the following podcast is produced or sponsored by a community member the content views and opinions expressed are those of the participants in do not reflect those of v m c or the town of belmont b m c welcomes your comments  belmont annual town meeting is right around the corner and there are some interesting issues being presented to town meeting this spring ranging from affordable housing to climate change to weather and how you can repair your appliances to go through some of the articles that our local legislature will consider in the next coming weeks i have with me today joanna j is the senior multimedia journalist with the belmont citizen herald in wicked local belmont belmont's online in print source of hyper local news thanks for stopping over joanna always happy to be money or guests roger thank you let's get right into it there let's go article by article there are a few articles that that town meeting is going to consider and the st one the plan and the planning board drafted and they worked really hard on it and they had several public hearings and i don't i don't think i think maybe you can explain it better than than me it's you know when you read the article it doesn't sound that easy to understand but it does have to do with the threshold yes why affordable units what the inclusionary zoning by law this spring will do is to reduce the threshold set which differing percentage contributions kick in so high is that why would that be good if this passed why would that how would that benefit your thinking the thinking is that the higher threshold so the proposal is that for developments with six  dollars units will need to provide ten percent affordable units if you have thirteen dollars to twenty dollars units you need to provide fifteen percent and if you have more than twenty units you  need to provide even more ok and the way the byelaws currently written the biggest contribution doesn't kick in until you are building forty or bradford is built we could get more affordable units out of it if this passes that that's right in the way the current by law is written is if you build a mixed use development then you're affordable contributions are capped at ten percent and that is going to be eliminated and from what i understand a lot of neighboring communities have done this this puts us right in the middle of what other communities are doing as far as what the forty affordability contributions are one of the things to remember is that there is zoning district operates under its own affordable housing by law so this by law would not apply oh i think you mclean ok but the feeling in the all affordable ad affordable housing advocacy community and community is that the way the bylaws written today is it really applies the affordability contributions to developments that are bigger dand developments that really occur we all understand that there's very very little very true developable space so do you think this will pass i think it will pass i think it will pass relatively easily i think that this is not not a big change and the planning board is behind it the yes the behind it the housing trust is behind it and i expect town meeting to understand that belmont needs more affordable housing one of the issues that this doesn't get to and it's sort of strange that in belmont we not only need affordable housing in the sense of low income housing but we need affordable housing in the sense of housing that costs not two hundred thousand dollars but six hundred thousand dollars or seven hundred thousand dollars so people who want to downsize can sell their home and  purchase a new unit without going into significant debt when they're in their seventy's people don't but it's sort of always strange to think yeah that a six hundred thousand dollars home attention with a citizen's petition and people in that neighborhood and so they they decided to bring it to town meeting they worked on this also a long time with the lot of hearings and working groups working group meetings so what's what it's going to do is it's going to this is a single residence b i don't know if anybody's familiar with that neighborhood but it's like where kenmore road is stella road yes there's a lot of  look like a mcmansion from the front but because of these hills they could look really big from from the back and they wanted to prevent that as well and this has to do is renovation or additions as well so a new construction and  n right in the thinking was that the way the zoning by laws written now is you only need to get permission for an addition if the addition adds more than a certain percentage  but the homes in this neighborhood are so big that you add an addition that adds thirty percent which to my to my house when be very much at all but if you have a three thousand dollars square foot house that's a sizable addition and right the thinking is that the town should review construction even if it's simply an addition to an existing home so that'll be good because that will prevent mick mansions being built and it wouldn't be and what we're doing is extending into that neighborhood protections that have been previously extended to other parts of the  over the rest of the neighborhood and yeah that's that's when things like this come up when all of a sudden all these big houses start popping up and neighborhood where you know they look just out of place and you expect this to pass i mean i assume that this will have i don't think they'll be any issue i think it will pass in probably very very little discussion i agree i think it's pretty straightforward so the next article i think will probably pass but it will generate lots of discussion ok which one is that the next article will change the  way we all speak hopefully it will change the name of the board of selectmen the belmont's like board now there's no doubt that this will pass you think you think this will get a lot of discussion i think i think it'll be like the welcoming community really article it was last year two years ago and i do think a gentle gender neutral name for the board it's time for that i totally agree it should be either ye should be called select board instead of board of selectmen or selectman other towns have done it including arlington i know for a fact and i say that it will get a lot of discussion maybe i'm just being cynical but everybody will want to stand up and make sure that they're on record as being in support of this oh absolutely i think absolutely i mean you say there were a lot of people that would be against it no i don't think anybody will talk against this and i think people do they better be prepared to have something thrown out of do you think that it's seen that town meeting but you never know to the forefront rather the fact that we have a very white male dominated leadership on the town side seems that way and this article again will change that well it's big impact is to change the name of the board of selectmen our governing board from the board of selectmen to the select board and then it goes on to say and make other changes other such changes in the bylaws as to render the bylaws gender neutral oh that's great so it's time for to do this right it's definitely time maybe even maybe even past time i would say past we laugh about how belmont has had only three members of our governing board the the select board  as women and all three of those women have been named and i can't get over that in our history that's really something they're all you know i would love to interview three of them some time because i think one of them moved out of town but the other two are still in so and very active in town affairs i think i'd be great to get them all the same room so if the if the governing body becomes the select board you would be retrain ourselves and that of course is one of the purposes right if you say board of selectmen enough times it's got to have an impact on how you think of  leadership i agree i agree so the next article is article eight which is a non binding resolution and it has to do with the town's climate action plan yes and you know a lot about this one because you're the one that brought it forth and i write well it's not along with the energy committee yes it's not me that brought it forth it's the the energy committee which for full disclosure is the committee that i do co chair and the energy committee of the town committee that is charged yeah the climate action plan sets a goal for the community of belmont to reduce is its emissions the communities emissions by eighty the the last inventory found that the town is now reducing for the st time ever its emissions but it is not reducing them at a rate that is sufficiently quick to reach the eighty percent by two thousand and fifty but this road map that i just mentioned yes has so goals are benchmarks that will help write that will help us reach that such as getting more people to buy electric cars right yes the road map involves three different actions on the part of the town one is to electrify everything so we want to everything the way to make that makes sense from a climate change perspective is to then have belmont light have a one hundred percent emission free supply so they're working on that right and this year they will be at fifty percent so they are on their way to one hundred percent chris roy the general manager of  has said that you know there are municipal utility and they want to do what the town wants them to do you want to be responsive to the community so that's right we can't we're not going to hold  road map this mean presented to town meeting in this non binding resolution asked can meeting whether it agrees that it should be one hundred percent emission free and whether the energy committee should proceed to electrify in transportation through the sale of electric vehicles electrifying home heating and cooling by converting people from  who has said that he doesn't believe the town meeting should address non binding resolutions right and he did not vote in favor of he did not vote favorable action on this the other two day that's well but what do you think about the role of town meeting as does town meeting have a role in expressing the the will of the community or the sense of the community based on past decisions i would say yes i mean the whole welcoming community tell meeting that a voice on and then a voice on there yet they are they are the can they are the town voice they they definitely the whole marijuana zoning everything how that went through i mean if it wasn't for town meeting i don't know where we be on some of these issues said sure so yeah i would say that's an important job town meeting it does seem as though town meeting has two hundred and eighty eight members i think or two hundred and eighty members plus thirty six they represent different precincts and if you know that people in that precinct want to be heard they they should contact their town meeting members about how they feel about different things and one of the classic elements of the new england town meeting form of government is that town meeting these large twenty thousand three hundred or however big they are i think belmont's a little bigger than normal but  these large gatherings of people care and i can express the will of the community it's the closest you can get to direct democracy that you can get it seems to me i totally agree excuse me water break let's talk about article nine the right to repair the right to repair is for all of you i phone   except through an authorized dealer it's true or we will void your warranty right now so that i'll give you a perfect example year i phone screen shatters this happened to many of us right you go to one of those carts in the mall that repairs the screen they repair it for you yeah and then down the road you have another problem with your phone that the vendor can't fix because it's an apple i phone only apple can fix it so i go to apple and they say well no we can't we can't do this your warranty is now void because you went to someone else to repair your screen is that a good example i think that's the ideal exam battery should you have to go to the apple store to pay apple to replace your battery or if i mean i could never do this but if you are capable enough to get a battery and take your phone apart install the new battery and write it seems like it should not for wade in any future effort to go back to the the original vendor to say if something else that is right that goes wrong this is something that the ledge the legislation is trying to pass yes the legislation article nine is another non binding resolution so in roy epstein to give him credit voted against article nine as well so his vote against the climate action resolution shouldn't be necessarily construed as an anti environmental vote if that and i don't mean to be protective in saying that he truly believes that town meeting should just simply not be involved with voting on non binding resolutions and he was consistent he voted against right the climate action resolution any voted against the non binding resolution on the right to repair as well yeah and with this resolution does is it really doesn't do anything in belmont it's simply puts belmont on record as supporting state legislation which creates the right to repair and the right to repa to be able to find somebody to work on and i phone or your automobile that is you know so you don't have to take your toyotas into that toyota dealer that's to get something fixed but it really depends on having the right to repair depends on the state legislature acting the legislation i was struck by this because it seems  it's interesting how it's sort of moves as a community because one of the things we're seeing more nowadays is sustainable belmont's fixit clinics  the council on aging yes but under current law there are some things that you just wouldn't bring in to fix it clinic yeah right you're right and belmont i think is becoming more and more aware of recycling and reusing things so the notion of allowing somebody to have an appliance repaired  is consistent with what the community is doing in in other ways that people are thinking right and it's partially economic i'm why throw something away we actually my wife and i have a toaster oven that isn't working that maybe even two years ago you know we were thrown away and spent the sixty dollars or fifty dollars or whatever to buy a new little toaster oven simply the fifty dollars or sixty dollars for the new but it is the new appliance but it's you know why throw away these resources if you can fix it and continue to use the moderators term there is a proposal to extend the moderators term from one year to three to three years pretty straightforward yep starting in two thousand and twenty one right action so i think it will pass and that simply the community preservation act articles we don't have time to get into each of them but there is a proposal to spend town money to repair the town clock what is known as the town clock to located inside the christ church universalist on common street yes i actually have the opportunity to climb the ladder to the top of that cliff to see the clock in person it was amazing and there is some question  as to who owns the clock and there's no question about that and there's a question as to whether the town should be spending public money to repair right clock that is in a religious institution yes and this is this is something that's going on in other towns as well not not just belmont i believe it's being fought in acton as well right i don't know if it was defeated i think act in our i don't know what the outcome west but i know that there was an object and it's really a on a clock that's located in a church that people consider many people consider the town clock is it the town clock or is it the church clock so yeah it's i can see why they think the town there is an issue with possibly being sued a lawsuit yeah something to that effect but so so they had a lot of trouble getting the application in to even to do you want to get this far with it and they did but it seems they're still having trouble and it's going to make it to tell meaning but the question is will it will it pass and the clock has not worked for a number of years right it would be nice if it worked right you'd be driving down common street you can just look up and say oh guide me it was like you know terrifying for me that part partly because i'm afraid of heights but also because it's not your typical ladder the steps are very far apart it's very rickety it's very steep so they would part of the money would be used to replace the latter as well as repair the clock well we'll see whether town meeting votes to to approve that and whether we have a working town clock we are out of time i'm sorry the milk multi media journalist for we could local belmont and and the belmont citizen harold the belmont citizen held with good local belmont are belmont online imprint sources of hyper local news you can read about the town meeting in or online and in the print edition of the citizen her you've been listening to community conversations i'm your host roger coulton you can access community conversations online at the b m c podcast network at belmont media dot org you can also access community conversations through i to my searching for the b m podcast network thank you for listening again i'm your host roger colton i will talk to you again next time