Some Town Meeting Members stand up in support of two separate motions on Article 34
After Town Meeting Member Bob Rotberg (P3) called for separate votes on Lexington Center and the rest of the Planning Board's zoning proposal Wednesday night, Town Moderator Deborah Brown asked members in support of Rotberg's motion to stand up. (Sophie Culpepper / LexObserver)

Good morning and welcome to LexObserver’s weekly news roundup. It’s Friday, April 14.

Driving the news this week: Town Meeting voted to pass Article 34, the Planning Board’s proposal for multi-family zoning, unamended Wednesday evening. We have lots of news about Town Meeting and more in today’s edition.

But it is also time for me to say goodbye! LexObserver is about to move into a new chapter (more from Nicco here in case you missed his update last weekend), so while you’ll still receive Friday news roundups, this one is the last you’ll receive from me.

I am amazed to see how far we’ve come and how much we’ve grown as an organization thanks to your readership and support. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to speak with me for a story, share a tip, write a kind note or constructive criticism, and generally made my work possible for the past two years. This job has not been easy, but it has left me with a deep affection for Lexington and the Observer that I will carry with me (and I’m sure I’ll be covering Town Meeting in my dreams for the rest of my days).

It will bring me joy to see the Observer keep growing from afar! I hope you’ll keep reading.

Here’s this week’s news:

Zoning amendment intended to encourage more diverse housing options approved by Town Meeting  

An ad-hoc committee appointed by the Select Board spent more than four years developing recommendations for amending Lexington’s Special Permit Residential Development bylaw.

At Town Meeting’s sixth session on Monday, members approved a set of zoning changes to a bylaw regulating special residential developments, a set of alternatives to the conventional subdivisions where single-family homes are typically built, with the goal of encouraging the development of smaller and more affordable homes. 

Keep reading
by Sophie Culpepper

Town Meeting approves design funds for 173 Bedford St., other capital projects

But the Select Board delayed the debate and vote on a proposal to install a solar canopy to power the new police station over the parking lot near Fletcher Park to Monday, April 24.

The request for $100,000 to fund designs for renovation of 173 Bedford Street, a building currently being used by the police department as temporary headquarters while the new station is completed, generated the most debate among the three projects.

Keep reading
by Sophie Culpepper

Community Submissions

To submit a community announcement, please contact community@lexobserver.org. Thank you!

That’s a wrap for today. Was this roundup useful to you? What do you want to see in this email next week? Let us know, and please ask your friends to sign up and DONATE too! Reach out to sophie@lexobserver.org with tips and questions anytime. As always, you can also check out and share our website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages. Thank you so much for reading and have a great Patriots’ Day weekend!


Nicco Mele, Sophie Culpepper, Susanne Beck, Julie Turner and the LexObserver Team

Edited by Lauren Feeney

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