Town Meeting votes against delaying LHS design submission in special session

During a Special Town Meeting on Wednesday night, representatives voted against Article 8, the highly contested citizen petition that calls for the town to halt the Lexington High School building project and consider a different two-phased approach. 

Only 6 percent of Town Meeting members voted in support of Article 8. Town Meeting passed the eight other articles they considered. 

“I’m very much against using these fields, they’re very much a piece of Lexington,” Peter Kelley, the Lexington resident who organized Article 8, said about the School Building Committee’s decision to pursue the “Bloom” design, which imagines constructing a new building on the property’s sports fields, for the new LHS. “[They’re] just as important as our Battle Green.”

Article 8 urges the town to delay filing its plan for the LHS building project to the Massachusetts School Building Authority for state funding and spend time considering Kelley’s plan, nicknamed “Thrive,” for the building project instead of Bloom. 

Kelley argued that Thrive better considers the potential influx in students that the MBTA Communities Act, which requires Massachusetts municipalities served by the MBTA to encourage the development of multi-family housing near transit corridors, could cause. 

Thrive, which is supported by LHS4All, a group of residents who disapprove of the designs the SBC has explored, calls for a two-phased building project. Phase one includes constructing a 172,000 square foot building to address LHS’s current issue with overcrowding. Phase two would take place “in two to five years when the enrollment from the new rezoning will be better understood,” Kelley’s presentation states. His petition also calls for Lexington Public Schools’ central offices to stay on Harrington Elementary School’s campus, but states it can later move to 173 Bedford St., which can handle electric bus storage. Kelley said his design could be completed by fall 2027 and would cost $200 million.

“Unfortunately their plan has several flaws,” Charles Lamb, chair of the town’s Capital Expenditures Committee, said before speaking at length about how Kelley’s cost estimate and timeline are not realistic. Lamb projected that phase one of Kelley’s project would actually cost $243 million before addressing the code upgrades its first phase would trigger. It would require two debt exclusions, making it more difficult and time-consuming to complete, he claimed. He also pointed out that Kelley’s plan is not accepted by the MSBA, so none of its cost would be covered by state funding. 

Michael Cronin, director of the town’s Public Facilities, who said he has worked on nine MSBA building projects, said the MSBA has “never done a two-phased project with two separate grants.”

Kelley argued that Bloom goes against Article 97 in the State’s Constitution, which protects public lands and open spaces, and establishes the right to a clean environment. Land protected by Article 97 cannot be sold, transferred, or leased without a two-thirds vote of the state legislature. Kelley stated that Bloom imagines building a school on the recreation department’s land in his presentation. In response, Lamb noted that “all town land is deeded to the town, not a specific department” and “Article 97 swaps have been successfully swapped in other municipalities and is a common practice.” The town of Milton approved an Article 97 land swap last year to build a new school on a conservation and park land. 

Many Town Meeting members and Lexington residents commented on and asked questions about Kelley’s petition — most of whom were against it. 

“The town has been developing a solid plan for a properly sized school that the town needs,” Glenn Parker, chair of the town’s Appropriation Committee said. “The motion under Article 8 would discard all that work and would deliver a plan that would provide less and cost more.”

Residents in support of Kelley’s plan argued it would be less expensive but still get the job done. 

“I’d prefer to drive by a squatbox that serves its purpose and be proud of the money we’ve saved,” Alan Seferian, Lexington resident, said. 

Other issues discussed at Special Town Meeting 

While Town Meeting members largely voted against Kelley’s citizen petition, 92 percent voted in favor of Article 9, a citizen petition organized by Lexington residents Anil Ahuja and Sanjay Padaki. Their petition asks the town to create a study group to research the need to build a crematory at Westview Cemetery. That research group would also create a plan to present to the Select Board for potential construction. 

In their presentation, Ahuja and Padaki argue cremation is increasingly popular across the country and is cheaper than a burial. They also note that cremation is required in the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist religions, which many members of Lexington’s large South Asian community practice. Creating a crematory in town would allow those residents to “have their last rites in the town that they have called home for decades,” Ahuja and Padaki’s presentation states. 

Town Meeting also passed Article 7, with 72 percent in support, which asks the town to appropriate $100,000 from the tax levy to design athletic fields at 146 Maple St. next to Harrington Elementary School. Those fields will replace the building that houses the Lexington Public School’s central offices. Funding will be used to produce project designs and cost estimates of fields made of turf and natural grass to prepare for an appropriation request for construction funds at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting.

In his presentation, Christian Boutwell, Lexington Recreation Committee vice chair, said that building the new field would help ameliorate the loss of sports fields at the high school during its construction. 

Town Meeting passed Article 5, which asks the town to appropriate $1.24 million to purchase and install systems to support rooftop solar panels and a structure next to the police station, Cronin’s presentation states. The U.S. Senate approved that funding to be a part of its budget, but because of this year’s presidential election, it is unclear if Congress will, too, approve the funding. If Congress does approve the funding, the federal government will repay the $1.24 million to the town. If not, the town will cover the shortfall with the appropriated funds.

Town Meeting unanimously passed Articles 2, 3, 4, and 6, which all had to do with adjusting budgets and appropriating funding. 

Article 1 included sharing reports of town board, officers, and committees, including a presentation from Julie Hackett, superintendent of Lexington Public Schools, on the LHS building project.