Uncertainty and trepidation about future changes in the look of South Lincoln have been driving much of the discussion around the Housing Choice Act rezoning, particularly with regard to the mall. That concern arose again at the February 5 Select Board meeting when residents submitted a letter asking for a massing study to get a better idea of what the redeveloped mall might look like.
“There’s a fear that this thing could be massive,” resident Lynne Smith said. “There’s a desire to have some that goes a step beyond illustrations.” But Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson said that such a study would be “wildly speculative” in the absence of a concrete proposal from a developer.
A massing study is a three-dimensional representation of a proposed building’s shape and size in addition to its footprint, elevations (side views) and floor plans. “Such studies are done when there is a plan, but there is no plan,” Olson said at a Select Board meeting discussion on February 5. “Zoning sets out rules, and within those rules, there are a nearly infinite number of things you can do” in varying degrees of attractiveness and likelihood. For example, under current zoning, the owner of a conforming two-acre lot could theoretically build a 20,000-square-foot house by right. And the Planning Board still has to approve each project after a site plan review, she noted.
Without first doing an analysis of the septic and wetlands characteristics of a given property, and knowing exactly what the property owner hopes to do, a massing study “would be completely meaningless,” Olson said.
“One hundred and ten people don’t think it’s meaningless,” responded resident Barbara Peskin, referring to the number of signatories to the letter (see her “My Turn” piece on the issue).
The Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall, has shared conceptual drawings of what a three-story building with housing on the top two floors and commercial on the ground floor might look like, but neither the RLF nor a developer has submitted a specific proposal.
The RLF unveiled one possibility to comply with the HCA at a January 18 public forum. Upcoming meetings and forums:
- Tuesdays, Feb. 13 and March 5 — Planning Board meetings on proposed design guidelines for the HCA district. Residents may use this form to comment on the draft.
- Tuesday, Feb. 20 — Planning Board public hearing on the amended zoning bylaw, 7–8:30 p.m., Town Hall and on Zoom.
- Tuesday, Feb. 27 — In-person public forum on design guidelines hosted by the Planning Board and Housing Choice Act Working Group, 7–8:30 p.m., Lincoln School.
- Thursday, Feb. 29 — RLF public forum on the mall, 7 p.m., Zoom (passcode: 940342)
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