To the Editor:
On Tuesday, February 10, the Lincoln Planning Board voted to uphold principles that were designed to protect our neighborhoods and community character. This important vote—perhaps a legacy vote—also upheld the integrity of open town meeting governance.
We are a town governed by decisions made by us all, in our votes cast at Town Meeting and at the ballot box. Our boards and committees are charged with acting on and upholding these votes.
When we vote on zoning bylaws—the laws that manage growth and change and determine the character of our town—we expect that those laws will be enacted in a fair and equitable manner.
In the past several years, challenges to our community character have been increasing in the number of religious and educational institutions that have sought to relocate in our residential neighborhoods. In order to manage the impact on residences, the Planning Board proposed and the town adopted a set of bylaws that could assist us as we dealt with this change. The recent application by the First Parish Church to rebuild and expand the Stearns Room addition to the White Church in our historic Town Center is the first challenge to the integrity of this new zoning bylaw.
The issue of precedent is a serious matter and was addressed in a September meeting of the Planning Board regarding this application. The Planning Board gave serious consideration to the variety of challenges posed for the applicant by the small site, and challenges posed for the town by the application. The Planning Board wisely set forth principles that would allow for expansion and change, while providing protection for our town from future challenge to our bylaw.
Unfortunately, the First Parish Committee chose not to respect all aspects of these principles and requested that the Planning Board end discussions and potential for compromise, and asked that the Planning Board move forward to a vote on the non-compliant plan.
Planning Board members, in their deliberations, noted the potential threat to the integrity of our bylaws and the need to respect the vote of the town. In the end, the Planning Board voted 4-1 to deny the application and uphold the principles that they had articulated in September—principles that allowed for growth and change while upholding the integrity of the Town Meeting vote.
As the First Parish has said, this is matter of a modest change, of few feet. While these few feet may be modest in terms of design, they have significant potential for dangerous precedent for our town. This is what our Planning Board recognized as they cast their votes.
Perhaps there can be a modest design change that will allow the Stearns Room project to move forward, respecting the principles set forth by the Planning Board to protect the integrity of the Town Meeting vote and the interests of all the citizens of Lincoln.
Sincerely,
Sara Mattes
71 Conant Road
Sara Mattes has served on various boards and committees on Lincoln for over 30 years. She served on the Board of Selectmen from 2000 to 2012.
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters must be about a Lincoln-specific topic. They may be edited for length, grammar/punctuation, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor.
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