I am running for Lexington’s Select Board to help address these five issues:
Embedded Files
MBTA Zoning
In April 2023, Lexington’s Town Meeting allocated without any prior financial analysis of the consequences 4.5 times what the State required (228 acres instead of 50) for MBTA by-right housing developments. The approved MBTA zoning enables up to 12,546 new dwellings (10 times the State’s capacity requirement), potentially doubling Lexington’s population (now 12,337 households) making it impossible to balance our Town budgets: where can several new schools be built and how can additional teachers be paid for twice as many students?
Those impacts are dramatic because apartment buildings (such as Avalon off Concord Ave) or condos (such as 50 Waltham St in the Center) pay only 22% of Lexington’s costs to educate the children who live there and 0% of Lexington’s municipal costs (police, fire, public works, etc), perhaps because apartments are assessed per sq ft at only 36% of single-family houses.
Just 20 months after Town Meeting rezoned 228 acres for MBTA developments, 9 projects exist for 1,120 new dwellings, 88% of which will be rentals (see here, tab 3). The Planning Board had told Town Meeting to expect “some 400-800 units in 4 to 10 years” (slide 14).
If Town Meeting does not roll back the 228 acres to the required 50, we will be unable to balance the Town’s budgets in just 3-4 years from now. I am running to address this.
Many Town Meeting members are running for reelection on March 3: the last column of the official vote tally shows who supported this bad decision. Don’t return to Town Meeting those who voted “Yes” on article 34.
New High School
Our School Building Committee (“SBC”) has already started spending $10 million of taxpayer money to design a new High School called “Bloom”, sized for 2,395 students (30 fewer than we have now!). Bloom will be unable to accommodate the many hundreds of new students that may live in the new MBTA by-right developments. Moreover, Bloom would destroy the contiguity of our cherished sports fields. Bloom will cost 2/3 of $1 billion, making it one of the most expensive High Schools in the nation.
Instead, the SBC should pursue a phased project, as outlined by the 2015 Lexington Schools Master Plan: in Stage 1, “Thrive,” a multi-story structure, would replace LHS’s foreign languages building to accommodate as many students as possible as quickly as possible and at the lowest possible cost. Stage 2 would be designed 2-3-4 years later after we understand how many students will live in MBTA developments, possibly as a 2nd High School if enrollments are much larger.
Waltham’s High School cost $300 million in 2021-24, Arlington's $240 million in 2019-25 and Somerville’s $200 million in 2018-21, each about 400,000 sq ft in size vs. Bloom’s 440,000 sq ft. Each of these 3 High Schools offers 23-26% more space per student than Bloom. With the same square footage as Bloom, which would cost $658 million (in mid-point of construction $s, 2026-30), Belmont’s Middle and High School cost $256 million in 2019-23.
Stage 1 of a 2-stage new High School project would be ready 1-1.5 years earlier than the 2031-32 school year, when Bloom, which would take 4.5 years to build, could be ready: a staged project would relieve LHS’s overcrowding sooner than Bloom.
Long-term Financial Planning
The Town should create a permanent, professional resource in Town government, charged to analyze in advance any Town initiative (such as MBTA zoning) with potential significant impact on our future budgets. This new “Financial planning” resource would also be tasked to systematically explore ways to operate more efficiently, so as to save taxpayer money wherever possible.
Residential Exemption
Lexington should institute a “residential exemption” to reduce taxes on all owner-occupied residences assessed below the Town’s median home value (currently $1,416,000) while raising taxes on all houses assessed above that amount. Concord did this in 2024. This would improve Lexington’s affordability for many people, and make our tax system more progressive and more fair while keeping the Town’s total tax revenues unchanged.
Protecting our Trees and Environment
I co-wrote the Lexington Tree by-law in 2000. It now must be strengthened. No large, majestic, healthy tree should be cut without a good reason. Enforcement of the Tree by-law must be made more effective. The objective is to protect the Town’s tree canopy which contributes to our good health and is an important component of the beauty and character of the Town.
In 2021, Lexington banned gas-powered leaf blowers because of their annoying loud noise which impacts our health negatively and because of their toxic emissions. The ban must be enforced effectively, which has so far not been the case.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse