November 2013 Special Town Meeting Recap

It's been a week since Belmont's Special Town Meeting Nov 3rd. What stood out as notable?

Athletic Complex field surface. I was surprised that there was so little discussion on the proposed work at Harris Field. Given the expected lifespan of the original from 2002 was 8-10 years, and that Town officials were very up-front about this to the voters then, there should be no real controversy. Several add-ons were a bit more than some of us expected, like fencing. (Even the fence near the track that needs work is in way better shape than just about any other fencing around rec facilities. But it's good to have something somewhere that's not blighted.) Plus, if Capital Budget Committee chair Anne Marie Mahoney says it is money wisely spent, it surely is. (And I mean that in a 100% complimentary way.)

Demolition Delay. Did this really have to take an hour and 50 minutes? A week later, I can't remember the arguments. Oh, right, endless proposed amendments, where all but the one clarifying some language were defeated. I think about 1:30 of that 1:50 was for the amendments.

I'm not crazy about intrusions into what we do to our own mostly insignificant houses (is this a town of homes, or a town of museum pieces?), but was convinced that the delay maneuvered the owner and community to put a bit more (perhaps) formal thought into the building's or site's next use. And impatient owners could still do a "major rehab" that would not be a complete demo and probably largely get what they want. (I've seen some "historic" commercial buildings have a single wall remain intact with the entire building behind it replaced. Sometimes that ends up looking pretty cool.)

Yard Sale Bylaw. Many of my TM friends were wondering (ok, grumbling) "are we really going to debate yard sales?" Discussion took nearly an hour and a half. The aggrieved citizen who lead the petition drive made a fairly compelling argument about how sane and friendly approaches failed to curb one neighbor's constantly disruptive yard sales. Perhaps he could have named names, or identified the address, with hopes of peer pressure? I guess if someone has a "right" to week after week of yard sales, others also have a right to protest in front of that house.

I found the arguments for how people themselves like yard sales rather non-compelling and off the point. The point was protecting neighborhoods, not how much one likes to shop. The fact that all of our surrounding neighboring towns have track records with similar, though more restrictive bylaws than our proposal, made me think it would not be a burden in Belmont.

This went to a standing vote, and Moderator Mike Widmer read the counts - pass 114-98. Five to ten minutes into the next article, he announced the math error, showing defeat, 94-98. It sounded like "nos" won to me, from my seat. The really surprising part was that no one complained. Not a peep. Perhaps it was the non-gravitas of the issue? (ie, no one really cared)

The language of getting a "license", even though no fee, seemed to make it more formal and odious than the intent. I think if were framed more of "you have to register your yard sale with the town clerk's web site, it'll take 2 minutes", and accompany that with a live demo (or screen snapshots), it would have passed.

Snow shoveling. I was pleasantly surprised how easily this bylaw change passed. Ralph Jones gave a very reasonable argument for it, no one really spoke against.  There was plenty of flexibility so the selectmen can formulate the regulations and not have to come before TM to fine tune. Ralph made the spirit and intent clear. I'll have my kid (who walks a bit more than a mile to BHS) thank him when we get our first big snow.

Sunset clauses. The two bylaw changes that passed have sunset clauses. That is, they go away after a set amount of time unless TM votes to keep them (in the Demo Delay's case, it is assumed something else would take its place). Perhaps this is a good approach, in general, for new bylaws. It seems many of the arguments against various bylaws in my 11 years in TM were that the proposals were not perfect. The phrase "paralysis by analysis" comes to mind. Right, nothing will be perfect. But you might not know the flaws until you try it. So, should we write sunset into more of these new proposals? Try before you buy? What do you think?

Attendance. Note the yard sale vote count - that adds up to 192. But the are a few more than 288 Town Meeting Members. Where were the other 100?