News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.
181 Bedford Rd. — Benjamin Shiller to James and Caroline Gately for $1,415,000 (September 20)
203 Concord Rd. — Laurence D. Herthel Trust to Mary Garlock Living Trust for $675,000 (September 6)
35 Sandy Pond Rd. — Richard Chesworth to Marc Bazin and Jennifer Lachey for $2,500,000 (September 1)
An architect’s drawing of the side view of the pavilion.
Codman Community Farms plans to build an open-air educational pavilion as a precursor to a future project to install a fire suppression system in the main barn.
The three-season pavilion will serve as an educational space for workshops, classes, demonstrations, and small gatherings. The farm, which recently created a new staff position to grow its educational and community outreach, has hosted dozens of schools and corporate groups, and volunteers. Some of those events have included demonstrations to teach farming techniques to Boston-based nonprofit farming organizations and others.
“Teaching agriculture may start with a class discussion or a demonstration before heading to the fields. Thus, agriculture work takes place in the fields and in the classroom,” the farm board wrote in a narrative describing the project.
A map showing the location of the educational pavilion (click image to enlarge).
The one-story, 20-by-40-foot educational pavilion will go on the site of the maple sugar shack, which will be relocated to another location on the farm. It won’t house animals or equipment but it will have a commercial-grade pizza oven for events using Codman ingredients. “It could be used after a canning class when participants could pick their own tomatoes, peppers and onions, and create a pizza of their own making,” according to the narrative. A deck on the north side will offer views of grazing livestock as well as additional gathering space.
“I think it’s a great addition and supports a very important function of Codman,” Planning Board member Ephraim Flint said when the board approved the project on October 24. The plan has also gotten the OK from the Conservation Commission, Historical Commission, and Select Board and just needs a building permit to start construction. CCF is funding the project in full.
Over the years, CCF has hosted gatherings in the main barn, but this can’t continue — the town building inspector and fire chief have told them they can’t have any more activities in that space without a fire suppression system, CCF farmer Pete Lowy told the Select Board on October 30. The farm has a preliminary design for the system, which involves building a small heated room in addition to sprinkler plumbing and could cost anywhere from $250,000 to $500,000, he said.
CCF will ask voters at Town Meeting in March to help pay for the fire suppression system, though who will pay how much is yet to be determined; Select Board members noted that Community Preservation Act funds helped pay for the farm’s recent driveway project at the farm, but the sprinkler system is a code-mandated improvement in a public building, so there’s an argument for the town contributing a portion of the cost.
71 Sandy Pond Rd. — Jamie N. Atkins Trust to Jisuo Jiang and Yangcai Li for $1,598,000 (August 29)
11 Farrar Rd. — Norma Barkamian to Marlen Morgus and Benjamin Bolotin for $1,760,000 (August 23)
73 Old County Rd. — Janna P.Hadley Trust to Dabid Barron and Kristin Budde for $900,000 (August 7)
66 and 70 Davison Dr. — Seventy Plus LLC to Hallie Ransone for $2,180,000 (August 4)
96 Page Rd. — David Kahn to Yaojun Li and Xin Guo for $1,550,000 (August 1)
Editor’s note: this article was amended on October 26 to include mention of the upcoming public forums.
Faced with a torrent of protest over the “Lincoln Station only” option for allowing multifamily housing, town officials discussed three more options that include subdistricts in north Lincoln and fewer units allowed around the train station.
Option C, which officials have already submitted to the state for a compliance check.
The Housing Choice Act (also known as the “3A legislation”) requires Lincoln to allow a total of 635 multifamily housing units at an overall density of 15 units per acre. Twenty percent of that land must be within a half-mile of the train station and at least 50% must be in a single contiguous subdistrict.
Earlier this month, the town submitted Option C comprising four South Lincoln subdistricts to the state for a compliance check to ensure it meets HCA requirements. That option was selected over two earlier proposals that included subdistricts in the areas of either Battle Road Farm or the Lincoln North office building because, at the time, public sentiment at the State of the Town meeting and at public forums over the summer was overwhelmingly in favor of having a single compact area of multifamily housing.
However, since then, many residents have said on LincolnTalk and elsewhere that they want to minimize the number of units in South Lincoln due to concerns about traffic, environmental impact, and overall congestion. (Archived LincolnTalk posts can be browsed here — login required). As a result, the Housing Choice Act Working Group asked consultant Utile to suggest more options that included North Lincoln after all.
A comparison of the four options now on the table (click image to enlarge).
New options D1 and D2 were presented at a multiboard meeting on October 24. D1 reduces the size and and number of allowed units in the Codman Road subdistrict (indicated in green on Option C) while allowing 94 units around the Lincoln North office building. D2 has the same Codman Road reduction but would allow 242 units in the Battle Road Farm area (up from the current 120). Option D3 removes the Codman Road subdistrict altogether while allowing even denser development than D2 in the Battle Road Farm area.
Since it concentrates multifamily housing near the train station, Option C (with a total of 639 permitted units, four more than the minimum) hews the closest to the town goal of revitalizing South Lincoln with businesses and housing and is “most aligned with the spirit of the 3A legislation,” said Director of Town Planning and Land Use Paula Vaughn-Mackenzie. Options D1, D2, and D3 call for multifamily unit totals of 636, 784, and 749 units respectively.
Options D2 and D3 would require the town to allow more multifamily housing around Battle Road Farm — “but the likelihood of anything being built there is pretty close to zero,” Vaughn-Mackenzie said. This is because Battle Road Farm comprises individually owned condos and shared common space, so any developer would need every owner to sell or approve of new construction there. As a practical matter, therefore, Options D2 and D3 don’t include Battle Road Farm as a realistic area for new housing and thus serve as a workaround to reduce the total number of units that can ultimately be built in Lincoln.
“I actually think it’s a negative because it signals we’re just checking a box and we don’t want significant housing added to town,” said Rachel Drew, a member of HCAWG and the Housing Commission. “I’m worried that the state will see it that way — not adhering to the intentions of the HCA.”
While there’s no telling yet how state housing officials would feel about those two options, they realize that towns will add 3A subdistricts in areas that already have multifamily housing, Vaughn-MacKenzie said. “There are different perspectives in town on what compliance should look like… and I think options we’ve presented have run that gamut.”
In an effort to comply with the spirit of the law, the town and Utile initially considered subdistricts in other areas in town that already have multifamily housing. They were discarded because there is no public transportation near any of them, while there are MBTA bus stops at Hanscom Field and Hanscom Drive that are accessible from Battle Road Farm and Lincoln North.
“While bus service at Battle Road Farm may not be great, at least it is something that exists. You can’t make that argument for Farrar Pond Village, Oriole Landing, or The Commons,” Select Board member Jennifer Glass said.
Some residents are also worried that more development in South Lincoln will interfere with a wildlife corridor, but Conservation Director Michelle Grzenda said this isn’t an issue. More South Lincoln development “is not going to dramatically impact wildlife corridors and habitat,” she said. If the town was looking to allow housing on a “big forested patch,” it would be concerning, but putting units in an area that already has numerous businesses and housing “I think is smart planning.”
HCAWG will host two public forums on Wednesday, Nov. 8:
At the Special Town Meeting on December 2, there will be a nonbinding paper ballot “sense of the town” vote by residents on which of the four current options they prefer (and “none of the above” will also be a choice). The Annual Town Meeting in March will include a vote on the preferred option for final submission to the state. Cities and towns have until December 2024 to have HCA-compliant multifamily zoning in place.
Town officials will review two new Housing Choice Act rezoning options at a Planning Board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
The town has already forwarded Option C — which clusters all the rezoned subdistricts in South Lincoln — to the state for a pre-adoption compliance check. But at a well-attended multiboard meeting on October 10, residents expressed a desire to see new options that would allow less multifamily housing in South Lincoln while also allowing some in the areas of Battle Road Farm and/or the Lincoln North office building.
Two earlier options (A and B) included those North Lincoln areas, but they were drawn up before the state changed its guidelines to allow towns to “count” multifamily housing permitted in areas with some commercial use as well, such as the mall property.
On November 13, another three-board meeting will select one of the two new options created by consultant Utile (D1 and D2) to continue exploring. Before that, there will be two public forums on November 8: one in person at Town Hall from 8–10 a.m. and one on Zoom from 7–9 p.m. At those forums, officials will review option C as well as D1 and D2, take questions and ask for feedback on which of the new options people prefer.
Two final options — Option C plus either option D1 or D2 — will go before residents at the Special Town Meeting on December 2 for an informal “sense of the town” vote by paper ballot. On December 4, another multiboard meeting will confirm one final option to put before voters at the Annual Town Meeting in March.
Several attendees at an October 16 meeting of the Select Board, Planning Board, and Housing Choice Act Working Group were worried about excessive development in South Lincoln resulting in a village center resembling the reconfigured mixed-use Wayland Center, which “most of us consider to be ill-conceived and not very attractive,” Select Board member Jennifer Glass said. She assured everyone that the town is not thinking of expanding business use in the mall but “just supporting the bit of commercial that we have.”
Part of what will make the mall more financially sustainable is having the “cross-subsidy” from housing on the same parcel, in effect “de-risking the property” for a developer, said Michelle Barnes, chair of the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust/RLF Board of Trustees, which owns the mall.
Additionally, any development proposed for either of the two commuter parking lots adjacent to the railroad tracks would have to go before Town Meeting because they are owned by the town, not the RLF, Town Administrator Tim Higgins noted.
If people want to offer opinions and feedback on Options D1 and D2 between the October 24 presentation and the November 8 public forums, they can email Glass at jlrglass@mac.com or, if the comment is specific to the mall, to Barnes at la_vise@yahoo.com. A number of comments and questions on the HCA have been posted by residents to LincolnTalk, but Glass warned that “we can’t engage in dialogue on LincolnTalk without running afoul of the Open Meeting Law.”
The December 2 Special Town Meeting will feature official votes on a preferred community center option, and on whether to amend the overlay district zoning at The Commons in Lincoln to pave the way for a proposal to add 28 independent living units.
By Trish O’Hagan and Alex Chatfield
Lincolnites were out in force at a State House rally that one of us (Alex) MC’d on Monday, Oct. 2 and took part in presenting Gov. Maura Healey with a petition opposing private jet expansion at Hanscom Field or any airport.
Over 10,000 Massachusetts residents from around the state signed the petition expressing their opposition to the Massport plan to build 26 new private luxury hangars at Hanscom covering 500,000 square feet.
We reminded the crowd of 240 people that “we are here today supporting our governor, who has promised to be our climate protection champion. We are in here in solidarity with her administration, because we need her to show us that protecting the climate was not just a promise for her campaign, but an essential principal that will guide every decision she makes while she is in office.”
From the steps of the State House, speakers including State Sen. Mike Barrett (click here to read his remarks), Chuck Collins from the Institute for Policy Studies, Diane Proctor of the Concord League of Women Voters, and Chris Marchi of East Boston’s nonprofit advocacy group AIR, Inc., explained how Massport’s plans are a direct and immediate threat to Massachusetts’ efforts to combat climate change.
Perhaps the most compelling speaker was Lexington fifth-grader Kalea Foo, who also presented the printed petition to Gov. Healey’s staff. Speaking on behalf of the next generation, she reminded the adults that they need to do everything possible to preserve a safe climate and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
For people wondering “what’s next” in the process, there is a draft environmental impact report expected from the developers this fall, possibly in October. It will be reviewed by the administration, and there will be a public comment period. In the meantime, citizens can help by contacting the governor and urging her to use her all her power and authority to get Massport to cancel the plan.
For more news coverage on the rally, see this WGBH article. Background can be found in the Lincoln Squirrel (February 12 and February 5), the Bedford Citizen (numerous articles and opinion pieces), and this September 29 editorial in the Boston Globe, as well as the Stop Private Jet Expansion web site.
Want to help? Join the coalition, donate money, and show up to our Tuesday afternoon “stand-outs” at the Paul Revere Capture Site in the Minute Man Historic Park on Route 2A. We are there every Tuesday from 4–5 p.m. We have signs and banners, so just bring yourself!
“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.
A sketch showing where new units (in yellow) and surface parking (purple) are proposed at The Commons. Additional parking not shown will be located under new units. Click image to enlarge.
The Commons in Lincoln is proposing to add 28 independent living units to its campus, down from 47 it sought in 2022. The earlier proposal was withdrawn in February 2023 after vehement protest from current Commons residents, who said they were blindsided by the plan and wanted significant input on how (or even if) to expand.
The Commons is owned by New England Life Plan Communities, which bought it in January 2022 from Benchmark Senior Living, though Benchmark was retained for day-to-day management of the facility.
NELPC wants to build 14 two-bedroom units in the Flint building, six one-bedroom units in the Russell building, and eight new cottages. Plans also call for adding 77 surface and garage parking spots for a net gain of 52 after 25 are removed. A 1962 house near the Cider Lane entrance would be demolished to make room for one of the new structures. The community garden will also be reduced in size, though smaller plots will be created in other parts of the campus to compensate, and walking paths will be added in various places.
The work would start with the parking additions (in particular, spots cut into the hillside facing the main entrance) to alleviate congestion as much as possible during construction. Eight of the 30 units in Flint house are affordable, and the project would add four more of that type. The new cottages will be built to follow the latest opt-in building code.
The project is necessary to “increase long-term financial stability” and make previously planned capital improvements in other parts of the campus; the project “expedites that work,” said Ryan Herchenroether, senior project manager with owner’s representative OnePoint Partners. Independent living units are the bread and butter of continuing care communities like The Commons, he noted. The project would increase the proportion of those units from 65% to 69%, which is still less than Brookhaven at Lexington (82%) or Waterstone of Lexington (74%).
Because The Commons is in a zoning overlay district with specific conditions, a two-thirds majority approval is required at Town Meeting for the plan to go forward. NELPC will also need a special permit from the Planning Board and signoff from the Historical Commission and Conservation Commission. “If we’re under construction a year from now, that would be a success,” Herchenroether said.
Proposed new walking paths are shown in bright green. Click image to enlarge.
Officials from The Commons said at a well-attended October 3 multiboard meeting that they had listened to residents and would make every effort to minimize disruption during construction. However, “I don’t want to portray that every single resident is on board with this plan,” Herchenroether acknowledged.
Dozens of those residents and their family members attended the meeting via Zoom to express their displeasure. Some whose units adjoin the proposed additions protested the loss of windows or unobstructed views (“It looks as if my sunset years will be minus the sunsets,” quipped Mark Byers), while others questioned the financial necessity for the project.
“Without accurate financial reporting, it’s impossible to evaluate the true state of the community,” said Michael Kaminer, son of a Commons resident. He read from a letter signed by many family members of Commons residents that was sent to the Planning Board and asserted that there were many others against the proposal who were afraid to speak up due to fear of “retribution” from staff. He also said that the dining and cleaning services “are already understaffed and the quality of service has decreased” and wondered how the organization would fix those problems while also adding space and capacity.
Joyce Phillips, whose Russell Building unit would be directly affected by the project, said that staff had offered to move her temporarily to another unit while work was under way and then returning her to the original one afterwards. “I have no interest in moving. I moved to The Commons so I wouldn’t have to move again in my lifetime,” she said, adding that she and others are “too old to live through the noise, dust, and construction.”
Earlier in the meeting, Select Board member Jim Hutchinson asked if NELPC might offer inconvenienced residents the right of first refusal to buy one of the new units — something Herchenroether said they would look into.
“There’s a minimum unit count that would make it feasible to help pay for refurbishments and updates to the Flint Building,” said Ryan Larkin, a financial analyst with OnePoint Partners. The added revenue generated from the new Russell units and cottages “can be reinvested across campus… Independent units boost our operating margin and give us more cash [for operations] and make us less reliant on entrance fees.”
Judy Foster, president of the Resident Council at The Commons, agreed that the 2022 proposal “was like a bomb hit the community. Everyone was up in arms… they couldn’t have done a worse job if they’d tried.” Since then, there have been numerous meetings with the council as well as the Steering Committee and more than two dozen other resident groups and clubs to explain ideas and solicit feedback.
“The expansion will impact many of our residents, some more than others,” she said. “I’m so sorry that everybody couldn’t come out of this unscathed,” but the benefits from deferred-maintenance projects and other improvements will make it worthwhile.
“You say there’s a lot of cash flow but residents see deferred maintenance and services. And you say there’s lots of demand. I’m confused — there’s plenty of money, there’s not enough money…” said Becky Regan, who has a parent at The Commons. “I want much clearer financials before the hearing.”
As of Wednesday night, OnePoint had not replied to questions sent by the Lincoln Squirrel after Tuesday’s meeting.
The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the proposal on November 21. There will also be a public session at the Lincoln Public Library on Wednesday, Oct. 11 from 10 am.–2 p.m.
The new HCA Option C includes the mall (in yellow) but not any parts of North Lincoln. The dotted circle indicates the required half-mile radius from the train station in which some multifamily housing must be allowed. Click image to enlarge.
Thanks to a change in state guidelines for complying with the Housing Choice Act, Lincoln now has the option of creating a single multifamily district around the train station without involving parts of North Lincoln — unless residents decide they want to rezone those areas.
Residents will see three rezoning options at the State of the Town (SOTT) meeting on Saturday, Sept. 30 starting at 10 a.m. The first two were formulated by the Housing Choice Act Working Group (HCAWG) and consultant Utile before the state’s change in August. Both include three subdistricts in South Lincoln (excluding the mall) as well as either (A) a Lincoln North mixed-use subdistrict or (B) a Battle Road Farm housing subdistrict.
Before August, towns couldn’t allow commercial development in a multifamily housing district as part of their plan to comply with the HCA. This meant that redeveloping the mall as a mixture of ground-floor commercial and housing on the second and third floors wouldn’t satisfy HCA’s multifamily housing requirements, and the mall would have to be rezoned separately in order to allow housing there.
Now the state says that towns can count multifamily housing units they allow in commercial areas. As a result, the two rezoning efforts (HCA compliance and redeveloping the mall) can be folded into a single Option C that includes four South Lincoln subdistricts and none in North Lincoln.
In Lincoln’s rezoned HCA or “3A” subdistricts (named after the relevant section of state law), multifamily housing at 15 units per acre for a total of at least 635 units must be allowed by right, without the need for a special permit or Town Meeting approval. That housing may not be age-restricted, and commercial uses can’t be required in those districts, though now they are allowed since the August change.
The new option met with general approval among officials and residents at a Planning and meeting on September 26 — to the point where some questioned why Options A and B were even still on the table. Given the recent change in HCA guidelines, the town should simply “take the win and go home” rather than add the complexity of offering two other rezoning options, said resident Vicky Diaduk.
“We felt it was worth having a discussion in town and getting people’s feedback to see if there was an overwhelming feeling about one or the other of the options,” Select Board member Jennifer Glass said. In conversations with Battle Road Farm residents, some were in favor of the idea of allowing a coffee shop or a few retail locations in their neighborhood, she noted. (However, as Diaduk pointed out, residents can propose rezoning those areas or any others in the future if they decide they want to.)
HCAWG will host a neighborhood conversation about the proposed HCA zoning options on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Woods Community Room (50 Wells Rd.). They have also posted an updated set of FAQs that address issues including the consequences of noncompliance with the HCA (go to the HCAWG page and scroll halfway down to “FAQs – updated September 17, 2023”).
At Saturday’s State of the Town meeting, officials will gather feedback about which of the three zoning options that residents prefer. On October 10, the Select Board, Planning Board, and HCAWG will formally select one option to submit to the state for preapproval in December. Residents must then vote on that rezoning proposal at the Annual Town Meeting in March. That vote requires a simple majority. In past years, zoning changes required a two-thirds majority to pass, but the state changed that requirement as part of the HCA. Affected towns have until December 2024 to have a new multifamily zoning plan in place.
The SOTT meeting will also include presentations and discussion on three other topics: the proposed community center, the town’s new Climate Action Plan, and the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Anti-Racism Action Plan.
Any of the three rezoning proposals would allow the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall, to redevelop the main building (Donelan’s and the post office/restaurant building are not being considered as part of this). Civico (which built Oriole Landing) and town officials will work toward a mutually agreeable design; the RLF would then convey the property to the company via a sale or long-term lease. The RLF/Civico partnership is necessary because the town does not have the resources to do the project itself.
The town is also working with The Community Builders, which owns Lincoln Woods, to design an upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant that serves that housing and the mall. That upgrade will also allow development on the town-owned MBTA parking lot at the back of the mall. State grants — which will be mostly unavailable to the town if it doesn’t approve the new 3A zoning — are expected to offset some of the upgrade cost. Construction will be phased to accommodate the existing anchor tenants.
It’s too early in the process for Civico and the town to develop a concrete proposal, other than the general plan of putting two stories with about 50 housing units above the ground-floor retail portion of the mall. Planning Board member Ephraim Flint expressed concern that lack; “without it, you put the [rezoning] vote at risk,” he said. However, because there is already an interested developer, the mall project will likely come to pass in the next few years. Properties in the other districts would need to attract developers to actually result in more housing — a longer-term prospect, officials noted.
15 Oak Meadow Rd. — Sean Crovetti to Taylor Ortiz and Veronica Lei for $1,407,500 (July 31)
5 Red Maple Lane — John P. Neri Trust to Xida Sun and Yuan Zhao for $895,000 (July 26)
11 Sunnyside Lane — Chung Yao Chao to Brett Cramp and Maria Obolensky for $961,000 (July 25)
154 Chestnut Circle — Christine McElvenny to Jonathan Wolfson for $810,000 (July 25)
4 Farrar Rd. — Mary Steedly to Thomas Martin and Martha Davis for $1,200,000 (July 17)
93 Tower Rd. — Seppo Rinne to Charles Libby and Lindsay Lawrence for $1,370,000 (July 14)
140 Lincoln Rd. — Esther Kalisky Trust to Jeffrey Exelrod and Sharon Milinsky for $540,800 (July 7)
8C North Commons — Shanshan Yue to Aditi Agashe and Radhakrishnan Srinivasan for $445,000 (May 30)
82 Virginia Rd. #A102 — Anne Coyle to Harold Posgate for $216,706 (May 31)
47 Deerhaven Rd. — Thomas Griggs Jr. to Clary Realty Trust for $1,100,000 (May 1)
24 Sandy Pond Rd. — Geoffrey Hargreaves Heald to Douglas A. Melton Trust and Gail A. O’Keefe Trust for $1,950,000 (May 31)
58 Weston Rd. — Joachim Fruebis Trust to Vincent Roche 2004 Trust for $3,250,000 (May 1)
139 South Great Rd. — Lawrence B. Cohen Trust to Ethan Litman and Cara Sunberg for $1,007,000 (May 8)
140 Lincoln Rd. #115 — Mary S. Cancian Trust to Kathleen Stewart for $418,000 (May 8)
136 Weston Rd. — Jude McColgan to 126 Weston Rd. Nominee Trust for $2,480,000 (May 31)
194 Lincoln Rd. — Umar Ashad to Benjamin Shiller and Laurie Gray for $1,920,000 (May 16)
300 South Great Rd. — Daniel A. Nelson to Robert Haslinger and Rheinila Fernandes for $1,764,750 (May 11)