be conditioned on the field not
being part of it. Mr Kreutziger clarified that they are discussing plans and concepts for
the reuse of the Leary property but those plans are still up in the air Both properties
combined (affordable housing on the Leary and Busa land) would be required to meet
state matching funds Al Zabin feels that the traffic in the area would add the equivalent
to another Bartlett neighborhood. He did not see this as a problem Pam Shadley pointed
out that a sewer line from the street to the site would need to be built and a connection to
town water would need to be provided.
We discussed the community farm proposal Pam Shadley clarified that the town should
request a more complete budget. Al Zabin also suggested that the selectmen should
request a thorough business plan. Pam Shadley felt that the town should issue a Request
for Proposal (RFP) for the community farm and that the criteria of the business plan
should be included in the RFP
We discussed recreation and Ginna Johnson wanted to point out that we should accept the
recreation need. It was echoed by everyone that there is real need for at least one full size
field. As drawn, the November 4th proposal doesn't fit.
Under new business we discussed the outline for the report and suggested changes At
Ric Fulop's suggestion, the Committee added section 4 4 to the final report outline to
address alternate arrangements of key components of the proposals and alternate sites
around town, brought to the attention of the Committee for consideration, to supplement
or supplant components of proposals The Committee also added section 6 7 to capture
any remaining questions
We agreed to discuss the BLUPC's recommendation(s) at the next meeting and share our
thinking on the proposals
David would like us to have a final report by the end of February
The meeting was adjourned at 8 56pm