Marijuana High On Resident’s Questions At Town Meeting Preview

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Photo: (Left) Warrant Committee Chair Roy Epstein and Town Counsel George Hall

April 20 – better known as 4/20 – is, in short, a holiday celebrating marijuana where people gather to consume cannabis and get high.

(Why 4/20 – pronounced four-twenty – ? Blame it on California.)

And in Belmont, 5/2 (May 2) will be marijuana day at the 2018 annual Town Meeting as next Wednesday weed will likely dominate the night’s debate as Town Meeting Members will be asked to decide whether to move forward on a citizens’ petition allowing Belmont to “opt-out” of allowing the retail sale of pot in the “Town of Homes.”  

And if the discussion at Monday’s annual Town Meeting warrant preview co-sponsored by the Belmont League of Women Voters and Warrant Committee is any indication, marijuana will take center stage when the Special Town Meeting is called on Wednesday.

In 2016, Bay State voters approved a ballot measure that legalized recreational cannabis and its sale by retail operators. While Belmont followed the state by endorsing the question by a 53-47 percent margin, a group of residents – many affiliated with the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – has sought to remove Belmont from authorizing the sale of pot and cannabis-related “eatables.” Under the current state law, Belmont can approve a single state retail license under a formula that takes into account the number of retail liquor licenses in town.

The pro-opt out group contends a vote to legalize pot statewide does not mean the voters wish to have a marijuana store in the community. Others, including two current members of the Board of Selectmen, believe the majority of Belmont voters in November 2016 represent the “will of the people” on all aspects of the new law, according to Selectman Mark Paolillo.

From what the questioners asked to Warrant Committee Chair Roy Epstein who hosted the meeting and from Town Counsel George Hall, it appears members and residents wanted some clarity on what Wednesday’s vote by Town Meeting will begin or end in terms on Belmont’s pot future.

Hall explained that if the article to approve an opt-out provision passes on a majority vote – 50 percent of voters plus one extra vote – a general election will need to be called sometime in the summer by the Board of Selectmen (the only group allowed to request an election) to ask for town-wide approval.

“It needs to be approved twice. Both need to happen,” said Hall.

But Hall pointed out that approval of the opt-out clause at Town Meeting is a “recommendation” to the Selectmen to ask for a town-wide vote; it does not compel the Board to call for one. And Adam Dash, the selectmen’s chair, reiterated the board’s majority opinion that it would look unfavorably at such an election. 

Undeterred by the board’s reluctance to the article, Pam Eagar, who presented the opt-0ut citizens’ petition to the town clerk, showed her group’s potential strategy on bypassing the selectmen when he quired Hall on a possible public referendum on the measure. 

Under Belmont bylaws, a referendum – a direct vote in which all voters are invited to vote on a particular proposal to adopt a new bylaw – is allowed, although Hall said it would be a bit “strange” for proponents of the measure to overturn an article accepted by Town Meeting using the referendum process. 

But all the political wrangling on opting in or out will be mute if the article doesn’t pass muster on May 2. And if history is any measure, the supporters of the measure could find themselves fighting an uphill battle due to the time-honored practice of placing amendments to an article. 

Amendments are just that, addition or substitution to an article’s language used to clarify a measure or to correct misprints or errors. As of this week, there are six separate amendments to the marijuana proposal. 

But as seen in past Town Meetings, the greater the number of amendments attached to the articles, the more likely members will determine the original to be “unwinding” and “complicated,” as one member of Monday’s meeting said. 

Pot wasn’t the only subject discussed as residents raised questions on amendments regarding changing the number of Selectmen from three to five members and zoning issues related to the General Residence districts.

With Clock Running, Selectmen Calls A Public Meeting On Incinerator’s Future

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Photo: The entrance to the former Belmont incinerator site.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

With the clock now running on the future of the town’s former incinerator location near the Lexington/Belmont line, the Belmont Board of Selectmen will look to residents to supply some ideas on the site’s future.

“We will need to open it up to the public,” said Adam Dash, Selectmen’s chair. “All of them are clever and really good, but we can only do so much on that site.” Dash added he sees public meetings – much like those held last year on trash collection – sometime in June to gather resident input. The meeting will likely take place on June 9 at the Board’s first scheduled meeting at the conclusion of annual Town Meeting. 

When the town took ownership of the site from the state 11 months ago – the deed for the property was transferred from the state on May 17, 2017 – the state required the town to construct a mitigation plan to remediate the site of contaminated soil and groundwater by “capping” the land polluted by ash produced in the burning of garbage. That work will need to be completed in the next few years.

The 16-acre property is located on upper Concord Avenue and the Rock Meadow Conservation about 1,500 feet from the Lexington town line. Opened in 1959, the incinerator operated until 1975, then becoming the town’s transfer station for decades before the state took control of the land. The Belmont Department of Public Works currently utilizes the site for equipment storage, leaf composting and the placement of debris.

As of fiscal 2016, Belmont had $3.5 million in a reserve account to clean the property.

Suggestions for future use include a dog park, solar farm, bike and recreation path, an expanded DPW operation, and even a marijuana farm. One use discussed in the past few months has been a new town skating rink. 

At its last meeting, the selectmen and Town Administrator Patrice Garvin felt that before capping the site, a specific post-closure usage needs to be decided rather than moving immediately with full site remediation. What will be placed on the site will determine what type of cap is used; a passive recreational use will require a less intrusive barrier than one supporting a building.

“Because if you use all the money to cap it, you won’t have anything left if you want to do a recreational type of use,” said Garvin. 

In the past month, Selectman Mark Paolillo said he and Garvin had met with Belmont Youth Hockey Association which is lining up funding for a proposed facility on the Belmont High School site, to ask if the skating rink “could work” on upper Concord Avenue. 

“It does align with what we are doing at the High School site, so we have to start thinking about this sooner than later,” said Paolillo, who believes the rink could be located at the site, but legal matters remain on whether the facility would qualify as a municipal use which is allowed under the deed. 

‘Be Heard’: Update, Workshop On Design For New High School Thursday, April 26

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Photo: Design update and workshop on the new Belmont High School.

The Belmont High School Building Committee wants residents to “Be Heard, Be Involved, Be Informed” as it holds a Design Update and Design Workshop concerning the proposed new Belmont High School this Thursday, April 26 at 7 p.m. at the Wellington Elementary School cafeteria, 121 Orchard St.

The night’s agenda will include:

  • Project Design Updates
  • Design Workshop – South Plaza
  • Questions and comments

Upcoming Community Meetings include:

  • Tuesday, May 8 at 7 p.m.: Design Update with Virtual Reality Presentation, a joint School Committee & High School Building Committee Meeting at the Chenery Middle School Community Room.
  • Wednesday, May 16 at 7 p.m. – Traffic Solutions Discussion at the Wellington Elementary School cafeteria

To sign up for email updates and to learn more about the Belmont High School Building Project, including project timelines, videos, meeting schedules, presentations, and more, visit www.belmonthighschoolproject.org. If you have them to BHS-BC@belmont-ma.gov

Belmont OKs First Housing Production Plan; Keys On Seniors, Young Families

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Photo: The leaders of the effort to bring a Housing Production Plan to Belmont: (from left), Charles Clark, Judy Singler,  Judith Feins, Rachel Heller, Gloria Leipzig.

With the median sales price of single-family homes reaching seven figures and new residential construction being gobbled up for well over a million dollars, it wouldn’t appear the residents choosing to live in affluent “Town of Homes” would have a problem obtaining and keeping their homes 

In fact, one of four Belmont households is eligible for affordable housing.

According to the Belmont Housing Trust, more than one in four Belmont homeowners and nearly half of all renters are cost-burdened when it comes to paying for basic housing expenses, more than 30 percent of their income for the places they live.

While the demand is there, the supply of “affordable” units is wanting; only 6.7 percent of Belmont properties are deemed as affordable, according to data compiled by the Metro West Collaborative Developers.

“We were pretty surprised and you may be too to see how disproportion the need relative to the affordable house that we have,” said Judith Feins, chair of the Belmont Housing Trust, established nearly two decades ago to investigate ways of bringing people and affordable housing together.

Now, in a historic vote, the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved Belmont’s first Housing Production Plan directing the town to assist in the building and preservation of affordable units that will assist residents such as elderly households and young families which are disproportionately impacted by the current housing stock. 

“We can finally say Belmont is moving in the right direction increasing housing that’s desperately needed,” said Feins.

“These are all laudable goals and it leverages additional funding from the state. This is long overdue,” said Adam Dash, Selectmen chair. 

The town’s new housing blueprint has been a long-time coming as the Housing Trust first approached the town seven years ago to begin the process that most municipalities in eastern Massachusetts have approved. 

A major delay was due to the strung-out approval process for the Cushing Village (known today as The Bradford) project which acted like a black hole for all other board business and previous Planning Boards did not see the urgency to take up the proposal.

That changed with the appointment of Charles Clark as chair and with a majority of new members coming on the board last fall. A long-time supporter of the Trust’s goals, Clark said the plan was finally able to pass – on a unanimous vote – seeing the proposed plan was needed.

“You have to want it to happen and you have to think it’s important,” said Clark.

The plan is a proactive strategy for planning and developing housing “that can shape their future in developing community and affordable housing,” Feins told the selectmen. It also determines how the town reaches the target of 10 percent affordability housing stock set by the state in General Law Chapter 40B.

The plan’s goal is to increase affordable housing by 337 units to meet the state’s affordability standard with the spotlight on creating more housing for three specific groups:

  • senior households
  • young newly-formed families and
  • extremely and very low-income households

The Planning Board early this year suggested some clarity changes to the Trust’s original plan which the Trust came back after “rethinking” the plan with those “constructive ideas” incorporated into the revised plan, said the Trust’s Gloria Leipzig.

The Trust proposes to increase housing production via a number of “concrete strategies,” including:

  • Redevelop abandoned or underutilized parcels on South Pleasant Street, the McLean Senior Residence site, the Purecoat factory adjacent Belmont High School, the vacant gas station on Blanchard Road and property on church and other religious properties.
  • Maximize housing development at transportation hubs such as the Moraine Street and increase housing over shops and stores.
  • Invest in the revitalization and preservation of the town’s stock of community housing such as Sherman Gardens and Belmont Village.
  • Use Community Preservation Act funds on new programs such as spending annually 10 percent of the total CPA on housing, use the funds to leverage the purchase and development of community housing when land becomes available. 

The plan now heads for approval by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. If the OK comes quickly, the town will be able to become a state Housing Choice Community by its April 30 deadline for Belmont to be eligible for state funds. 

Leipzig said the Trust and the Planning Board and Selectmen will continue working on implementing the plan through town government action – such as seeking zoning changes to help facilitate the creation and preservation of housing – and acquiring state grants and loans.

Town Meeting Preview: Warrant Briefing Monday Night

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Photo: Belmont Town Meeting in action.

The Belmont League of Women Voters and Warrant Committee is co-sponsoring the annual warrant briefing to acquaint Town Meeting members with the non-financial articles on the Town Meeting warrant.

The meeting will take place Monday evening, April 23 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St. This is an opportunity for Town Meeting members and the general public to ask questions of town officials and department heads concerning any of the warrant articles prior to the 2018 Town Meeting beginning in one week on Monday, April 30

Warrant Committee Chair Roy Epstein will preside.

Cultures Clash At Belmont World Film’s ‘What Will People Say’ Monday, April 23 [Trailer]

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Photo: “What Will People Say”

Belmont World Film will present the New England premiere of “What Will People Say” on Monday, April 23, at 7:30 p.m. at Belmont’s Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Rd. Buy tickets here.

Directed by Iram Haq, the Norwegian, German and Swedish production is based extensively on the director’s experience as a teenage daughter of Pakistani immigrants in Norway. The film represents a doomed quest to reconcile two worldviews and cultures that stand in fundamental opposition to each other. Pakistani immigrants living in Norway send their 16 year-old daughter away to live with relatives in Pakistan after she is caught kissing her secret Norwegian boyfriend, only to return to Norway after innocently bringing shame to the family yet again.

The film is in Norwegian and Urdu with subtitles.

Talk, Reception On Making Art With Paper At The Belmont Art Gallery, Sunday At Noon

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Photo: Suzette Durso, “Sparrow Fairy”
The Belmont Gallery of Art is sponsoring a talk and reception “The Art of Paper,” on Sunday, April 22, from noon to 2 p.m. at the gallery which is located on the third floor of the Homer Building in the Town Hall complex.
The Art of Paper Gallery talk will feature four artists from the “Fairytales and Folktales” exhibit who created their art using paper in unique and unusual ways. Come learn more about how they make their work.
 
Panelists at this special talk include Laurie Bogdan, Helen Canetta, Suzette Durso, Barbara Fletcher and Carol Wintle. Light brunch refreshments will be served.

Belmont Police’s Prescription Drug Drop Off at DPW Yard Sat. April 28

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Photos: Prescription drugs.

The Belmont Police Department in conjunction with the Belmont Auxiliary Police and the DEA will be hosting a Prescription Drug Take-Back Initiative to prevent the abuse and theft of old, unused and expired prescription drugs at the DPW Yard, 37 C St., on Saturday April 28 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Old or unused prescription drugs (no liquids) may be dropped off for free with no questions asked. You won’t even have to get out of your car.

Prescription drugs are highly susceptible to misuse by family and friends. In addition they can be improperly disposed of and end up in our environment, posing a potential health hazard. Please take some time to check your medicine cabinet and visit the DPW next weekend.

For more information on the Rx Drug Take Back Initiative or a list of additional collection sites visit www.dea.gov . Residents can also contact Belmont Police Lt. Kristin Daley at kdaley@belmontpd.org. The police also has a permanent Rx drug collection kiosk located in the lobby of the police station that is accessible 24/7.

Side By Side For 26 Miles: Habelows Push 3 Dozen Belmontians Over Marathon Finish Line

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Photo: Melissa (left) and Eileen (right) Habelow at the finish of the Boston Marathon. 

Monday’s BAA Marathon was no walk in the park for the Habelows from Belmont. The pair – mom Eileen and eldest daughter Melissa – ended up battling daylong drenching downpours, a steady headwind and temperatures in the 40s for nearly seven hours before crossing the finish line in Boston’s Copley Square just before 6 p.m. 

And during the entire six hours and 22 minutes in the rain and cold, mother and daughter did it together, side by side, hitting every checkpoint at the same time. 

“It was brutal and amazing in the same day,” said Eileen. “We have trained for almost 20-weeks (physical exertion is nothing new as both Habelows were stellar field hockey players in college) so to have that kind of weather on Marathon Monday was a bit disappointing, but we still got to run the Boston Marathon!”

Three dozen Belmont residents completed the 122nd edition of the marathon run during epic weather conditions. The town’s resident marathoner, Becca Pizzi, broke the finish line in 3 hours and 35 minutes while Belmont High’s Girls’ Basketball Head Coach Melissa Hart strode in four hours and 39 minutes.

The day’s payoff for the Habelows was just that, raising almost $18,000 for Boston’s Beth Israel Cancer Center where Eileen was treated for breast cancer beginning in the fall of 2016. They will continue to raise funds until April 30 (read their story here) as they strive to reach their goal of $20,000. 

“The fundraising and our donors was a big motivation to keep running yesterday,” said Eileen.

And while they pulled up the rear of the pack – remember, they’re field hockey players – they did find something at the end of the race.

“We finished in time to get medals, which made us very happy!” said Eileen.

Times of Belmont :

  1. Alfonso Marquez  3:07:47
  2. Tony Luongo  3:23:18
  3. Emily Cody  3:31:28
  4. Sarah Poplawski  3:32:50
  5. Laurie Nahigian  3:35:13
  6. Becca Pizzi. 3:35:55
  7. Lisa Engler  3:37:01
  8. Seth Waterman  3:37:58
  9. Konstantin Tyurin  3:40.36
  10. Sam Gross  3:49:44
  11. Peter Tagge  3:49:48
  12. William Marinell  3:50:29
  13. Mike Ascione 3:50:31
  14. Carrie Mallozzi  3:57:18
  15. Meredith Plault  4:00:18
  16. Katie Brace  4:00:22
  17. Jana Montoya  4:10:13
  18. Chris Poli  4:11:30
  19. Edward Amer  4:12:50
  20. Christine Bowe  4:18:24
  21. Richard Newton. 4:18:51
  22. Melissa Hart  4:39.16
  23. Satomi Kato  5:00:26
  24. Andy Schreiner. 5:00:55
  25. Sarkis Chekijian  5:05:13
  26. Peter Thomson 5:15:39
  27. Rabie Angadi 5:26:00
  28. Peter Walker 5:26:47
  29. Meaghan Rocha  5:27:27
  30. Carol Berberian 5:31:25
  31. Maria Martins 5:44:17
  32. Kai Saukkonen  6:01:42
  33. Stephen Najarian  6:03:40
  34. Richard Horgan. 6:14:53
  35. Deb Rooney  6:19:18
  36. Eileen Habelow  6:22:13

‘Dockless’ Bike Share Comes To Belmont This Summer

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Photo: Dockless bike share in Washington DC (Credit: Washington Post)

By early summer, Belmontians will be able to grab a bike for a buck and ride off to travel around Belmont and 14 nearby towns. When they’re done, the riders need only to park it at a centralized location and that’s it.

Welcome to bike sharing, Belmont-style, as the Board of Selectmen voted on Monday, April 9  to sign an agreement to join a regional bicycle-sharing program that is unlike the Hubway Bike Share program used in Boston (since 2011), Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville which require docking stations which municipalities need to invest thousands of dollars at several locations. Under the new “dockless” program, there is no cost to Belmont. 

“This will help take cars off the street,” said Spencer Gober, Office of Community Development staff planner, who has been working with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) which brought together a group of 15 communities to join in a joint request for station-free proposals. In addition to Belmont, Watertown, Arlington, Lexington, Waltham, Bedford, and Concord and other cities and towns in Metro Boston are interested in joining the system.

About a year ago, several bike-sharing companies were seeking to establish relationships with individual municipalities when the MAPC took the lead to find the two vendors which were recently chosen to supply up to 2,000 bikes over the member towns and cities. The new dockless bike share system is taking off with Seattle and Washington launching programs using thousands of bicycles.

The service brings bikes with locks on their wheels that are opened by using the company’s app on their smartphone. Users can use the app to find locations of bikes which have GPS locators. The bikes will be located at designated public locations around town, including business centers and transportation hubs. Between 35 to 50 bikes – which may also include e-bikes, electric pedal-assist bicycles – will be located in Belmont with the cost per ride at $1, said Gober. Riders can cross town lines without leaving the network.