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

land use

Minuteman High School prepares for hearings and looks for artifacts

Jennifer Banister and Colin Stevenson of PAL sift soil form the archeological dig near Minuteman High School.

Public hearings with two town boards are scheduled for the new Minuteman High School project starting this week. Meanwhile, a recent archeological dig at the site of the new building in Lincoln did not turn up any historically significant artifacts.

The Planning Board will hold a public hearing for site plan review on Tuesday, Feb. 28 (time TBA). The board will also conduct a preliminary site plan review on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. The Conservation Commission will hold its first public hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. All meetings are in the Town Office Building.

Because Minuteman High School is an educational institution, it is largely exempt from local zoning rules for the building itself. However, the two boards will have a say on matters such as parking, landscaping, visual screening and wetlands.

Minuteman documents on file for the Planning Board can be found here, and those for the Conservation Commission are here. Given the size and complexity of the project, the town plans to hire a consultant to assist with the reviews.

Pending permitting by the town, the Minuteman district hopes to break ground this spring and open the new school to students in the fall of 2019.

Archeological dig

Minuteman commissioned a four-member crew from the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc. (PAL) of Pawtucket, R.I., to survey the future construction site for artifacts, but researchers came up empty, finding just one shotgun shell and one piece of broken glass, both of recent vintage.

The survey was undertaken because the site’s proximity to Battle Road, wetlands and water sources meant it might contain items from pre-European Native Americans or colonial-era residents. The work was not required by a government agency but was ordered by Minuteman Superintendent Edward Bouquillon to ease any concerns about the site’s potential historical significance and to ease his own mind about building a school there.

“This area is rich in Revolutionary War history. I had no idea what we might find out there, but I’m glad we did this. It was the right thing to do,” he said. The archeological survey cost the district $15,000, a small fraction of the school project’s $144.9 million total cost.   

The PAL team spent more than 150 hours digging 90 cube-shaped shovel test pits, each about feet on a side, and then used a screen to sift the soil for items for interest.

“No artifacts were identified as part of the survey, which is a little surprising, but I think it has a lot to do with the shallow ledge that covers most of the area,” said senior archeologist Holly Herbster. “Our testing coverage was thorough and we targeted areas that were most likely for pre-contact as well as historic sites, so it appears this area just wasn’t utilized as neighboring areas were.”

Even though no artifacts were found, the dig offered an educational benefit for Minuteman students. Social studies teacher Tracey Sierra brought her sophomore classes out to the site to see the direct connection between science and history, and students they also learned about career pathways they didn’t know existed.

Sometimes PAL has the chance to explore a significant archeological find. The firm recently helped document the discovery of a 19th-century schooner buried deep in the mudflats in the Seaport district in South Boston. The shipwreck was found during excavation on a construction project.

Town Meeting warrant article list published

The list of articles for the 2017 Annual Town Meeting on March 25 includes 42 articles that will ask residents for a “year” or “nay” on numerous issues that have been in the news in Lincoln over the past year or more.

Below are links to previous Lincoln Squirrel stories about some of the items. The Squirrel will also publish new stories about Town Meeting articles in the coming days and weeks as more details become available.

Wang property acquisition (article 11)

Accessory apartments (articles 12-14)

School project (articles 33 and 34)

Community center feasibility study (article 35)

Landfill solar initiative (article 36)

Agricultural bylaw amendment (article 38)

Land transactions in December

  • 69 Page Rd. — Deborah Hawkins, trustee, to Narayan and Melanie Nallicheri, trustees, for $3,850,000 (December 1)
  • 63 Todd Pond Rd. — Karen Kirsten-Shaw to Alfred Hunt and Tobin Ayres Hack for $1,375,000 (December 2)
  • 61 Sandy Pond Rd. — Stacy Osur to Paul and Rebecca Blanchfield for $1,950,000 (December 5)
  • 17 Birchwood Lane — Anne Marie Healey to Lawrence and Diane Climo for $559,000 (December 5)
  • 21 Bypass Rd. — Martha Drake, trustee, to Carolyn Congee and Brian Fong-Murdock for $390,000 (December 12)
  • 65 Oxbow Rd. — John MacNeil to Gerhard and Patricia Sollner for $1,407,000 (December 12)
  • 5 Hilliard Rd. — Frank Schultz to Andrew and Anita Spieth for $1,250,000 (December 23)

Public hearings coming up

The Zoning Board of the Appeals of the Town of Lincoln will hold a public hearing on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Office Building to hear and to act on the following petitions under the Zoning Bylaws:

  • Nunzio Domilici, 22 Deer Run Road, for transfer and renewal of an accessory apartment special permit.
  • Holly Hedlund, 21 Morningside Lane, for extension of time on original approved special permit.

The Lincoln Historical Commission will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7 in the Town Office Building to consider the application of Massachusetts Audubon Society to demolish the existing structure known as the “Education Building” at 208 South Great Rd.

A complete list of public notices for the town of Lincoln can be found here.

Two commercial properties moving toward next chapter

By Alice Waugh

Two prominent commercial properties in South Lincoln will see some changes—and perhaps new tenants—in the coming months.

152 Lincoln Rd., formerly occupied by the Cambridge Trust Co. until the branch closed its doors last year, was purchased in November by Cambridge West Partners for $1,015,000. Meanwhile, the new owners of the mansard-roofed building at 2 Lewis St. are continuing renovations they began after they bought it from Sejfi Protopapa in November 2015 for $850,000.

152 Lincoln Rd.

The new owner at 152 Lincoln Rd. has hired KeyPoint Partners to find a replacement occupant for the 3,375-square-foot space in a building that is also home to Barrett Sotheby’s International Realty and other tenants. Decades ago, the Community Store, Lincoln’s grocery store before the mall across the street was built, occupied the entire building, which was faced with pink stucco.

Although the Cambridge Trust Co. is obviously set up as a bank, many kinds of businesses would work there, said KeyPoint’s Michael Branton. “Because it’s a fully built-out bank branch with teller stations and a drive-up window, a financial services tenant could move in easily. However, the property is suitable for a variety of uses, from retail to professional services to office,” he said.

The distinctive Lewis Street property, also known as the Wyman Cook House dating from 1870, currently has four commercial tenants, though one of them—a field office of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT)—will leave in the spring now that its work overseeing the Route 2 project is almost complete. The other three businesses (the Lincoln Barber Shop, Lincoln Town Cleaners and the Travel Station) are tenants at will, and “everyone can stay as long as they’d like to,” said Christina Van Vleck, who co-owns the building with her husband David Nydam Jr.

Back in South Lincoln’s commercial heyday, the building was home to a post office and general store. More recent tenants have included a ski and bike shop, a cafe, and educational software company Lexia Learning Systems.

2 Lewis St.

The top two floors have been vacant for years, and the Van Vlecks are renovating it with the goal of moving their family into the 2,800-square-foot space. They’re also planning some work on the exterior, including exterior paintwork to change the familiar mint green. “We will definitely paint it a new color, which will be a welcome change for everyone,” Van Vleck said with a laugh. Depending on budget, future plans may include replacing the vestibule that was “pasted in the front of the building” with a more traditional front porch, and replacing the aluminum siding with wood or fiber cement siding.

Once the Van Vlecks and their three-year-old move in, “we hope to participate more actively by being landlords and helping foster businesses,” said Van Vleck, a graphic designer who works out of her home.

The Van Vlecks are talking to potential tenants for the 1,900-square-foot space currently occupied by MassDOT and hope to have one in place by early summer. “We very much hope that the building provides space for business owners living in Lincoln or neighboring communities to work close to home and, ideally, provides a service that meets a need within the local community,” Van Vleck said.

November land transactions

(Editor’s note: this list does not include the sale of several parcels of land formerly owned by An and Lorraine Wang that are still going through the state Registry of Deeds.)

  • 102 Concord Rd. — Twelve Miles West Development to Joseph Adler and Preety Kaur Sidhu for $605,000 (November 1).
  • 82 Virginia Rd. #A101 — Mary Dirrane to Mildred Timberlake for $399,000 (November 16).
  • 152 Lincoln Rd. — 152 Lincoln Road LLC to Cambridge West 2 LLC for $1,015,000 (November 16).
  • 41 South Great Rd. — John Neister to James Laplante and Deborah race for $765,000 (November 23).

Town’s hazard mitigation plan updated

A summary of Lincoln’s existing hazard mitigation measures (click to enlarge and click on resulting image).

The Lincoln Hazard Mitigation Plan is being updated to help the town to reduce its vulnerability to natural hazard events such as flooding, hurricanes, winter storms, extreme heat, fire and wind. The town held a series of public meetings and is about to submit the plan to the Massachusetts and federal emergency management agencies.

The draft of the plan includes current mitigation measures, primarily a combination of zoning, land use and environmental regulations as well as infrastructure maintenance and drainage infrastructure maintenance and  improvement projects. Infrastructure maintenance. The plan was prepared for the town  by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council under the direction of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Any comments on the draft should be submitted ASAP to Jennifer Burney, Director of Planning and Land Use, at burneyj@lincolntown.org.

Correction

In the January 4 article listing upcoming public hearings, the item about a January 10 Planning Board hearing about amending bylaws for solar installations was mistakenly followed by a link to an earlier Lincoln Squirrel story about a possible solar installation at the town landfill that was not related to this hearing. The link has been removed in the original article.

 

Public hearings coming up

Zoning Board of Appeals

The Zoning Board of the Appeals  will hold a public hearing on Thursday, Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Town Office Building to hear and to act on the following petitions under the Zoning Bylaws:

  • Seppo Rinne, 93 Tower Rd., for transfer and renewal of an accessory apartment special permit.
  • Randal Briggs, 31 Morningside Lane, for changes to the original approved special permit for renovations to the existing home.

Historical Commission

The Lincoln Historical Commission will hold public hearings at the following times on Tuesday, Jan. 10 in the Town Office Building to consider the following applications:

  • 7:30 p.m. — Joseph and Dana Robbat, to demolish more than 25 percent of the roof of an accessory structure at 151 Old Concord Road.
  • 7:45 p.m. — St. Anne’s in-the-Fields Church, to demolish the dwelling at 149 Concord Road.
  • 8 p.m. — Ventianni, LLC, to demolish the dwelling at 144 Sandy Pond Road.
  • 8:30 p.m. — Birches School, to demolish a garage at 100 Bedford Road.

Planning Board

There will be public hearings at the following times on Tuesday, Jan. 10 in the Town Office Building to review the following proposed changes to the Lincoln Zoning Bylaw:

  • 7:40 p.m. — to amend Section 13.6 to revise the requirements for solar energy installations.
  • 8 p.m. — to amend Sections 6.1, 6.2, and 23 to allow certain commercial agricultural activities by right and commercial agricultural activities that generate annual sales greater than $5,000 per acre or more by special permit on parcels of 80,000 square feet or more. See “Small-scale agriculture expansion discussed at SOTT.”
  • 8:20 p.m.— to amend Section 14.3 to clarify the process and procedure regarding accessory apartments and to add a process and procedure for an accessory apartment that is affordable to low and moderate income households, as defined by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (“DHCD”), and that meets DHCD requirements for inclusion in the town’s subsidized housing inventory. See “Residents hear about affordable accessory apartment proposal.”
  • 8:40 p.m. — to adopt an amendment to the Zoning Bylaw that would establish a temporary moratorium on the use of land or structures for recreational marijuana establishments through June 30, 2018 to allow time to study the issue and develop appropriate bylaws and ordinances.

Tree Warden

On Thursday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Lincoln DPW Office, 30 Lewis St., a public hearing will be held by the tree warden, deputy tree warden and/or their designees to consider the removal of the below trees in the public right-of-way. This meeting is consistent with the requirements of the Shade Tree Act (MGL,c.87) and Scenic Road Act. The trees have been marked with a hearing notice and are being considered for removal because they are dead, in decline, or otherwise posing a safety or operational hazard. Anyone with questions may contact the Department of Public Works Department at 781-259-8999.

 

The year in review (part 2)

Site of the former Aka Bistro, soon to be Lincoln Kitchen.

December

November

October

September

August

July