Jacinda Barbehenn told fellow Planning Board members at their recent meeting that after the board meets on July 9 she plans to resign because she will be moving out of town.
Barbehenn was elected to her third three-year term in March 2023. She began her volunteer service on the Transportation Advisory Committee. According to the town bylaws, the remaining Planning Board members will meet with the Select Board and appoint a replacement until the March 2025 election. Then the remaining year will be on the ballot.
Ironically, Barbehenn told the board, she and her husband Michael are leaving because their house is too large and they can’t find a smaller option in Bedford. That has been a familiar Planning Board topic.
“So here I am leaving town just like all the other people who get forced out because there’s no ‘missing middle’ where I would live in a walkable, wonderful community.” she said. Their short-term plans are to lease in Cambridge, “kind of floating for a while, while we’re figuring it out.”
“Through our involvement on various boards and committees in town over the years we’ve felt that we’ve become part of a community for the first time ever. We’ll miss all the wonderful people we consider friends now,” Barbehenn said after the meeting.
She added that any personal accomplishments since first elected “are shared by my fellow board members.” She hopes local boards will “amp up ways to engage the larger town population, so that when we do make changes to our bylaws they reflect the needs and desires of the whole town, not just the few of us that are privileged enough to be able to attend town meeting.”
Barbehenn suggested “a catalog of pre-vetted, pre-approved architectural options for ADUs, duplexes, and missing middle housing that makes it financially possible for the property owner to make use of our new zoning.”
She also encourages “everyone in town to participate in the 10-year comprehensive plan. It will be a wonderful opportunity for the whole town to reflect on who we are and what kind of community we want to be.”
“I hope the Planning and Select Boards continue to work on ways to make it easier for downsizers to stay in town as well as young families and young working folks to be able to afford to live in Bedford,” Jacinda Barbehenn said.
The Barbehenns have resided in Bedford for 20 years. Michael Barbehenn has been an active member of the Trails Committee for more than half of that time, mostly as chair. About a decade ago, he said, “the committee set about permitting, building, and installing dozens of bridges.
“Years later, we (mostly Paul Marcus) developed a new design that uses light-weight pressure-treated wood and we set about replacing all of the bridges. For these lands to be walkable by most, bridges are necessary. I feel most trails are now widely accessible.” He added, “My pet project was holding back the invasion of non-native plants. I would often wander off-trail to prevent seeds from forming and to make room for natives. Most people think of conservation as ‘not building’ but that’s just the first step.”
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