BELMONT VISION 21 IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE
During 2005 the Vision 21 Implementation Committee continued to address its mandate, “to facilitate, enable, and help the Town to achieve the Working Vision of the Town of Belmont.” (See Working Vision for Belmont’s Future, page 4.) During the year, the Committee met 20 times in formal session; additionally, much of its work was carried out through citizen groups working under the aegis of the Committee.
The following are initiatives emphasized by the Vision 21 Implementation Committee in 2005, with relevant extracts from the Working Vision for Belmont’s Future.
Business and Economic Development Planning Group (BEDPG)
“Thriving business centers contribute economic stability while offering places for residents to dine, shop and socialize.”
Established by the Board of Selectmen in 2002, with its work overseen by the Vision Implementation Committee, BEDPG’s mandate was to develop recommendations for attracting desirable new businesses, facilitating the opening of new businesses, and preserving and enhancing current businesses. In March 2005 BEDPG submitted its final report to the Board of Selectmen, detailing its processes and making recommendations to the Board for next steps. The report is posted on the Town web site.
Belmont Neighbors Network
“We will welcome newcomers and value diversity.”
This citizen group, organized by the Vision Committee in 2003, sponsored the third annual “Meet Belmont” event in August. Having outgrown its former site in the Town library, “Meet Belmont” this year was held in the high school cafeteria. Approximately 200 residents attended, and approximately 70 Town groups were represented. Although the event is especially aimed at residents new to Belmont, increasingly participants include members who are not “new” to town, but are still interested in acquainting themselves (or reacquainting themselves) with the many opportunities that the Town offers.
In further support of the goal, the Vision Committee co-sponsored the Martin Luther King breakfast in January ’05, and the “No Place for Hate” forum in September.
Environmental Initiative: Sustainable Belmont
“We will be an environmentally responsible community and conserve our natural habitats.”
Following hard on the success of the October ‘04 Environmental Fair, the Vision Committee launched a new task force, to be called Sustainable Belmont, in February ’05. Chaired by two activists from the Environmental Fair, Jan Kruse and Heather Tuttle, the task force attracted some 15 residents to membership. Sustainable Belmont developed goals including (1) to develop a Belmont Climate Action Plan; (2) to explore strategies for ensuring that new and renovated municipal buildings follow “green” building design principles and energy-efficient, resource-efficient and healthy building practices; (3) to develop a program of community education through workshops and forums. The first such forum, held in October and co-sponsored with the Belmont Electric Light Department, was a resounding success, attracting
approximately 100 participants to learn about saving energy in the home.
On the recommendation of Sustainable Belmont in the fall, the Board of Selectmen approved Belmont joining the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN), which will enable the Town to join forces with and learn from neighboring communities about policies and practices to protect the environment. Additionally, Sustainable Belmont applied to Tufts University Department of Environmental Studies to obtain the services of a team of graduate students who would help collect the data and develop a preliminary draft of a Climate Action Plan, as part of their Master’s Degree program. In December, Sustainable Belmont’s learned that its proposal was one of those selected, and the students will start their work at the beginning of February ’06.
Local and Regional Planning
We will plan “for future generations” and “make a commitment to engage in comprehensive and integrated local and regional planning.”
Although the Vision Implementation Committee has not developed a specific initiative to address this goal, the Committee supported local and regional planning efforts in a variety of ways:
· The Committee served as an informal sounding board for potential planning initiatives, hearing from the Belmont Housing Trust about their proposal for the Our Lady of Mercy Project and from Selectman Solomon and Senior Planner Higgins at various stages of forming the Belmont Center Planning Group.
· The Committee is represented on the Belmont Center Planning Committee and, through that representative, encourages public participation in the process.
· Committee members participated in a variety of public hearings regarding the Trapelo Road/Belmont Street Corridor. The Committee was invited to give public comment at a hearing organized by the Traffic Advisory Committee regarding the corridor.
· The Committee was invited to send a representative to meetings of the Regional Transportation Advisory Committee to the Belmont/Lexington/Waltham Corridor Study, an initiative of the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization.
Re-Examining Vision Committee Initiatives, Setting Goals
During 2005, our eleven-member committee experienced a turnover in membership of over 50%. One of the challenges we have faced since September is how to bring new members on board so they can understand and appreciate the approaches the Committee has developed in the past and contribute new thinking to our work. Accordingly, we committed to undergoing a systematic study and evaluation of the progress we have made so far in helping the Town implement its Vision. As we greet 2006, this examination is on going. We anticipate that within a few months we will have completed our study and will have developed a set of goals and strategies to guide our work over the next several years.
Respectfully submitted,
Jennifer Page, Chairman
Austin Bliss, Donna Brescia, Vincent De Novellis, Victoria Haase, Sara Oaklander, Margaret O’Brien, Ann Rittenburg, Paul Santos, Paul Solomon (ex-officio, Board of Selectmen)
| 
