The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

land use

Public hearings coming up

Historic District Commission

The Historic District Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 3 to review the application of Geoffrey Hargreaves-Heald of 24 Sandy Pond Rd. of to repair or replace four columns on the front porch, replace decking and repair any structural issues as necessary.

Historical Commission

The Historical Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 3 to consider the application of Roy S. MacDowell to demolish the house at 19 South Great Rd.

Zoning Board of Appeals

The Zoning Board of the Appeals will hold a public hearing on Thursday, Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. to hear and to act on the following petitions:

  • Johan Pontin, 19 Bedford Rd., for renewal of a special permit for an accessory apartment.
  • Adam Sodowick and Isabelle Lousada, 233 Old Concord Rd., for a special permit to renovate entryway, add a new screened porch and deck, and install kitchen addition to the existing structure.

Planning Board

The Planning Board will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10 to review an application for a sign permit pursuant to Section 16.5 of the Zoning Bylaw. The applicant, Quinn Chan, proposes to add a sign for his business at 152 Lincoln Rd.

Property sales in July

71 Sandy Pond Rd. — Andrew F. Hall III to Jamie N. Atkins Trust and John J. Atkins Trust for $1,300,000 (July 31)

11 Moccasin Hill Rd. — August A. Muench-Nasrallah to Jason Kass and Courtney Bernasconi for $1,200,000 (July 29)

184 Concord Rd. — Rodger A. Mattlage to Lisa M. Barna for $760,000 (July 25)

12 Meadowbrook Rd. — Lisa Barna to Efe Yardimci and Julie Ann Krutiak for $1,402,000 (July 25)

26 Old Farm Rd. — Matthew Miles Fritz to David J. Giber Trust and Brigitte L. Giber Trust for $1,605,000 (July 24)

82 Virginia Rd. #B405 — Ellen Jane Coogan Trust to Madeline H, Chen 2004 Trust for $425,000 (July 18)

321 Hemlock Circle — Phyllis Pito, trustee to Christopher Stauffer and Parul Matani for $590,000 (July 17)

37 Birchwood Lane — Rigel L. Lustwerk-Dudas to Jennifer K. Higgins for $545,000 (July 16)

151 Tower Rd. — Curtis Busto to Julianne and Alexander Schwarzer for $1,040,000 (July 8)

55 Oxbow Rd. — G. Stewart Young to Alexander Young and Alison McGrath for $625,000 (July 2)

333 South Great Rd. — Jamie N. Atkins Trust to Stephen L. and Frank J. Amelia to $1,250,000 (July 1)

67 Baker Bridge Rd. — James E. Ryan Jr. to Jonathan M. and Kristen B. Ferris for $2,100,000 (July 1)

Efforts move ahead to highlight importance of Battle Road Byway

A new regional website, www.battleroadbyway.org, highlights the history and activities along the Battle Road — the path that British troops followed during the battles that started the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.

The route runs along 15 miles of roads in Arlington, Lexington, Lincoln, Concord, and the Minuteman National Historical Park, with an additional loop in Lincoln that traverses Bedford Road to Baker Bridge Road and back up Route 126 to Route 2A that highlights Lincoln’s special historical, cultural, and architectural landmarks.

The Battle Road Byway website provides an integrated overview of iconic sites and events such as Paul Revere’s ride and his capture by the British in Lincoln, the battles at Lexington Common and the Old North Bridge (“the shot heard ’round the world”), and other skirmishes between British troops and Minute Men along the route, including at Bloody Angle in Lincoln and the Jason Russell House in Arlington, where 12 colonists and two British soldiers died — the bloodiest encounter associated with any house during the Revolutionary War.

The byway’s theme is “Roads to Revolution” because it touches on other revolutionary developments that occurred along the famous route. Accordingly, the site has information on Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walden Pond, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the deCordova Museum, and over 200 other points of interest.

There are pages for each of the four towns as well as on architecture, history, literature, and nature, all of which are cross-linked. Another section highlights opportunities for activities including hiking, biking, canoeing, and nature exploration.

The Battle Road Byway Committee is a joint venture by the four towns and National Park Service that partners with Freedom’s Way National Heritage Area, MassDOT, and other organizations to provide stewardship to the byway’s resources. Lincoln’s liaison is Paula Vaughn-MacKenzie, assistant director of planning and land use.

Congress is expected to vote this fall on reinstating the Federal Program for Scenic Byways. If passed, the legislation could qualify the four towns for federal money, and the committee would apply to have the route designated as a National Scenic Byway.

Last year, Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Burney and Town Administrator approached MassDOT with a request for pedestrian and bicycle improvements along Route 2A in Lincoln, which comprises part of the byway. The agency responded by assembling a stakeholder group with representatives from Lincoln, Lexington, Concord, Hanscom Field, Massport, Minute Man National Historical Park, and the Battle Road Byway Committee.

MassDOT and consultant Toole Design are working on concepts ideas based on site visits, discussions, and review all past studies, traffic counts, etc., Burney said. The stakeholder group will reconvene in late summer to discuss concepts ideas and solicit feedback.

The Battle Road Byway Committee will hold a public meeting on October 15 at the Minute Man National Historical Park Visitors Center from 6–8 p.m.to review what it’s done to date and invite comments as well as suggestions for future initiatives.

Public hearings coming up

The Zoning Board of the Appeals will hold a public hearing on Thursday, August 1 at 7:30 p.m. on the following requests:

  • Colin and Diana Smith, 8 Trapelo Rd., for a special permit to construct a small addition and expand kitchen, bedroom and bath.
  • Estate of Shih Ying Lee and Carol and John Sofranko, 11 Huckleberry Hill, for a special permit to add connector between house and garage, expand kitchen, extend living room and study, add first floor bathroom and add storage to garage.

The Historic District Commission will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, August 6 at 7:30 p.m. to consider the following applications:

  • Jane O’Rourke, 29 Lincoln Rd., to construct a dog fence.  
  • Kimberly Rajdev, 18 Moccasin Hill Road (part of the Brown’s Wood Historic District), seeking a Certificate of Appropriateness to renovate a two-car garage into living space; demolish a screen house, pergola and shed and construct new pergola; demolish an existing barn; and construct a two-car carport with enclosed storage area.

Property sales in June

8 Todd Pond Rd. — Miriam Zoll to John D. Robinson for $1,500,000 (June 27)

173 Concord Rd. — Erik Selsing to Erin A. Sienkiewicz and Christopher J. Stone for $981,500 (June 25)

22 Deerhaven Rd. — John P. Kennedy Trust to Diane and George Maranogoly Jr. for $975,000 (June 25)

26L Indian Camp Lane — Kathy J. Copeland to Justin Byrd and Gabrielle Horbaty-Byrd for $800,000 (June 18)

7 Deer Run Rd. — Joseph A. Wheelock to Margaret L. McLaughlin Trust and Buckalew & MacLaughlin Family Trust for $2,200,000 (June 21)

70 Cambridge Turnpike and 2 Horses Crossing — Anthony J. Mrugala to Peggy Fong for $1,200,000 (June 18)

241 Tower Rd. — Tessa F.L. Brackett to William and Laura Wear for $1,500,000 (June 10)

0 Weston Rd. — Heidi H. Russell to John K. and Donna Peck for $732,500 (June 4)

News acorns

Hospice volunteers come to Drumlin Farm

Care Dimensions volunteers at Drumlin Farm (click photo to enlarge).

More than a dozen Care Dimensions employees recently volunteered at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm in Lincoln to plant vegetables, herbs, and flowers that will the farm will go to CSAs, farmers’ markets, and cafeterias. The farm day was part of the company’s employee volunteer program in which selected employees volunteer with a community organization located within the company’s service area. Last year, the Care Dimensions company opened an 18-bed hospice house in Lincoln, and it also has offices in Waltham and Danvers.

Food donations needed in summertime

Summer is a particular time of need for donations to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. During the school year, students can get free or reduced-price lunch at school, but now that the academic year is over, more food is needed to compensate for the loss of these lunches. Please donate canned goods, cereals, spaghetti sauce, diapers, snack foods, etc.  The pantry is always looking for healthy treats, gluten-free, and reduced-salt items as well. Bring items to St. Joseph Church (side door, basket on the floor) or the Parish Center at St. Julia Church (374 Boston Post Rd., Weston).

Get free books at the library

Summer is actually spring-cleaning time at the Lincoln Public Library, where summer interns help process discarded books for the public to pick up for free. The library scans selected books to see if its used book re-seller will take them, then offer put them on the discarded books cart in the library’s lower stack level downstairs. Some of the books are in good condition; others have been well loved and will be replaced by newer copies. Note: The books aren’t meant to take the place of our Friends Book Sale Cart — those books are all in good condition, and sales support the library programs.

Residents can now apply for building permits online

The Lincoln Planning Department is updating its services to include online applications for building permits. Applicants may click here, create an account, and apply for a permit. Only building permit applications are available online, but electrical, plumbing and gas will be added in the future. Anyone with questions regarding the system may call Lincoln IT Director Michael Dolan at 781-259-2702.  

Two new outdoor installations at deCordova

“Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow” by Wardell Milan.

Two new sculptures were recently unveiled at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum and will be on view until the end of December. In “PLATFORM 24: Wardell Milan, Sunday, Sitting on the Bank of Butterfly Meadow,” New York artist Wardell Milan adapts one of his lush, intricate photo-dioramas to a monumental scale. Working with photography, sculpture, drawing, and collage, he stages intricate maquettes of found imagery to create compositions of pastoral landscapes populated by bodies of diverse genders and racial identity. The PLATFORM series at the deCordova includes one-person commissioned projects by early- and mid-career artists that engage with deCordova’s unique landscape.

“Kitchen Trees” by B. Wurtz.

“Kitchen Trees” is the first large-scale, public work by B. Wurtz. Its trunk is composed of blue colanders stacked in a slender column with thin metallic branches leading to overturned pots and pans, out of which plastic fruits and vegetables appear to fall. The sculpture’s form is partially inspired by the bulbous bronze fountain in New York’s City Hall Park where “Kitchen Trees” was first displayed alongside four other sculptures from the same series. At deCordova, the whimsical piece evokes a tropical palm tree, in striking contrast to the towering pines and elegant beeches that thrive in New England.

Public hearings coming up

The Historic District Commission will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. to consider the following applications:

  • First Parish Church, for a Certificate of Appropriateness to install roof-mounted solar panels on the Parsonage at 14 Bedford Rd.
  • Michael Barnicle and Anne Finucane for a Certificate of Appropriateness to replace two windows on the front of the house at 20 Trapelo Rd.
  • David Jacobs and Louise Akillian for a Certificate of Appropriateness to reinstate a balustrade above the side sunroom at 2 Weston Rd.

The Conservation Commission will hold two public hearings on Wednesday, June 12:

  • 7:30 p.m. — Request for Determination of Applicability filed by Michael C. Sheahan for the construction of an attached mudroom, an awning over the steps of the main entrance, and a second floor deck in the buffer zone at 219 Concord Rd.
  • 8 p.m. — Notice of Intent filed by Robert Hill for the construction of a barn with a grass paver drive-up and drip edge infiltration drainage in the buffer zone at 19 Warbler Springs Rd.

The Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing on Thursday, June 13 at 7:30 p.m. to hear and act on the following petitions:

  • Richard Jensen, 161 Concord Rd., for renewal of a special permit for an accessory apartment.
  • Richard Albert, 190 Bedford Rd., for a special permit to construct a deck with pergola on a non-conforming lot.
  • 170 South Great Road LLC, 170 South Great Road, for a special permit to sell used passenger vehicles.

Group unveils proposals to boost South Lincoln development

A map showing locations of the proposed South Lincoln Village District subareas (click to enlarge).

A town committee is proposing new zoning and a special permitting process to allow denser and more diverse commercial and residential development in South Lincoln. A set of proposed zoning bylaw amendments will be up for discussion at the State of the Town meeting in the fall and a Town Meeting vote in March 2020.

The Village Planning and Zoning group (a subcommittee of the South Lincoln Planning and Implementation Committee) presented its work at a public forum on May 7. The group is one of several SPLIC teams, along with Placemaking, Wayfinding, and MBTA. SPLIC also commissioned a recent study of Department of Public Works needs and potential alternate locations.

The new South Lincoln Village District would have two subareas: business, which emphasizes commercial or mixed use, and residential, which provides a variety of housing options close to transit and retail amenities. The residential subarea would allow buildings up to three and a half stories further back from Lincoln Road to accommodate greater density.

• This series of slides summarizes the work of the Village Planning and Zoning group

Most uses already allowed by current zoning would be allowed by right with a site plan review. Other uses — such as multifamily housing and artist live-work studios in the residential subarea or mixed-use development, restaurants, brew pubs and service stations in the business subarea — would require a special permit.

To get this permit in the residential subarea, up to 15% of the housing would have to be affordable to low-income, residents — and another 10% affordable to middle-income residents.

“That’s a subset that’s missing in Lincoln—people that are not low-income but still can’t afford to move here,” said Alexis Smith, a senior planner with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which awarded the town a $15,000 grant and assistance with the zoning and design guideline work. (Lincoln also received a $25,000 Community Compact Grant.)

To receive a special permit from the Planning Board, projects must also conform to specific design guidelines that could accommodate both modern and traditional designs, so “it won’t all look like Ye Olde Town Center,” as one resident at the forum commented. Projects exceeding special permit uses and densities could seek Town Meeting approval through South Lincoln Overlay District process.

Some residents worried about helping the business spaces already in South Lincoln succeed in addition to encouraging new ventures. Smith assured them that denser and more affordable housing would “create the foot traffic that would support those businesses and bring down those vacancy levels.”

“We definitely want to give a stronger footing to the businesses we do have,” said SPLIC member Gary Taylor.

Another resident was wary. “This is like a Pandora’s box. Once you change the zoning law, you don’t know what you’re going to get. Lincoln has a certain character, and that’s the reason I moved here,” he said.

But resident Jon Lynch was supportive. “This is really where Lincoln Center should be,” with development around the MBTA mass transit hub, he said. “We don’t have a critical mass of people… if we had stuff there, people would get off the train and do something instead of just jumping in their car and driving away. We have to get cars to stop thinking of [South Lincoln] as a drive-through.”

Sara Mattes urged more work on increasing parking capacity and fixing the MBTA station, saying denser housing could create an undue strain on public services and septic capacity. Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Burney assured her that the town is in fact doing a parking study for the commuter and business lots. Lincoln has also applied for another $400,000 Complete Streets grant to enable walkability and parking improvements, she added.

“With the school [project] and taxes, increasing the tax base is really important, so there’s urgency from another perspective,” Peyton Marshall said.

Attracting more residents and commercial development is crucial for Lincoln’s future, Ken Hurd said. “This is a death knell for this town if we don’t address it and attract younger folks.”

Board hears options for DPW alternate sites and construction

A sketch by Weston and Sampson of how the Lewis Street DPW site might be reconfigured (click to enlarge).

Consulting engineers detailed the need for new Department of Public Works facilities in a presentation to the Board of Selectmen — but with the school project underway and a new community center up next, the town isn’t likely to have the money for a major upgrade any time soon.

As part of a larger project to look at rezoning and redeveloping parts of South Lincoln, Weston and Sampson was hired in 2017 to identify the current and future needs of the DPW and to identify a potential site to address those needs. Their report released in January suggested a new facility costing about $15 million.

The Lewis Street DPW facility was built in the 1950s and 1960s, “and there’s been a significant increase in their responsibilities, but the facility really hasn’t kept pace,” Jeffrey Alberti, vice president and general manager of the Facilities division at Weston and Sampson, told the board at its April 22 meeting. The covered vehicle storage space is inadequate; “they do a great job of packing them in like sardines” with only inches of clearance, while other equipment is stored in makeshift structures of concrete blocks.

The facility is also out of compliance with current mechanical, fire, and plumbing codes and presents “safety concerns and operational inefficiencies,” Alberti said.

The firm showed a sketch of how one might reconfigure the current DPW site with new structures including enclosed maintenance, vehicle leaning and storage areas, but even then, the school buses now parked there would probably have to move to another new site. “It becomes tight once you start developing it with a new building,” Alberti said. “And it’s not really allowing for many other public functions” such as public parking or a public septic system.”

The firm drew up a list of potential sites for a refurbished or related DPW bases on the properties’ size, zoning, current use, floodplain, wetlands, conservation designation (if any) and present use. Other possible sites identified in the study are on:

  1. Old Bedford Road across from Battle Farm Road, on land owned by the Massachusetts Port Authority
  2. Virginia Road just west of the Lincoln North office park, on land owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
  3. Virginia Road just north of site #2, on land owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
  4. North Great Road between the transfer station and Mill Street, on land owned by the federal government
  5. Cambridge Turnpike, on land owned by Farrington Memorial

Narrowing down the choices will require “a much higher-level assessment of the preferred site or sites” including subsurface conditions as well as zoning and permitting costs, Alberti said.

Building or rebuilding the DPW facility regardless of location would cost about $15.2 million. That figure includes the cost of decommissioning and demolition of the current site plus temporary facilities during the construction period, but would not include land acquisition costs. The facility will also have to include at least one structure (the salt shed) that’s 30 to 40 feet high to accommodate the salt pile and trucks.

“This is a pretty shocking number to many people because they look at these facilities as the highway barn and the garage, but I like to tell everyone that this is an operational facility and it has to be designed to today’s building codes,” Alberti said. This includes equipment to pressure-wash sanders and trucks and then collect and store the runoff for later removal, as well as a stormwater system that’s more complex than those found on the average street.

Selectman James Craig asked if any of the other towns Weston and Sampson has worked with have broken out their DPW facilities into more than one site. Actually, Alberti said, about 95% of towns are consolidating their DPW into a single site for greater efficiency, though some towns store seasonal equipment off-site.

“Given our capital commitments, spending $15 million is down the road a ways,” noted SLPIC member Gary Taylor.

DPW Superintendent Chris Bibbo said afterwards that “whatever the study would recommend would be fine with us” and that it would be “acceptable” to wait several years for a renewed facility. “We have equipment storage that’s very, very tight, but we manage to keep all the equipment under the garage roof,” he said.

The DPW is currently doing some renovations to update its office space using money from its regular operating budget for materials and labor by DPW staff as time permits, Bibbo said.

Lincoln’s new Wang Field is open for play

Courtney Wang cuts the ribbon for Lincoln’s new athletic field next to the house he grew up in (click to enlarge).

Lincoln’s first new athletic field in more than 50 years officially opened last week with a ribbon-cutting by Courtney Wang, the son of the couple whose land the field now occupies.

Computer entrepreneur An Wang and his wife Lorraine raised their children on Bedford Road close to Route 2. After Lorraine passed away in 2016, the Rural Land Foundation and the Birches School together bought the Wang’s 16-acre property. The house was renovated and became the school’s new permanent home, and the other 12 acres is now Wang Field.

Attendees at the April 24 ribbon-cutting ceremony applauded the people and groups that made the project possible: Geoff McGean, executive director of the RLF; Dan Pereira, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, which will oversee use of the field (purchased from the RLF by the town in 2017); the Ogden Codman Trust, which provided a seed grant of $50,000; Patty Donahue, who was instrumental in raising funds for the field construction; and Courtney Wang, who flew in from Texas for the occasion.

Stone benches and bricks carry the names of Lincoln residents who made donations to fund the field construction.

Wang (cofounder of O-File and a trustee of the Wang Foundation) told the story of playing in a smaller area close to his house as a boy. The little field was not exactly ideal, being uneven and rocky, so he asked his parents for help in fixing it up — but the answer was no. “You guys can ride your bikes to the school fields—that’s what they’re there for,” he recalled them saying.

Now, seeing the beautiful new field in what was once his back yard, “the 10-year-old in me says ‘whoah, this is totally awesome—this is a dream come true!’ I hope you find it as special for you as it was for me growing up,” Wang said. He then “broke in” the field by kicking a soccer ball into one of the goals, and the ball was later signed by guests at the ribbon-cutting for him to take home as a souvenir.