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

land use

Citizens’ petitions focus on legal notices, notification of rezoning discussions

Two citizen’s petitions will be presented for a vote at the March 23 Town Meeting, one on town requirements for placing legal notices and the other asking the town to provide individual notices to affected residents in advance about discussions on proposed zoning changes.

Towns and other entities are required by state law to put paid legal notices in newspapers about things like public hearings, requests for proposals for construction projects, etc. However, as currently written, the law says those notices must go in a actual newspaper; publishing them in a digital-only news site is allowed as well, but does not by itself satisfy the legal requirement. Many local papers in Massachusetts discontinued their print editions in 2022 and merged some remaining publications, so towns are now forced to do business with the few print newspapers that are left, and those papers have very few readers in the towns they purport to cover.

Article 27, proposed by Lincoln Squirrel editor Alice Waugh, asks the Select Board to petition the state legislature for special legislation to allow Lincoln to satisfy requirements for legal notices by allowing the publication of those notices in local digital newspapers, print media, or both. Since print newspapers generally charge more than digital news sites for advertising, this would save the town money while also providing another revenue stream for the Squirrel.

Several other towns have approved similar citizen’s petitions: Arlington (YourArlington), Bedford (Bedford Citizen), and Franklin (Franklin Observer). State Rep. and Assistant Majority Leader Alice Peisch, who represents part of Lincoln, has also filed a bill (H.2098) that would accomplish the same thing on a statewide level by changing the statute. The Select Board endorsed the measure at its March 4 meeting.

Rezoning discussions

If approved, Article 28 would require town boards, sanctioned groups and committees proposing rezoning of an existing district to notify by mail each property owner, resident, and abutter in the area of rezoning 14 days prior to their first public meeting at which the zoning change would be discussed. Notices of subsequent meetings where a rezoning decision may be voted on would also be required.

The notice would outline the parameters of the existing district’s zoning along with the proposed changes. “It would be different from and in addition to any general information mailing because of the detail it would include,” says the warrant article proposed by Barbara Peskin.

Currently, the town disseminates townwide notices of pending zoning changes via meeting agendas, mailings. and usually neighborhood meetings. When an individual parcel is being considered for a special permit from the Planning Board or a variance by the Zoning Board of Appeals, abutting property owners must also be notified by mail.

The Select Board declined to take a position on the measure this week, saying it needed input from the Planning Board first. When asked why the current notification measures were not sufficient, Peskin said that “many of them [residents whose property would be directly affected by proposed HCA rezoning] found out after the State of the Town that it was going to be considered.”

New RLF proposal shows larger and fewer housing units

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.

Click images below for larger versions with captions.

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Final bylaw includes adjustments for affordability and commercial use

The multifamily and mixed-use overlay zoning map approved by the Planning Board. Click to enlarge.

The HCA zoning bylaw amendment approved on February 26 by the Planning Board includes changes to maximize housing affordability and to strictly limit the ability of an owner to reduce the amount of commercial space in the mixed-use subdistrict.

Going into the meeting, the draft required 10% of multifamily housing units to be affordable. This was because the state would not allow Lincoln to specify its usual 15% minimum unless the town could show in a feasibility study (which it was not able to do) that that higher ratio would be economically viable.

But the board turned around the burden of proof. Section 12.9.3.2 of the final bylaw now says that 15% will be required unless the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities determines in writing that it is not feasible, and then 10% will be required. “This will allow the town to pursue the 15% with EOHLC without having to go back to Town Meeting to change the bylaw to 15%,” Director of Planning and Land Use Paula Vaughn MacKenzie explained on February 29.

Commercial space

Section 12.9.2.3 (part a.10) still says that a minimum of 33% of the gross floor area of all buildings on the lot must be dedicated to commercial use and that the Planning Board may reduce the required percentage of commercial uses by Special Permit “upon a finding that economic and market conditions do not support the required amount of commercial space.”

However, the board added this to the paragraph:

“To support such a finding, the applicant must provide documentation of significant periods of vacancy or non-payment of rent, demonstrate reasonable efforts of marketing such space, and present a report by a qualified independent real estate marketing consultant. The Town may also conduct its own third-party assessment paid for by the applicant pursuant to MGL, c. 44 s. 53G.”

The amended bylaw will go before voters at he March 23 Annal Town Meeting.

Hanscom developer offers plan details, answers questions

The Hanscom Field expansion area is outlined in red. Lincoln’s approximate town border to the south is indicated by the green dashed line.

North Airfield Ventures offered details of its plan to greatly enlarge hangar space at Hanscom Field to the Hanscom Field Advisory Commission on February 20. It was the first of several public sessions scheduled before developers file their environmental impact statement next month, according to a February 21 story in the Bedford Citizen.

While the parcel under consideration lies in the town of Bedford, an expansion of the airport’s capacity will increase air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions — an argument cited by opponents including Stop Private Jet Expansion as well as local and state officials including the Lincoln Select Board.

The project’s proponents say that additional hangar space will reduce the need for “ferry flights” to and from full Hanscom hangars to other storage areas, but the idea that “adding 90 football fields worth of space would reduce emissions from aircraft struck me as hard to believe,” Select Board member Jim Hutchinson said in February 2023.

Four 20,000-gallon jet fuel tanks and one 5,000-gallon tank for aviation gas are planned. Fuel deliveries are expected once or twice a day in 10,000-gallon tank trucks, the Bedford Citizen article notes. Although the plan has been scaled down from 27 to 17 hangars, the total size will remain at around 495,000 square feet, the article added.

The environmental review is not a permitting process. Under state law, once the impact report is submitted, there will be a 30-day comment period. If the content is not accepted by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, the developers must prepare a supplemental report, the Bedford Citizen explained in an earlier article.

Property sales in October 2023

150 Lincoln Rd. — Prince Teabo to Wombat Real Estate Invest LLC for $801,000 (October 31)

25B South Commons — Brett Cramp to Merna Sorial and Marcus Luke for $272,000 (October 31)

13 Oak Meadow Rd. — Debra Peattie to Christopher Hallett and Cara Slaby for $1,400,000 (October 28)

172 Bedford Rd. — Debra Orr Trust to Michael Sonier Revocable Trust for $1,499,000 (October 27)

10 Hiddenwood Path — Edward F. Koehler Trust to Wonho and Youngsheen Jhe for $790,000 (October 19)

11A South Commons — Marisa Gregg to Judith Wong for $551,000 (October 18)

2 Concord Rd. — Andrew H. David Trust to Walden Woods Project for $1,300,000 (October 17)

20R Indian Camp Lane — Gary Davis Trust to Abbie Paley and Jatinder Gill for $700,000 (October 16)

19 Conant Rd. — Nancy M. Harris Trust to Dudley Hollow LLC for $1,355,000 (October 10)

91 Weston Rd. — 91 Weston Rd. Realty Trust to 91 Weston Rd. Realty LLC for $1,775,000 (October 5)

39 Old Sudbury Rd. — David R.W. Harris Trust to Manley B. Boyce II Trust and Karen K. Boyce Trust for $850,000 (October 2)

Property sales in September 2023

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)

Educational pavilion planned for Codman Community Farms

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.

Property sales in August 2023

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)

 

New HCA options would move some allowed units from south to north Lincoln

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.

Battle Road Farm

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.”

Resident input

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.

New Housing Choice Act options to be presented on Oct. 24

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.