land use

At one of the longest and most controversial Town Meetings in recent history, voters on March 23 narrowly approved the Housing Choice Act zoning amendments by a margin of 52% to 48%. The community center funding measure, which needed a two-thirds majority, was approved easily.

Knowing that the meeting would be heavily attended, town officials had plenty of extra volunteers on hand to check in residents starting at 8 a.m. for the 9:30 meeting, and to count standing votes. Both the Todd Auditorium/Lecture Hall and the Reed Gym were at full capacity, with even more people in the Learning Commons. Before the meeting could start, town counsel Joel Bard had to be escorted in by police after he got stuck in the traffic jam of cars trying to park on campus, and an unknown number of residents were reportedly turned away by police and advised to park at Town Hall or Donelan’s. Some braved the walk in heavy rain and others didn’t.

The rezoning issue, already the topic of hot debate for the last several months, started Saturday with a bombshell right off the bat when Michele Barnes of the Rural Land Foundation introduced an amendment from the floor that was intended to address concerns that housing density at the mall would be too high under the revised bylaw. Their proposed changes to the bylaw wording endorsed by the Planning Board on February 26 by a 3-2 vote:

• Reduce the maximum housing density in the village center subdistrict that includes the mall from 25 units per acre to 15.
• To compensate, increase the maximum density of the Lincoln Woods subdistrict from eight to 10 units per acre, and the Lincoln Road/Lewis Street subdistrict from 11 to 12.
• Strike the section (12.9.2.3.a.10) that would allow the Planning Board to reduce the required percentage of commercial use at the mall from 33 percent by special permit if that ratio were shown to be incompatible with “economic and market conditions.”

The amendment thus made “33 percent commercial” an inviolable minimum unless residents approve a further change in zoning language at a future Town Meeting.

The proposal was first discussed publicly at a Housing Choice Act Working Group on the morning of March 14. At that meeting, Director of Planning and Land Use Paula Vaughn-MacKenzie told the group that Ephraim Flint and Lynn DeLisi, the Planning Board members who cast the two “nay” votes on February 26, were planning to introduce the amendment on the floor of Town Meeting.

“In anticipation of a possible amendment,” planning consultant Utile was asked to “develop two alternatives” that would meet the state’s HCA requirements, and the bylaw with Saturday’s amendment passed muster, Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson said.

Many unhappy with last-minute amendment

“This is just off-the-charts bizarre,” said Bob Domnitz. “In the 15 years I was on the Planning Board, we always recommended that zoning not be created on the floor of Town Meeting.” The changes should have been incorporated before the February 20 public hearing, he added, “and I think it’s further evidence that the main motion and amendment are not ready for this town.”

“There’s no way I can really understand and vote intelligently and with full knowledge of what this means,” another resident said.

Although the amendment was reportedly devised by DeLisi and Flint, they did not present a united front in the discussion. “I’m very happy to see that Michelle brought this forth,” said DeLisi. “I love this amendment — I think it’s a great compromise.” Flint was less sanguine. “What I’ve heard this morning is for the most part a very positive step forward… but I agree with Bob that we are not going to get this right on the floor of the meeting,” he said.

The amendment “is not a major change” for the Lincoln Woods and Lincoln Road subdistricts and it “addresses people’s greatest concerns” about commercial space at the mall, said Jonathan Soo, a leader of a citizens’ group pushing for passage. “We can’t delay the healing that this town desperately needs,” he said. 

“Settling the matter now is far preferable to another nine months of arguing about what to do,” agreed Alex Chatfield.

Desire for closure prevails

On Saturday, voters approved the amendment by a vote of 603-216 (74% to 26%), clearing the required two-thirds majority. But more impassioned discussion of the main motion followed.

Speakers protested that the HCAWG did not include any members who live in the subdistricts targeted for rezoning (although the group was appointed before any specific parcels had been identified), and that Flint and DeLisi were denied permission on March 20 by Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden to speak from the podium and use slides. Olson did, however, read the letter that the pair submitted to their fellow Planning Board members on February 26.

“The process has not provided a fair and balanced view of this controversial topic,” Sherry Haydock said. “Voting no is a chance for all voices to be heard… with equal representation and inclusivity,” she said to loud cheering.

But others said that defeating the measure vote would do far more harm than good. Referring to an earlier comment that the town is in crisis and needs “family therapy,” HCAWG member Terri Perlmutter said, “the notion that as a family we’ll come together where everyone suddenly agrees is naive. Family therapy takes years and mayne 50 percent of the time it’s successful. I would remind people to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

“There’s no way to know if that process would be less divisive or more divisive, or produce a compromise with more support or less support,” Soo said. Town officials, staff, and volunteers have borne the brunt of the battle, he added, “and they won’t say it publicly, but I will — they have been treated absolutely horribly. We cannot go forward and subject them and the rest of the town to another nine months of this on the mere wish that we might be able to come up with something better. Voting no would have a real cost to our town… and that makes me worry much more for Lincoln’s future than any zoning law.”

Lincoln’s four Housing Choice Act subdistricts.

The Housing Choice Act Working Group first learned on the morning of March 14 that an amendment to the rezoning motion would be proposed on the floor of Town Meeting to reduce the density of allowed housing at the mall. Group members at that morning meeting (which the Lincoln Squirrel did not attend but watched the recording on March 24) were clearly surprised and not altogether pleased by the news. 

Paula Vaughn-MacKenzie told the group that Planning Board members Lynn DeLisi and Ephraim Flint, who had already voted against endorsing the rezoning measure on February 26, planned to offer the amendment. While anyone (including a member of the Planning Board) is free to propose an amendment on the floor of Town Meeting, “I personally feel it’s really inappropriate, because people attended that [February 20] public hearing knowing that that was the official moment for the Planning Board to go forward. It seems very problematic now to undermine that public process,” Andrew Glass said.

“Nobody’s really going to understand what they’re approving or not approving,” Terri Perlmutter said.

“The RLF [Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall] hasn’t had a chance to think this through and see how much it would affect their interests at the mall,” said Gary Taylor, who sits on both HCAWG and the Planning Board. “Somebody’s certainly going to ask what the RLF thinks about the modification… It just troubles me that we would, out of the public process, change the proposal that’s been out there for a long time.

HCAWG members initially thought that the full board — which had already written, edited, and voted on the measure — would be able to discuss the matter at its upcoming meeting on March 19. Given its 3-2 vote on February 26, “is the Planning Board going to say they’re not in favor of this?” HCAWG member Terri Perlmutter said.

“I think we will be asked to endorse it,” Taylor said.

But later in the meeting, Glass said, “I certainly come down thinking the Planning Board should not be re-voting anything.” 

Vaughn-MacKenzie initially said the Planning Board would discuss the amendment at its March 19 and that the agenda for that meeting had not yet been posted, although the town calendar web page indicates it was in fact posted on February 27. She later acknowledged the concerns about whether the board should discuss it before Town Meeting and said she would convey HCAWG’s recommendation that it not do so.

RLF caught in a bind

It quickly became clear that the RLF would be forced to support the amendment, even without the backing of the Planning Board. “In my opinion, it’s whether the RLF is willing to do this for unity or not. This is all on us — this is no one else,” said HCAWG member Geoff McGean, the organization’s executive director. “I think it would be strange for the RLF to have one opinion and the working group to have another.”

However, not having any public input from the Planning Board “puts RLF in a really difficult position,” McGean added. “It’ll just create chaos on the floor of Town Meeting… it would be helpful to know if the board supports this amendment or not.”

It’s unclear exactly when the amendment went from being Flint and DeLisi’s proposal to the RLF’s. Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson said in an email to the Lincoln Squirrel on March 24 that she heard on March 22 from “multiple parties, including the RLF, that they would be making an amendment… I wasn’t clear on what exactly they were contemplating, which is why I asked Paula to prepare [motion text for] both 15 units per acre and 20 units per acre at the mall… I did not want Utile (who was present at Town Meeting) to try to validate a density amendment on the fly.”

Olson also said that she’d heard from several people on both sides of the Article 3 issue that “for the board to be making substantive changes to the proposed bylaw a few days before Town Meeting was not good practice.” While all this was going on, she was also helping resident Barbara Peskin revise the wording for Article 28, which called for a policy that requires 14 days’ notice on proposed zoning density changes.

“Not only was the short notice on a density change an issue, but our direction from the Special Town Meeting in December was Option C, not a modified Option C. Much as I would have liked to unite the board behind a modified bylaw, I reluctantly concluded that Barbara and others were right — we should not do it,” Olson said. 

Later on March 14, HCAWG held its final public forum on the proposed bylaw printed in the Town Meeting warrant, but the Flynn-DeLisi amendment was not mentioned. No agenda was posted for that event because “we don’t publish agendas for the forums. The purpose is to answer as many questions about the bylaw as possible,” HCAWG’s Jennifer Glass said the previous day in answer to a query from the Squirrel.

The latest iteration of early plans for developing the mall now includes fewer but larger apartments after residents said at a forum in January that the units ranging from 600 to 800 square feet were too small.

At a February 29 public forum, the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall, proposed 40 housing units (down from the previous 47), with one- and two-bedroom units of 708 to 1,261 square feet as well as two studios at 513 and 536 square feet as sketched out by Union Architects (see below). Ten percent of the rental units would be designated as affordable. The bank building and the Something Special building would be demolished and rebuilt while the Donelan’s and the post office/restaurant building remain untouched in this phase.

To accommodate Donelan’s, the main parking lot won’t be disrupted during construction. Twisted Tree could operate out of a food truck and other tenants might be able to use temporary trailers or take advantage of phased construction, said RLF Executive Director Geoff McGean.

As in the past, residents at the meeting worried about the town losing control of what gets built on the property if it’s eventually sold to a developer. Current plans call for the RLF to offer a ground lease. “I think we would have a lot of say [in lease terms controlling what can be built] and I don’t say that lightly — that would be critical,” McGean said. Also critical: passage of the HCA rezoning measure at Town Meeting so the RLF can start working with designers, lenders, town officials and others.

“From our perspective, we’ve got a really long process ahead of us and we need to get going,” McGean said. “There isn’t a crisis today, but we feel there will be.”

The presentation also included a history of the mall and sketches of parking and traffic circulation, as well as the two design concepts (traditional and modern) for the buildings that were shown in January. There are no plans for an underground or above-ground parking structure, McGean said. There also won’t be a traffic study until we have “much more of a definitive plan,” he added.

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