 My name is Lynette Culverhouse. I'm a town meeting member in Precinct 11 and I live on Draper Avenue. I'm asking my fellow town meeting members to vote in favor of Article 46. This article asks for an addition to Section 8 of the zoning bylaw of a two-year moratorium on the demolition of capes and other small houses built before 1950. There are four main reasons to support this article. One is to preserve heirloom houses that represent an era of architectural history. By destroying capes, we are destroying our building history. We may not regret it today, but we will in 50 years' time. Two is to allow the town time to develop and implement a realistic plan to increase affordable housing while preserving some homes that are moderately affordable. Number three is to support the net-zero action plan whose goal is to guide the town of Arlington to a future where, by 2050, net emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases attributable to all sources in town are zero. Research clearly shows that the reuse and renovation of buildings has a lower embodied energy impact on the environment than new construction. And the fourth reason is to preserve material trees and green spaces which are carbon consuming. Every time a house is torn down, the green space surrounding it is destroyed, including material trees. We cannot afford to lose trees if we take our climate emergency seriously. The moratorium applies to residential structures built during or prior to 1950 and have a footprint of 1,000 square feet or less. This applies to 871 houses in Arlington. For this motion, footprint is defined as the area contained within the exterior building walls of the ground floor. This is an example of a very well-maintained cape that was sold to $600,000 in the Bishop area. That area of town is an area of capes. And this house was torn down and this is what replaced it. And this house sold for almost one and a half million dollars. This graph shows the comparative values of houses pre and post teardown. The blue bar represents the selling price of the house torn down. The green bar represents the selling price of the replacement home. As you can see, in almost every case, the price of the replacement home more than doubled. Here is some information that's relevant for Arlington. Moderately priced homes are bought out by developers before reaching the market. Approximately 24 single family houses are torn down each year and rebuilt. Approximately 22 family homes are being rebuilt as large duplexes or condominiums, thus depleting our rental stock. Here is what the research shows. Building reuse almost always yields fewer in our environmental impacts than new construction when comparing buildings of similar size and functionality. This is important because new house construction has a greater impact on the environment and the renovation of existing buildings. We can't afford to ignore the environmental impact of these teardowns. Savings from reuse are between four and 46% over new construction when comparing buildings with the same energy performance level. And the reuse of buildings with an average level of energy performance consistently offers immediate climate change impact reductions compared to more energy efficient new construction. What this means is that reusing and retrofitting existing buildings with an average level of energy performance almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and more energy efficient new construction. It can take 10 to 80 years to overcome the negative impacts created during the construction process. By tearing down houses and building new houses to replace them, we are contributing to the climate emergency, even if those new houses are built with greater energy efficiency. And materials matter, the quantity and type of materials used in a building renovation can reduce or even negate the benefits of reuse. We need to remember that older pre-war houses were better built using more natural materials. Neural construction uses more synthetic materials that have greater environmental consequences. In conclusion, while some housing in Arlington remains affordable to middle income households, newly constructing housing is not. Capes and older homes represent an era of architectural history. We are destroying our housing history by demolishing these homes. It is also well known that residents, businesses and tourists are drawn to communities that retain their distinctive character and heritage. Tearing down houses includes destroying mature trees and green spaces, which are our greatest asset at carbon consumption. The inevitable outcome of the climate crisis demands that we take bold action. And I ask you to vote in support of this motion. During the moratorium, in order to determine what actions, if any, might be taken to protect such houses, a study shall be carried out by a committee of five to seven residents appointed by the moderator, which shall include at least one town meeting member and one owner of one of such houses. The committee may call upon the Department of Planning and Community Development for information and technical or logical assistance. The committee shall report to town meeting the results of its work.