Wakefield Town Council Notes - February 26, 2024

Monday's Town Council meeting included discussion of two planning initiatives, and several budgets for Fiscal Year 2025. Here's what we covered:

• The Town Council heard a presentation on a potential 24-unit apartment building at 484-504 Salem Street, to be constructed under the state's Local Initiative Program (LIP). LIP projects sometimes are referred to as "Friendly 40B" projects because the LIP program requires developers of affordable housing projects to collaborate with the host community to address neighborhood impact and design concerns before a project moves forward. By contrast, traditional 40B projects such as those proposed for Nahant Street often receive state approval to move forward without consideration of any meaningful local input. The project in question would replace two existing multi-family homes and would cover only a small portion of the 9+ acre site. A more detailed architectural design and further review of the traffic and conservation impacts will be completed before the Council decides whether to proceed with this project.

• We reviewed and approved Fiscal Year 2025 budgets for general insurance, worker's compensation, the animal inspector, the parking clerk, and retirement. These budgets account for $7.8 million, or about 7%, of Wakefield's total operating budget, and they are projected to increase by 5.3% for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2024. Most of the increase is driven by retirement costs, which are determined by a state calculation of Wakefield's projected expenses for retiree pensions. Fortunately, Wakefield has funded approximately 70% of its long-term pension liabilities, a significantly higher portion than many communities in Massachusetts. Fully funding our pension liabilities over the next 10-15 years will allow us reduce annual operating costs for retirement benefits in the future.

• The Council reviewed the latest version of Wakefield's draft Bike and Pedestrian Plan, with the expectation that we will vote on the final version of the Plan at our next meeting. The updated version includes further details on sidewalk and crosswalk design principles, and the content has been reorganized to create greater clarity on the Plan's recommendations and proposed projects. While any projects contemplated by the Bike and Pedestrian Plan will require further design and review from the Town Council, approval of the Plan will allow us to begin to pursue funding for many of the priority areas identified.

• We voted to accept a Conservation Restriction for a 2.5 acre parcel of land on Farm Street. Protection of this land as open space is part of Wakefield's approach to mitigate the loss of the acre of woodland needed to construct the energy park that will support the new Wakefield Memorial High School and Northeast Metro Tech facilities.

• The Town Council appointed Mickey Feeley to fill the remainder of an unexpired term for a voting member of the Zoning Board of Appeals. Since Mickey already was an alternate member of the Board of Appeals, we will be appointing a new alternate member to replace him at an upcoming meeting.

The Council's next meeting will be on Monday, March 11 at 7:00 PM. All residents are welcome to join us in-studio at Wakefield Community Access Television, or online via Zoom.