Monica Davis

I am honored to have been elected to represent Precinct 5 in Town Meeting for the next three years.  Thank you to everyone who voted and to all who helped to support my candidacy.

I look forward to working with other Town Meeting members in Precinct 5 and across Lexington to address the important issues facing the town.  

I want to keep hearing from Precinct 5 residents!  Here you can find instructions on how to contact your Town Meeting members.  

Monday, March 3, 2025      7:00 AM to 8:00 PM

 Precinct 5 votes at CARY MEMORIAL BUILDING, 1605 Massachusetts Avenue

Lexington is facing major decisions which will have significant impact on residents, especially Lexington's children.  We all need to be engaged in these discussions.  I have actively participated in town-wide discussions on issues such as the 2019 school redistricting process and literacy education in our schools.  It is time to take a more formal role by joining our unique representative Town Meeting governing process.  I believe in transparency and understanding the facts before making informed decisions on the questions brought to Town Meeting.  I hope that Precinct 5 voters will appreciate this and support my candidacy, especially in light of the very important issues facing the town.

Major issues for 2025 include:

• Next steps in the process to build a new Lexington High School.  This will require:

  • A debt exclusion to pay for it, while maintaining the timeline to ensure continued support from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) grant program.

  • Article 97 legislation to relocate football and other athletic fields to allow for recommended C.5b Bloom construction

• Consideration of a Citizen Petition to Amend Section 7.5 of the Zoning Bylaw to Reduce Multi-Family Dwelling Unit Capacity 

  • Voting on Article 2 of the Feb 3rd Special Town Meeting was postponed until after Planning Board public hearings. It will be taken up by new Town Meeting members

  • This petition seeks to roll back some of the zones approved for multi-family housing developments in the 2023 Town Meeting to reduce the total acreage rezoned while maintaining compliance with the Multi-Family Zoning Requirement for MBTA Communities.  

  • The vote in 2023 approved well above and beyond the requirements for compliance: 4.5x the acreage required with capacity for over 10x the number of multi-family units required.  As approved, the current zoning could double the number of housing units in Lexington.

  • Nine new multifamily projects already in the pipeline would not be affected.  These are already estimated to bring over 1,100 dwellings to the town, almost 90% of the 1,231 required by the MBTA Communities Act.

My current positions on these issues are:

• I support the new LHS project including the C.5b Bloom proposal which would build a new LHS on the sports fields.  This proposal is the result of a comprehensive, deliberative multi-year evaluation process including significant community input.  It is the fastest, least disruptive, and least costly option and it will maintain Lexington's ability to receive funding assistance from MSBA.

• I will support Article 2 to roll back multi-family zoning.  In contrast to the LHS project, the rezoning was not the output of a comprehensive deliberative evaluation process.   Changes of this magnitude need to undergo such a review, including understanding how new units will impact infrastructure (schools, fire, police), what will need to be changed, and how it will be paid for.  This should be done as an independent study.  

I am in favor of Lexington continuing to add multi-family housing, expanding public transportation options for Lexington residents, and providing housing options that are alternatives to ever-more-expensive, ever-larger single-family homes.  We need to do this to address climate change and to maintain diversity in our town population.  But we need to figure out how to do this in a planned manner and on a scale compatible with the rest of our infrastructure and town services.

For these and all other issues, I look forward to hearing the discussions and presentations during Town Meeting and I will maintain an open mind prior to voting. 

Engagement

• Active participant in 2019 LPS redistricting discussions, engaging collaboratively with the community, neighbors, and LPS to identify a solution to best meet enrollment capacity priorities while maintaining safe walking and biking routes to Lexington’s 6 elementary schools

• Active parent participant in the LPS Community Input Team (CIT) for Full Return (2021)

• Member, Dyslexia Parents Group of Lexington (a subgroup of LexSEPTA) - 2019 to present. 

• Parent Member, LPS Dyslexia Task Force, 2021-2022 

Community volunteer activities

• Co-leader of Lexington Girl Scout Troop 83234 - 2021 to present 

• Member of Lex Caroling group organizing annual Christmas Eve caroling at Hastings Park

• Former parent coach for Lexington United Soccer (LUSC), K-6 (Diamond and travel)

• Former Safe Routes to School (SRTS) coordinator for Fiske Elementary