First Parish project gets Planning Board approval

The Planning Board has approved a plan to enlarge the First Parish Church’s Stearns Room, capping years of discussion, hearings and objections from some residents—including members of the Flint family, which originally donated a parcel of land to the church for the project.

The board voted its approval on April 28 after some final details, including landscaping, drainage and roof material, were worked out. After hearing earlier objections to a proposed metal roof that some felt would be too reflective, the board approved a metal roof with a black matte finish of the type approved by the Historic District Commission in November 2014, according to Chris Reilly, the town’s director of planning and land use.

The church could get a building permit in about three weeks, Reilly said. Opponents of the project have the right to appeal to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) or through the courts if they feel the Planning Board did not follow state statutes or its process was otherwise flawed, he said.

Lincoln Station, hospice project

With no other major projects on its agenda in the near future, the Planning Board will likely turn its attention to planning and zoning in the Lincoln Station area, the subject of a planning study that was released late last year. Among the study’s findings:

• Many business owners feel the town’s time-consuming permitting process is an impediment to business expansion.
• Lincoln Station “leaks” as much as 80 percent of total consumer spending by nearby residents to commercial centers in other cities and towns.
• There are four Lincoln Station parcels that have potential for redevelopment: the Lincoln Woods housing complex (which includes undeveloped land next to the mall), the red Lincoln Crossing building, Lewis Street, and the multifamily Ridge Road complex.
• State statutes allow towns to create special Smart Growth Zoning Districts, which are intended to promotes “as of right” development with certain densities and mixed uses geared to transit-oriented town and village centers.
• All of the commercially sustainable “village centers” that were studiedin comparable towns include a family restaurant.

Another contentious project in recent months, the Winter Street hospice project, was approved in January by Lincoln’s Planning Board and ZBA but is still awaiting approvals from Waltham (from which vehicles will enter the property). Those issues should be resolved within the next few weeks, Reilly said.