Town Meeting article information

Lexington Annual Town Meeting 2024: 

Opportunities for a More Sustainable Town

Several articles are coming before Lexington’s Annual Town Meeting, which begins Monday, March 18, that hold the promise to make Lexington a more sustainable and resilient place to live. If you are a Lexington resident, we encourage you to take a few minutes to become familiar with these articles, and if you’re moved to do so, to contact your Town Meeting representatives and let them know your thoughts.

 

We provide a short synopsis of these articles below. You can find links to the detailed proposals and video presentations on the Town Meeting website.

 

The Lexington Town Meeting Members Association makes it very easy for you to contact your Town Meeting representatives. A single email to PrecinctX@lexingtontmma.org (where X is your Lexington precinct number, 1, 2, etc., up to 9) will reach all your representatives. See TMMA’s more detailed and helpful instructions here.  

Article 29: Proposed 1-yr delay of GLB ban for commercial operators

There are two parts to this article:

Part 1 would amend the rules related to construction noise. 

Part 2 would delay the ban on use of gas-powered leaf blowers by commercial landscapers from March of 2025 until March of 2026. 

The ban was passed by Town Meeting in 2021 and ratified by town-wide referendum in 2022. Proponents argue that there is insufficient availability of equipment to meet the timetable of the ban and that it poses too large of a financial burden on businesses over a short time period; opponents respond that there is no compelling evidence that there are equipment shortages and businesses will have had 3½ years since passage to prepare.

Article 31: Ban on sale of single-serve plastic water bottles

This citizens’ petition would ban the sale in town of single-serve plastic water bottles one liter in size or less. Single-serve plastic water bottles constitute a sizable component of our plastic waste, and estimates are that only about 20% of our plastics are recycled. Alternatives for single-serve water bottles are readily available. Twenty-four other communities in Massachusetts already ban their sale.

Articles 34, 35, and 36: Tree Bylaw Amendments

Trees offer an outsized value proposition: they absorb carbon, keep our neighborhoods cooler, provide food and homes to a wide variety of wildlife, clean our air, and reduce storm runoff, all for a minimal investment of time and money. The Tree Committee has submitted these three articles to strengthen the Town's Tree Bylaw.

 

Article 34 would require that a builder hire a certified arborist to prepare and implement a tree protection plan for trees on construction sites not being removed from the protected setback area.


Article 35 would require that if builders remove trees from the protected setback area, they must plant a minimum number of trees in the front of the lot if there are otherwise an insufficient number. 


Article 36 would require that a builder hire a certified arborist to perform a standard, detailed risk assessment before a tree can be declared a hazard and therefore exempt from the requirements of the bylaw. It would also reinstate an exemption for certain invasive trees named by the Tree Committee; the only one to be named is the so-called Tree of Heaven, which serves as the preferred host of the Spotted Lanternfly, a serious agricultural pest. 



Article 37: The Importance of Trees Resolution

This is a citizens’ petition filed by the same group of residents who circulated the Statement of Concern for Lexington’s Trees last year. The petition asks Town Meeting to declare that a robust tree canopy is vital to the town’s public health and quality of life and calls upon town departments and committees to take appropriate action. It underscores for our leaders that our trees are a vital part of the town’s infrastructure and we need to make more progress in protecting them. 

Article 38: Lexington Fossil Fuel-Free Infrastructure Bylaw Amendment

Lexington has been accepted into the pilot program created by the 2022 State climate bill that permits ten communities to require that new construction be fossil-fuel-free. The Town passed a bylaw to this effect in 2021, in the hopes of winning State approval. The State, in accepting Lexington’s application, recommended that the existing bylaw be amended in two ways to better align the details with the other nine communities and the program’s guidelines.

Article 40: Integrated Pest Management Resolution

This resolution asks the Town to use the environmentally sensitive methodology known as Integrated Pest Management on all its properties, with a specific goal of eliminating the use of Second Generation Anti-Coagulant Rodenticides (SGARs). The resolution also asks the Town to provide education on the dangers of SGARs and on more eco-friendly alternatives. SGARs are poisons used to kill rats, but wildlife and pets are being sickened and killed by ingesting poisoned rats or the poison itself.