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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.