21B South Commons — Alison Siemiatkaska to Jared Laliberte for $244,720 (February 9)
82 Virgina Rd. #406 — Janet A. Branch Trust to John and Elizabeth Maciolek for $196,500 (February 1)
Mary’s Way — Civico Oriole Lincoln LLC to ND Lincoln LLC for $32,375,000 (February 1)
1 Harvest Circle — BSL/BN Groves CCRC LLC of Lincoln to NELP-Commons LLC of Topsfield for $70,852,153 (January 6)
14 Todd Pond Rd. — Rodger Weismann Jr. to Eric and Sarah Ward for $3,215,000 (January 6)
146B Lincoln Rd. — Stephen Smith to Janet and Meagan Maloney for $515,000 (January 10)
263 Lincoln Rd. — Gail J. Matot Trust to Fan Ye and Xueyuan Wu for $1,500,000 (January 11)
19 Oak Meadow Rd. — Robert Valleau to Arjun and Anupam Mathur for $1,520,000 (January 19)
8 Boyce Farm Rd. — Anson James to Seth and Tracy Grandeau for $1,180,000 (January 26)
6 Short Hill Rd. — Mildred Cooper to Burton Hanley for $995,000 (January 28)
The plan to install a solar array atop the old town landfill has lain fallow for a while, but it will “go near the top of our priority list to restart that process” once the Annual Town Meeting is over, said Town Administrator Tim Higgins.
Almost five years ago, voters approved a land swap in conjunction with the Wang property purchase that allowed the town to move several acres of the landfill parcel out of conservation so a solar array could be installed there. The area was deemed the best spot out of 25 potential sites for a municipal solar array that were studied earlier by a consultant hired by the now-defunct Solar PV Working group. Higgins said this week that the site could generate 1 MW of electricity, or enough to power all of the town-owned buildings except the school, which will have its own solar array.
But the project stalled due to factors including the pandemic and the complexity of the process. Minute Man National Historical Park owns the right of way on either side of Route 2A, so the town would need their approval to install power lines from the landfill out to the road. It’s unclear whether who would need to grant that approval — the park superintendent, a regional director or someone at the federal level.
Also yet to be determined is where that line will go (alongside or under the transfer station driveway, or via Mill Street), and whether it will be above ground or underground. If Mill Street is seen as the better option, town officials will discuss the matter with residents there, although Higgins said the line would not have to cross any private property. Any underground work will probably also require an archeological survey, he said.
Finally, the town will have to identify a solar developer and get estimates for up-front costs for that company and the town. The goal is to “generate income for the community or [have it be] a break-even proposition at least,” Higgins said. He and other officials are working with Beth Greenblatt of Beacon Integrated Solutions, the firm that was involved in creating the power purchase agreement for the school’s solar installation. He estimated that all the planning and permitting could be completed by the end of 2022.
To the editor:
Although the body of the article is accurate, the headline of the Lincoln Squirrel article “Town officials marshal arguments against housing rules” (posted March 3, 2022) is somewhat misleading.
It is important to emphasize that Lincoln is not against the Housing Choice Act, nor is it opposing the Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DHCD’s) draft guidelines, which are the focus of this article. The concern is that the DHCD’s proposed rules, as currently written, do not accomplish their intent of providing support and usable guidance on conforming to the Housing Choice Act for smaller towns (like Lincoln). They would have the opposite effect.
Lincoln has a long history of being proactive and diligent in the development and support of affordable housing and still is, as the ongoing support and leadership in this regard from the Planning Board, Board of Selects, SLPAC, COA&HS, Housing Commission, Housing Trust, and many other town bodies and departments demonstrate.
The goal of the town’s response is to encourage the state (and DHCD) to work with Lincoln and other smaller towns to craft a more effective, and comprehensive, approach in support of the Housing Choice Act. We must avoid creating a set of rules that will discourage smaller towns from participating in the effort to address our state’s severe shortage of affordable housing with viable public transit options.
Sincerely,
Allen Vander Meulen
Chair, Lincoln Housing Commission
“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.
In a response to the state’s new multifamily housing guidelines now being drafted, town officials will argue that the requirements are draconian and impracticable for Lincoln.
Lincoln was one of 42 Massachusetts towns designated by the Housing Choice Act (HCA) as “MBTA communities” that will be required to allow 750 units of multifamily housing within half a mile of an MBTA stop (15 units per acre over 50 acres). Towns have until March 31 to give feedback to the state Department of Housing and Community Development. Those that don’t eventually comply risk losing millions in state grants.
Planning Board and SLPAC members met with the Select Board on February 28 to outline their objections to some of the law’s provisions. The most clear-cut issue is that Lincoln was designated as a “bus” rather than a “commuter rail” town. This wouldn’t change the number of multifamily units required, but towns that fall into the commuter rail category have one more year to implement zoning changes, with a deadline of December 31, 2024 rather than 2023.
The housing density required by the HCA would also have a huge impact. Adding 750 units would increase the town’s total number of housing units (excluding those on Hanscom Air Force Base) by 30%, which is “extremely burdensome” for Lincoln and other small towns when considering the effect on schools, public safety, water usage, and infrastructure, said Paula Vaughn-MacKenzie, Director of Planning and Land Use.
Officials from Lincoln and other towns would like to see more flexibility in the zoning requirements. They suggested that the state let Lincoln split the multifamily zones between two areas (those in proximity to the commuter rail station and the MBTA bus stop near Hanscom Field, for example), or rezone a larger piece of land at a lower density, such as 93 acres with eight units per acre. Basing the number of required units on a percentage rather than units per acre would make more sense, they said.
“No one wants to see a 10-story building in Lincoln center. It’s not a project that would fit within the aesthetics and methods of our town, and we are not alone in that belief,” Vaughn-MacKenzie said.
Meanwhile, the train station itself is not ADA-accessible and does not have a platform, shelters or seating, and the schedule and ticket prices do not encourage commuter use. “We have been asking for upgrades for years,” she said. “If you want all of these towns to build more housing near commuter rail stops, then you have to make the MBTA schedule and fares better serve the users.”
Another problem for Lincoln is that much of the land within the half-mile radius of the commuter rail stop is wetlands or land belonging to the Codman Estate and Mass Audubon, while most of the rest is already zoned for some level of commercial and multifamily housing.
The response letter will be signed by the chairs of the Select Board, the Planning Board, SLPAC and the Housing Commission. Many other towns feel the same way as Lincoln does about the new rules and may collaborate in responding to the DCHD. “I think there will be broad statewide support for advocating something different,” Town Manager Tim Higgins said.
One thing is clear after a pair of informational sessions this week: by order of the state, some type of multifamily housing will be permitted by right in South Lincoln some day. Still to be determined is how dense that housing might be — and what will happen if it fails to comply with the new state rules.
The Housing Choice Act will “have a significant impact on the town, whether we choose to comply or not,” Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson said at a joint meeting with the Select Board on January 31.
The Housing Choice Act asks that Lincoln and other designated MBTA communities amend their zoning to allow 750 units of multifamily units within half a mile of an MBTA stop or lose eligibility for three categories of state grants. Lincoln has not received grants from any of those programs (though other area towns have received millions from one of them in recent years), but a state official on Wednesday indicated that noncomplying towns would have lower priority for other state grants as well.
“All [state grant programs] are discretionary and oversubscribed,” said Mike Kennealy, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development, during a February 1 Zoom session with dozens of officials and residents from eastern Massachusetts towns. “We may want to fund more for communities that are trying to get housing done. There’s a lot of discretion about what gets funded and what doesn’t.”
Kennealy and two other state officials began the hourlong session by recapping their presentation at a January 12 webinar. They explained that the final rules will have more flexibility than the draft guidelines that were issued in early January.
For example, the 50 acres in the multifamily zone needn’t be contiguous, said Chris Kluchman, Deputy Director of the Community Services Division in the state Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). There will also be some flexibility for towns that don’t have 50 acres of buildable land within the prescribed radius because of wetlands, obstructing physical features, or issues with water supply or Title V septic regulations, though a future developer could be required to provide wastewater treatment facilities if necessary, she said.
One of the attendees at the February 1 session noted that more than 40 MBTA stations are not currently ADA-compliant and asked how that situation would be rectified for communities that are subject to the Housing Choice Act zoning rules. That event was co-hosted by MAGIC (Minuteman Advisory Group on Interlocal Coordination) and the MetroWest Regional Collaborative.
“We are working closely with the MBTA and MassDOT,” Kluchman said. “I’ll take that as a comment.”
Lincoln attendees raised another issue: the documents issued by the state show Lincoln as a bus community by virtue of having an MBTA bus stop at Hanscom Field. However, Lincoln obviously has an MBTA train station in South Lincoln as well, and the timelines for the two types of communities are different. Bus towns must submit a proposed action plan and timelines for studies by March 31, 2022 and have new zoning rules adopted by Dec. 31, 2023, whereas the deadlines are July 1, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2024 for commuter rail towns.
The state guidelines assign MBTA communities to one of four service categories from highest to lowest: subway or light rail, bus, commuter rail, and “adjacent” (meaning the town has no MBTA service but there’s a stop in a neighboring community within half a mile of the town border).
“If you’re within a half mile of the highest service category, that’s what category you’re in,” said Clark Ziegler, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, said at the MAGIC/MetroWest session.
“This is where our designation as a bus service community is a problem,” Olson said. With a Planning Department staff of two, “this is actually a very tight deadline for the town to come to an informed conclusion.”
Olson and the state officials reminded everyone that the new guidelines do not require actual housing construction. “It does not force anybody to do anything at all. It simply says that property owners have the right” to build multifamily housing without needing a special permit,” she said. “For actual housing, someone has to sell, someone has to buy, and someone has to build.”
Multifamily housing will take years if not decades to appear in the affected towns. “Zoning is a long-term play; it’s not like flipping a switch,” Kluchman said.
Even so, given the burden that hundreds more residents will eventually place on schools, the town water supply and other services, “it might be cheaper to pay for stuff ourselves” and forego state grants in order to avoid state-mandated housing densities, resident Sara Mattes mused.
“We need to organize with other small towns to speak with a single voice about the inequity of how this legislation is drafted for small towns,” said Gary Taylor, chair of the South Lincoln Planning and Advisory Committee, said at the Select Board/Planning Board meeting.
“As a town, we have to figure out what our strongest message is,” Select Board member Jennifer Glass said. But given the fact that Lincoln has already been exploring how to allow more commercial and residential development in South Lincoln, “it’s also an opportunity for us to really stretch our thinking about what does this mean and how can we do some thoughtful planning. Sometimes the best thinking is when you’re kind of pushed to have to do it.”
When all is said and done, “it might not be 750 [units], but there will be a number that the state expects and a number we should probably expect of ourselves,” said Select Board member J.D. Dwyer.
Officials from MBTA communities are required to submit an online form by May 2 that asks for town information and verifies that the draft guidelines have been presented to their Select Board. Other stakeholders and residents may also offer feedback via this comment form by March 31
42 Bypass Rd. — Hanhphuong Vo to Bal Mukund Dhar and Jasmine Dhar for $1,005,000 (December 23)
51 Greenridge Lane — David Cancian to David Cancian for $520,000 (December 9)
104 Lincoln Rd. — Diana Barnes Blood Trust to Juan Pablo Ugarte and Lisette Silva-Sanchez for $1,050,000 (December 6)
31 Conant Rd. — Charles E. Morneau Trust to Vijay Somandepalli and Carly Park for $2,050,000 (December 2)
108 Concord Rd. — Maureen Masterson to Thomas E. and Alison B. Masterson for $930,000 (December 2)
47 Birchwood Lane — Paul A. Mangini to Lawrence I. Ecjler and Carol L. Domblewski for $850,000 (December 1)
6 Reiling Pond Rd. — She Ling Wang to Sajal Swaroop and Arpita Akhouri Swaroop for $1,790,001 (December 1)
26 Morningside Lane — Alexander J. Nichols to Lauren Miller and Michael Brundage for $1,005,000 (November 30)
148 South Great Rd. — Stephen A. Fairfax to Jun Wang and He Qiong for $730,000 (November 23)
225 Aspen Circle — James J. Faran Jr. to Kathleen and John R. Edmondston for $850,000 (November 17)
324 Hemlock Circle — Patricia Lewis Trust to Arthur J. Gleiner Trust for $346,000 (family sale) (November 15)
9 Wheeler Rd. — Peter J. Watkinson to Alexander J. Nichols and Ann Feng Cheung for $1,950,000 (November 12)
354 Hemlock Circle — Susan M. Burt Trust to Sandra N. Bradlee Trust and Henry G. Bradlee III Trust for $705,000 (November 10)
51 Todd Pond Rd. — Howard M. Wiles to Janet and Steve Niemi for $560,000 (November 5)
64 Baker Bridge Rd. — Jonathan B. Ammen to Meghan K. Lytton for $2,050,000 (November 5)
115 Trapelo Rd. plus adjoining lot — Brian A. Byrne to Jesse A. Lefkowitz and Rachel A. Neurath for $1,760,000 (November 3)
34 Round Hill Rd. — Melissa M. Brooks to Clara A. and William R. Broughton for $2,000,000 (November 3)
State housing officials made the case for multifamily zoning in MBTA communities and explained the draft compliance guidelines during a January 12 webinar.
New zoning rules require MBTA communities to allow multifamily housing of a given density in an area within half a mile of an MBTA station or bus stop, or face loss of eligibility for some state grants. For Lincoln, the requirement would be 750 multifamily units (the minimum number for all MBTA communities). The changes are part of a $262 million economic development bond bill passed in January 2021.
That bill has several other provisions and funding allocations that aim to alleviate the housing shortage in Massachusetts, which has among the highest and fastest-growing housing costs in the nation, said Michael Kennealy, Housing and Economic Development Secretary. Although the population has risen steadily, only half the building permits statewide were issued from 1990 to 2020 as in the preceding 30-year period, he noted.
“This has placed an incredible burden on our households and families all over the state” and is making Massachusetts less competitive with other “innovation economy” states, Kennealy said. The new law “is simply good climate policy, good transit policy, good housing policy, and good local economic development policy.”
Gov. Baker has said his administration will take a “thoughtful approach in developing compliance criteria” and that those criteria will “recognize that a multifamily district that is reasonable in one city or town may not be reasonable in another,” said Chris Kluchman, Deputy Director of the Community Services Division of the state Department of Housing and Community Development.
The officials emphasized that the law is unrelated to Chapter 40B, which allows developers to bypass local zoning in communities that do not meet the state minimum for affordable housing stock. It is also not a production mandate; “the actual unit production will depend on many factors,” Kluchman said.
Clark Ziegler, Executive Director at the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, showed a slide with photos of “real-world examples of attractive multifamily housing,” including developments in Sudbury and Lexington (see slide deck below). “We need to show local residents that multifamily is not what they often fear, and that it can be knit into the fabric of any community to create vibrant neighborhoods,” he said.
Lincoln and other towns currently require a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting to approve changes to their zoning rules. The economic development bill reduces the voting approval threshold for approving certain zoning bylaw amendments (including creation of the multifamily district) and special permits to a simple majority. Nonetheless, the state realizes that “that can be a big lift,” so officials are offering technical assistance as well as grant programs for low- and moderate-income housing near public transit to help communities comply,” Ziegler said.
To be eligible for this year’s round of grants, towns must submit an online form by May 2. The public comment period for the draft guidelines closes on March 31. Once the final guidelines are established, MBTA communities must establish a compliant zoning district by 2023 or become ineligible for grants from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, or the MassWorks infrastructure program.
The 750-unit mandate for Lincoln is “infeasible” and “jaw-dropping,” Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson said last week. After the webinar, she commented, “The most interesting part of that webinar is that the emphasis is on the zoning, not on what is feasible nor on housing production. That has some interesting implications that we will have to think about.”
Here are some of the slides from the January 2 webinar hosted by the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (click on a slide to see larger versions and forward/back buttons):
(Editor’s note: when this story was originally published, the accompanying map misidentified the amount of land that would be subject to multifamily zoning under the new state rules. The map has been updated.)
To comply with new state housing guidelines, Lincoln would have to allow 750 units in South Lincoln or become ineligible for various state grants.
Because it has a commuter rail station, Lincoln is designated as an “MBTA community” and is therefore required to amend its zoning to allow multifamily housing with half a mile of the station or face loss of eligibility for some state grants. The rules call for a minimum of 15 units per acre suitable for families and children and with no age restrictions. This translates to 750 units for Lincoln.
The red circle shows land within a half-mile radius of the Lincoln commuter rail station. Wetlands and buffers are indicated in shades of blue, conservation land is in green, and the beige area in the southwest quadrant is the Mass Audubon Society. The town would have to allow 750 units of multifamily housing within that area to comply with the Housing Choice Act. NOTE: this map was incorrect when initially published and was updated on Jan. 19, 2022. (Map courtesy Margaret Olson)
The initiative was announced in early 2021 but the initial outline of the law left many unanswered questions.
“We verified this [750-unit requirement] jaw-dropper with the state,” Planning Board Chair Margaret Olson, who made an illustration of “just how infeasible this is.” At least half of the acreage within that zone is wetlands, wetlands buffer, or conservation land, she noted.
It’s unclear how the existing multifamily units in South Lincoln would be counted as part of Lincoln’s requirement. Condos and apartments with half a mile of the station include 125 units in Lincoln Woods and a total of 65 units in three developments on Ridge Road and Greenridge Lane.
There will be a webinar hosted by the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development to explain the requirements outlined in a 2021 bill on Wednesday, Jan. 12 at 1 p.m. Click here to register.
If Lincoln does not comply by changing its zoning, it would no longer be eligible for grants from the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, or the MassWorks infrastructure program. It’s unclear how much money Lincoln has received from these funds in the past.
