Town Meeting to Consider Banning Babies on Bikes, Allowing Non-Citizens to Vote and More This Fall

Town Meeting is looking to be a lively but long affair this fall.

The warrant, which was closed to new articles yesterday at noon, is chock-full of submissions likely to spark controversy and fuel debate for hours at the biannual meeting of Brookline's legislative body.

When it meets on Nov. 16, Town Meeting will be asked to consider a ban on bicyclists carrying small children, a bylaw amendment allowing non-citizen residents to vote in local elections and a resolution urging town restaurants and grocers to stop selling veal.

Here, in an unofficial order, are the 21 articles submitted by yesterday's deadline:

• From Town Meeting Member Linda Pehlke, an article that would amend the town's zoning bylaws to reduce off-street parking requirements for new residential construction.
• From Town Meeting Member Seymour Ziskend, an article prohibiting bicyclists from carrying "babies or children of any age" on a bike.
• From Town Meeting Member Rachel Baras, a resolution encouraging restaurants and grocery stores in Brookline to stop selling and serving veal in their establishments.
• From At-Large Advisory Committee Member Fred Lebow, a resolution encouraging the Transportation Board to develop guidelines for determining, on a case-by-case basis, whether drivers should be allowed to make a right turn on a red light at a given intersection.
• From School Committee and Town Meeting member Rebecca Stone, an article that would give Brookline's non-citizen residents the right to vote in town elections.
• From Town Meeting Member Tommy Vitolo, an article that would require that the "combined reports" submitted to Town Meeting members before each session include roll calls identifying the members of each board or committee that considered an a warrant article and how they voted on it.
• From Town Meeting members Rebecca Mautner, Joseph Ross, and Andrew Fisher, a resolution encouraging the town to hold each session of the spring 2011 Town Meeting on no more than two days per week.
• From Town Meeting Member Jane Gilman, an article that would insert references to the town's "Comprehensive Plan" in two sections of the zoning bylaws.
• From the Planning Board, an article that would allow commercial signs that project perpendicularly from storefronts.
• From the Committee on Town Organization and Structure, an article that would give members of the Board of Selectmen the formal titles of "Police Commissioner" and "Fire Commissioner."
• From the Committee on Town Organization and Structure, a homerule petition that would amend state law to give Brookline's town administrator the authority to hire and fire employees in the town's upper management.
• From the Conservation Commission, an article that would amend the town's wetlands protection bylaw to make it consistent with state law.
• From the Parks and Recreation Commission, an article that would dedicate a former state-owned reservoir on Fisher Hill for "park purposes" and allocate $500,000 in reimbursable funds for development of the park.
• From the Department of Planning and Community Development, an article that would require that distributed-antennae systems go through the same zoning review as regular wireless antennas.
• From the Department of Planning and Community Development, an article that would allow ground-mounted solar panels at Singletree Reservoir.
• From Town Counsel, an article that correct a typographical error in the language of Town Meeting's November 2009 vote authorizing the purchase of the state-owned Fisher Hill reservoir.
• From the Department of Public Works, an article that would allow the town to accept an easement from the MBTA for a town storm-water pipe that crosses MBTA property near Brookline Village Station.
• From the Board of Selectmen, a housekeeping article that would allow the town to make any necessary amendments to the budget for the current fiscal year, including a $530,000 appropriate for construction of the expansion of classroom capacity in the Brookline schools.
• From the Board of Selectmen, a housekeeping article that would allow the down to pay any unpaid bills from prior fiscal years.
• From the Board of Selectmen, an article that would authorize a petition requesting the state legislature correct recent changes to the "Transportation Board Act."
• From the Human Resources Director, a housekeeping article that would allow the town to fund unsettled collective bargaining agreements with town employees.

Check back with Brookline Patch for additional information about individual warrant articles.