land use

A map of southwest Lincoln showing the Waltham parcels being considered for rezoning in dark gray. The red dotted line indicates the Lincoln/Waltham border. Click image to enlarge.

The City of Waltham is considering rezoning a parcel of land abutting Lincoln to allow residential development in addition to the existing office park buildings.

The proposal, which was heard by the Waltham City Council on December 8, is for a “Mixed Innovation and Residential Redevelopment Overlay District” (MIRROD) on nine parcels on Winter Street and Old County Road. An abutter’s list shows about a dozen abutting Lincoln parcels on those roads as well as Forester Road and Old Conant Road.

It’s one of three proposals being considered in the city to overlay land currently zoned for commercial or industrial use with mixed innovation and residential redevelopment districts, according to the Waltham Times on Dec. 7.

“These zoning districts will allow the developers to renovate current office spaces to fulfill purposes like multifamily housing, restaurants and commercial recreation facilities, research laboratories, and medical facilities after obtaining a special permit from the City Council. They would also allow municipal buildings in the new mixed-use districts by right, the Waltham Times reported.

The move is in response to Waltham’s rapidly growing property values along with a slowdown in commercial growth and reduced demand for lab space. A Nov. 25 Waltham Times article reported that Board of Assessors Chair Frank Craig “encouraged the city to find a use for unused commercial lots instead of letting them sit vacant and voiced support for mixed-use zoning overlay districts to attract occupancy.”

The document associated with the proposal can be viewed here. The City Council’s Ordinances and Rules Committee and the city Planning Board will meet on Dec. 15 and 17, respectively, to consider the proposal before making recommendations to the full council, which must render a decision by March 8, 2026.

The Carroll School’s existing Wayland campus (top) and proposed expansion. Click image to enlarge.

At the October 20 Select Board meeting, Carroll School officials presented plans and heard concerns about traffic relating to a proposal to expand their Wayland campus close to the Lincoln town line on Old Sudbury Road.

The Wayland campus of the Carroll School, a private school for students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities, serves about 50 students in grades 8–9, though grade 8 is split with Baker Bridge Road campus, which is also home to grades 6–7. Grades 1–5 are on Trapelo Road in Waltham just over the Cambridge Reservoir causeway from Lincoln. If the expansion is approved by Wayland, that campus will add more students gradually, with the goal of serving 250 students after three to four years.

School officials told the Selects that the new traffic pattern would be modeled on that of the Lincoln campus, which does not cause backups on Baker Bridge Road. They also said they would maintain the existing setback as well as trees and shrubs that provide screening.

A traffic study that the school submitted along with other documents to the Wayland Planning Board says the number of car trips would eventually increase by more than 900 (about 450 each way) on school days. The expansion will not result in added congestion at the intersection of Old Sudbury Road and Route 117, Ken Cram of traffic consultant Fuss & O’Neill told the board.

But in an October 6 letter to the Select Board, residents of 18 homes on Longmeadow, Old Sudbury, and Linway Roads expressed fears about neighborhood traffic and said the town should enter into an intermunicipal agreement with Wayland on a binding traffic management plan. They also asked for:

• A prohibition on using Longmeadow Road for pass-through access to Waltham Road, which they said now occurs. 
• Construction of a sidewalk along Waltham Road at the school’s expense.
• Incremental annual step-ups in faculty and students using the Wayland campus over a period of seven years, with annual increases subject to traffic review by both Wayland and Lincoln.

“It is not reasonable to place the burdens of fundamental changes to the neighborhood’s character, aesthetics and safety on the broader community,” they wrote. “The Carroll School’s praiseworthy mission does not provide entitlement to have such a disproportionate and negative impact on the community.”

When the Wayland campus was first proposed in 2016, “it was described as being for 40 students. We never really envisioned something  like this,” Longmeadow Road resident Colin Sullivan said at the Select Board meeting.”There is a feeling of breach of trust.”

“We’re not going to feel safe with the little children on our streets,” said Gina Arons, also of Longmeadow Road. “We don’t want to be [back] here after somebody gets hurt.”

17 Long Meadow Road — David C. Brush to Eli B. Cutler and Tania S. Benjamin for $1,700,000 (August 28) 

276 Cambridge Turnpike —  Thomas J. Aprille Jr. to Henry Donham for $705,000 (August 26)

17 Storey Drive — Lee A. O’Brien to Joshua M. and Allyson H. Joseph for $2,224,000 (August 26)

141 Old County Road — Charles E. Sizer to David Sozanski for $1,300,000 (August 22)

8 Old Winter Street — Owen Beenhouwer Trust to Margarita Rabinovich and Michael Harradon for $1,460,000 (August 15)

6 Stratford Way — Gregory H. Salvucci Trust to Haihua Feng and Ying Xu for $2,950,000 (August 12)

104 Tower Road — Albion P. Bjork Trust to Samuel Simmer for $1,250,000 (August 13)

Carroll School’s property in Wayland. The Lincoln/Wayland town line is shown n dark red. (Click image to enlarge)

Lincoln officials are closely monitoring plans by the Carroll School to significantly expand its site in Wayland abutting the Lincoln town line and has invited the school to the board’s next meeting on October 20.

The biggest worry for Lincoln is an increase in traffic at a campus on Waltham Road (which becomes Old Sudbury Road in Lincoln) that would eventually be able to accommodate five times the number of students it now does, if current plans are approved. A traffic study the school submitted along with other documents to the Wayland Planning Board says the number of car trips would increase by more than 900 (about 450 each way) on school days.

“It appears to us that the traffic study didn’t extend into Lincoln,” which risks having traffic queues at pickup and dropoff times, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said at the October 6 Select Board meeting. The board has invited leadership team to its next meeting on October 20 to discuss its proposal.

“Given the potential impacts on Lincoln’s adjoining roadways to include Old Sudbury Road, Linway Road, and Longmeadow Road, it would seem sensible to coordinate traffic mitigation strategies,” Higgins wrote in an email on October 7 to Wayland Town Planner Robert Hummel

“I anticipate that we will be submitting initial reactions and suggestions for your consideration shortly after our meeting with the school.”   

The Wayland Planning Board will hold a hybrid public hearing on the proposal on October 15, which is expected to continue on October 29 and perhaps November 12.

The Plaut property on Old Winter Street.

The Planning Board on September 23 gave the go-ahead for owners of an Old Winter Street property to use blasting to dig a utilities trench through rocky underground ledge. The owners, Timothy and Madeleine Plaut, sought permission for the alternative method after neighbors complained about weeks of noise from rock drilling and hammering.

Neighbors within 500 feet of the blasting area accepted an offer to have pre-blasting surveys done on their property so they could have evidence of previous conditions in case the blasting caused cracks. Maine Drilling & Blasting assured them and the board that any damage was highly unlikely but promised to pay for repairs if necessary. This mollified neighbors including Tim Christenfeld, who said, “I would whole-heartedly encourage” the board to give approval.

The company expects to do two “shots” of blasting per day over a period of five to seven work days.

The board also OK’d other changes to the plan they originally approved in May, including exteriors lights that comply with the town’s “dark skies” rules that were approved in 2016, as well as a larger driveway turnaround for fire trucks and a relocated septic field that’s necessary because of poor soil conditions in the original location

7L South Commons — Gregory Rowe to Laura Crook Brisson and Brandon Straub for $673,500 (July 24)

36 Morningside Lane — Alan A. Asadorian to Leighanne Wang for $1,600,000 (July 24)

44 Greenridge Lane — Timothy Bruenelle to Vinay Eapen and Allison Matthews for $610,000 (July 21)

5 Grasshopper Lane — Peter A. Blackler to Jessica and Matthew Galica for $1,853,000 (July 11)

49 Tower Road — 49 Tower Road LLC to Leslie Hill for $1,200,000 (July 7)

12 Sunnyside Lane — Robert A. Peattie to Guohua Liang and Yanmei Lan for $960,000 (July 2)

An architect’s sketch of the planned Plaut house and surrounding land.

The Planning Board will decide at its next meeting on September 23 whether to approve a detailed blasting plan that owners of an Old Winter Street property submitted after neighbors complained about the noise from rock hammering.

Workers on the wooded property were drilling and hammering ledge to dig an underground water and utility line to the planned future home of Timothy and Madeleine Plaut. The board gave approval in May for some clear-cutting plus replanting as well as the house, but workers paused the hammering after a neighborhood outcry. The Planning Board asked them last month to submit a plan for blasting, which the owners’ representatives say will be much less noisy and take less time, and to look at alternatives to the planned trench.

“We heard loud and clear about the disturbances that were being caused… but we’ve concluded there’s no viable alternative to eliminate the need for trenching” and town water, Jen Stephens of Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design said at the board’s September 9 meeting, adding that soil characteristics on the property make a well unfeasible. Twice-daily blasting plus minimal hammering will take five to seven days, but if approval for that is not forthcoming, it will take two to four more months of hammering, she said.

The blasting company is required to notify property owners within 250 feet of each blast and offer an inspection before and after the blasts to verify any damage from vibration. The Plauts extended that to 11 homes within 500 feet on Old Winter Steer, Winter Street, and Silver Hill Road.

A view of the middle segment of the proposed Plaut house.

“As long as we stay within the [required] limitations, it’s highly unlikely that cosmetic damage would occur to the weakest construction material” such as horsehair plaster, said Matt Shaughnessy of Maine Drilling & Blasting, adding that the firm carries a $10 million liability policy.

But some were still worried. “People have clearly had very bad experiences” with Maine Drilling & Blasting, said Old Winter Street resident Chris Murphy, citing internet research he had done. “My main concern is that if something does come up, I will have no recourse.”

Anecdotes about potential damage “make people nervous… you don’t know what to believe,” Planning Board co-chair Lynn DeLisi said.

At the September 9 meeting, the Plauts (in absentia) also requested changes to the approved site plan to allow a larger driveway turnaround for fire trucks and a relocated septic field that’s necessary because of poor soil conditions in the original location. Architect Colin Flavin showed renderings of a three-part house that’s “designed to be harmonious with the natural environment in which it sits.” The house is designed in the Midcentury Modern style. Flavin’s firm has also designed renovations to Modern houses on Moccasin Hill and Tabor Hill Road as well as a new house on Weston Road.

Carroll School’s property in Wayland. The Lincoln/Wayland town line is shown in dark red (click to enlarge).

The Carroll School is proposing a major expansion of its campus on Waltham Street abutting the Lincoln town line on Old Sudbury Road to allow it to eventually accommodate five times the number of students it now serves.

The Carroll School, a private school for students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities, has an upper school (grades 8–9) in Wayland, a middle school (grades 6–8 with some eighth-graders) on Baker Bridge Road in Lincoln, and a lower school (grades 1–5) on Trapelo Road in Waltham just over the Cambridge Reservoir causeway from Lincoln.

The Wayland site now serves about 50 students but will be able to accommodate 250 when the expansion is complete, according to documents filed with the Wayland Planning Department. The school’s total enrollment is 454 students in nine grades.

The plan is not to operate the enlarged campus at its full 250-student capacity as soon as construction is completed. It will serve grades 7-9, with the added space giving flexibility for more enrollment or grade realignment as necessary, said said Chris Renyi, assistant head of school for operations and strategy in Wayland.

“This is an early stage in long-term planning to look 10 to 15 years down the road [to see] where and how we can serve as many students as possible,” Renyi said, while also acknowledging that for middle school students, “we are at physical capacity at our locations right now.”

The school proposes to replace two of its smaller Wayland buildings (1,777 square feet and 792 square feet) with a two-story academic building on a footprint of approximately 27,056 square feet and 47,506 square feet in total. Due to the increase in traffic, a school zone with a 20mph speed limit would be created along a stretch of the road.

Although all three Carroll campuses are located in residential zones, the municipalities must allow educational or religious uses of the properties as per the state Dover amendment. As required, the proposed expansion conforms to local zoning regulations on building bulk and height of structures, yard size, lot area, setbacks, open space, and parking and building coverage. The only zoning waiver they’re requesting is so they may provide three bicycle racks rather than the required 12.

The Carroll School was founded in Newton in the 1960s and moved in 1971 to Baker Bridge Road in Lincoln. That property was formerly owned by the Storrow family, which gifted it to Massachusetts General Hospital for use as an extended care facility for convalescing patients, according to an account of the school’s history on its website. The Wayland site was purchased and approved in 2016 to accommodate athletic fields and some of its students. Four properties in Lincoln are directly across the road from the Wayland campus.

Hammering work to break up ledge had gotten abut halfway done by mid-August as shown in orange (click to enlarge).

After an outcry from neighbors complaining about teeth-rattling noise, work being done by hammering machines to break up rock ledge off Old Winter Street has been stopped while the property owners draw up a alternative plan for blasting. 

The work is being done on a three-lot, 8.5-acre parcel owned by Timothy and Madeleine Plaut to install an underground water main that will service a new hydrant, since the house is too far from the road. The Plauts, who currently live in Europe, got Planning Board approval in April to clear-cut and replant several acres of undeveloped land between Old Winter Street and Silver Hill Road.

Since work began, more than a dozen neighbors have complained to the town about the excessive noise from machinery that drills holes in the ledge and then hammers away the rock to create a trench for the water main. Jen Stephens of Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design acknowledged at an August 12 Planning Board meeting that “it’s going very slow” and could take several more weeks to complete.

“There has been a systemic lack of transparency and effective communication, severed utilities (both water and internet), and unannounced street closures,” said Jay Donnelly of 35 Old Winter St., reading from a statement signed by about 16 area property owners. The all-day hammering has “disrupted indoor activities and prevented outdoor activities,” he added.

Planning Board Chair Lynn DeLisi was even more critical, citing harm to “the mental health of your neighbors. You’ve already ruined their summers. There has to be another way to do this.”

The meeting was held to consider a request from the owners to modify the approved plan to allow blasting instead of drilling and hammering. Permission and supervision from the Fire Department would also be required. Matt Shaughnessy of Maine Drilling and Blasting gave a detailed presentation on how blasting is done, the planning and precautions that are taken, and measures to minimize sound and vibration that could potentially damage nearby properties. State law specifies limits on changes in air pressure due to blasting, which sounds like “distant thunder,” he said.

Stephens and the Plauts’ attorney maintained that they were within their rights to remove the rock in whatever way they deemed best. Running the driveway and water main from Silver Hill Road was not an option since the Conservation Commission will not allow a pipe or driveway over the intervening wetlands.

“We have a lot of factors we’re trying to mitigate,” Stephens said. “We’re trying to save some trees [and] trying not to impact the topography with huge amounts of fill. I don’t think there is a miracle solution that is going to eliminate the need for either continued hammering or a much more efficient method of rock removal.”

Young said that in general, blasting can potentially cause “cosmetic damage to the weakest construction material” such as horsehair plaster in nearby houses, though Shaughnessy said the vibration levels would be well under state limits and pose less of a threat to foundations than seasonal temperature changes and high winds. Neighbors also worried about the possibility of radon gas release and cracked foundations, since the ledge under the Plaut property may extend under houses.

“There are a lot of unknowns [about potential damage] that make me very nervous,” said Justin Hopson, whose home at 38 Old Winter St. abutting the Plaut property dates from 1886.

One possibility is placing the hydrant farther from the house, reducing the requirement for 20 feet of trench, about half of which is complete. Stephens said they were “very open to exploring the feasibility of [having] the hydrant at the current limit of excavation” and they would confer with Fire Chief Brian Young to see if that was a workable solution. 

The board acknowledged that they didn’t have the authority to order the Plauts to stop work but asked them to do so in good faith while planning continues in preparation for the next board meeting on September 9.

“You’re hanging out a giant ‘Trust me’ card,” Donnelly said. “It’s been a very long four weeks.”