government

Residents approved a zoning change and preliminary plan for the Oriole Landing mixed-income housing project, despite impassioned pleas not to subject the neighborhood to yet another major construction project that will increase traffic.

Town officials urged passage of the measure so Lincoln can avoid a much larger 40B affordable housing project. Developers can circumvent town zoning restrictions for a project of that type if less than 10 percent of the town’s housing stock is affordable according to the 2020 census, and Lincoln was projected to be about nine units short. Lincoln Woods, which has both affordable and market-rate units, has a waiting list of 60 families, according to housing consultant Pamela Gallup.

“This provides the diversity of housing that Lincoln currently lacks” for young professionals or retirees looking to downsize but stay in town, Selectman James Craig said.

Residents including Cathy O’Brien of 3 Mary’s Way objected to the development before the Planning Board earlier this month, saying it was too large and would create traffic and road safety issues. At Town Meeting, she also repeated her earlier claim that the project was being rushed through.

“Public meetings on this started in January. What has ever happened in this town of this magnitude in a matter of three months? Nothing,” O’Brien said. “This process has been steamrolled through with no commitment or thought process about the impact on the neighborhood.”

“We don’t get a chance to pick the properties. This one came up very fast, and the accelerated pace is not due to anything other than a need to react to market conditions when things become available,” Selectman Jonathan Dwyer responded.

The property was on the market for some time and the town looked into purchasing it, but the price was “well out of reach,” Craig said. Several developers inquired about putting a project on the site with anywhere from 125 to 250 units, “but we were able to turn them away,” Gallup said.

The Planning Board and Board of Selectmen endorsed the project last week with several conditions. Among them: a left-turn-only restriction out of the Oriole Landing driveway onto Mary’s Way on weekday mornings and a $25,000 contribution by Civico to the town’s Complete Streets program earmarked for a roadside path on Mary’s Way. The company will also offer a shuttle bus service for Oriole Landing residents to Alewife and South Lincoln.

Neighbors not satisfied

But neighbors on Saturday said these steps were not enough. “A no-right-turn sign without a policeman standing there every day is virtually useless,” said Andrew Cole of Sandy Pond Road, adding that a similar restriction on his road is “routinely flouted.” The promised $25,000 is also inadequate, he added.

“Who is going to fund the rest of what needs to be done? These answers need to be in writing before we change the zoning,” O’Brien said.

Other area towns including Sudbury and Wayland are grappling with looming 40B projects, but O’Brien rejected the comparison. “They’re trying to convince you through fear. We need nine units in next two years. We have brilliant people in this community who can find a solution for nine units,” she said.

But a Concord Road resident disagreed. “To think you’re going to have someone come in with nine units in the next year and a half is unrealistic,” he said. “If we miss this opportunity, a 40B [developer] can slam down anything they want. If you’re worried about the impact on schools or traffic now.”

Residents including David Levington argued that the town is unfairly isolating affordable housing in North Lincoln, which is not within walking distance to public transportation for Oriole Landing residents who might not own a car. Others expressed concern about the roadways and lack of sidewalks in the area.

“That’s life in Lincoln — we have narrow roads,” resident Sharon Antia said. She also alluded to earlier fears about the location of Lincoln Woods, then the town’s first affordable housing development. “There were major objections being that close to the train station that they might get a lot of undesirable people from Boston,” she said.

Levington moved to postpone the decision until the special Town Meeting in June, but Andrew Consigli of Civico Development said that would not be financially feasible for him. “There’s a certain amount of money we pay a month to hold the land. We don’t have the ability to do that past this time of year,” he said. “We won’t be here in June, and I mean that with all due respect.”

This possibility caused outgoing Finance Committee member Eric Harris to say he was “experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder from 2012,” when the town voted down a school project that would have been partially paid for by a $20 million state grant (the state subsequently denied repeated reapplications).

“For $29 million [the town’s share in 2012], we could have had a school. Now we’re talking about maybe $120 million. Sometimes the ‘Lincoln way’ way isn’t the best way,” Harris said..

Civico has “bent over backwards like no developer I’ve ever seen,” said resident Noah Eckhouse. “Change is tough, but Lincoln is changing, and either we change it or somebody else does. We’re going to be paying for this one way or another. We have got to vote for this.”.

After the motion to postpone the vote was soundly defeated, the standing-room-only crowd approved the measure in a voice vote by the required two-thirds majority. Civico must come back to the Planning Board within two years to obtain a special permit and site plan review.

This is the sixth overlay-district development that the town has approved since 1986. The others are Lincoln Woods, Battle Road Farm, Lincoln North, the Minuteman Inn (which was never built), Minuteman Commons, and The Commons.

The Planning Board voted unanimously this week to recommend passage at Town Meeting of a measure that would give preliminary approval to the Oriole Landing mixed-income housing project.

In its recommendation, the board included several conditions that will be reflected in conditions for any future approval of the developer’s formal application. If the Town Meeting measure (which would create a development district within the North Lincoln Overlay zoning district and also approve a preliminary land use plan) passes by a two-thirds majority, Civico Development must then come back to the Planning Board within two years to obtain a special permit and site plan review.

In the first portion of the board’s public hearing on March 6, neighbors protested the 60-unit proposal on a number of fronts, saying the project is too large, will cost the town money due to increased school enrollment from tenants, will significantly increase traffic in the neighborhood, and will allow the town to dispense with any future efforts at increasing affordable housing in town.

At the hearing continuation on March 20, Andrew Consigli of Civico detailed changes in the proposal that resulted from community input at various meetings and open houses. The original proposal called for a four-story building of rental units (15 percent of them affordable) plus a condo building. The plan now calls for no condos and two 30-unit rental buildings of two and a half to three stories, with 25 percent of the units deeded as affordable. Consigli noted that this adjustment was made possible by the promise of a no-interest loan of $1 million from the Lincoln Housing Commission. The sum does not need to be repaid to the town unless the affordability deed restrictions are terminated for any reason in the future.

Rather than tearing down the 1870s Dexter C. Harris house on the property, Civico has pledged to spend up to $100,000 to relocate the house between the two rental buildings and repurpose it as an open three-season indoor space for gatherings or studio use.

In response to traffic concerns, Civico agreed to a left-turn-only restriction out of the Oriole Landing driveway onto Mary’s Way from 6:30-9:30 a.m. on weekdays. The company also agree to donate $25,000 to Lincoln’s Complete Streets program to improve street safety and accessibility for drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. (Last fall, the town received a $400,000 state grant for 10 projects that must be completed by September 2018.)

In their March 19 vote to endorse the Oriole Landing project, the Board of Selectmen specified that the $25,000 should be used if possible to create a roadside path along Old Concord Turnpike near the development. The Department of Public Works is also planning to paint a center line on Mary’s Way. In addition, Consigli said he was looking into the idea of offering a fee-based shuttle service between the development and the Alewife MBTA station.

“It’s a better plan from when we first came in with,” he said.

The town hired Lynne Sweet of Newton-based LDS Consulting in Newton to look at Civico’s fiscal impact statement. Her report estimated a net positive fiscal impact to the town of about $114,000 annually—just under the $115,000 predicted in the analysis commissioned by Civico.

“The margins are very slim for this project,” Sweet said of the development’s projected finances. Because of the reduced density from the original plan and things like the LEED certification, “the numbers are really tight; there’s not a lot of wiggle room to add more costs,” she said in concluding that the $1 million loan is in fact necessary to make the project financially feasible.

“For me, this was a difficult decision,” said Planning Board member Lynn DeLisi after the vote.  “I was very impressed with Civico and how they interacted with the community, but on the other hand, I have great sympathy for the neighborhood. Cathy O’Brien made some very good points.”

O’Brien, who lives on Cambridge Turnpike and whose mother Mary’s house abuts the development site, raised numerous objections at the earlier public hearing. On March 21, she confirmed on LincolnTalk that she was the source of a town-side mailing that reiterated those objections and urged residents to vote “no” vote at Town Meeting.

“Neighborhoods are personal—it’s where we live,” Selectman Jonathan Dwyer said earlier this week when Selectmen unanimously voted to endorse the project. If voters approve it, “we need to help the neighborhood get that it needs to help them live with it.”

Selectmen James Craig and Jennifer Glass also expressed sympathy for the neighbors, who have had to live alongside two construction projects at The Commons as well as the Route 2 project in recent years. However, they couldn’t pass up an opportunity to guarantee the town’s state-mandated affordable housing minimum for years and thus avoid a much larger 40B housing project that could bypass local zoning restrictions. Weston and Wayland are both facing the real prospect of “unwanted large-scale developments that are really going to change the fabric and essence of those communities,” Craig said.