3, 4, 5 Militia Dr

Concerns in Resident's letter to Select Board on 11/10/2024

1) Significant shadowing cast on Greeley Village as reflected in the shadow study, particularly on 12/21 and that the residents who are low income and are either older adults or those with disabilities, are not able to easily move if they don't want to live in shadows.  

*I also noted that if the town ever wanted to put solar on these buildings, they most likely would not be eligible for solar.

2) The flat plateau which the developers referenced as part of the landscape is because these are filled in wetlands from the late 60's/early 70's and I noted that there may be determinations, orders of conditions or other permits which had conditions for the developers to follow, and possible implications for building large buildings on this site.  I questioned if the town or Applicant had investigated possible conditions for building at this site.

3) The developer's engineer mentioned that they wanted to connect to the 30 inch pipe which currently goes into the town's drainage system.  I pointed out that this drainage gets dumped into the North Lexington Brook, which is behind my house and 231 Bedford Street (the project which I met with most of you about over the summer).  My backyard consistently floods during brief heavy rains or prolonged rains, due to the brook being responsible for 440 acres of stormwater runoff, including Militia Drive/Walgreens/Stop & Shop area.  It’s so much run off that it’s not able to be adequately dispersed throughout the wetlands prior to entering my backyard, hence the flooding.

The North Lexington Brook is also the source of flooding in November 2009 in which land and buildings flooded at 231 Bedford Street, 235 Bedford Street, and 237 Bedford Street (all re-zoned for 60 feet as part of the Village Overlay District).

My husband and I question if the town has the right to flood our backyard.  However, after meeting with John Livsey and other town engineers, we realize that there is no easy fix for the flooding, and the drainage was probably set up many years ago.  That being said, any new buildings should not be connected to the current storm water drainage, but rather should have on-site storm water infiltrating into the ground.  In this day and age, no NEW storm water should be purposefully filtered into the North Lexington Brook, especially since these buildings are huge and residential compared to what is there currently, and would counter current environmental practices.  

Out of these 3 items, I am writing with particularly grave concerns about #1).  Since the initial Planning Board hearing, I have come to discover that one of the buildings (27 Greeley Village, now known as 40 Greeley Village) which opened in 2016 will be greatly impacted by the proposed project at 3,4, 5 Militia Drive if it passes at the heights they are proposing, and which are allowed per the town's By-right bylaws.  

Here is a link to an article about this building, which uses sun exposure for energy efficiency, including heat:  

https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/lexington-minuteman/2016/05/12/four-new-units-open-in/30322495007/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGdB59leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHf3jO12lyx3zc0c-glweBnm0fqP1HuZlr1eit300UzhnOZy3b1TfO7M_ZA_aem_aB18_P5GXGNzcUc78cxB2w

40 Greeley Village is an environmentally cutting-edge building which was paid for with $810,000 in Community Preservation Act funding from the town, $300,000 from the state and $259,000 from the Lexington Housing Authority; a total of $1,369,000.

“Designed to take advantage of sun exposure, the units can keep a relatively consistent temperature, as its concrete walls and cement floors capture and contain heat. The total size of the building is 3,300 square feet. The fact that this was designed to capture the sun, to be energy-efficient and do all the things not only all of us should be doing at home but every community ought to be doing, this is a model not only how to do inclusionary housing, but how to do environmental housing,’ Kaufman said.” 

Page 4 of the shadow study provided by the Applicant of 3, 4, 5 Militia Drive shows 40 Greeley Village fully shadowed at 9:00AM, exactly the time that the winter morning sun is needed for heating needs.  This building will now be capturing zero sun in the morning if the 3, 4, 5 Militia Drive project passes due to the Byright Bylaws of 60 feet in height (plus equipment on top).  The building I'm referring to is circled in red;  it is a long, rectangular building in the center of Greeley Village that's placed at an angle in the plans, specifically placed in a very calculated, planned, researched angle to "capture the sun" perfectly at various times throughout the day.  There are 4 apartments in each of the buildings (8 total), plus 4 apartments in the other 8 buildings which will experience shadowing, for a total of 40 apartments which will be impacted by the large buildings being proposed at 3, 4, 5 Militia Drive.  

*It should also be noted that building #13 in Greeley Village was left out of the shadow study;  it's likely this building will be impacted as well by shadowing.

Shadow Study:

https://vpc3uploadedfiles.blob.core.windows.net/vpc3-files/lexingtonma/240923__Arch_Shadow_Studies_Mon_Sep_23_2024_16-14-01.pdf?sp=r&sv=2017-11-09&sr=b&st=2024-11-10T03%3A45%3A34Z&se=2024-11-10T04%3A45%3A34Z&sig=HGNDIApK9Xo2ml9hejXqUPGPX7yT2fbzDybIkl6FveM%3D

As we know, these are By-right bylaws and the zoning for Militia Drive was set up for 60 feet if commercial space is a certain percentage of the first floor.  If this project is approved, this project will be higher than 60 feet since equipment is proposed to be on top of the buildings. 

The fact that populations of people who are typically disenfranchised live at Greeley Village (low income older adults, people with disabilities, and many residents who speak limited English - Chinese, Korean, and Hindi speakers) is a very good opportunity for discussion amongst the Select Board and other town officials about the town's priorities.  Does this really feel good?  Most of the Greeley Village residents have no idea about this proposed project, and quite frankly most of the residents of Lexington are still unaware about the passing of the new zoning bylaws, as I mentioned in my email on 9/26.

The Greeley Village residents were not sent Abutters notifications (okay, they don't "own" these apartments), but even Caileen Foley, the Executive Director at Lexington Housing Authority commented during the Planning Board hearing that she was not notified of the hearing and learned of the hearing at the last minute, so joined the hearing late.  As a resident of Lexington, which is a town I have loved living in over the past 10 years, I can tell you that my jaw dropped after Caileen Foley reported her lack of knowledge of the hearing.  The Planning Director did apologize, which was fitting.  

Why else is this project of grave concern?  Taxpayers monies were used for this project through the CPA tax, money from the state was used for 40 Greeley Village, and the LHA monies were also used.  

We now have a conflict between a proposed very large development using By-right zoning bylaws which will overshadow a building which was funded by taxpayers dollars for use of the sun for heating efficiency, etc.  From my understanding, residents in the building don't typically have to turn on their heat in the winter - the building does a wonderful job of using passive solar for heat, so it is a model for environmental housing. Furthermore, I have learned after the hearing that there are drainage issues already in some of the buildings at the base of the hill which the developer wants to build out.

In my past email correspondence with the Planning Director, I questioned if the Planning Department and the Planning Board Members knew about the flooding of land and buildings on Bedford Street prior to re-zoning 229, 231, 235, and 237 Bedford Street.  The Planning Director replied that they "went parcel by parcel on a map" to which I replied that you can't tell flood history from a static map.  I’ve had a Planning Board member tell me they were unaware of the flood, and another one during our initial Planning Board hearing attributed our flood comments to the spring of 2010 when "so many residents basements flooded" (still, they did not understand that this was a distinct flood and the brook experiences flooding continually when it rains).

Tom Diaz, precinct 8 Town Meeting Member, a strong advocate for Article 34, came to look at the North Lexington Brook on both sides of the brook in April.  After his visit, he immediately wrote a letter to the Planning Department stating that 231 Bedford Street should be taken out of the Village Overlay District.  Unfortunately, the next business day the developer and his team submitted their proposal and the Planning Director informed me that they had to have the hearing since the submission was made.  Soon after, the Applicant asked for additional time;  3 months later they re-submitted plans of a smaller scale - but still too large for this parcel of land. We will be having our second Conservation hearing and second Planning Hearing the week of

The zoning error at 231 Bedford Street (and 3 adjacent properties) and at 3, 4, 5 Militia Drive puts the town in a vulnerable position.  I requested that the Planning Director and one of the Planning Board members who I had a conversation with seek counsel with the town attorney about the past flood history at 231 Bedford Street.  I never heard back, so I am assuming this discussion never occurred.  Regardless, it’s common sense that we shouldn’t be building large buildings closer to the North Lexington Brook, a consistent source of flooding.

The 3, 4, 5 Militia Drive project is particularly disconcerting because I believe that the town can be sued if we can't abide by the By-right zoning bylaws, and I believe use of taxpayers monies from 3 different sources to build 40 Greeley Village for the purpose of using the sun needs to be honored and used for the purposes that the money was allocated for.  The optics are not looking good - it appears that the communication between town officials (eg., Planning and the Lexington Housing Authority) is poor and that areas that were re-zoned have limitations which might end up in litigation.  It’s also not a great message to not include diverse populations in discussions about how very large developments may impact them - translation services should be made available to the residents at Greeley Village and they should be included if this project isn’t stemmed off first.