1. What do you believe is the best way for the town to raise money for future infrastructure repairs/improvements and for other major capital investments?

Brownsberger: The time is now for us to make decisions about investment in our future - excellent education, safe streets, vital business areas, care for seniors, open space preserved. I have been working hard for the past three years to build consensus among leaders about our financial condition and long term needs. Town leaders from across the political spectrum have recently said that the time is near to ask citizens to support needed investments. I trust the voters and support asking them to make choices at referenda on investment proposals. I advocate a circuit breaker to limit the impact of possible tax increases on seniors.

Kelley: When it comes to financing infrastructure/capital efforts, we must carefully define our overall priorities as a town, and then distinguish between needs and wants for each project. If we have to go to the taxpayers for a debt exclusion or tax override in connection with these expenditures, we must make sure that we have explored every other possible alternative. We need to look at generating revenue from limited commercial development. Town and school employees, as well as residents, have great ideas for possible revenue opportunities. We should hire a town grant-writer to become expert at identifying funding opportunities and successfully applying for money. We should explore the benefit of making commercial sponsorship opportunities available for projects, like our high school track.

2. Do you support passage of the Community Preservation Act for Belmont as a means to fund open space preservation, historic preservation, and affordable housing? Why or why not? Would you lead a campaign to secure the necessary approval of this Act by the Town Meeting and a majority of the Town's voters?

Kelley: The Community Preservation Act would allow Belmont to obtain additional resources to protect open space, provide more affordable housing and preserve historically significant sites in Town. It would also raise residential taxes by up to $150 on the average house in Belmont. Given that Belmont residents need to consider operating overrides and/or debt exclusion this year, we will need to weigh the overall impact on taxes before pursuing this option. What I do like about the CPA, however, is that it can help Belmont purchase two-family residences scattered throughout town to help us provide more affordable housing to our town employees. It has been shown that there is greater benefit to placing small units of affordable housing throughout town versus concentrating it in one part of town. 

Brownsberger: I believe the Community Preservation Act is an important tool and I actively supported its passage statewide. Unfortunately, it is not immediately useful to Belmont. We are currently facing urgent town needs which all require increased tax support. Education, traffic control, and the roads come first, and CPA funds cannot be used for these purposes. The CPA may have a role in a later year for Belmont.

3. The Alewife Study Committee has discussed several possible uses of the undeveloped property known as the Belmont Uplands. What do you think is the best use of this land?

Brownsberger: Preservation of all of the Alewife land would be desirable, but I do not believe that it is fiscally possible at this time. We should explore compromise approaches that involve smaller development, less traffic, protection of more of the upland woods. However, we should never compromise protection of the wetlands or risk creation of drainage problems in Belmont.

Kelley: Limited commercial development of the Alewife Uplands area represents the best solution for this property and for the town. This approach can help us to generate additional tax revenue for operating budget requirements and capital projects, while minimizing the impact on residential property tax. We can also preserve open space and solve some of the drainage problems with the site and direct much of the related traffic out to Route 2, instead of into the town. This approach would also prevent increased burden on our schools that would result from residential development or Chapter 40B housing.

4. Are you in favor of a bicycle trail through Belmont? Why or why not? If you support this concept, are you willing to fight for such a bike trail?

Kelley: As an avid roller-blader who frequently blades along the Minuteman Bike Trail, I'd love the idea of a bike path here in Belmont. In fact, as part of the original McLean agreement, we obtained land that might support a bike path in Belmont. However, some proposals, like locating a bike path next to the train tracks or in close proximity to individual residences, have definite drawbacks. Any proposal must be evaluated on its impact on conservation land, impact on residential privacy, and safety for the riders, as well as cost to Belmont.

Brownsberger: I do favor a bicycle trail through Belmont as a priority. I worked for it in my first term, but we were defeated by the state's unwillingness to release land for the Wayside trail. With or without state help, I believe that we should devote more of Concord Avenue to creation of a truly safe bike trail. I strongly support more safe bicycle routes.

5. In the focus groups conducted by the Vision 21 Committee, many residents said that traffic was a major problem in town. What specific suggestions do you have for reducing, managing, or redirecting traffic flow through town?

Brownsberger: First, we need to make our major streets safer for both pedestrians and drivers. The streets should be narrower and better curbed and should have "bumpout" pedestrian crossing areas. After years of effort by me and others, Pleasant Street is close to starting construction along these lines. Trapelo Road is the highest priority after Pleasant Street.

Second, in our town centers we need to place a special focus on pedestrian crossing options, sidewalk width and parking availability.

Third, we need to work with residential neighborhoods to reduce cut-through traffic and control parking. I started an effort to address local problems in the area behind Waverley Square. After a meeting with Precinct 4 Town Meeting Members, the police have studied the area and made dozens of findings and recommendations. We will hold a hearing on these recommendations for the neighborhood shortly.

I would like to conduct similar efforts in other neighborhoods across Belmont over the next few years. In some neighborhoods, I would like to go as far as exploring street cut-offs to prevent cutthrough traffic. This could make more neighborhoods friendly for families, in the same way that Claflin Street and Kendall Gardens are friendly.

Too often in the past, we have made isolated changes on particular streets or corners with unforeseen consequences. My goal is to get more comprehensive planning done for whole precincts or neighborhoods. This seems like the right level at which to plan for many traffic issues.

In general, I want to calm traffic without choking it. Many Belmont citizens are dependent on vehicles.

Kelley: One of our biggest challenges is traffic control and mitigation. While conducting the McLean negotiations, both McLean Hospital and the Town conducted detailed examinations of the traffic at every intersection in Belmont and the impact on those intersections from the McLean development and future regional growth. Determinations were made as to the level of service at each intersection and what mitigation steps might be feasible. We should carefully re-review those reports and re-consider the findings and recommendations as part of the Town's road reconstruction and traffic control efforts.

6. How much more commercial development in Belmont (in thousands of square feet or another quantitative metric) would you favor and how much additional revenue, net of the cost of town services for this development, would you expect to raise? Where would these developments be located? What types of businesses do you want to see in town?

Kelley: There are limited opportunities for limited commercial development within Belmont: the Uplands, South Pleasant Street, and the abandoned VW dealership on Trapelo Road. We should consider moderate-cost senior housing on Trapelo, with linkage to develop traffic-calming measures like an esplanade on that road. Doing so would make Trapelo Road more pedestrian friendly and help invigorate the Waverley and Cushing Square businesses. We need to look at small shops and restaurants for commercial development in our business centers, aiding those businesses with streamlined permitting, and business front and signage assistance funds.

Brownsberger: There are no additional open spaces in Belmont that I would allocate to commercial development. We may absorb some development under the McLean compromise and possibly on the Alewife property. But I do not foresee any other development of open space in Belmont.

I think the opportunities for development are in our existing town business areas. We have seen positive movement in both Waverley and Cushing squares as several major buildings have been renovated. These are modest opportunities without large fiscal impact, but they will improve our quality of life.

7. The draft principles issued by Belmont's Vision 21 Committee call for maintaining "an open inclusive decision-making process" in town government. How can this best be accomplished?

Brownsberger: "Open inclusive decision-making" means working very hard to draw people into government decisions. I am proud of the Vision 21 process for this very reason. The diverse group that ran the Vision 21 process has done a great job and has included thousands of people. We need to sustain the Vision 21 process and I will work to ensure its continuity so that its recommendations lead to action.

The most important factor in "open inclusive decision-making" is leadership. I have worked very hard to identify interested parties for every decision we make, to contact them and to encourage them to participate. Only Selectmen who continuously make diligent efforts at outreach can create truly "open inclusive decision-making."

Kelley: As part of my campaign, I have pledged to better inform citizens as to what is happening in our Town government. We should consider annual "State of the Town" presentations on cable access with quarterly newsletters sent to all residents updating them on the work of our town government and associated committees and task forces. As we did during the McLean process, we should have periodic precinct meetings to help keep residents informed and involved and to encourage bi-directional communication. We need to make better use of the Citizen-Herald and Citizens Forum to ensure active, accurate, and upbeat communications and public relations. And we should continue one of the best results of the Vision 21 process, periodic surveying of community attitudes and concerns.

8. What cuts do you think could be made in the town budget without seriously reducing the quality of service to town residents? Would you consider privatizing certain town departments? If so, which ones?

Kelley: I am not now thinking in terms of what budget items should be cut, but Belmont must closely examine how we can make more efficient and effective use of our resources. I have already spoken out in favor of merging town and school maintenance departments. I think we need to consider cooperative agreements with surrounding communities for activities like snow removal, trash removal and recycling. For those activities, and any that might be considered for privatization, we would absolutely need to conduct cost-benefit analyses to help us make the right decisions.

Brownsberger: I think we can achieve very modest savings by consolidation of bill-processing operations across water, light, and treasury, and I am working to bring these departments together. Partial privatization of bill processing has already helped in these areas.

Comparative data suggest that we are a bit large at 53 police officers. On the other hand, police are in constant demand to respond to traffic and parking problems all over town.

Most of our departments are very lean - below the levels needed to respond well to the citizens' needs. I do not believe there are large savings opportunities in the town government at this time.

One privatization option that I do not favor at this time is sell-off of the Light Department. This would give us one-time gains but would probably cost citizens more over the long run.

9. Do you favor preserving the current fire stations as historic buildings when they are no longer in use as fire stations? Are there any other buildings in town that you think are worthy of preservation as the town grows and changes?

Brownsberger: I do not have a position on preserving the fire stations as historic buildings. We are in the process of determining what the new fire station configuration should be. There are many other attractive historic buildings worth preserving in town, among them, the town hall and the school administration building.

Kelley: In building a new future for a community, great attention and respect must be paid to its history. I love the town government complex in Belmont Center, and consider that our heart and soul. We also need to consider the history of our older buildings such as the firehouses, and if we are to sell them to help pay for the cost of replacing them, we should look to provide incentives or requirements to the buyers to maintain the façade and as much of the interior detail as possible.

10. Do you think changes are necessary in the town's zoning bylaw in order to restrict the size of new residential or commercial buildings in town? If so, what do you feel needs changing?

Kelley: I think we need to do a detailed review of our commercial and residential zoning bylaws, as well as our tax assessment process. The beauty of Belmont is our quiet, residential character, and any changes that we contemplate must be "in context" with that character. We need to ensure that our bylaws provide adequate protection against unwanted, intrusive, or inappropriate development while ensuring that Belmont's business climate is strong in order to support vibrant, business centers.

Brownsberger: It may make sense to explore some restrictions on mansionization - demolition of smaller homes and construction of huge houses in modest neighborhoods. We are early in the consideration of this issue as a town.