conservation

A group of high school students is trying again to get Lincoln to ban the sale of single-serve plastic water bottles and retail distribution of plastic grocery bags—but one of last year’s bottle-ban opponents has advanced his own ballot measure that goes even farther.

Students in Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School’s Environmental Club have submitted two citizen’s petitions for the Annual Town Meeting on March 24. One measure seeks to ban single-use plastic check-out bags at supermarkets and other retail stores. The other would prohibit retail sale of bottles of 1 liter (34 ounces) or less containing non-carbonated, unflavored drinking water. Bottles could still be given away at any time or distributed in the event of a town-wide water emergency.

The petitions are identical to last year’s, which the students withdrew after some residents and officials urged more discussion. Instead, voters passed “sense of the town” motions that expressed support for the concerns raised by the students and urged them to “continue to explore options, including the contemplated bylaws, in consultation with key Lincoln stakeholder groups.”

The owners of Donelan’s supermarket and two new restaurants in town also objected before Town Meeting in letters to the editor of the Lincoln Squirrel.

The Environmental Club has advocated alternatives to plastic water bottles, such as water in aluminum cans or boxes similar to orange juice containers boxed water and water in aluminum containers, and pushed for more water fountains and hydration stations on public and private property for refilling reusable water bottles.

Lincoln resident Jim White, co-owner of the Trail’s End and Lincoln Kitchen restaurants, said he had a “positive conversation” with the Environmental Club and supports the students’ goals in trying to reduce harm caused by discarded bottles to the environment and human health. However, he still thinks the proposed restriction on sales of water bottles isn’t good policy. “What that does is puts the burden of compliance on essentially two businesses in town, and that’s unfair,” he said.

White has submitted his own citizen’s petition that goes even farther than the student measure—it would also prohibit anyone from bringing the same water bottles onto town-owned property, including schools, conservation land, recreational fields and public buildings.

“If Lincoln is going to make a statement, then let’s have everyone in Lincoln make a statement—let’s be a leader,” White said.

The L-S students had better luck last year in getting Sudbury voters to approve the restrictions on plastic grocery bags and water bottles. An October 2017 vote to repeal the measure water bottle was defeated. Both of Sudbury’s plastics rules goes into effect on July 1, 2018. Only Cambridge and Concord have approved similar sales bans in Massachusetts.

San Francisco has banned the sale of single-use plastic water bottles on city-owned property, including at large-scale outdoor events on public property, though sales are still permitted in stores. The city is installing more hydration stations on public property and now requires new buildings to have them.

Below is a roundup of State of the Town issues not already covered this week in the Squirrel. Links to previous articles:

• South Lincoln revitalization ideas gathering steam
• Architects ask for reactions to school and community center possibilities

Proposed plastic bag/bottle ban

The Lincoln-Sudbury Environmental Club is continuing discussions with Lincoln committees and businesses in an effort to build support for a ban on retail sales and distribution of single-use plastic grocery bags and plain water bottles holding less than one liter. The students’ presentation outlined the environmental hazards of unrecycled plastic bags and bottles, as well as retail alternatives such as water sold in disposable aluminum bottle or milk-carton-type containers. They will also explore creating a town “tap map” such as the one in Concord (which enacted its own bottle ban in 2012) showing businesses and public facilities where reusable water bottles can be refilled.

The students plan to submit a citizens’ petition for a vote at the 2018 Annual Town Meeting. A similar petition vote was withdrawn in 2017 after local business opposition. At the November 4 State of the Town meeting, Lincoln resident Jim White, co-owner of Lincoln Kitchen and Trails’ End as well as their sister restaurant in Concord, lauded the students’ effort to raise awareness, “but the difficulty I have with them is the solution, especially in Lincoln. It imposes a financial burden on two businesses [Trail’s End and Donelan’s], and I think that’s not fair.” White suggested more “broadly based solutions” such as public education and publicly available water refill sites.

Recreational marijuana

The Board of Selectmen is appointing a committee to study and make recommendations on regulations for recreational marijuana businesses that might be interested in operating in Lincoln. The state’s Cannabis Control COmmission expects to establish license regulations by March 2018, tough Lincoln has approved a moratorium until November 2018. The issue first came up for discussion at the 2015 State of the Town meeting.

Expanding the Lincoln Historic District

Historic District Commission (HDC) chair Andrew Glass outlined a proposal to expand the Lincoln Historic District by about one-third to include Modern houses on a voluntary basis. The proposal is a joint project of the HDC and Friends of Modern Architecture. There will be a public forum on Jan. 9, 2018 in preparation for a Town Meeting vote in March.

The town has hundreds of homes in the Modern style dating from 1937 to the 1970s, including the Gropius House and numerous Deck houses. There are at least 21 Modern homeowners who are interested in joining the district, according to Glass’ handout. Owners of Historic District houses have some restrictions on exterior renovations that are visible to the public. Assessor’s Office data  indicates that there is “very little impact one way or another” in terms of sales prices for Historic District homes, he said.

Mothers Out Front and gas leaks

The Lincoln chapter of Mothers Out Front presented information about the negative climate effects from leaks from natural gas lines. The group called attention to the issue last spring by installing hand-knitted scarves and posters at the sites of some of the 40 known leaks in town.

Mothers Out Front plans to introduce a resolution at the 2018 Annual Town Meeting calling for the “rapid repair and elimination of all gas leaks in Lincoln.” Public utilities are not currently required to pay for repairs of gas leaks on public streets, but the group is working with them to identify and fix “super-emitters,” or the 7 percent of gas leaks that emit 50 percent of the lost gas into the atmosphere.

“Let’s Make Lincoln a Welcoming, Safe Town”

A group that started as a movement to make Lincoln a “sanctuary town” in response to Trump administration threats to undocumented immigrants has will propose a resolution based on the one passed in Newton earlier this year. The measure would prohibit town law officials including police form assisting federal authorities in detaining people on the basis of their immigration status.

“A lot of people without proper papers are absolutely terrified but not willing to ask for help from local authorities” because they fear deportation, said resident Peter Pease. “We think we need to make some kind of statement to help people relax and have the town act lawfully and respect each person’s dignity.”