Town Meeting votes to build a new walking path, reroute another

Town Meeting met for the third session of its annual meeting this week. 

Your precinct representatives passed two motions that involve designing new walking paths in town, appropriating funds for affordable housing, renovating a historical building, and several other budgetary items. 

Here is a breakdown of every motion discussed in Town Meeting this week:

Article 10a — Cotton Farm to Community Center walking trail

The motion under Article 10a passed with approximately 67 percent support. It asks the town to appropriate $300,000 from the Open Space Reserve of the Community Preservation Fund to build a fully accessible trail that would connect the Cotton Farm and the Community Center.

Lauren Black, a Town Meeting member from Precinct 8, noted there is only one other accessible trail in the town and argued it would be great to have another. 

“Anything we can do to increase accessible trails to people who are differently abled and do not have full mobility is important,” he argued. 

A few Town Meeting members asked how the $300,000 cost estimate was made and how the town will budget the cost of the path as its design progresses. Karen Mullins, the town’s conservation director, said the town’s goal is to build a trail that is fully accessible at the cheapest possible cost. Making the trail fully accessible, however, introduces a variable that could drive up cost, she said. 

Some Town Meeting members raised concerns about the path’s price tag. John Rossi, a Town Meeting member representing Precinct 1, noted that taxes will likely increase in the near future because of capital projects, such as the new high school and expanding multifamily housing, in the town’s pipeline. He argued now is not the right time to build an expensive community path because of those looming expenses. 

“In a different time, I would vote yes on this,” Rossi said. “Given all that’s going on in this town…trying to make this a diverse town…I can’t in good conscience vote ‘yes’ on this this year.”

Article 10b — Reroute Simonds Brook Conservation Area Trail

The motion under Article 10b passed with approximately 98 percent in support. It asks the town to appropriate $75,000 from the Open Space Reserve of the Community Preservation Fund to survey, engineer, and design a way to reroute Simonds Brook Conservation Area Trail. Doing so will help protect the sensitive wetlands the current path is near, Phil Hamilton, chair of the town’s Conservation Committee, said while presenting the Article. 

Just as many Town Meeting members argued when debating the motion under Article 10a, some members expressed concern about spending funds on items they don’t deem necessary when there are large expenses down the pike. 

“It seems to me that we continue to spend on things that we would like to have while knowing that we have a multimillion dollar expense down the line,” Ryan Wise, a Town Meeting member representing Precinct 6, said. 

But some members argued the path project should be pursued because the space is very “biodiverse and special,” in the words of Barbara Katzenberg, a Town Meeting member from Precinct 2. 

“It is lovely, it is unappreciated, and I would love for everybody to take a walk through Simonds Brook to see how pretty it is,” Peggy Enders, a Town Meeting member representing Precinct 8, said. 

Article 10e — Funding for affordable housing  

The motion under Article 10e passed with approximately 98 percent support. It asks the town to appropriate $3 million for affordable housing development and preservation. The Affordable Housing Trusts asks the town to gather that funding from the Community Housing Reserve, Unbudgeted Reserve, and the Undesignated Fund Balance of the Community Preservation Fund. 

The $3 million will go toward projects under LexHAB, Lexington Housing Authority, affordable housing, and the MBTA Communities Act.

The town already has ten MBTA zoning-compliant housing developments in the works. And Causeway Development presented its design for a 100 percent affordable housing complex at the intersection of Lowell St. and North St. last month. 

Article 10d — Roof repairs at the Hancock-Clarke House

The motion under Article 10d passed with approximately 98 percent support. It asks the town for approximately $58,000 to repair the roof of the historical Hancock-Clarke House. 

The house is the site where Paul Revere arrived on horseback to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British troops were on their way to attack. The historical building has been maintained and renovated on many occasions since it was built in the 18th century.

Article 10f — Restoration of LexHAB housing

The motion under Article 10f passed with approximately 100 percent support. Presented by LexHAB, Lexington’s Housing Assistance Board, the motion asks the town to appropriate approximately $494,000 to preserve and restore several units in town. That restoration will include decarbonizing many of the units to make them greener. That involves updating HVAC systems and installing heat pumps. The funding will also go toward replacing roofs, bulkheads, exterior painting, doors, egress, siding, and more. 

Consent Agenda

Town Meeting also passed a consent agenda — a tool governments use to group routine or widely-supported motions into a single motion to save time — with approximately 99 percent support. Wednesday night’s consent agenda included Articles 8, 10, 10c, 10j, 11, 12a, 12c, 12d, 12e, 12f, 12g, 12l, 12m, 13, 14, 15, 16a, 16b, 16c, 16d, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, and 29. 

Those motions include asking the town for funding for new equipment at Pine Meadows Golf Course, fixing sidewalks, replacing fire hydrants, installing sanitary sewer mains and sewerage systems, maintaining the public schools’ technology systems, equipment, and software, and more. 

Under Article 2, Town Meeting also passed the reports of the Appropriation Committee, Capital Expenditures Committee, Recreation Committee, and Community Preservation Committee. 

Town Meeting will meet for its fourth session of this year’s annual meeting on Monday, April 7 at 7:30 PM.