The High Stakes of Weston’s Leadership Choices
Weston is facing a convergence of critical choices unlike anything in its recent history. It is going to require that we elect candidates for the Select Board, Planning Board, School Committee, and other key posts who are prepared to do the hard work and make the difficult decisions required to craft a vision and plan for Weston’s future, and engineer solutions to some profound challenges.
The combination of state-mandated changes, aging infrastructure, and major spending proposals have the potential to fundamentally reshape our town. Each issue on its own would be significant, but taken together they will have an enormous and lasting impact on the character of our town, our property values, and the taxes we pay as residents. Together, they have the potential to increase our population by as much as 40% and increase median property taxes by 50 - 70% over the next 10 years.
Key Challenges
These challenges are not theoretical. They are unfolding now due to a growing list of projects and financial obligations, including:
Significant capital spending and the consequent added town debt:
$40 million of new water infrastructure.
$50 million of new or renovated fire stations.
$400-500 million of capital spending now being explored by the School Committee for two new schools plus attendant support structures.
Several large, and dense new housing developments, totaling up to 1,900 new units:
Affordable Housing projects at 751 Boston Post Road (which is already under way), 104 Boston Post Road, and 518 South Avenue, which together would add more than 500 new housing units.
MBTA Section 3A housing at the Boston Properties location, which will likely add another 480 new housing units.
A further three multi-unit senior housing proposals including senior, assisted- and memory-care housing at the Campion Center, at Regis college, and at Pope St. John XXIII, which could add another 600 units.
Existing town activities and projects requiring more active management, including:
The construction of a 3.7 mile, 12 foot wide shared-use bicycle path along Route 30 that will cause the destruction of stone walls, fences and hundreds of trees, and that has expanded far beyond what voters approved at Town Meeting.
An expensively renovated Josiah Smith Tavern that is still without a restaurant.
A school budget that, including retirement costs and health benefits, is nearly three quarters of the entire town budget and is proposed to continue growing considerably faster than inflation.
Unless planned carefully, these projects, taken together, have the potential to dramatically change the character of our town. Our housing stock could increase from today’s 4,000 units by 40%. The resulting increase in Weston’s population will put an additional traffic burden on all of our roads, not just Route 20 and Route 30, test the limits of our water infrastructure even after an expensive renovation, and increase median property taxes by 50 - 70% over the next 10 years. The cumulative impact of our decisions will redefine Weston forever.
However, we do have choices. We need town leadership that thinks critically about the best way for our town to evolve and develop over the next ten years – thinking broadly and strategically, with one eye on what our choices are likely to do to the economics of property ownership in Weston. Too often, it feels as though we are playing Whack-A-Mole, reacting to the next urgent proposal, the next deadline, the next crisis. Even though every project is important to someone, our financial and human resources are finite. Every choice we make to fund or prioritize one large initiative inevitably crowds out something else.
This is a tough puzzle, but it is also an opportunity for those town leaders who want to help design and execute on a shared vision for Weston’s future.
Looking for Leadership
We can ensure Weston’s future by making the right decisions, not just about projects, but more importantly about the people we choose to represent us and our interests. Voters have made a big and positive decision to expand the size of the Select Board from three to five members. With one seat up for election this year, plus two new seats, there will be three Select Board seats on the ballot in May. It’s not too early to think about what we should expect of a candidate for the Select Board, and for that matter, what we should expect of candidates for the Planning Board, the School Committee, and the Finance Committee. We have a responsibility to choose individuals who think and plan for the long term, weigh competing priorities, understand second- and third-order consequences and articulate tradeoffs, ask pointed questions, and are willing to make tough choices. Without that discipline, we risk making a series of well-intentioned decisions that collectively undermine the very qualities that make Weston special.
Choosing the Future
On March 9th, Weston will hold its Town Caucus, at which time we will nominate candidates for elected offices. As we have thought about that process, and about what we would like to hear from candidates in advance of election day, we have asked ourselves the following questions.
Can they contribute to resolving the big issues?
What is their thinking about the cost of education in Weston and our aspirations for academic excellence?
What is their thinking about the conflicting objectives of more housing, especially affordable and elderly housing, versus more traffic, the additional costs of more services, and other impacts of increased population?
What is their thinking regarding the impact of spending and taxes on home values?
Can they articulate the pros/cons related to each of our most significant projects?
Do they have the right experience?
Are they prepared to do real work?
Have they effectively led a significant development project before?
Are they comfortable with detailed economic analysis?
Are they collaborative in developing consensus?
Have they demonstrated creativity in solving problems?
Do they know our town, its government and institutions, and can they effectively represent the views of town residents?
Do they have operational experiences that are relevant to the town’s big issues?
The future of Weston will not be shaped by any single project, vote or development, but it will be changed by the pattern of decisions we make, the priorities we set, and the people we choose to lead. Over the next three months we have the chance to look closely at candidates for the most important elected positions. All volunteers are to be thanked, but looking ahead at the long list of changes and challenges we’re facing, the experiences and the skills that each candidate brings to town government are now more important than they have ever been.