The MBTA zoning has put our town in a position it has never been before. All of the sudden there is a HUGE opportunity for residential development, and building permit applications are way above the usual application rate. With the Town’s 150 soon-to-be-built subsidized units there are almost 800 units in the process of being permitted. We expect that we will not know for sure the impact of the MBTA zoning on the Town for 2-4 years. It is irresponsible to guess at an enrollment number rather than wait and see what capacity LHS will really need.
There is a known solution to dealing with the current overcrowding – an urgent problem. The SBC should design a STAGED solution that their architects recommended in Town’s 2015 Master Plan.
In Stage 1, a new 4-story building is erected to replace the Foreign Language building. The new building can have a new Commons (cafeteria) on the main floor and classrooms and other needed space on the next 3 floors. In 2-4 years when projections for enrollment can be more accurate, Stage 2 can be designed and implemented.
This solution relieves the current overcrowding and can be built as fast or faster than the SBC’s proposed school. This plan allows us to better estimate future space needs before committing to the size of Stage 2 of the project. Building too much or too little space based on insufficient (and currently not obtainable) enrollment data will lead to unnecessary spending. The town cannot afford to waste taxpayer money.
This STAGED solution will require a 2025 DEBT EXCLUSION LESS THAN HALF of the proposed project, leading to an estimated tax increase of $500-$900 for the average property. We will need another debt exclusion for Stage 2, but we expect Lexington to get more state help to deal with a capacity problem the State created with the MBTA zoning mandate.
At the recent community meeting we heard Mabel Amar, an elderly resident, deliver an eloquent plea (time 1:57:53). She explained that if the proposed $1,700-$2,400 debt exclusion passes, after having lived most of her life in Lexington she’ll be forced out of town by her tax bill. She got a loud round of applause. There are many people for whom forever raising Lexington taxes present a real hardship.
The current SBC proposal is optimizing for only one group of Lexingtonians – the LHS students. But there are over ten times as many residents who will be affected by the project through their wallet and reconfiguration of fields. It’s not fair to throw the less well-off Lexingtonians under the bus so for four years our kids avoid all construction noise!
Those of us who can afford the increased taxes have no right to dismiss other’s financial hardships due to raising taxes just because for a few years kids will be going to LHS with construction near them. The above solution guarantees a 4-6 year deferral of at least half of the amount of projected tax increase. If we stage the project, the 2025 DEBT EXCLUSION CAN BE CUT IN LESS THAN HALF!
I hope the SBC and all of us will give Lexingtonians whose finances are tight more consideration.
Hi Olga –
As you say, the idea that we could spend all this money on a new school that might end up being too small is very concerning. It makes sense to me that the staged plan you are suggesting would allow more flexibility for making changes once the new housing developments get going and there’s more information for estimating enrollment.
However, I don’t understand where the estimate that a staged solution would be “less than half” the current SBC proposals comes from. Is that based on the estimates from the 2015 Master Plan document that you linked, or from some of the more recent documents? Does the “less than half” refer to just the first of your two proposed stages, or all stages together?
I also don’t understand if you’re proposing a final building that is equivalent to the options presented by the SBC, or if there are some features of the building that you are suggesting could be cut to save money. It doesn’t make intuitive sense to me that an equivalent building would cost that much less if done in stages, but maybe there’s something I’m missing? Could you explain more about how your suggestion differs from the “D.2 Weave / New Construction Phased-in-Place” option suggested by the SBC?