Local Government

Daily Buzz | Planning Board Creates Fox Hill Subcommittee

Nicci Kadilak

Jan 19, 2024 — 5 min read

Good Morning, Burlington!

If you are looking for a fun, family-friendly activity tonight, look no further than tonight’s program presented by the North Shore Rock & Mineral Club! This meeting, like all the NSRMC meetings, features an adult speaker and a concurrent children’s program led by a kids’ geology teacher. If you or the young people in your family love rocks, minerals, and fossils, this event is for you!

Meetings will take place the third Friday of each month, September through June, and today’s the day! If your interest is piqued, head over to the Council on Aging at 61 Center Street at 7:30 this evening!

Planning Board Creates Fox Hill Subcommittee

The Owner’s Project Management team for the Fox Hill School Building project met with Planning Board last night to go over the preliminary vision for the new Fox Hill building. Much of what was discussed will be familiar to you if you’ve been following along with the project:

Will the school be big enough to accommodate all the students it’s supposed to hold? The current capacity number of 325 students was come to using a formula from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), the authority that will partially reimburse the district for this project. There has been much contention over this number, as the current school has about 430 students and the school is projected to have about 370 students when it’s built. District Director of Operations, Bob Cunha, explained that the building will be much more spacious than what we have now and there will be a significant amount of flexible space to accommodate numbers higher than 325.
The current proposed design hopes to eliminate queueing on Fox Hill Road and Westwood Street by having wraparound parking lot where cars can queue during drop-off and pickup time. The bus area has enough space for all buses to queue. Crossing guards and/or school staff will be utilized to ensure pedestrian safety.
They can fit two softball fields and two U10 soccer fields in the green space to the southeast of the building (near Vincent Road), but there’s no firm plan for that yet.
The team will be minimizing the number of trees they remove, but will only be removing them from the northern part of the property where the woods are. (It won’t affect properties on Vincent Road.)
There is a significant commitment to sustainability for this project. In order to become Net Zero, solar canopies must be installed. They also plan to install geothermal wells.
The school’s location at the north side of the property and size (two stories rather than 3) were chosen based on a balance of what makes sense for program layout, project cost, and neighborhood impact.
They’ll try to rescue the time capsules buried on the Fox Hill property.
If all goes well, the building will open in the fall of 2028, when Baby Buzz starts third grade.
The schematic design phase is now underway and will be until midsummer. MSBA has its board meeting in late August, where they are expected to approve the schematic design. After that, the town will have 120 days to secure funding for the project. The hope, according to the project team, is that everything goes according to plan and the funding request goes before September’s Town Meeting.
There will then be a whole-town debt exclusion vote, which needs to be in the fall, so really everything has to go forward without a hitch if the project is to move forward.
A subcommittee was created with members from Planning Board, Planning Staff, the School Committee, and School Administration, so the groups can collaborate as the site plan (which must be approved by the Planning Board) is created.

The Planning Board also discussed creating a working group to determine how to best comply with the MBTA Communities regulations. More to come about this in next week’s Buzz In-Depth for Hive members, but in summary: There is a new state requirement for towns to have a certain amount of zoning for multifamily housing that is close to public transportation. There’s been a lot of discussion about whether or not it’s worth it for Burlington to comply with these regulations; non-compliance would make the town ineligible for MassWorks infrastructure grants (We’ve received $9,000,000 from these programs over the last 10 years), and there could also be other penalties.

Again, we’ll explain much more about MBTA Communities and how it could work for Burlington in next week’s Hive Member Exclusive.

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Today in Burlington

Municipal Meetings and Community Events

Friday, January 19

10:30-11:00 AM - Toddler Story & Craft - Kids ages 18-36 months can snuggle up with their grownups and listen to a story. (Library; Register)
11:30 AM-12:00PM - Preschool Story & Craft - Children ages 3-6 should bring their grownup and listen to a fun story and play. (Library; Register)
6:30-9:00 PM - Diana of Love - Tickets sold out, but you can get on the waitlist. (Tickets)

Saturday, January 20

10:00 AM - Weaving Class - Spend time relaxing with a friend and create a fun piece of art for your house or a gift. (Made in Burlington; Tickets Required)

Sunday, January 21

Check the Winter Guide for something fun to do on your own or with your family this weekend!

Sports and Activities

The boys’ swim team fell to Winchester with a score of 76-85 yesterday.

Middle school wrestling kicks us off today, with the team traveling to Fessenden School in Newton for a 3:00 meet. Our basketball teams take on Wilmington this afternoon and evening:

4:00 PM - Freshmen boys at Wilmington High
4:15 PM - JV Girls at MSMS
5:30 PM - Varsity Girls at BHS
5:30 PM - JV Boys at MSMS
7:00 PM - Varsity boys at BHS

The JV boys’ hockey team will travel to Arlington today for a very late 9:20 hockey game.

Saturday Morning, the varsity wrestling team travels to Middletown, CT, for the Colter Abely Midseason Classic. After that, there’s hockey on the menu, with boys traveling to Wilmington for a 3:00 game and girls headed down to Hingham for a 4:00 meetup.

The track teams will be at the Kalperis Relays this weekend; the Division 4 tourney begins at 3:00 PM on Sunday. Also Sunday, the JV hockey team will host Masconomet at the Ice Palace for a 4:30 game, and the boys’ swim team has a meet in Lexington at 6:30.