Category: Transportation

Town Meeting members were efficient on night three of the annual session on Monday, passing eight Articles. 

Two were citizen petitions — one asking the town to install speed humps or cushions, and another asking the town to surcharge developers for turning single family houses into multifamily developments. 

The representatives passed six motions related to funding capital projects and new equipment. Town Meeting members debated putting money toward “smaller” items while the budget is tight. 

Here’s more information on what was discussed: 

Article 28: Speed humps or cushions on Walnut Street

This motion was created out of a citizen petition created by Robert Rotberg, a Town Meeting member from Precinct 3. It asks the town to install speed humps or cushions on Walnut Street to slow traffic because it’s “a very heavily trafficked and busy cut-through street,” the motion states. 

Rotberg argued the town should install humps or cushions because they’re lower to the ground than bumps and cushions have specific openings for fire trucks and ambulances; humps and cushions are less expensive to install than medians; and the money to install humps or cushions is already in the town’s street improvement budget, so no cash would need to be appropriated for this project. The Select Board and town public works department would ultimately decide whether to install humps or cushions. 

Some Town Meeting members and residents worried response times for fire trucks and ambulances could lengthen if humps are installed. Lexington’s fire chief, Derek Sencabaugh, said he’s opposed to anything that slows the fire department’s response time down, like speed humps. 

“Anything that slows our response down is a priority to us,” he said. “After the first four minutes, success rates drop off, and with a fire, every minute, a fire doubles in size.”

Many residents and Town Meeting members sided with Sencabaugh on that. 

“Speed and traffic put lives at risk, that’s true, but delayed response also puts lives at risk,” Eran Strod, a Town Meeting member from Precinct 6, said. “Seconds matter…if we say yes tonight, we are not choosing safety over risk, we are swapping one risk for another.”

Town Meeting Member Avram Baskin, of Precinct 2, recalled his daughter needing emergency care after getting a COVID vaccine. It took EMS about three minutes to get to her, he said. She is totally fine now, but if EMS took an extra ten or 20 seconds, her outcome could have been different, Baskin explained. 

Cushions, however, don’t slow response time because they have gaps for EMS vehicles, Lexington resident Scott Fitzgerald explained. He argued the town should install speed cushions because they have spacers for EMS vehicles to maneuver through without slowing down. 

“This is the solution…no brainer, support Article 28,” Fitzgerald said. 

After Fitzgerald’s explanation, Town Meeting member Nicola Sykes asked Sencabaugh whether he would be okay with speed cushions, to which he said, “as long as there is not a vertical challenge or change we are not opposed to it.”

The motion passed with about 90 percent support. 

Article 12k: Burlington Street and North Street sidewalk

This motion asks the town to appropriate about $60,000 to design and engineer sidewalks for Burlington Street and North Street. Lexington’s Transportation Safety Group petitioned the town to install sidewalks on the streets, which is what brought this issue before Town Meeting. 

Suzie Barry, a Lexington resident and former Select Board member, urged Town Meeting to pass this Article. She noted traffic on those roads has increased in recent years; it’s unsafe for people to walk on those streets without a sidewalk; there’s no safe passage for students who live on those streets to partake in the Safe Routes to School program; and traffic could increase on those streets due to multifamily housing coming to town.  

Others agreed with Barry but worried this project may not be necessary at a time when the town budget is tight. 

“As we look at the Bloom project and possibly an override…I think it’s probably a very unpopular position to be against sidewalks…but I think this is an area where we could tighten our belts,” Mark Anderson, Town Meeting member from Precinct 9, said, after clarifying with the presenters that the entire project could cost about $5 million. “I urge Town Meeting members to think about that.”

“I’m just really worried about the town budget next year and about us being able to deliver essential services,” Olga Guttag, a Lexington resident, said. “I agree with everyone who says we need sidewalks, there is no question we need sidewalks, it’s just about whether we can afford it.”

The motion ultimately passed with about 98 percent support.

Article 12c: Townwide Bicycle-Pedestrian Plan Implementation 

This motion asks the town to appropriate about $100,000 to hire an engineering consultant to design a bike lane attached to the sidewalk along Worthen Road from Mass Ave. to Waltham Street, near the Center Recreation Complex and Lexington High School.  

This project is part of the “Bicycle-Pedestrian Plan,” which has been presented to the Select Board. The Board has not taken a vote to accept it, however. 

The $100,000 project under Article 12c is one of many Bicycle-Pedestrian Plan projects. This one is the “highest-ranked project on the bicycle priority list,” the presentation attached to this article states. 

Betty Gau, a Town Meeting member representing Precinct 8 and chair of Lexington’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, asked if Community Preservation Act funding could be used to cover the construction of the path. Town counsel, Mina Makarious, said in some instances CPA funding could be used, as long as it is for recreational use. It is not currently clear how much CPA funding could be used for this project, however. 

Gau and Town Meeting member Jay Luker, of Precinct 1, both shared their support for the article. 

“I’m in strong support of this,” said Gau. “I support this article wholeheartedly,” Luker said. 

Battle Road Bikes owner Jim Cadenhead, shared his support of the Article, too. 

“I’m here on behalf of a lot of kids who sent emails to all of you…they were asking us for a way to get to school,” he said. “Vehicular violence is a leading cause of death of children…if we don’t vote for this I think it says a lot about what our priorities are.” 

The motion passed with about 96 percent support.

Article 25: Surcharge of specific residential development

Town Meeting member Matthew Daggett created a citizen petition that led to this article. It calls for the Select Board to petition the Massachusetts General Court to allow Lexington to charge property owners a fee if they knock down an existing dwelling to build new. Here’s how it would work: 

If someone is issued a building permit to demolish a single- or two-family building and build a new single- or two-family dwelling in its place, that person would be charged a fee. The fee would only apply to newly-constructed single-family buildings larger than 2,100 square feet and to two-family structures larger than 4,200 square feet.

The Select Board would decide what the fee is and it wouldn’t be one-size-fits-all — it would be applied on a dollars-per-square-foot basis.The money generated by the fees will be added to the town’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund to help pay for future affordable housing projects in Lexington. The idea is to mitigate the continued loss of moderate-income housing and fund future affordable housing projects in town.

There was no debate over this motion. It passed, albeit narrowly, with about 59 percent support. 

Other articles:

Town Meeting also passed Article 12j, which calls for the town to appropriate about $220,000 to repair the floors of the Samuel Hadley Public Services building. That motion passed with about 93 percent support — some Town Meeting members argued that’s a lot of money to spend with a tight budget. Article 12d, which asks the town to borrow $2.5 million to finance a new ladder truck for the fire department, passed with about 99 percent support. Article 12m, which asks for the town to appropriate about $67,000 to pave the police department’s deescalation training area on Hartwell Ave., passed with about 99 percent support. And finally, Article 12o, which asks the town to implement a new cashiering system to streamline online payments between residents and the town, passed with about 99 percent support. 

Town Meeting will reconvene on Monday, April 13, for the fourth night of its annual session at 7:30 p.m. in Cary Hall. Members of the public can attend in-person or watch from home through LexMedia.