By Trisha O’Hagan
Editor’s note: O’Hagan has said that her quote by her in the February 27 Lincoln Squirrel story headlined “Planning Board splits 3-2 on endorsing zoning amendments” was inaccurate, so it has been removed.
I attended the February 26 Planning Board meeting and felt I needed to respond when a community member emphatically told the planning board that they shouldn’t “sell” the zoning changes at the March 2024 town meeting.
Our Planning Board and Housing Choice Act Working Group have worked diligently to develop sensible zoning changes in line with the Housing Choice Act. They listened to all community members feed back and incorporated many of the residents’ suggestions into the zoning guidelines. And we should all be delighted that the planning board made some very last-minute changes (after checking with the state and our town lawyer) that may allow for including 15% affordable housing.
And lest we forget, they were working from the results of the 2023 December Special Town Meeting in which Option C received the most votes. This is how our town democracy works — we listen, we learn, we vote, and we respect the results of the election.
So it is deeply troubling to me that two members of the Planning Board “do not believe that the vote at the December Special Town Meeting should be taken as a legal act.” Since when does Lincoln have a Town Meeting and vote and then elected town officials decide that it is “not the right time” and advocate to negate people’s vote?
We will all have a chance to vote again soon at the March 23 Town Meeting. My hope is that Option C passes. I believe that Lincoln is a wonderful, welcoming and generous town and that we will embrace the opportunity to be a part of the solution to Massachusetts’ housing crisis. I hope we can build inviting, all-electric, multifamily housing close to our train and town center where people can walk and bike to our schools and shops and churches as well as Codman and Drumlin Farms and our multitude of trails. And I will always respect the results of the election, even if my choice does not prevail.
“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.
I want to respond to the sentiment I have heard expressed before regarding the Housing Choice Act vote at December’s Special Town Meeting — the idea that “This is how our town democracy works… we vote, and we respect the results of the election.”
Another critical part of the democratic voting process is making sure that voters have access to complete information before making their choice.
This was not the case for all the HCA choices. The town supplied detailed information for all topics being voted on (HCA and other warrant articles) EXCEPT the HCA Option E.
It did not appear in the printed materials sent to town residents (due to printing timelines), but it was also excluded from all the materials that were available on the Town’s website which had no such timing restrictions. Furthermore, the bare-bones slide shown at Town Meeting contained material inaccuracies that were not corrected.
Whether this lack of information about Option E was an exclusion or an oversight, the fact is that citizens did not have important information on which to make their choice, casting doubt on the Special Town Meeting vote.
Nevertheless, there are still many people who support Option C and many others who don’t. I heartily endorse our Planning Board representatives Ephraim Flint and Lynne Delisi’s suggestion to reconvene a new working group with equal representation from both camps to come up with a compromise solution. I believe enough good work has been done about all the options that a compromise could be reached to satisfy a larger majority of our town and heal the rifts existing now.
— Linda Hammett Ory
Hello Everyone –
‘Thank you for your careful thinking about this proposed project.
I have followed your thoughts for the last weeks, and wanted to add a thought:
I am curious about how many of us live right here in the area called South Lincoln. We, who live here, will be directly affected by large increases in traffic ( already very bad) , the loss of trees and other green space ( 25’ setback will kill the big oaks along Lincoln road in front of the mall), a big rise in needed services which will increase taxes, a loss of valuable retail, and valuable neighbors, to mention just a few. . And how do we know these rentals will be filled? Someone said recently that Oreole Landing still has empty units .
The people making the decisions – do they live right here? Will they permanently face on a daily basis the repercussions of a quick decision in March based on a flawed proposal?
Carol DiGianni
140 Lincoln Road
As previously pointed out, it is perfectly appropriate of any committee member to vote as they see fit.
In this case, zoning bylaws were developed by a committee, per the direction of Town Meeting. Town members of that committee disagreed with the content and process of the development of those bylaws.
It was their responsibility to vote their conscience and vote in such a way that they see reflecting constituents.
Once elected to the Planning Board, or any other office, you are elected to REPRESENT.
45% of the town did not support “C.”
The votes of these 2 Planning Board members represent that 45%, and have asked for time to craft a bylaws that compromise and represent that portion of the town that dissented.
That is good governance and reflected a desire to find a way to bring a higher degree of consensus to our town.
I applaud their effort and any effort to bring us together in common cause.
As I understand it, the proposed HCA zoning bylaw would still allow 25 units per acre to be built at the Mall. The RLF has shown very attractive drawings of a first-phase buildout, and perhaps will never build any more housing units on the Mall’s 4+ acre property. But should they sell the property, any buyer would have the right to add considerably more building mass there. The RLF has done wonderful things in Lincoln, and I believe will continue to do so.
The issue is not the RLF, per se, though — it is the extreme density that the HCA rezoning would allow in our town’s commercial gathering space. Refining the zoning to ensure a greener, less dense Mall parcel, no matter who owns the parcel, seems much more in keeping with Lincoln’s values.
Sorry — I see now that I was commenting on the wrong piece — I meant this remark as a comment on the RLF presentation article.
With respect for your opinion, the way I see it is that any of the Planning Board members had a choice to vote no on the recently written zoning bylaw.
The vote in December was on which mix of properties would be rezoned, not approval of the bylaw. The Select Board decided to do this in a two-step process.
There was no obligation for a Planning Board member to vote “yes” on the zoning bylaw that was just written if they feel the zoning bylaw as written, isn’t good for Lincoln. Just as members of the Supreme Court dissent if they don’t agree with what the majority writes.
One flaw I see in the recently written zoning bylaw is that through it a 3 (three) family home on Codman Road may be 8 (eight) times bigger than a 1 (one) family home on the same lot. I heard no discussion by the Planning Board why they chose to let a 3-family have 8 times the mass of a 1-family. Was this step of the process, writing the bylaw, rushed?
We all might have a difference of opinion, but I believe we are all trying to do the best for the Lincoln we love. I think we need more time and compromise to get it right.
Even if you voted yes for Option C in December, you are not bound to vote yes on Article 3 March 23rd. You have a choice.
The December Special Town Meeting warrant article explicitly directed the planning board to develop a zoning by-law for the district selected and bring that by-law to town meeting on March 23rd. As a citizen and as a planning board member I find the suggestion that the planning board or any other board should ignore the will of the town as expressed through a vote of town meeting to be absolutely outrageous. This is the democratic process: we vote, and the town’s boards, committees, and staff respect that vote.
For your convenience the December warrant article is below.
Moved: That the Town vote to hear a report from the Select Board and its Housing Choice Act Working Group (HCAWG), and to indicate a preference for one of several Housing Choice Act compliance zoning districts, with the understanding that the selected district will be presented to the Executive Office of Housing & Livable Communities (EOHLC) for a compliance check, and developed into a zoning bylaw that will be presented to Town Meeting for a vote in March, of 2024.
Apologies for the missing signature –
Margaret Olson
With all due respect, voting on the bylaw by the Planning Board was part of the process. A No vote on the bylaw would be because the bylaw itself is flawed, in the opinion of the dissenters.
Isn’t that democracy that you are allowed to vote yes or no?