Lee — Residents will vote to approve or deny 17 articles at Lee’s Town Meeting set for May 8 at 7 p.m. in the Lee High School Auditorium. The town’s election is set for May 12, with voting available from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Crossway Village gym, 21 Crossway Street.
Select Board members unanimously approved the Town Meeting Warrant on April 22.
The Lee Town Meeting Warrant can be found here.
Town warrant highlights
The total fiscal year 2026 General Fund Operating Budget proposed in Article 6 includes $23.6 million plus a transfer of $700,000 from available funds for a total of $24.3 million, resulting in a total year-over-year increase of just under six percent. That $700,000 transfer was used to lower the tax rate and, together with projected new growth and revenue, reflects an estimated tax impact of 4.5 percent, Town Administrator Christopher Brittain stated in his warrant summary. To get down to that 4.5 percent tax impact however, cuts were made to school, public works, police, and fire department staff as well as some capital items.
“This was a particularly difficult budget season due to massive increases in healthcare costs along with renegotiations with all collective bargaining units,” Brittain stated. Those healthcare charges were due to insurance rate hikes of 16.42 percent year over year, with a new deductible plan put into place to reduce the tax impact to just under 11 percent.
Brittain’s Lee Town Meeting Warrant Summary can be found here.
By far, the draft budget’s largest billing is an $11.8 million education line item. Although the elementary school staff was reduced by two teachers to initially lower the tax impact, the item remains at a six percent increase year over year, excluding healthcare costs.
Should Article Seven pass, residents will see capital projects evolve that will replace the school roof, repave, and add tennis courts ($335,000); refurbish the Department of Public Works (DPW) fleet and replace a three-decade-old tow ($75,000); buy body cameras for police detail ($47,600); and upgrade technology at Town Hall ($37,500). A one-time capital expense of $5,000 is proposed as the fee for Lee’s portion of the total charges accrued to relocate Tri-Town Health records to Stockbridge. All three towns comprising the shared health department—Stockbridge, Lenox, and Lee—assume the obligation.
Other payments allocated in the proposed budget include $150,390 to go toward the town’s paving bond, $102,202 for DPW lights and truck needs, and $86,363 for Lee Chamber of Commerce advertising. The Laurel Lake Preservation Association will receive $14,500, and Greenagers is set for $5,000 to be used to maintain the Ferncliff Reservation.
The budget incorporates fire and emergency services bond payments: $128,685 in Article 10 for an older bond covering a new fire truck and ambulance in addition to $549,724 in Article 12 that represents the first bond payment in conjunction with the fire and emergency services bond covering the new $36.7 million public-safety facility previously approved by voters.
The largest program to be funded by the Community Preservation Committee in Article 11 is a $100,000 purchase of 4.2 acres at 1235 Pleasant Street, with those funds matched by Massachusetts Department of Fish and Wildlife to construct a parking area and canoe/kayak access to the Housatonic River. The article also proposes funding the renovation of town outdoor basketball courts ($51,250), repair of local cemeteries (two appropriations of $24,000 and $21,000 for Fairmont and South Lee cemeteries), building a community garden ($14,000), and expanding Longcope Park trails off Stockbridge Road ($15,000). An additional $15,000 is slated for a new design of the Central Fire Station that will provide a town use as the new public-safety building project progresses.
As with many other municipalities across the Commonwealth, Lee’s Town Meeting will include a vote on new zoning bylaws relevant to accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and short-term rentals (STRs), with two-thirds approval needed to pass the measures. An ADU is a rentable unit that may be attached to a primary home or on the same lot as that residence but with its own entrance, kitchen, and bathroom. An STR is a rentable unit for 30 days or less, similar to the popular Airbnb units.
Articles 15 and 16 of Lee’s warrant detail the town’s draft ADU bylaw and follow legislation that went into effect February 2 mandating that towns could not unreasonably restrict ADUs to owner residents and must allow the units as a matter of right. The effort is part of an attempt to gain desperately needed affordable housing choices in the state.
The proposed local bylaw complies with the 2024 legislation requiring the size, or gross floor area, of the unit not be more than half of the gross floor area of the main residence, or 900 square feet, whichever is smaller. In Lee’s provision, only one ADU is allowed on a lot, with additional ADUs allowable only by special permit from the Planning Board; no minimum lot size is required to house an ADU; one additional off-street parking space must be available for every lot with an ADU; an ADU may incorporate a home office; and an ADU cannot be rented as an STR.
Article 17 of Lee’s warrant covers STRs and requires each owner to register the unit annually with the town’s Land Use Department as well as employ a property manager who lives 30 miles or less from the unit, is able to respond to a tenant issue within two hours, and maintains a 24-hour phone number. A corporation or trust, under Lee’s proposed bylaw, can own an STR but only under certain conditions.
Each STR property must have off-street parking spaces equal to the number of bedrooms in the unit plus one additional space and include residential smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and a fire extinguisher and post a floor plan showing emergency exits. Affordable housing can’t be used as an STR, according to Lee’s guidelines, and renting an STR for commercial use or to a person under the age of 18 or allowing STR tenants to hold events on the property with tents or amplified music is prohibited. The draft includes provisions should the bylaw be violated, including revoking the STR’s registration for up to a year.
Town election
All races in Lee’s upcoming election are uncontested: one moderator (one-year term), one Select Board member (three-year term), two members of the Lee School Committee (three-year terms each), one Planning Board member (five-year term), and one Housing Authority member (five-year term).
A sample Lee May 12 election ballot can be found here.
April 28 is the last day to register to vote.
