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The Winchester Select Board voted unanimously to approve a draft warrant for the town’s April 27 Spring Town Meeting, finalizing a slate of more than 40 articles after an evening spent adding co-sponsorships, debating governance proposals and removing one solar energy alternative.
The March 16 session effectively closed the board’s warrant work, though motions and supporting documents are due at the board’s next meeting March 30.
Spring Town Meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Monday, April 27 at the Winchester High School auditorium.
Revenue from short-term rentals
The board kept on the warrant a proposal to impose a 6% local room occupancy excise tax under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 64G, Section 3A. The tax would apply to short-term lodging such as properties listed on Airbnb.
Chair Michelle Prior said the Planning Board held a public hearing on the topic on March 10, but chose not to act on zoning changes related to short-term rentals, though it may revisit the issue in the fall. Prior said she attended that hearing and was the only member of the public present.
Member Paras Bhayani said Planning Board members who favored regulation lacked a majority. Their reaction afterward, he said, was straightforward: “You guys want to proceed? Go ahead.”
Governance and the bylaw review debate
The board’s most extended warrant discussion centered on an article by member Bill McGonigle that would restructure how the town reviews its bylaws, shifting from a single comprehensive review every 10 years to an annual process covering four chapters at a time.
“I look at the bylaws as being a living document, and so it’s more about making this more manageable than anything else,” McGonigle said.
Prior, however, questioned whether the Select Board should be the one driving the change. She said bylaw review is fundamentally Town Meeting business, and having the board’s name on it could look like it was telling the legislative body how to operate. She said she would abstain.
McGonigle acknowledged the concern, but said the alternative — filing it as an individual citizen — would carry less weight.
“I’m not going to do it individually, so it’s not going to be with the full board behind it,” he said.
Vice Chair Anthea Brady proposed a compromise: the board would co-sponsor the article with the Committee on Government Regulations, contingent on that committee’s vote of support. The board approved that approach.
Brady also proposed adding a requirement that the committee’s reports include an analysis of related bylaw changes across chapters, to prevent inconsistencies of the kind that arose during the last review cycle.
A separate article to create a Human Rights Commission remained on the warrant under the board’s name. Brady said a working group was refining the bylaw language and planned to include the full text in the motion book rather than in the warrant article itself.
Stabilization fund and reserve policy
The board kept Article 12 on the warrant, which would transfer money from available funds into the General Stabilization Fund. No specific dollar amount was set, but the board discussed transferring $2 million to $3 million per year over three to four years.
Prior said the fund holds roughly $5 million to $6 million, while free cash stands at about $22 million. She said Moody’s, the credit rating agency, prefers those two reserves to be more closely balanced.
Bhayani framed it simply: “The easiest way to think about this is it’s just like your checking account versus your like CDs. It’s just a question of how much.”
He noted that it takes a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting to move money into or out of the stabilization fund, which is why rating agencies view it as more protected than free cash.
Prior said the Finance Committee was supportive when she briefed its members the previous week, but did not have a number in mind. She planned to return with proposed figures before the March 30 meeting.
Solar purchase advances, PPA drops off
The board voted to co-sponsor Article 14 with the School Committee, authorizing funds for solar panel installations at Winchester High School, McCall Middle School, Vinson-Owen Elementary School, the Department of Public Works and the transfer station.
The board favored a direct purchase approach, which Bhayani said would yield roughly $4.2 million in net savings over the life of the systems, compared with about $2 million under a power purchase agreement.
“I think it’s guaranteed that some of them will not” survive engineering review, Bhayani said of the individual project sites. But he said the board should seek approval for the full list and let the contractor’s due diligence determine which are viable.
The board then voted to remove Article 15, which would have authorized power purchase agreements for the same sites. Member Michael Bettencourt said keeping both options would be unnecessarily confusing.
“I think we had this conversation last time, too,” he said.
The board also co-sponsored Article 16 with the School Committee for demolition of the Carriage House at 21 High St. and Article 32 with the Capital Planning Committee for the town’s strategic maintenance account.
Unresolved details
Several items remain open before the March 27 motion deadline. The stabilization fund lacks a dollar figure. The Human Rights Commission bylaw is still being drafted. And the solar article’s financing mechanism — whether through borrowing, free cash or a combination — was discussed but not finalized.
Prior noted that some project sites may face engineering obstacles, including potential groundwater or hazardous materials beneath the surface at certain school properties.
The board scheduled continued warrant work for its March 30 and April 6 meetings.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He runs The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
