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Survey shows mixed feelings about boosting development in South Lincoln

(Image by upklyak – freepik.com)

Lincoln residents want to keep the post office, restaurants, and some retail offerings in South Lincoln, but they also want to retain the town’s rural character, according to results of a survey released last week.

The Planning Board, which launched the survey in May, will host a discussion of the results on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. The agenda and Zoom information will be available on the town calendar and the board’s web page prior to the meeting.

For the last two-plus years, the Planning Board has been considering changes to the zoning in the area around the Mall at Lincoln Station and the commuter rail station. The goal is to encourage more diversity in housing in that area as well as commercial activity, services, and amenities in and around the mall.

One of the drivers is a measure passed by the state in 2020 that, among other things, requires towns with a commuter rail station or other public transit (“MBTA communities”) to allow multifamily housing by right within half a mile of the station or lose access to various state grants. The specific implications for Lincoln are unclear because details still being worked out at the state level, but all towns are considered to be in compliance for now.

Among the survey data points:

  • 47% of respondents wanted to see changes in South Lincoln, while 17% did not and 36% weren’t sure.
  • The most important goals for respondents were retaining a village center with commercial businesses (80%) and supporting their economic viability (76%), followed by maintaining the town’s rural character (72%), minimizing environmental impact (70%), and ensuring accessibility for all ages and abilities (68%).
  • The features that garnered the most support were a post office (91%), retail offerings such as a grocery store (88%), and restaurants and entertainment (76%). The only feature that had more opponents than supporters was additional parking (29% to 19%, with 51% neutral).
  • 24% wanted no additional housing in the village center, while 27% preferred 50-100 units and 26% weren’t sure.
  • In a post-pandemic environment, 47% said they planned to use the commuter rail one to five times a year, while 7% said they would take the train three to five times a week and 31% said they never would.
  • The biggest factors influencing the responses were concerns about the environment and an increased focus on climate change and sustainability, followed by the increased cost of housing in the region.

The number of people who filled out the survey isn’t clear, but 91% said they own their own home, and about the same proportion are in their 40s to 70s.

Many respondents included long and thoughtful comments with their responses (the compilation is more than 80 pages long). Those comments skewed heavily toward not wanting additional development and wanting to maintain the town’s rural character. Some accused the survey writers of being pro-development and not recognizing the quality of commercial and pedestrian/bike-friendly amenities already in place. Several also called for a restaurant with a more family-friendly atmosphere and menu.

A sampling of comments:

  • “I am not sure higher-density housing near commuter rail will support persons with modest incomes to live in Lincoln as commuter rail schedules/fees are not aligned with all needs/income levels of workers.”
  • “I don’t shop at Donelan’s: limited variety, low quality, high price. Retail is struggling everywhere as people have shifted to shop on line. Only personal services (P.O., salon, dry cleaner) and fresh items will draw shoppers.”
  • “Need a family-friendly moderately-priced restaurant that serves lunch and dinner and is long term!”
  • “Don’t spend any taxpayer money on changing the town center. Leave it alone. We just spent $93 million on schools.”
  • “I want to discourage further growth in Lincoln. I’m perfectly happy to travel to other towns to keep Lincoln small and rural. If I wanted a town with more development, I would move to one.”
  • “Changing the town, in which homeowners have chosen to buy property based on the rural, undeveloped character, in order to promote the political goals of a few, is problematic.”
  • “It is essential that Lincoln broaden its population by including affordable one- or two-bedroom apartments in a dense and sustainably constructed housing development that is within walking distance of the MBTA and the mall. The DPW should move to the current site of the transfer station.”
  • “Turn the village into community/town use.”
  • “Really am not sure why a small group of development-minded people keep pushing for these changes… as with so much planning in Lincoln, it seems completely ill advised and a project that the next generation will regret for years to come.”
  • “One of my worries is that increased density will require municipal sewer and/or force us to join the MWRA for water. Lincoln’s rural character is maintained in part by the need for sufficient acreage per dwelling so that the land can support the burden we put on it. Municipal sewers would make out current zoning no longer justifiable and could threaten the rural. character of the town.”
  • “If we don’t change something, we will keep losing businesses and the town center will be a shell of itself.”
  • “The Town of Lincoln must develop a larger commercial base for the town. The taxes charged for residential homes are becoming unsustainable.”
  • “I’m strongly in favor of changes to the center to increase housing density and shopping options even if it means more vehicle traffic — and I live on Lincoln Rd.”
  • “It is not clear that residents in any new housing near Lincoln Station would drive less than other residents. It seems reasonable to assume that increased density will come with an increase in cars, especially in a town like Lincoln that simply cannot provide enough resources within walking distance to anyone.”
  • “We need to fill the vacant properties we have in South Lincoln before we begin to expand commercial/multi-use development. In expanding available housing units, is there a proven, commensurate uptick in local commercial patronization? ”
  • “I want the rural town I bought into. Just because someone got their MS in town planning doesn’t mean we have to change out the town to stroke their edifice complex. Biased questions — should have a column for ‘leave what we bought into alone’.”
  • “Lincoln is long overdue to add business and cultural opportunities and help reduce the tax burden on its residents. Soon only the ultra-rich will be able to afford living in Lincoln.”
  • “Too many apartments and condos already.”

Correction

The June 9 article headlined “Donelan’s grocery stores purchased by Patel Brothers” incorrectly stated that the four Donelan’s Supermarkets were being sold to the national Patel Brothers Indian grocery chain. The stores are in fact being purchased by a family including father and son Gohal and Mohanbhai Patel, who own or have an interest in 10 convenience and food stores with various names in (eight in New Hampshire and on each in Maine and Massachusetts). 

The closest Patel store to Lincoln is in Pepperell, site of another former Domelan’s supermarket and now called Quality Market. The four recently purchased stores will retain the Donelan’s name — “the idea here is to continue with the tradition of Donelan’s as a family business,” said Alex Parra, attorney for the Patels.

The original article has been updated to reflect this correction and new information.

Donelan’s grocery stores purchased by Patel family

Donelan’s in Lincoln. (Image: Google Maps)

(Editor’s note: This article was changed on June 13 to reflect corrections about the stores’ buyers.)

Lincoln’s only grocery store is about to change hands for the first time since it opened at Lincoln Station 45 years ago.

Brothers Joe and Jack Donelan are selling the grocery stores that bear their name to a family including father and son Gohal and Mohanbhai Patel that owns or has an interest in 10 convenience and food stores with various names in (eight in New Hampshire and on each in Maine and Massachusetts). The new owners have retained all of the existing staff at the Lincoln store and are taking over the beer and wine license as well.

The Donelans are selling all their stock interest in the four stores (the others are in Acton, Wayland, and Littleton) but will stay on for the time being as directors of the corporation to assist in the transition. 

“We may try to bring new food products, but the [Donelan’s] quality and customer service will remain the same,” Mohanbhai Patel told the Select Board during a June 7 public hearing on the liquor license transfer. “We’ll try something different than what they have right now… we’ll see what people like and don’t like, and keep what people like. We’re very excited to become part of the Lincoln community and we’ll try our best to make the community happy.”

The closest Patel store to Lincoln is in Pepperell, site of another former Donelan’s supermarket and now called Quality Market. The four recently purchased stores will retain the Donelan’s name. “The idea here is to continue with the tradition of Donelan’s as a family business,” said Alex Parra, attorney for the Patels.

The Select Board praised the Donelan brothers for their decades of support for town events and charities. “I want to thank them for their friendliness and being a key part of our community over the years,” board chair Jonathan Dwyer said.

“The people of Lincoln have been fabulous to us, and we’re going to miss Lincoln,” Jack Donelan said.

The first Donelan’s opened in Littleton in 1948 and the Lincoln location debuted in 1976 in the new mall. Joe and Jack Donelan bought the company from their father in 1985, and by the 1990s there were six stores in the chain (locations in Groton and Pepperell eventually closed). 

The Lincoln store had its ups and downs as well. It added 5,000 square feet in 2009 after taking over the space formerly occupied by the post office. But the store had to close for almost 16 months after the roof collapsed under heavy snow in February 2011, and at the time there was uncertainty whether it would reopen at all. The Donelans filed a legal complaint against the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall property, but the dispute was settled a year after the roof collapse.

In recent months there were rumors that one or more Donelan’s stores might close — rumors that were denied by corporate headquarters in Littleton when asked by the Lincoln Squirrel.

Before the mall was built, Lincoln residents bought groceries at the Community Store, which operated out of what was then a pink stucco building across the street in the building whose tenants now include Barrett Sotheby’s International Realty.

Environmental measures, name changes to go before voters on Saturday

Voters at Saturday’s annual Town Meeting (ATM) will be asked to vote on five citizens’ petitions concerning plastics and the proposed community center, as well as two other measures seeking town board name changes.

The items were originally planned for the 2020 Annual Town Meeting, but that meeting was stripped of all but essential financial items due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Members of the L-S Environmental Club and Mothers Out Front–Lincoln made their case for three environment-related measures at the April 26 Board of Selectmen meeting.

Article 37, the Polystyrene Reduction Bylaw, would prohibit food and retail establishments in Lincoln from using or selling disposal food service containers made from polystyrene. It would also not allow sales of other items containing the substance (packing peanuts, Styrofoam coolers and coffee cups, meat and produce trays, etc.) unless the polystyrene is fully encased in a more durable material. The bylaw would not apply to prepared food or other items packaged outside Lincoln with polystyrene.

More recycling is not the answer, because polystyrene is a major contaminant in town recycling, and food-grade polystyrene manufacture requires the use of “virgin” materials, the presenters said. Particles from polystyrene and other plastics are also a health hazard for both people and animals as they degrade into microplastics and release toxins. Almost 40 other Massachusetts communities have already enacted polystyrene bans, they said.

For similar reasons, Article 39 would ban the sale and use of plastic straws, stirrers, splash sticks and other disposable plastics. Plastic straws contain toxic bisphenol-A, and all plastics release minute amounts of health-endangering chemicals into food and water.

Tricia O’Hagen of Mothers Out Front told selectmen that Donelan’s and Twisted Tree had no problem with the measures since they’re already using more environmentally friendly materials in items they sell. Under the proposed ban, food establishments may still provide disposable non-plastic items of this type if the customers request them, and customers can still bring with them and use whatever items they like. If enacted, there will be a six-month waiver to allow businesses to draw down existing inventory.

A third measure before voters, Article 38, would authorize the town to petition the state legislature to allow a local rule that would require Lincoln retailers to charge at least 10 cents for each new checkout bag of any type, including paper.

Lincoln has already enacted a ban on disposable plastic shopping bags and similar materials. However, that policy encourages people to use disposable paper bags rather than reusable bags. While paper bags are more degradable than plastic, they have their own drawbacks: the manufacturing process releases greenhouse gases and other chemicals and uses a significant amount of water.

The money to be collected is not a tax but would remain with the retailer. An easily avoidable bag charge encourages consumers to opt for non-woven polypropylene or cloth bags, which are cheaper in the long run, so the measure makes sense for both businesses and customers, the presenters said.

“We’re trying to get away from single-use items as much as possible,” O’Hagen said. Several Massachusetts cities as well as states and countries have already enacted minimum bag charges, she added.

Climate action, community center

Voters will be asked to adopt a resolution in support of the country’s continuing participation in the Paris Climate Accord, and action by the state legislature to promote climate justice and expand the use of clean energy.

In the year since the measure was originally scheduled for a vote, President Biden reversed former President Trump’s move to have the United States withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord — and Gov. Baker also signed comprehensive climate legislation.

However, the ATM vote on Article 36 is still important to signal that Lincoln will closely follow the issue to make sure deadlines in the legislation are met, while encouraging town leaders to keep working to reduce Lincoln’s carbon footprint, said Paul Shorb, one of the sponsors of the citizens’ petition. The message of a “yes” vote is to “go faster and be bold while trying to be fair to everybody,” he said.

Article 40 would require town officials to give an update on the status of a new community center for Lincoln. When the issue was most recently under discussion in 2018, town officials agreed that the school project took precedence but that Lincoln could afford further borrowing on a community center as soon as the school was finished.

In 2018, the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee submitted its final report outlining two possible design directions for the facility, which was then estimated to cost $15.3 million to $16.2 million depending on which design was chosen.

The 2018 report proposed a timeline with one date that has already passed—establishing a Community Center Building Committee starting in November 2020. The CCPPDC also proposed a March 2021 Town Meeting vote on budget and site, but the pandemic pushed it to the back burner.

The Council on Aging and the Parks and Recreation Department both have well-documented needs for more and better space, and a community center would answer those needs and would also “connect the generations in town,” said Selectman Jonathan Dwyer, the board’s liaison to the CCPPDC.

The year 2023 is “wide open for a project like this,” since the school project will be completed, and the Finance Committee says the town has additional borrowing capacity of $27 million, Dwyer said. Officials hope to discuss next steps at the fall 2021 State of the Town meeting, he added.

Name changes

Also on the ATM agenda are two other items that were discussed last year but postponed: name changes for the Council on Aging (Article 26) and the Board of Selectmen (Article 24). If voters approve, they will be called the Council on Aging and Human Services and the Select Board, respectively.

The Town Meeting starts on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. under the tent in the Hartwell School lot. For information on the articles to be voted on, see Lincoln’s Annual Town Meeting web page.

Clark Gallery moving from mall to Lewis Street

The Clark Gallery was packing up on Thursday.

(Editor’s note: this story was updated on April 23 to include a comment from Christina Van Vleck.)

The Clark Gallery in the Mall at Lincoln Station is moving across Lincoln Road to the recently refurbished commercial space on the ground floor of 2 Lewis St. and may open in their new location as early as next week.

Geoff McGean, executive director of the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall, confirmed the move. The gallery was a tenant at will in its 1,400-square-foot space and will not be liable for any future lease payments.

The 2,300-square-foot space that the gallery will occupy includes a kitchenette and ADA-compliant bathrooms, according to the property’s website.

Van Vleck and her husband began renovating the upper floors of the distinctive Lewis Street property (also known as the 1870 Wyman Cook House) in late 2016 with the plan that their family would live there. Last year, they started renovating the retail space on the building’s east side adjacent to the railroad tracks after the MassDOT field office, travel agency, and barber shop left, and Lincoln Cleaners moved to 10 Lewis St. with an entrance abutting the tracks.

Clark Gallery owner Dana Salvo said he was in talks with the Lewis Street owners from very early in the renovation planning and wouldn’t have signed the 10-year lease unless he could occupy both units on the ground floor. “I don’t think they imagined one tenant” at the outset, “but it was good timing — when they knew they were going to have just one tenant, it really opened up what they could do with the space upstairs,” he said. “They’ve done such a good job with that building. They have a really good eye and a good vision.”

“We received a great deal of interest in the space,” Van Vleck said. “Given that septic constraints currently preclude any food service establishments, the gallery feels like a wonderful opportunity to welcome the community in to experience the newly renovated space and enjoy the beautiful artwork featured in the gallery’s collection.

The 1,375-square-foot commercial space on the second floor is occupied by a tech start-up run by a local Lincoln business owner, she said.

A Lincoln Road view of the renovated space.

The goal for the new Clark Gallery space is not necessarily to attract a higher volume of visitors, “but it just allows us to program a bit differently,” Salvo said. “Contemporary art is a really small niche — I don’t get a lot of foot traffic. People that come are intentional.”

One of the things he didn’t have before is the brick patio along Lincoln Road, which might accommodate outdoor seating and one or more Clark sculptures. Three of its sculptures are now on the lawn in front of the restaurant, he noted.

“I like being in Lincoln in a destination space and that’s not really changing. It’s not like I’m moving” out of town, said Salvo, noting that the gallery has been in the mall for about 30 years.

The RLF is looking for a new tenant for the Clark Gallery’s former mall space and “we’ll be focused initially on trying to find a retail tenant,” McGean said. “We continue to look at all options for improving the vibrancy of Lincoln Station.”

New restaurant not opening this month after all

Lincolnites who were eagerly anticipating a new restaurant in town this spring will be disappointed, as plans to open Turenne have fallen though.

Tim and Bronwyn Wiechmann announced in February that they would be operating “Turenne in Lincoln” in South Lincoln, opening this month to succeed Real in space owned by the Rural Land Foundation (RLF).

However, “Lindsey Parker just informed us that her partnership with Turenne ended,” Geoff McGean, executive director of the RLF, told the Lincoln Squirrel on April 18. “We do not know any details, but from what she shared with us, Bronwyn and Tim from Turenne were brought in as potential operators of the restaurant but ultimately they could not reach an arrangement that worked for both parties.”

Real was owned jointly by Lindsay Parker of Concord and Tom Fosnot and Ruth-Anne Adams of Sudbury but closed in November 2020 after less than two years. Fosnot and Adams left the partnership and Parker became sole owner of a restaurant that now had no chef or operations staff.

McGean said that Parker, who holds the lease as Lincoln Station Partners, is looking for a new operator but has also listed the business and its assets for sale for $275,000, according to a listing sheet from the Boston Restaurant Group, Inc.

Requests for comment from Parker and the Wiechmanns were not immediately returned on Sunday.

Turenne restaurant to open in Lincoln in April

This Lincoln Station property will soon host its fourth restaurant.

There’s a new restaurant in town — or there will be, when Turenne opens in April in the space most recently occupied by Real.

Tim and Bronwyn Wiechmann already run several food ventures in Somerville: Bronwyn, T&B Pizza, and Turenne (a “pop-up” takeout bagel/patisserie/restaurant within T&B Pizza). Others of their restaurants have come and gone, including Self Portrait/T.W. Food and Playska in Cambridge. Tim Wiechmann was named Best Chef (general excellence) by Boston Magazine in 2015.

Turenne in Lincoln succeeds Real, which was owned jointly by Lindsay Parker of Concord and Tom Fosnot and Ruth-Anne Adams of Sudbury but closed in November 2020 after less than two years of operation. The lease continues with Parker as sole owner of Turenne, said Geoff McGean, executive director of the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the property. 

The Boston Globe reported on February 25 that the new Lincoln restaurant would feature a pizza oven, live music, a wine shop, and provisions, but this could not be confirmed. The Wiechmanns did not respond directly to an email and voicemail from the Lincoln Squirrel, and Parker deferred to public statements by the RLF and the restaurateurs.

“We look forward to bringing back socially distanced dinner service in the dining room, on the terrace, as takeout and, in an especially exciting new additional dining room on the green in front of the restaurant that the Rural Land Foundation has so generously allowed us to create in hopes of serving the community in as many ways as possible in this still complicated moment for restaurants,” the three restaurateurs wrote. “We’ll share more soon, but in the meantime you can anticipate an early April start for dinner service Thursday thru Saturday with a la carte offerings and perhaps a prix fixe.”

“I hope you all will join us in giving them a warm welcome and wishing them, and our community, much success with this new endeavor,” said RLF/Lincoln Land Conservation Trust chair Michelle Barnes in a statement accompanying the one by the restaurant owners. “Our vigorous support of them will help that success come to fruition, and help make the mall an even more vibrant and exciting place to be for our community. And it wouldn’t be a message from me if I didn’t add that your support of the businesses at the mall helps sustain our conservation efforts in Lincoln.”

Fosnot and Adams now cook and deliver meals as Food for Home. After Real closed, the pair told former customers in a group email that Parker had sued them. The allegations and current status of that suit are unclear.

Turenne will be the fourth restaurant to occupy the Lincoln space. Preceding it were Real and Lincoln Kitchen, which closed in May 2018 after just 15 months. AKA Bistro was successful for several years until its closure in May 2016. Contributing to its demise was the lengthy closure of nearby Donelan’s after its roof collapsed in a snowstorm in February 2011, significantly reducing business traffic for the entire mall, and the closure of AKA itself for several months starting in December 2013 after a burst ceiling pipe caused extensive interior water damage.

Third SOTT looks at electricity aggregation, road safety, South Lincoln

Residents heard updates on electricity aggregation, road safety measures, and planning for South Lincoln’s future at the third State of the Town meeting on November 19.

Electricity from renewable sources

Almost three years after voters authorized the Board of Selectmen to start developing the program, the Green Energy Committee is nearing the finish line for Lincoln Green Energy Choice, a program that will give residents the option of buying electricity from renewable sources. Eversource will continue to provide transmissions lines and billing, but the town will seek bids for renewable energy from the local grid. Committee chair C.J. Volpone explained that residents can opt in or out of the program at any time, though they will be automatically enrolled initially in a plan that will cost about the same as Eversource’s winter rates.

Eversource is currently required to draw 18% of its electricity from renewable sources. The new program will offer three options:

  • Budget, with 20% of the electricity from renewable sources
  • Basic Green, with 35-50% renewable (the default option that residents will be enrolled in unless they opt out)
  • Total Green, with 100% of the electricity from renewable sources. Volpone said this option would probably cost $20–$30 a month more than the current average bill, though the exact price won’t be known until buds are received and a contact is signed.

LGEC has posted a table showing preliminary estimates of additional costs depending on type and amount of electricity usage.

Benefits of the program include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, having a choice of electricity sources, and having long-term predictable rates for electricity, since LGEC contracts will be longer than the six-month contacts required of Eversource, Volpone said. Using electricity from renewable sources will become more important in the years to come as more and more people buy electric cars and use electric-power heat pumps for home heating, he added.

Homeowners will get a postcard in the mail informing them of the options and asking if they want to opt out before the program launches, which is expected to happen in March 2021, Volpone said. Resident Sara Mattes (one of 118 people who attended the online meeting) worried that there could be “blowback” because people will be automatically enrolled in the program, but Volpone said the impact on electric bills for the Basic Green option would be “minimal.”

Advisory shoulders

Bob Wolf and Ginger Reiner of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPEC) outlined a method that could be used to make Lincoln’s roads safer for bikes and walkers. Advisory shoulders are lanes marked with white dashed lines on either side of a road to indicate where bikes and pedestrians have the right of way. Vehicles can cross the lines to avoid traffic coming from the opposite direction but must yield to oncoming traffic if there are “vulnerable users” (bicyclists, pedestrians, or any other non-vehicle) ahead or alongside.

The committee and its predecessor, the Cycling Safety Advisory Committee, came into being after two bicyclists were killed and a third was injured in three separate accidents on Lincoln roads in 2016. More than half of the residents who responded to a subsequent town-wide survey said they were not comfortable biking or walking on some of Lincoln’s roads.

As a road safety measure, advisory shoulders have the advantage that they are inexpensive and easy to create. “It doesn’t change how the road should be used, but it shows the clearance that vehicles should give vulnerable users,” Wolf said. In other towns such as Hanover, N.H., that have tried this approach, “drivers get used to this pretty quickly.”

The BPAC studied Baker Bridge Road as a possible first case where advisory shoulders could be installed. As one of several designated “minor connectors” in town, the road offers connections to schools and access to conservation trails. In a neighborhood Zoom meeting with the BPAC in October, there was “universal agreement” among Baker Bridge Road residents that the road is not safe for pedestrians and family cycling.

Wolf acknowledged that “it’s not one size fits all for all Lincoln roads” and invited residents of other neighborhoods to set up a Zoom meeting with the committee to discuss safety issues by emailing lincoln-bpac@googlegroups.com.

South Lincoln

The South Lincoln Planning and Advisory Committee (SLPAC) has “restarted the process to evolve our village center” to make it more vibrant for residents and businesses, Planning Board chair Margaret Olson said. Businesses in the area have been struggling for some time, and a “confusing and costly” permitting process on top of a “hodgepodge” of five different zoning districts has made it very difficult for any sort of new development to win approval.

Revamping the zoning rules in South Lincoln would offer more flexibility in building uses, a more diversified housing stock, and a clearer permitting process while still imposing design guidelines to ensure new development is in keeping with Lincoln’s “look” and character, Olson said. SLPAC and the Planning Board will “build consensus… around an open and transparent process” with broad public participation and input. As part of that goal, the committee is inviting public comment any time and posting letters from residents on its website.

As part of the larger goal to limit climate change, the town hopes to encourage use of the commuter rail stop as well as energy-efficient buildings and more usage by bikes and pedestrians. The state also wants to encourage more use of mass transit. For example, Massachusetts House Bill 3931 would require multifamily zoning within one mile of train subway and bus stops.

While that particular bill may not pass, “there is pressure mounting in the system for something along these lines,” Olson said. “When regional problems get too big, the dam breaks, and 40B [the affordable housing mandate] is an example of that. We need to indicate how we want the town to change and adapt to the political and environmental changes headed our way in the next few decades.”

SLPAC’s predecessor tried to bring zoning changes to a town-wide vote last year but met with stiff opposition from residents who, among other things, were worried that residents in midrange housing such as the Ridge Road condominiums would be displaced. “SLPAC has heard that loud and clear,” Olson said, adding that near-term rezoning efforts will focus only on the south side of Lincoln Road.

The need for action is not hypothetical. The privately owned sewage treatment system used by Lincoln Woods and the mall is past its useful life, and the town plans to commission a study of options for upgrading and expanding it or else finding some other solution to allow more development.

Another reason for rethinking the South Lincoln commercial area: the mall itself will not be economically viable for much longer. Michelle Barnes, chair of the Rural Land Foundation (which owns the mall) reiterated her statement from last spring that changes in shopping habits are making it increasingly difficult for stores to succeed.

“I’m trying not to say anything about our current collection of enterprises, but I think it’s fair to say that over time, year after year, we have seen a decline in business at the mall,” Barnes said at the SOTT meeting. “Thinking about what’s going on economically elsewhere with local malls, they just have not been surviving, and certainly not thriving. The longer-term trends don’t look that great and we feel we have to be proactive in making sure it stays a vibrant place.”

The RLF operates the mall as a nonprofit, Barnes noted. “As economic forces on the mall continue to go in one direction, the fact that we don’t have much margin makes that endpoint collide eventually. That’s not tomorrow, but the long-term sustainability of the mall in its current state is not tenable.”

Both sides in Real dispute plan to keep on cooking

The Real restaurant expects to reopen even as two of its former owner/managers have filed suit against the remaining owner.

Residents learned last week that Tom Fosnot and Ruth-Anne Adams had left the restaurant they co-founded with Linsday Parker in 2019. On November 6, Fosnot and Adams sent a group email to previous customers revealing that Parker had sued the pair.

“It has become increasingly hard for Tom and I over the past few months. The only thing that was not working in the restaurant was our partnership with Lindsey. After she filed a lawsuit against us, we decided it was time to choose happiness for our family. So Tom and I are now cooking somewhere else. We remain in a partnership with Lindsey, but what will resolve with the restaurant we are not sure,” the email said.

“Of course, we loved being in Lincoln and it was a heartbreaking decision for Tom and I. Meeting all the kind people who supported us over this past year and half, who gave us an opportunity to do what we loved, was a dream come true. We will continue to cook from our hearts, inspired by the land around us. We will not be cooking in Lincoln, but we have found another kitchen to create inspired dishes. We will be delivering weekly to your doorstep. Our menu will grow as we get more comfortable in our venture,” Fosnot and Adams added in their email.

“It is unfortunate that my partners chose to make a private dispute public. I will not comment on that further,” Parker wrote in an email to the Lincoln Squirrel on November 10. “More importantly, I can confirm that Real is sticking around. I have already had a number of exciting conversations with some chefs, and while Covid presently remains a factor for the community and the hospitality business, it is fun to think about what might be next.”

Adams and Fosnot also would not comment on the lawsuit but offered some details on their plans in a November 11 email to the Squirrel:

“We are very excited about this new venture. We will be offering from-scratch delivery options three days a week. The food will have a mix of simple fare as well as more complex dishes, but all will feature high-quality ingredients, as well as local when possible. We hope to have some fun with the menus. We are offering Thanksgiving for delivery and we will be offering holiday menus in December. Our website will be up soon, but right now we are sending emails with our offerings. If people want to be on the email list they can email us at tomandraa@gmail.com.”

Managers of Real restaurant depart; eatery’s future uncertain

Two of the three owner/managers of Lincoln’s Real restaurant have left the business, which has suspended service for the time being, although “there is no intention to close Real,” according to remaining manager Lindsay Parker.

When Real opened in South Lincoln in 2019, Tom Fosnot was the primary chef and Ruth-Anne Adams was in charge of the front-of-house staff and general operations while Parker handled the business side. Geoff McGean, executive director of the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the building, said this week that Parker “has not indicated  to us what the future of the restaurant might be.”

“I am going to spend some time to regroup and consider the right next chapter for the restaurant, especially in light of existing challenges presented by COVID,” Parker said in an email. “That being said, there is no intention to close Real. I have been deeply gratified by the support Real has received from the Lincoln community since we opened in March 2019, and especially since the world changed so dramatically earlier this year. I look forward to the prospect of returning that favor by having Real continue as an inviting gathering spot and community asset for years to come.”

“We truly loved being in Lincoln and the Rural Land Foundation has been an amazing source of support for Tom and I,” Adams said in an email. “In addition, we have tremendous gratitude toward the community that was brought together through the building of Real. We would like, however, to speak with our attorney before commenting further.”

Real is the latest of several restaurants that have come and gone at Lincoln Station. Lincoln Kitchen closed after just 15 months of operation. It was preceded by AKA Bistro, which operated for several years but was ultimately doomed by a pair of unfortunate events: the lengthy closure of nearby Donelan’s after its roof collapsed in a snowstorm in February 2011, significantly reducing business traffic for the entire mall, and the closure of AKA itself for several months starting in December 2013 after a burst ceiling pipe caused extensive interior water damage.