LexHAB Presents Housing Plans for Busa Land

After LexHAB delivered on a request for plans for four to eight units of affordable housing with frontage on the Busa Land, the Board of Selectmen are preparing to take the next step toward making a real decision about the now town-owned farmland.

  Featuring four duplexes that would occupy less than an acre, the presentation from LexHAB was everything the Board of Selectmen had asked for, but still it wasn’t enough to garner any kind of real answer about the Busa Land. On Monday, Jan. 30, representatives from the Lexington Housing Assistance Board delivered plans for eight slightly different units of housing along Lowell Street, including utilities available, solutions to possible problems, a mix of units, square footage and a proposed layout, among other criteria. According to Carter Scott, a high-efficiency housing developer working with LexHAB, the designs include six two-bedroom units, a three-bedroom unit and one accessible unit. With the current plans, the homes would come in…

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Town Manager Tuesdays

Town Manager Tuesdays: Regional Housing and the Battle Road Scenic Byway

Neighborly innovations help smaller communities fill in the gaps and handle legal and regulatory responsibilities they would have a hard time affording without a little help from their friends.

  One of the challenges of managing a small community or even a mid-sized town like Lexington is that all towns, regardless of size, have the same legal and regulatory responsibilities but not necessarily the resources of a larger community like Boston, Cambridge or Newton. As a result, smaller towns frequently cannot afford to hire the staff expertise that is sometimes necessary to fulfill their legal requirements. One strategy used by some municipalities is to retain consultants to help fill this ‘knowledge gap.’ In other cases, by partnering with our neighboring communities towns can sometimes find opportunities to jointly hire and share staff with expertise that, on its own, a town cannot otherwise afford. Here are two recent examples …

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Town Manager Tuesdays

Town Manager Tuesdays: A New Orchestra, New Buses and a New Award

Lexington Town Manager Carl Valente gets talks local arts, regional housing awards and new transportation developments.

This past Saturday, I attended the first performance of the newly formed Greater Boston Asian-American Youth Symphony Orchestra, which took place at the National Heritage Museum. The Orchestra’s mission is to promote the values of cultural diversity and community service through music education and outreach performance. The founder and conductor is Lexington resident Jie Yang. Prior to coming to Lexington, Yang served as the program director and conductor of the Dallas Asian-American Youth Symphony Orchestra. This Satudray's performance featured 7-year-old Estabrook School student Alex Yin, 13-year-old and Lexington resident Tristan Flores, who performed at Gov. Deval Patrick’s Inauguration, 16-year-old George Li and 14-year-old Yuki Peppu…

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: Dec. 6

A Center Streetscape hearing, Estabrook discussion at the School Committee and more today in Lexington.

1. Hear Them Out: The Lexington Center Streetscape Working Group will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. this evening at the Cary Memorial Building and the subject will be the group's conept plan,which establishes a design framework for improvements to the aging streetscape. The plans are available for viewing in the Planning Board's office and online. 2. Estabrook, Transportation and Collective Bargaining: The School Committee is scheduled to go into executive session to discuss collective bargaining to begin its meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at the Town Office Building and then intends to return to an open session, where its agenda includes votes to request the Massachusetts School Building Authority approve a new Estabrook School building and …

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Week in Review: Nov. 20 to 26

A look back at the week that was in Lexington.

It was a kind of a farm-to-table week in Lexington, with a bundle of other goings on in between.  At the Board of Selectmen's meeting last Monday night, LexHAB presented its plan to plan to site some units of affordable housing along Lowell Street on the "Arlington side" of the Busa Land, while LexFarm urged the selectmen to consider intergrated housing on the farmland.  Earlier in the day Monday, Town Manager Carl Valente congratulated Public Works Director Bill Hadley for a regional recognition and the man Lexington Police say robbed People's United Bank was arrested in Woburn. We brought you both of those stories on Tuesday. In advance of Thanksgiving on Thursday, local sparking wine expert Becky Sue Epstein shared a few holiday tips …

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Busa Farms as a Mixed-Use Development?

As housing plans progress, LexFarm pushes for integrated development of the Busa Land.

The same night LexHAB shared its plans to plan out eight units of housing along Lowell Street on the “Arlington side” of the Busa Land, LexFarm urged the Board of Selectmen to consider integrated/mixed uses for any housing structures. Addressing the selectmen Monday night, LexHAB’s Bill Hays said he was delivering on a request to look into eight units of affordable housing along Lowell Street, on the “Arlington side” of the at the Busa Farms property. “We have no produce to deliver,” said Hays. “We’re merely here to tell you what the development of the proposal might entail, what the time for that might be and how we’ll handle the cost.” According to Hays, a presentation on a possible development could be ready for the selectmen’s …

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Week in Review: Oct. 23 to 29

Presidential candidates, local government and seasons greetings this week in Lexington.

Last week ended with an open house at the Lexington Fire Department Headquarters on Bedford Street. Patch columnist Denise Dubé attended and her photo gallery led off last Monday morning.  Later that day, coverage included a workshop considering options for the Lexington Center Streetscape project and Lexington resident Jill Stein announced she’s seeking the Green Party nomination for the 2012 presidential election. Monday night, the Board of Selectmen met and considered 2012 election plans, water and sewer rates and charging Transportation Governance and Town Seal committees. First thing Tuesday, our friends at Arlington Patch told us a Lexington resident and Arlington karate coach has been indicted on charges of indecently assaulting a …

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Selectmen Ask LexHAB for Affordable Housing Design at Busa Farms

The board instructed LexHAB to return with a schematic design for four to eight affordable housing units on the property.

Although it’s still early in the process, the Board of Selectmen wants to look into building four to eight units of affordable housing along Lowell Street at the Busa Farms property. In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the board directed the Lexington Housing Assistance Board (LexHAB) to come back with a schematic design for such a project. Before the vote, selectmen Chairman Hank Manz stressed that all affordable-housing options are still on the table for the property and that they still will be after LexHAB returns with a design proposal. Selectman George Burnell agreed. “A great deal more work still needs to go into this,” he said. Rest of the Busa Farms Property The board’s discussion with LexHAB and the Community Preservation Committee …

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Patch Facts

Five Things You Need to Know Today: Aug. 2

An early morning meeting, a closed Senior Center and more today in Lexington.

1. Wake up with the Board of Selectmen, which is scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. this morning at the Public Services Building to discuss affordable housing on the Busa land and review the recreation section of the Busa Land Use Proposal Committee's report. 2. Other public meetings scheduled for today include the Communications Advisory Committee's LexMedia Quarterly Review Subcommittee at 2 p.m. at the Town Office Building; the Community Center Task Force at 7:30 p.m. at Cary Hall and the Conservation Commission at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Office Building. 3.  The Senior Center will be closed today, Aug. 2. The closure coincides with work a major piece of water equipment, which will leave the center without water, Town Manager Carl Valente told …

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Patrick Ball

6:44 pm on Friday, September 16, 2011

Hi Beth, You're right that we have not yet published any report on the Lexfarm presentation on the Busa property. We are still following and will have something shortly.   more ›

Six Towns Introduce Regional Affordable Housing Effort

Bedford, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Sudbury, and Weston have established a Regional Housing Services Office.

The following is a press release shared by our friends over at Sudbury Patch. Six towns northwest of Boston are holding a kickoff planning meeting next week to launch the newly formed “Regional Housing Services Office,” which will support municipal affordable housing efforts across the region. The meeting takes place Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Flynn Town Office building in Sudbury, located at 278 Old Sudbury Road. Bedford, Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, Sudbury, and Weston established this Regional Housing Services Office as an innovative approach to managing affordable housing from a municipal perspective. The six towns signed an Inter-Municipal Agreement in February which became effective on July 1 to formalize a regional …

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