My Turn: 90 residents sign letter in support of Option C

We the undersigned Lincoln voters have carefully reviewed the options for compliance with the Massachusetts Housing Choice Act at the Special Town Meeting on Saturday, Dec. 2. We plan to support Option C for the following reasons:

• Option C, in which all the rezoning takes place near the train station and in the area surrounding the mall, provides the best and most likely opportunity to create a vibrant, welcoming center for this town.  
• We have confidence in the Rural Land Foundation to live up to its mission to acquire, protect, and steward conservation land in Lincoln as it has done conscientiously since its formation in 1965.

Option C is preferable to Option E because:

• Option E does not include the mall in its rezoning plan. We believe improvements in the mall will not happen in the near future if we delay the process for future Town Meeting approvals.
• Option E designates 54.3% of new units at Battle Road Farm, a disingenuous plan since approval of new housing is unlikely to take place. Battle Road Farm has a cumbersome and complicated process in which 100% of condominium owners must approve a requested change. In terms of approval for new housing, Battle Road Farm is a non-starter.
• We believe that affordable housing can be achieved in other ways in the rezoned areas. We are content, for now, to agree to 10% affordable housing in the mall area.  
• We believe that Option C offers the most environmentally sound approach to joining efforts to address greater Boston’s housing needs and strengthen the use of the commuter rail, while also maintaining our commitment to conscientious stewardship of our environment.

Therefore, we support C, which will:

• Strengthen Lincoln’s commercial area, creating a vibrant center for the town.
• Provide a timely and honest response to the housing crisis in greater Boston.
• Enable Lincoln to work toward an optimal housing affordability ratio.
• Adhere to our values of cherishing our environment while supporting the human needs of our larger community.

“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.