Monthly Archives: May 2014

Waltham buying Fernald from state

Posted on May 9, 2014 | Comments Off on Waltham buying Fernald from state

From the Waltham paper –

Waltham is on its way to making real estate history this year with the acquisition of the much-desired, nearly 200-acre parcel of land known as the Walter E. Fernald Center.

The Fernald property, at 200 Trapelo Road, is the largest piece of available land inside the Rte. 128 corridor and the state has offered to sell it to the city for $3.7 million

http://waltham.wickedlocal.com/article/20140506/NEWS/140507811

It sounds to me like a better price than Medfield got for 134 acres.  However, the state priced the lands based on what it had spent on them, not on their value.

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Posted in Medfield State Hospital

MHS Jazz Band – listen live Sat. at 10 AM

Posted on May 8, 2014 | Comments Off on MHS Jazz Band – listen live Sat. at 10 AM

From Chris McCue Potts –

The Medfield HS Jazz Band performs in the Essentially Ellington competition at Lincoln Center at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 10, and a live stream of Medfield’s performance (as well as other aspects of the three-day festival) is available. Just click on this link:  http://new.livestream.com/jazz/ee2014. Medfield is the first to perform Saturday morning, so be sure to tune in just before 10 a.m. The jazz band was just one of 15 selected from across North America to participate in Essentially Ellington.

Best,

Chris

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Posted in Entertainment, Music, Schools, Teens

Master plan

Posted on May 8, 2014 | Comments Off on Master plan

Andover’s Master Plan

Kris has shared with the Board of Selectmen two examples of master plans.  Below is the summary introduction to the 2012 Andover master plan and the above link is the whole master plan.  This is the link to the Norwell master plan.  It would serve Medfield well to go through both the rigors and process of creating a master plan.  –

What is the purpose of the Master Plan?
As citizens of Andover, we believe that our town is an exceptionally good place to live and to raise a family. At the same time, we recognize powerful trends in changing land use, resource availability, evolving responsibilities and expectations, and new technology that could dramatically alter our town. We have a choice. We can simply accept how the town evolves or we can creatively manage change.
To manage change, we need to understand ourselves and what is important to us — our values, our aspirations and the goals that we share for our community. The Master Plan provides a framework for decision-making that elevates the importance of these shared elements and desires. It is a policy guide and a framework for future land use and development. It includes assessments of existing resources and issues, as well as projections of future conditions and needs in consideration of community goals and desires. In sum, a Master Plan describes what the community is like today and what direction it should go in the future.
The Master Plan can play an important role in the ongoing work of Town Officials and Town Departments as a consistent point of reference for evaluating and prioritizing potential actions.
The data and analysis contained in the plan can be used for documentation in funding applications as well as for monitoring change over time.
Under Massachusetts Law, Section 81-D, it is the responsibility of the Planning Board to adopt and amend the Master Plan, but it is essential that the Board of Selectmen, the Town Manager, the
Finance Committee and Town Departments work together to ensure that the policies and actions are consistent with the Master Plan.

What is included in the 2012 Master Plan?
 Section 1 includes:
 The Vision which identifies the core values that bind Andover residents together. Shared values become critical guidelines for our elected officials and town staff as they make decisions on our behalf. The Vision was crafted over a two and a half-year period by the Vision 21 Committee, a Committee created by the Board of Selectmen, the Finance Committee and the School Committee. The Vision 21 Committee debated how to create a truly useful Vision, reviewed similar efforts by other communities, held open public input meetings and focus groups, conducted a survey at Town Meeting, and held roundtable discussions with town leaders. It invited experts on issues related to community and regional planning and the task of building a Vision. With this information, the Committee developed lists of shared values and potential strategies and used them to write this Vision.

 Main Goals are stated to provide direction on how to best implement the community Vision. The main goals for all seven elements of the plan are provided in Section 1 for easy reference.

 Sections 2 through 8 includes:
A reiteration of the Goals with specific and detailed Objectives and Information for each of the following:
Section 2 Land Use
Section 3 Housing
Section 4 Economic Development
Section 5 Open Space and Recreation
Section 6 Natural, Historic, and Cultural Resources
Section 7 Transportation and Circulation
Section 8 Municipal Facilities and Town Services
The Goals and Objectives are based on community input and are meant to reflect Andover’s residents’ broad desires for the Town’s future. If possible, indicators have been identified.
Indicators can be used to measure the effectiveness of policies and progress toward the Master Plan goals. Please note that Sections 2 through 8 provide detailed Objectives for each Goal.

 Section 9 outlines a plan for Implementation, which includes a variety of options, the assignment of responsibilities and target timeframes.

 The Appendices provide supporting documentation for the census charts, surveys, referenced plans and other relevant information that support the 2011 Master Plan.  The 2012 Master Plan was officially adopted by the Andover Planning Board per Massachusetts General Laws, Section 81-D on February 14, 2012.

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Posted in Planning

Swap area going great

Posted on May 3, 2014 | Comments Off on Swap area going great

Lots of stuff and lots of committee members and lots of organization.  Great start to their season.

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Posted in Uncategorized

BoS agenda for 5/6

Posted on May 2, 2014 | Comments Off on BoS agenda for 5/6

In addition to what appears below, I had also asked Mike Sullivan to plan to work out the Board of Selectmen schedule on our annual calendar for the year.

Tuesday May 6, 2014@7:00PM

AGENDA (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

ACTION

The Memorial Day Committee invites the Selectmen to participate and march in the Memorial Day Parade and Exercises on Monday May 28, 2014. The Committee respectfully requests a parade permit and a discharge of firearms permit for the event

Fire Chief Kingsbury reports that there are a number of outstanding ambulance invoices from April 7, 2004 to June 2, 2011. Fire Chief Kingsbury is seeking permission to allow COMSTAR, the Town’s billing agent for ambulance invoices, to write-off these delinquent accounts

The Selectmen are invited to attend an Eagle Court of Honor for William T. Derian on Sunday June 1, 2014 2 PM at the United Church of Christ

LICENSES & PERMITS

Medfield Youth Soccer requests permission to place signs announcing registration for the fall soccer season. Signs in place May 16 to May 30th

Friends of Medfield Football request permission to hold a car wash fundraiser behind Town Hall on Saturday August 30, 2014
Medfield Lions Club request a one-day alcohol permit for their event on May ~7, 2014 to be held at The CENTER

Other business that may arise

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Posted in Select Board matters

Lot 3 on Ice House Road

Posted on May 1, 2014 | 4 comments

Lot 3 on Ice House Road –

TAX RELIEF –
Everyone likes the idea of reducing property taxes, as they should, but I fear that goal may sell  the opportunities at lot 3 short, just because someone has put one particular opportunity so directly in front of the town.  At the moment it an easy path of least resistance to follow up on what has been put so directly in front of the town, and it also mimics what we already did with the Kingsbury Club.  The Economic Development Committee may well feel a mandate now to issue an RFP for uses of lot 3, but to me that is putting the cart before the horse.

MASTER PLAN –
I think a town wide master plan is essential before the town go off in any particular direction on any one piece of land.  We want to first know how lot 3 fits into the town’s overall needs and plans, before we irrevocably commit to any one use of lot 3.

Historically, the town had a narrow focus when it pursued the development of the Kingsbury Club, responding to that owner’s request to site something on that land, rather than first deciding by planning what would be the town’s best use.  The town even gave the Kingsbury Club more land when Kingsbury Club asked for it, apparently without considering what that extra land did to lot 3.  Now Lot 3 is therefore sized such that the current proposal needs to lease land back from the Kingsbury Club to make the project work.  This is due lot 3 having a combination of the 200′ setbacks from the stream on the west side per the Rivers Act, the wetlands, the 150′ setback from the residential zoned lands, and the detention pond. Mike Sullivan told me that there are really only 2-3 usable acres on lot 3.

The problem the Town of Medfield has historically had with doing a master plan is that the town administration has not much believed in its need.  However, that master planning project is on top of my agenda of things to start on now that the annual town meeting (ATM) is behind us.   I fear that it will get delayed because we did not fund the needed consultants at the ATM to do a town wide master plan.  Perhaps we can start with the master plan for the Medfield State Hospital site, and move town wide in a year’s time.

LOT 3’S SITUATION NOW DIFFERS FROM LOT 2 THEN –
Please consider that Lot 3 is also in a much different posture now that the other two adjoining lots have been built out with the Kingsbury Club and The Center, so it is not the same as when the Kingsbury Club was proposing to locate on what was then an undeveloped, roadless gravel pit.

PROPOSED SPORTS COMPLEX –
LARGE BUILDING – With the current iteration of the sports complex proposal for lot 3, I was first struck by it being 50% bigger than Forekicks.

LOTS OF PARKING – Then I noticed the project had 307 parking spaces (about double the existing spaces at the Kingsbury Club and The Center combined) and that struck me as a lot.  I then assumed that was what was probably sized to provide for each shift of users.

VEHICLE TRIPS – In the past I found the traffic at Forekicks in Norfolk both a mad house and a big deal when I used to take Kristen there (and we were always rushing because I was the coach and like almost everyone else we were cutting it close).  I then realized that each parking space really represents two vehicle trips per hour at the turn over time because there is one trip in for people arriving and one trip out for the people who just finished.  So, for the currently proposed  sports complex there are really 600+ vehicle trips on the hour.  By contrast, the traffic study done for the Kingsbury Club, when it was proposed, expected 1200 trips per day, and at times the Kingsbury Club’s traffic seems busy to me.   600 vehicles at each shift change is a lot of traffic to inflict on any neighborhood, and the town needs to seriously factor that adverse neighborhood effect every hour of the day into its decision.

DIRECT ACCESS TO MAIN ROAD – My other random thought about a sports facility in town, now that I appreciate the large number of vehicle trips better, is that if the town were to endorse that use in town, that such a complex would be best located where it had direct access from a major road, such as Rte 27 or Rte 109.

ALTERNATIVES –
The town needs to do something to make lot 3 productive, or at least decide how it fits in with its master plan (perhaps that decision would be to hold the land in reserve for a future school or  town need).  The decision on what to do with lot 3 will now be made initially by the Economic Development Committee, and then by the Board of Selectmen, as will any decision on whether to hold off on doing anything with lot 3 while a master plan is done.

HOUSING – If an RFP is to be pursued before getting a master plan, perhaps if the RFP is broad enough to include all uses, including housing, then perhaps we could at least get some interesting housing concepts to examine from developers.  The land is zoned industrial, but the town can change the zoning if it likes the housing proposals.

Where Ralph Costello has built the paradigm of housing that generates profits to the Town of Medfield, I would hope that Ralph would be interested in sharing with the Economic Development Committee how replicating his development elsewhere in town could be an engine for property tax relief.  I think Ralph told me that he copyrighted the designs they created, just so that they can build it all again.

When the Board of Selectmen wrote the mandate to the Economic Development Committee, it included housing as part of what should be considered.

I have personally concluded, after years of trying to attract businesses to Medfield and hearing that no one wants to locate businesses in town, that housing can and should be the business of Medfield, because people do want to live in Medfield.  We just need to build the right type of housing, like Ralph Costello did at Old Medfield Square that has only one school child in the then twenty-seven occupied units the last time Ralph gave me the figures.  Ralph said the town will be getting $600,000 in property taxes when his Old Medfield Square is fully built out, and if the ratios hold there may be two or three school children at a cost of $12,000 per year each.  Medfield can make lots of money from building the right form of housing.

4 Comments

Posted in Development

House budget done

Posted on May 1, 2014 | Comments Off on House budget done

The Massachusetts Municipal Association’s alert this morning indicates that Representative Denise Garlick, after her assistance to the Town of Medfield yesterday at the hearing on its Medfield State Hospital bill, and her colleagues got the House budget finished.  This from the MMA –

Thursday, May 1, 2014

HOUSE PASSES FY 2015 STATE BUDGET BILL

SENATE PREPARING ITS OWN VERSION FOR DEBATE IN LATE MAY

Senate Ways & Means Committee on Target to Propose Its Spending Plan in 2 Weeks

Late on Wednesday, April 30, after three long days of debate, the House of Representatives passed a $36 billion state budget bill for fiscal 2015 that is slightly smaller than the overall budget filed by the Governor in January, but increases funding for several key municipal and education aid accounts, including the $25 million increase in Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA) announced in the Legislature’s March local aid resolution. The budget process now shifts to the Senate, with the Senate Ways and Means Committee expected to release its version of the fiscal 2015 spending plan in approximately 2 weeks, with debate to follow a week later.

HOUSE BUDGET CLOSELY RESEMBLES THE PROPOSAL ORIGINALLY RELEASED BY HOUSE WAYS & MEANS ON APRIL 9TH.

While the members of the House waded through 1,175 amendments during three days of debate, most amendments were rejected, and the document is very close to the House Ways & Means Committee’s initial proposal. Here are the highlights of the budget as passed by the members of the House:

• UGGA INCREASE – As pledged in the Legislature’s local aid resolution, the House budget increases Unrestricted General Government Aid by $25 million;

• CHAPTER 70 UNCHANGED – The House budget would adopt the Governor’s proposed $99M Chapter 70 increase with no changes, with a majority of cities, towns and school districts receiving very low minimum aid increases of only $25 per student;

• SPED CIRCUIT-BREAKER INTENDED TO BE FULLY FUNDED – The House budget would add $5M to the Governor’s original recommendation, with the intent of fully funding the Special Education Circuit Breaker program in fiscal 2015;

• CHARTER SCHOOL REIMBURSEMENTS UP SLIGHTLY – The House budget would add $5M to the charter school reimbursement program, which would remain an estimated $33M short of full funding in fiscal 2015 and $28M short of full funding in fiscal 2014;

• REGIONAL SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION – The House budget would add $2M to regional school transportation reimbursement account above the level-funding amount recommended by the Governor;

• McKINNEY-VENTO FUNDING – The House budget level funds McKinney-Vento reimbursements, meaning that the budget would remain $7.5M short of full funding;

• PILOT PAYMENTS – The House budget would restore $500K to Payments-in-Lieu-of-Taxes to level-fund the program, which is progress but still below full funding;

• SHANNON ANTI-GANG GRANTS – The House adopted a compromise funding level to restore $2M to the Shannon Anti-Gang Grant Program, bringing the House budget up to $6M for fiscal 2015, although the fiscal 2014 funding level is $7M (the HW&M Committee recommended $4M for the program, and the MMA supported the amendment to fund the program at $8M a year, and the resulting compromise split the difference);

• NET SCHOOL SPENDING EQUITY AMENDMENT ADOPTED – The House budget includes language to establish equity in calculating net school spending under Chapter 70 to allow all communities to count health insurance costs for retired school employees in fiscal years 2016 and beyond, phased in over 4 years, and allow DESE to waive penalties in the meantime (this important MMA-supported amendment was adopted by the House);

• FREEZE ON RETIREE HEALTH CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE BUDGET – Language in outside sections 32 and 32A in the House budget would prohibit changes in retiree health insurance contribution percentages until July 1, 2016 for those communities that used the 2011 municipal health insurance reform law to make plan design changes or join the GIC, unless those communities voted to authorize a contribution percentage change before January 1, 2014 (the MMA opposed this section of the budget, and the House adopted an amendment to soften the language by grandfathering those communities that adopted the change before January 1 of this year);

• REVIEW OF CHAPTER 70 FOUNDATION BUDGET FRAMEWORK IN THE BUDGET – The House Budget would create a Foundation Budget Review Commission with municipal representation to examine the Chapter 70 funding framework and recommend changes to adequately address funding needs in the future (this MMA-supported amendment was adopted by the House);

• HOUSE AMENDMENT TO WEAKEN MUNICIPAL PERSONNEL LAWS WITHDRAWN – After the MMA’s strong objection and opposition, an amendment that would have weakened the prohibition on smoking for public safety personnel was withdrawn, and thus failed.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATORS TODAY: It is vitally important that you call your Senators as soon as possible to tell them how the House budget would impact your community, and ask them to improve the budget to address those accounts that impact you. Lawmakers must hear from you on these issues. Please contact MMA Legislative Director John Robertson at jrobertson@mma.org or 617-426-7272 x122 at any time if you have questions or need more details, and check the MMA website at www.mma.org for further updates as we continue to analyze the 230-page document and all last-minute amendments and changes.

THE SENATE WILL BEGIN DEBATE ON THE FISCAL 2015 STATE BUDGET IN JUST A FEW WEEKS. PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY AND URGE THEM TO BUILD ON THE LOCAL AID INCREASES IN THE HOUSE BUDGET AND INVEST EVEN MORE IN YOUR COMMUNITY.

 

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Posted in Budgets, Massachusetts Municipal Association