Lexington’s Select Board unanimously voted in favor of building its new high school on the existing sports fields during a meeting Monday night.
The motion under Article 9 calls for swapping portions of land that has been protected as recreation space with some of the land on which the current high school sits. That way, the new school can be built on the current recreation land.
The land on which the current school sits will become new protected recreation space so the town will retain an equal amount of land for recreational purposes.
“I am on record when this project first came up saying I don’t want to see the fields lost…it took me a lot of time to come around…and I am supporting the project in part because we are bringing the fields back,” Select Board Chair Jill Hai said during the meeting Monday.
Four residents, including School Committee member Sarah Carter, shared their support of the article during public comment at the top of the meeting. One resident, Olga Guttag, who has regularly shared her opposition to the project at public meetings, urged the Board to consider a different school building design instead of the one the town is currently planning to build.
Lexington has long planned to transfer the land Article 9 refers to by applying for an Article 97 land swap, but recently discovered that might not be necessary.
Article 97 establishes a right to a clean environment including its natural, scenic, historical, and aesthetic qualities for Massachusetts citizens. Essentially, the article makes it so municipalities such as Lexington are able to preserve green space. Communities can apply to swap land that is protected under Article 97 with other land if a building project calls for that.
After a resident hired an attorney to look into the legality of swapping this land over the summer, the town learned the land was restricted by deed to use as a public park or playground, but the restrictions were lifted in 1961. That legislation permitted the town to use the land for “school…purposes” which presumably could include a high school building.
“The 1961 legislation almost certainly gives us the right to proceed,” Joe Pato, a Lexington Select Board member, said.
In case it doesn’t, the article the Select Board voted on during Monday night’s meeting would allow the Board to seek formal approval for a land swap under Article 97 from the state legislature.
The article “is intended to avoid any legal ambiguity on that issue as well as to make clear the Town’s commitment to construct the new fields that are proposed,” Mina Makarious, Lexington’s town counsel, said.
Next, Town Meeting will vote on Article 9 during a Special Town Meeting on Nov. 3. Then, residents will vote on the debt exclusion on Dec. 8. If both of those votes pass, the Article 97 land swap will proceed at the legislature.
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