Vision 21 To Support Energy Committee's TM Articles

Belmont's voted unanimously this past Thursday to support two articles at April's Town Meeting advocated by the town's Energy Committee that would protect trees and create an energy efficiency code for town homes.

Co-chairman of the Energy Committee Roger Colton asked the Vision 21 Committee to help pass the Tree Preservation and Maintenance and Energy Stretch Code bylaws at the upcoming Town Meeting.

“The tree bylaw is derived from two town-approved documents: The Comprehensive Plan and the Climate Action Plan,” said Colton explaining the first bylaw. “It is also recommended in the state’s Energy and Climate Action Plan released on Dec. 29, 2010.”

The Belmont Climate Action Plan recommends a tree replacement bylaw for new construction or substantial renovations to a building or home and or by which trees are uprooted in the construction.

Colton said he had recently presented the proposed bylaws to the Belmont Planning Board and a section of the law that applied to additions to private homes would be removed from the current draft due to resistance from a number of members who believed the bylaw overreached its authority on private property.

“The Planning Board argued that residential additions should not apply to the tree bylaw that the economics of putting an addition on your home are different to tearing down a part of your home,” said Colton.

Page and Solomon were disheartened to hear the applications of the tree bylaw shrink.

“But this is still an important legislation,” said Solomon.

Colton said the law was created based on the notion that if you are building an $800,000 home, you are adding a significant value to the property; that value should not come at the expense of mature trees.

$100 per inch

The law would require trees to be replaced matching the diameter of the tree taken down or a donation made to the town of about $100 per inch of tree lost.

Overall the members commended Colton for his in depth research and inquiries into the law that included researching if any other town which has implemented the law had legal challenges to it.

“Not that I am aware of,” said Colton.

Heine, who earlier expressed concerns of the overreach of local government and costs associated with receiving certifications of tree replacements, supported the motion feeling that Colton and the Committee was receptive to the realities of the law and were willing to make adjustments.

“This is a delicate balance of what is best for the community and the individual,” said Solomon.

The Energy Stretch Code was met with strong support, as Solomon had called for the town to implement an energy code that goes beyond the current core code in 2007.

The Stretch Code would push up energy efficiency by 25 percent in new additions and new construction as well as renovations made on public and private structures.

“Typically building codes are set up as the minimums of what you need to do to build  not even the medium so this is  a step in the right direction to go beyond the min. and be leading community in that regard,” said Heine.

If the Stretch Code is adapted, Belmont would be the 64th Massachusetts communities to adopt it.

Members also agreed to attend the tentative town-wide budget discussions hosted by Board of Selectmen Chairman Ralph Jones as citizens and representatives of the committee.

Members were also asked to identify priorities and where to focus their efforts for the next 18 to 24 months. 

With two seats on the nine-member board soon be vacant, the committee is starting a proactive search for two residents that will be vigorous in moving forward the town’s vision and the committee’s charge.