To the editor:
Last Wednesday’s Conservation Commission hearing on the Jet Aviation expansion plans at Hanscom Civil Airport went from 7:45 p.m. to midnight with the decision to bring the hearing to a close tonight (April 15) at 7 p.m. at Lincoln Town Offices.
The ConCom continues to be split between the precedent-setting opportunity of applying Lincoln bylaw and asserting local authority over Jet Aviation/Massport on the one hand, and approving the plans under the state Wetland Act on the other. The latter action would weaken Lincoln’s ability to lock in the ConCom’s order of conditions. Jet Aviation’s plans include a proposed new hangar, new road, and two new parking lots, portions of which would expand into Lincoln wetland buffer zones.
At issue is whether Massport, a state agency, and Jet Aviation, a private corporation that is a tenant of a state agency, are exempt from local bylaws. For decades, Massport has assumed blanket exemption from all local bylaws in its dealings with the Hanscom-area Towns. This month, McGregor & Associates, on behalf of Save Our Heritage, submitted the finding to the ConCom that neither Massport nor Jet Aviation were exempt from local bylaws, and hence the local wetland bylaw should be applied in this case. This is important because Lincoln’s wetland bylaws are more stringent than the state’s Wetland Act, and approval of conditions under the local bylaw (as opposed to the state Wetlands Act) is more binding.
Lincoln’s town counsel, John Goldrosen, agreed with this assessment at last Wednesday’s hearing, stating repeatedly that Lincoln bylaw does apply to Jet Aviation’s application, if it meets the “no more than negligible effect” standard for Jet Aviation’s/Massport’s operations and governmental function. Needless to say, there are opposing interpretations of this standard.
Until late into the evening, there was a stand-off with Massport and Jet Aviation saying they would refuse to submit the application under Lincoln bylaw because they didn’t want to set a precedent, and the ConCom stating that this would be a precedent for them, too. With this much pushback from the ConCom, Massport suddenly found—after months of saying that their plan within wetlands buffer zones is the only one that would work—that it would be “easy” (their word) to modify their plans to reduce the incursions within the 50-foot higher review zones.
An independent wetland review by Oxbow Associates on behalf of Save Our Heritage has found procedural and substantive flaws in both the original and modified plans—a key one being that this plan should be filed and reviewed under the Lincoln bylaw.
The modified plans submitted by Jet Aviation last Friday will be the subject of tonight’s hearing, and more importantly, whether it is sufficient for the ConCom to accept them under the state Wetland Act via a gentleman’s agreement with Massport/Jet Aviation “in the spirit of Lincoln’s wetland bylaw” or whether it is necessary for the ConCom to actually apply its bylaw.
This could become a landmark case. Strong arguments exist in support of local bylaw applicability. The town has been informed of a donation from third parties for legal expenses in the event that the ConCom denies and the denial is appealed.
Kati Winchell
227 Concord Rd.
Projects Director, Save Our Heritage
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