Lincoln will be able to apply for slightly more than $2 million under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill signed into law by President Biden in March.
The money will come in two tranches, and the first could arrive within weeks, Town Administrator Tim Higgins told Select Board members at their June 7 meeting. However, it won’t be clear for a while what specific expenditures the funding can be used for in Lincoln, he added. The notice came with a 150-page manual of regulations about funding eligibility and administration, and that was only a summary, he added.
Town officials will familiarize themselves with what expenses and projects are eligible and will then begin “a widespread public conversation and debate about the best use of the money,” Higgins said. The Select Board will then be asked to form an ARPA Steering Committee drawing from school, finance, and Council on Aging and Human Services personnel to hold public hearings and present recommendations at the State of the Town meeting in November.
In addition to stimulus checks, tax credits, and unemployment benefits for millions of Americans, ARPA has a variety of funding provisions that are locally relevant, including:
- Funds for Covid-9 vaccination distribution, contract tracing and other public health expenses
- Grants to small businesses
- Money for K-12 schools to help them reopen safely
- Housing assistance, including money for renters and homeowners affected by the pandemic
- Water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure projects
- Grants to public transit and commuter rail agencies to mitigate major decreases in ridership
Priority for grants under state housing law
In an unrelated funding development earlier this spring, Lincoln received priority access to some state grants after it was named as a Housing Choice Community under the state’s Housing Choice Initiative (also known as the Zoning Act). Lincoln was one of eight cities and towns to receive the designation for the first time, bringing the statewide total to 78.
The designation — which rewards communities that are producing new housing and have adopted best practices to promote sustainable housing development — confers exclusive admission to new Housing Choice Capital Grants and priority access to many Commonwealth grant and capital funding programs such as MassWorks, Complete Streets, MassDOT Capital Projects, and LAND and PARC grants.
“Through the Housing Choice Initiative, we can give an extra boost to our partner cities and towns that are working to address challenges like the need for drainage improvements, water and sewer connections, and sidewalks that might otherwise have stood in the way of housing production,” Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy said in a press release.
“As we continue to take steps to address our housing crisis, these capital and small-town grants, paired with the Housing Choice zoning reforms signed into law in January, will support even more communities be a part of the solution,” Gov. Baker said.
Baker was referring to the related Housing Choice Act, which encouraged local zoning changes to foster housing development, especially in areas served by public transportation. Since it has a commuter rail station, Lincoln was named as an MBTA community under the law, which effectively requires those communities to allow denser housing around train stations — a development that has caused uncertainty and consternation in some quarters.
All cities and towns are in compliance until the state issues specific legal guidelines. However, MBTA communities that do not change their zoning rules to comply with the act will eventually become ineligible for grant funding from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, or the MassWorks infrastructure program.