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Date: 2/16/2022
LONGMEADOW – At a Longmeadow Select Board meeting on Feb. 7, Assistant Town Manager/Director of Planning & Community Development Corinne Meise-Munns proposed using a state grant to update the town’s goals and plan for achieving them.
The Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) program helps towns identify and address infrastructure, policies and programs that could fail due to increased stress from climate change. Meise-Munns told the board the grant funding will allow it to “update Longmeadow’s long-range plan with a climate lens.”
Meise-Munns pointed out voters had approved the creation of a climate action plan at the 2021 Special Town Meeting. By addressing climate resilience through a long-range plan, she said the town can accomplish this while using state funding to do so.
The long-range plan is a “unified vision and policy guide,” that deals with the physical evolution and community development of the town for the next five to 15 years. Meise-Munns stressed that it was not a zoning bylaw or regulation. “It has no teeth in and of itself. It’s up to town staff and town committees and boards to implement,” she said.
Longmeadow’s long-range plan, also known as a master plan, was last updated in 2014.
Creating the long-range plan will take between nine months and two years depending on complexity and how much updating is required. The process consists of examining where the town is, how it got there, where it wants to be and how to get there.
The grant will help in this process by paying for a consultant, be it a private firm or the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, an area agency that works with municipalities on planning, land use regulation, and community development. The cost of these services runs between $75,000 and $150,000. The MVP grant requires a 25 percent match, which would leave Longmeadow responsible for about $28,000.
While a consultant is not required to craft a long-range plan, Meise-Munns said they bring experience in “robust public engagement.”
Select Board member Mark Gold asked about community group involvement and how to keep the plan from becoming dominated by special interest groups. Meise-Munns explained that the process begins with the Planning Board as the lead agency, and the Select Board appointing a steering committee made of members of various boards, committees and town employees.
From there, community-based organizations get involved. She gave the example of churches, private schools and Bay Path University. Members of the public and business owners would have a voice through public meetings and surveys, which Meise-Munns described as a key method of compiling information for the plan.
Select Board member Thomas Lachiusa wondered how the long-range plan would interface with existing compliance requirements, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and wastewater treatment regulations. She told him the long-range plan would have a chapter on each section of the town’s operations and will include an overview or reference to other plans and compliance requirements. It would bring together disparate documents and policies from various departments under one umbrella.
Planning Board Clerk Walter Gunn asked that a member from each of the key boards meet to discuss the scope of the long-range plan because the creation of the document would be “difficult.” Otherwise, he said the Planning Board is ready to move forward. The grant application process begins in mid-March.
Finances
Finance Director Jennifer Leydon updated the board on the projections for fiscal year 2023 (FY23). She said that a 3 percent increase in town department budgets combined with a goal of only utilizing 1.75 percent of the tax levy capability, left the town with an estimated $1 million deficit.
“Now that the governor’s budget came out, we saw a major increase in Chapter 70,” of $736,000, Meise-Munns said. The gap in the budget is now expected to be $642,000.
Town Manager Lyn Simmons will present the FY23 budget to the Select Board on March 7 and the board is expected to vote on it March 22.
Pipeline
During the resident comment period, Laurie Robinson spoke against the Eversource Western Massachusetts Gas Reliability project, which would include building a metering station in Longmeadow and a pipeline from there to Springfield. Robinson cited health issues, safety concerns and climate damage as reasons she opposed the project.
Select Board Vice Chair Steve Marantz suggested the board request a traffic study to determine the impact construction of the project would have, particularly on busy Converse and Longmeadow streets.
Select Board Chair Marc Strange told the board Eversource did not file their project with the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) as it had planned. The new date to file was not yet known. Once Eversource files with the board, it will kick off a two-year period of review with the state. “It’s a waiting game,” Strange said.
COVID-19 Cases
Simmons told the board that cases of COVID-19 were “drastically” declining, from 262 on Jan. 20 to 65 on Feb. 7. The majority of positive tests were in people ages 43 to 63 and ages 6 to 12. Select Board Clerk Josh Levine said that with cases on the decline he would like to go to in-person meetings. He joked it would get him out of the house.