The March 18 story headlined “Uncertainties surround new state multifamily housing law” stated that a new state law requires Lincoln and certain other towns to allow multifamily housing by right near MBTA stations. Towns that do not change their zoning bylaw are not subject to a penalty but they stand to lose access to certain state grants, which may or may not be fiscally feasible for the towns. The wording at the start of the article was thus changed to read “effectively requires.”
land use
Uncertainties surround new state multifamily housing law
A new state law effectively requires Lincoln and other MBTA communities to allow denser housing around their train stations, but it will be many months before the state clarifies the law and explains exactly what’s required, Town Counsel Joel Bard said at a March 17 Planning Board/SLPAC meeting on the topic.
State zoning law as revised by the Housing Choice Act says MBTA communities must have a least one district of “reasonable size” within a half-mile of the MBTA stop that permits multifamily housing by right. “Multifamily housing” is defined as a minimum of 15 units per acre, “subject to any further limitations” imposed by the Wetlands Protection Act and Title V, which outlines requirements around septic systems.
For the time being, all communities are considered to be in compliance with the Act, Bard said. Eventually, MBTA communities that do not comply will not be eligible for grant funding from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, or the MassWorks infrastructure program. Town officials will gather information about how much funding Lincoln has received from these programs in recent years.
In its preliminary guidance about the new law, the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) does not define terms such as “reasonable size” of the zoning district, or whether development proposals can be denied if they don’t also meet every wetlands and septic requirement. “There will be a discussion of what is a zone of ‘reasonable size’ in a very small town” that’s more rural than Somerville but more densely populated than Deerfield, for example, said Bard, whose law firm published this update on the legislation last month.
Lincoln Woods has 125 units on 17 acres of land for a density of about 7.5 units per acre. Oriole Landing has about 10 units per acre.
“Lincoln should get credit for allowing density near [the train station] over the years — so ‘reasonable size’ might be smaller for Lincoln than other communities that have done very little,” Bard said.
The existence of Lincoln Woods wouldn’t let Lincoln off the hook in any case. The town would still have to change its zoning to allow future developments of that type by right, rather than by special permit and Town Meeting approval.
Well before the Housing Choice Act was passed, the Planning Board and its South Lincoln Planning and Advisory Committee (SLPAC) were working on rezoning proposals that would encourage more housing and mixed-use development in South Lincoln with the goal of creating a more vibrant village center for residents and businesses. Board chair Margaret Olson wondered how that work could proceed with the new uncertainties.
“I wouldn’t let this slow down your process,” Bard said, adding that it would be several months at least before state authorities give clearer guidance in implementing the new law. He suggested that when the Planning Board was ready, it could send a draft of its proposal to the DHCD for an advisory opinion.
Another unresolved question involves mixed-use development in which a single structure contains both housing and commercial space. “If the residential component is by right, but the commercial component is not, what prevents the town from effectively preventing the development based on aspects of the commercial development?” asked Michelle Barnes, chair of the RLF/Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, which hopes to redevelop the mall.
“Good question,” Bard replied.
Until further state guidance is forthcoming, all communities are considered to be in compliance with the Act, Bard said. Eventually, MBTA communities that do not comply will not be eligible for grant funding from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, or the MassWorks infrastructure program. Town officials will gather information about how much funding Lincoln has received from these programs in recent years.
In 2018, the state allocated $500,000 for designing improvements to Lincoln’s MBTA station but never released the money. The fate of that funding is now more uncertain than ever. Meanwhile, the MBTA is cutting service everywhere after taking a financial hit from the Covid-19 pandemic, and it’s unclear what the long-term future holds for Lincoln’s train service.
Because many people may continue to work from home even after the pandemic is over, “use of the commuter rail may change dramatically… this whole notion of being an ‘MBTA community’ is kind of up in the air,” observed resident Sara Mattes.
Property sales in January 2021
4 Oak Meadow Rd. — Petter Brumme to Michael and Victoria Landers for $1,200,000 (January 29)
14 Moccasin Hill — Christoph Kaufmann to Nancy and Gregory Fincke for $1,220,000 (January 25)
83 Page Road — Michael Kolowich to Jennifer and Joseph Kolchinsky for $3,250,000 (January 19)
134 Chestnut Circle — Zackary Barron to Deborah Page for $535,000 (January 20)
15 Greenridge Lane — Johnny Pho to Lisa Marcaurelle Patterson for $539,000 (January 15)
25 Oak Meadow Road — Joseph Uretsky to Farhana and Javed Riaz for $1,149,000 (January 14)
Planning Board sets hearings on zoning bylaw amendments
Amendments to the town’s accessory apartment regulations and new zoning language for stormwater management will be the subject of Planning Board public hearings on Monday, March 9 starting at 7:15 p.m.
If approved, the zoning bylaw would add a cap on the number of accessory apartments allowed, equal to 5% of all residential units in Lincoln. The board also proposes to remove limitations on the age of structures that are eligible to add accessory apartments, and to require a minimum rental term of 30 days where the accessory apartment or principal dwelling is occupied as a rental unit.
The town approved the Affordable Accessory Apartment program four years ago, but it was only recently that the state officially OK’d it, so the local rules needed some tweaks before the program launches.
A separate hearing at 7:30 p.m. will seek comment on the proposed addition of a new zoning bylaw section titled “Illicit Discharge Control and Stormwater Management Bylaw,” the purpose of which is to protect water quality and comply with federal requirements. If approved by the Planning Board, both sets of changes will go before residents at the Annual Town Meting in May.
Also at the board’s March 9 meeting, the Historic District Commission will make presentations on the proposed addition of 11 Moccasin Hill Rd. to the Brown’s Wood Historic District, and 126 Old Concord Rd. to the Lincoln Historic District.
For more information, see the agenda and the Zoom link for the meeting.
New state law requires towns to allow multifamily zoning near train stations
Editor’s note: This story was originally published on or about February 13 but was lost after a website malfunction and later recovered.
A new state law will require rezoning part of the South Lincoln area to encourage multifamily housing around the commuter rail station — something the Planning Board has been wrestling with for years but has not been able to accomplish.
The Act Enabling Partnerships for Growth, signed into law by Gov. Baker on January 14, is intended to encourage multifamily development close to transportation stops to promote greater use of public transportation. It imposes new multifamily zoning requirements for “MBTA communities” that are within a half-mile of commuter rail stops and other transit locations in eastern Massachusetts. Those communities must now have at least one zoning district in which multifamily housing is allowed by right with no age restrictions, and that district must allow at least 15 units per acre.
The law also reduces the voting approval threshold for approving certain zoning bylaw amendments and special permits from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority. These amendments include those that allow (by right or by special permit) multifamily or mixed-use developments at “eligible locations” (which would include the South Lincoln area), accessory dwelling units, and open space residential developments.
The new law is a “comprehensive economic relief and stimulus bill that will affect a multitude of industries across the Commonwealth” and includes “provisions intended to spur housing development and economic growth,” according to this analysis by JD Supra, a company that provides commentary and analysis from lawyers and law firms.
Affected towns that do not amend their zoning bylaw as required will face penalties including loss of access to state grants.
In 2019, a subset of the South Lincoln Planning and Advisory Committee (SLPAC) presented a rezoning proposal that would have created a new South Lincoln Village District with subdistricts (commercial or mixed use, and residential), with buildings up to three and a half stories allowed if they were farther back from Lincoln Road. The measure would have also given the Planning Board the authority to approve special permits for some developments rather than requiring Town Meeting approval.
The goal was to create a more vibrant “village center” with housing options that would allow for housing that’s smaller and more affordable than single-family homes for smaller households and older residents who are downsizing but want to stay in Lincoln. However, the proposal was tabled after objections from residents who worried that the apartments and condos on Ridge Road could be squeezed out and were also uncomfortable with ceding too much authority to the Planning Board.
Lincoln officials are organizing a public multiboard meeting hosted by the town’s legal counsel, KP Law, to review the new legislation and its implications for Lincoln. “After that, the Planning Board will map the way forward with directions to SLPAC as to objectives and public process,” said Director of Planning and Land Use Paula Vaughn-MacKenzie.
Lincoln’s affordable accessory apartment program OK’d by state
(Editor’s note: This story was originally published on or about Feb. 13, 2021 but was lost after a website outage and later recovered. The paragraph on loan terms was updated on March 1, 2021.)
Lincoln’s plan to offer tax rebates and loans to residents who create affordable accessory apartments on their property has finally won approval from the state, though the local Housing Commission must now review details of the program, which was formulated four years ago.
Residents voted to approve the Affordable Accessory Apartment program (AAA) in 2017 pending eventual state authorization. The legislature passed H.2645 in January and Gov. Baker signed it into law shortly thereafter. At the time, the goal of the program was threefold:
- To ensure Lincoln’s SHI (subsidized housing inventory) remained above the state-required ratio of 10% of the town’s entire housing stock so as to avoid a 40B housing development
- To encourage the development of scattered affordable housing units throughout the town, as opposed to concentrating them in one or two large projects
- To provide a way for those with unused living space in their homes to earn income from that space, and to reduce their property tax burden
The recent opening of Oriole Landing has obviated the first need, “but the other two are still relevant, and are of even greater importance now than when the program was first developed,” Housing Commission Chair Allen Vander Meulen said. The state’s official SHI for Lincoln is 14% since the opening of Oriole Landing and is expected to be about 12.5% once the 2020 census figures and other variables are factored in, he added.
As approved in 2017, the AAA program also offers an unrestricted “loan” of $25,000 from the town. Ten percent of the original balance is forgiven each year, resulting in a zero balance after 10 years. The loan would be secured by a lien on the property but would not be contingent on the homeowner’s income. Any unpaid balance would have to be repaid if and when a homeowner stops participating in the AAA program.
To qualify, each affordable accessory apartment must have a separate entrance and off-street parking, and must not exceed 1,200 square feet or 35 percent of the home’s square footage. After receiving a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, landlords would have to select tenants from a waiting list of those who applied to the town and have certain income limits.
“Given the four-year gap in time since the town approved it, we need to determine what if anything needs to change for the program to conform to the legal and economic situation we as a town are in today, and to ensure that the program is implemented in a way that is sensitive to the concerns and challenges of those of us who live here in Lincoln,” Vander Meulen said.
“I imagine getting the AAA program up and running will require coordination and perhaps approval from several town governing bodies and offices, so it will likely take some time to ‘get there’.
“I would like to extend our gratitude to State Rep. Tom Stanley, who has diligently worked for years to get this rebate past the various legislative roadblocks it faced until it was finally approved, and to Pam Gallup, who did the lion’s share of the work needed to develop the program and then get it approved at Town Meeting,” he added.
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.”
State of the Town updates to span three evenings
Lincoln’s annual State of the Town meeting will be split into three online meetings from 7–9 p.m. on three consecutive days next week. Topics and dates will be as follows. Click here to register for any or all of the sessions.
Tuesday, Nov. 17
- Public health update
- Town Meeting preview
- School building project update
- Budget preview
Wednesday, Nov. 18
- Diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism
- Background and links to the videos and slide decks of the three Board of Selectmen’s roundtables
Thursday, Nov. 19
- Electricity aggregation pricing update
- South Lincoln Planning and Advisory Committee update
- SLPAC web page
- “South Lincoln panel is now a five-member SLPAC” (Lincoln Squirrel, June 10, 2020)
- “Septic treatment becoming an issue for mall and South Lincoln” (Lincoln Squirrel, Oct. 12, 2020)
- Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee update
- “New bike/pedestrian group seeks members” (Lincoln Squirrel, Jan, 7, 2019)
Clarification
The October 12 story headlined “Septic treatment becoming an issue for mall and South Lincoln” may have implied that the four-member South Lincoln Planning Advisory Committee will not have any presence from the Finance Committee. While he will not be a voting member, FinCom member Tom Sander will act as liaison to SLPAC. The article also said that the FinCom was short by two members, but it is now back at full strength with the addition of new members Deb Wallace and Rich Rosenbaum.
Septic treatment becoming an issue for mall and South Lincoln
A aerial view from Google Maps of the Mall at Lincoln Station and Lincoln Woods (click to enlarge).
(Editor’s note: this article was updated on October 13.)
To remain economically viable, the Mall at Lincoln Station needs an upgrade to the septic treatment facility for the entire area, according to the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall.
Last winter, officials proposed rezoning parts of South Lincoln to create more incentives for businesses and moderate-income housing, but the idea met with opposition from residents and was shelved. However, it appears that even if the town did vote to loosen some restrictions on commercial and residential density in the area, the bigger infrastructure issue remains, even in the shorter term.
Michelle Barnes, chair of the RLF and Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, thanked town officials for this “unexpected and welcome opportunity to consider redevelopment” of the mall in a letter to the Board of Selectmen last spring. However, “in considering this opportunity, it has become apparent to us that there is no real feasible way to redevelop the Mall at Lincoln Station, nor the wider area beyond the mall, without first solving the problem of creating a viable septic solution supportive of such development.”
Barnes reiterated the message in a meeting with the Board of Selectmen on October 5 that was also attended by Planning Board members. Given the ongoing decline of smaller brick-and-mortar stores and malls as well as added financial stresses caused by the pandemic, “the belief that the RLF could preserve the mall in its current state is untenable,” she said.
Much of the South Lincoln area is in the same boat when it comes to expanding property use, Barnes added. “If every Lincoln Station landowner who wanted to develop their property in the future satisfied their sewage treatment needs on their own premises, there would be significant economic and operational challenges that would impede such development, and important economies of scale would be lost by trying to do it piecemeal.”
Community Builders (TCB), which owns the Lincoln Woods apartment complex, operates a septic treatment facility on land northwest of the mall adjacent to the train tracks and leases the use of some of its capacity to the RLF. Before it was built, the mall had its own septic system, “which too frequently failed,” Barnes said. A solution to the septic issue is “a crucial first step to any redevelopment.”
About a decade ago, the town commissioned a study by Camp, Dresser & McKee into the future viability and potential expansion of the plant, which has been operating since 1976. At the time of the consultant’s report, the plant was operating at about 50% capacity, processing 12,900 gallons per day (gpd) of wastewater. It was designed to receive an average of 30,000 gpd and was permitted for 26,000 gpd, the report said.
The report outlined three possible upgrade scenarios and cost estimates:
- Make minor modifications and increase the plant’s usage to 17,300 gpd ($2.03 million)
- Do a process upgrade to increase the average daily flow to 26,000 gpd ($2.49 million)
- Replace the existing facility with a plant that could serve the entire South Lincoln Sewer District, including Lewis Street and the Lincoln School, treating 45,000 gpd ($5.8 million).
A more pressing issue is the current state of the facility. If its single-walled steel tank were to fail, the plant would be inoperable and it would cost TCB $14,000 a week to truck wastewater away for off-site treatment while repairs were being made, the 10-year0old report said. When the report was written, the tank had already exceeded its 20-year expected lifespan.
Selectmen and others at this month’s meeting acknowledged that any upgrade to allow more development would be very costly for TCB, so the town would have to provide “some sort of incentive or support for them,” said Planning Board member Gary Taylor. “TCB may not be amenable to going forward with this… we may have to look at other options.”
Among the options that could be explored are using some of the town’s conservation land in the area for additional wastewater treatment, which would require an equal amount of land elsewhere in town to be put into conservation status.
“It’s a very complicated problem, but it’s fundamental to any kind of development at the mall,” Taylor said.
“This septic question has to be addressed at the outset of any SLPAC work,” said Selectman James Craig. “If we don’t solve it, we’ll be constrained to something not very different from what we have right now.”
SLPAC is the South Lincoln Planning and Advisory Committee, a retooled version of the former 12-member SLPIC (where the “I” stood for “implementation”). SLPIC spearheaded several projects to revitalize South Lincoln, and the rezoning proposal came from one of its subcommittees. SLPAC was created in June and expected to have five members, but it’s now down to four because the Finance Committee will be represented by a liaison (Tom Sander) rather than a full voting member who would be expected to attend all meetings.
Town Administrator Tim Higgins suggested creating a group with members from the Planning Board, SLPAC, and the Board of Health as well as TCB to scope out a new town-funded study of septic treatment options. SLPAC has already been talking to Camp, Dresser & McKee about updating their study and researching grant funding for it.
Even before its first meeting, SLPAC was already generating controversy — this time about whether it should hold morning or evening meetings. At the Planning Board’s July 28 meeting, Bob Domnitz moved that it meet no earlier than 7 p.m., but after lengthy discussion, the motion failed by a 3–2 vote. However, a second vote to “encourage SLPAC to meet in the evening whenever possible” passed unanimously.
The Planning Board is scheduled to discuss the South Lincoln septic issues at its October 13 meeting. Selectmen will also discuss it further at their next meeting to “hammer out a path forward,” Craig said.