The Belmont Special: Selectmen OK Special Town Meeting Warrant

It really isn't all that "special" but when the annual Belmont Town Meeting re-opens in two weeks, there will be a few articles that are noteworthy in their own ways.

A proposed warrant of 18 articles was presented by Town Clerk Ellen Cushman and approved Monday morning, May 13 by the Belmont Board of Selectmen for the Special Town Meeting to be held on Wednesday, May 29.

See the Special Town Meeting warrant in a pdf file on this page.

The most interesting of the dozen-and-a-half articles will be a new by-law (article 11) requiring most homeowners to remove snow from their sidewalks and a citizen petition (article 18) – which is brought before Town Meeting by residents – that will place a year-long hold on the demolition of single family homes that would be replaced by multi-unit housing.

The warrant will also have a new way of calculating inclusionary housing (article 17) in which developers either adding affordable housing units to its development or elsewhere or by paying into the town's Affordable Housing Trust Fund. 

The remaining articles will renumber, reorder and edit the town's general by-laws for the first time since 1984. 

Meeting on prioritizing capital projects

Also on Monday, the Selectmen met with Anne Marie Mahoney, the chair of the Capital Budget Committee, to discuss meeting with the group that reviews and allocates funds on the purchase of "large" capital expenditures. 

The two groups will meet on May 21 and then June 17 to prepare a "priority" list of capital projects that will commit the town to constructing specific buildings in an order that benefits the town.

The projects include a new High School, building a Police Station, a new Department of Public Works building, renovating the Viglirolo Skating Rink and White Field House and the construction of a new library. 

Snow budget busted

Just how much more snow did Belmont receive this winter then what an average snow season would have brought? How about 139 percent. That is how much Belmont overspent its snow removal budget of $553,000 in 2012-13 as the town shelled out $768,000 to keep the roads passable.

But not to worry too much: a portion of the shortfall will be made up by funds from the federal government and a transfer from the reserve fund set aside for snow removal.