My Turn

By Lynne Smith

On December 2, Lincoln residents voted with the recommendations of the Planning Board (PB) and the Housing Choice Act Working Group (HCAWG) to adopt Option C. On December 4 at a multi-board meeting, the two groups were aware that the vote was not an overwhelming majority. In fact, Option C received 55% of the votes while Option E, developed by the grassroots organization Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives (LRHA), received 38%. Select Chair Jim Hutchison expressed his view that he would like to see a higher level of support for the proposed rezoning by the March 23 Town Meeting, even though only a majority vote will be needed.

To gain greater support, the Planning Board and the HCAWG have work to do to create Lincoln’s option for compliance with the Massachusetts Housing Choice Act. The PB must develop the bylaws and the HCAWG must communicate them to residents who are now more fully aware of the impact such development can have on the Town.

Developer bylaws for 800+ units are key

At the meeting, members focused on the best ways to adopt bylaws to allow HCA development that will now be concentrated within half a mile of the MBTA station. The HCA model for Option C gives the town credit for 648 housing units, but the LRHA estimates that approximately 800 new housing units could be developed on a by right basis within that small area. The impact of this development on the town will depend in large part on the content of the zoning bylaws to be proposed by the Planning Board and presumably adopted by the town.

At Saturday’s Special Town Meeting, the Selects presented a chart listing the types of “guardrails,” including requirements for certain Planning Board approvals, which the town can impose on developments. It appears that the Planning Board and Selects expect the members of the HCAWG to be part of this process.

The content of these bylaws is extremely important and must be carefully drafted to impose appropriate standards for by right development that will win town support and pass HCA compliance requirements.

Outreach and input are important

Select Kim Bodnar emphasized the importance of a steady stream of communication to town residents, especially those most affected by the rezoning in and near the Option C parcels: Codman Road, Lewis Street, Lincoln Woods, Lincoln Road, and the mall. Margaret Olson, chair of the PB, suggested that HCAWG should manage outreach while coordinating with PB and the Selects.

PB vice chair Lynn De Lisi said that just outreach is not enough and that every meeting of the PB and HCAWG should allow public input. HCAWG member Terri Perlmutter said that there had been a “loss of trust” as residents felt that developers would be given a “free rein” because details of the zoning were not fully communicated. She felt this created a disconnect with residents. Communication with residents is a vital part of the work of the town-appointed groups.

Meetings and topics need organized scheduling

Between now and March 23, the PB plans to schedule weekly meetings to write and deliberate on the proposed bylaws. Craig Nicholson of the HCAWG suggested that the meetings could be organized by topic — for example, height of the buildings, setbacks, energy efficiency and sustainability, and overall design. This meeting format would help participants focus on the key bylaw provisions, allow residents to tune in to the topics of greatest interest, and help organizations such as the Green Energy Committee, FOMA, and LRHA to contribute expertise in a timely manner. Susan Hall Mygatt requested that draft guidelines be issued prior to the scheduled meetings.

All of these meeting suggestions would facilitate better discussions, shorter meetings, and greater resident participation.

Outside expertise still needed

Director of Planning and Land Use Paula Vaughn-MacKenzie said that Utile, the consulting firm that helped develop the C and D options, could continue its role up through the March Annual Town Meeting. If we run out of grant money for this service, we might have use town funds. Town counsel will continue to be consulted for zoning bylaws.

Officials at the multi-board meeting said that the Rural Land Foundation (RLF) needs to provide more information about the potential and proposed development at the mall. They also pointed out that residents need to know what it will look like, what the footprint will be, and the details of parking and traffic studies. Susan Hall Mygatt suggested that several residents in town be invited to sit on the HCAWG in an advisory capacity. Rather than commenting on the draft language from “outside” the Planning Board, they could actually help draft bylaws and develop models. This would increase participation in the process and would likely lead to increased public support for the proposed bylaws.

Voting tabulation at Town Meeting

With over 800 people attending the December 2 Special Town Meeting, the Select Board discussed the difficulty of tabulating ballots on the spot. As many residents who stayed for the entire eight-hour meeting noted, about three of those hours were spent wandering around while the votes were tabulated. While it was fun to get coffee and snacks from the Girl Scouts and eat sandwiches brought from home sitting in the hallways of the sparkling new school, it would be better if the time were spent actually discussing the issues at hand. More people could have participated if the meeting were shorter. Select Jim Hutchinson bravely faced the topic head on and said he would look into it. Good luck, Jim!

The multi-board meeting closed with 41 people attending on line and several in the Donaldson Room. Many Lincoln residents will be paying close attention to the Planning Board meetings where the drafts of bylaws will be discussed. Planning Board meeting dates, agendas, and minutes can be found here.

“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.

By Laurie Gray

To include the mall or not to include the mall — that is the HCA question.

I am a supporter of Option E, and I want development at the mall. What I would like for the mall is for some number of housing units to go up in the range of 150 units while maintaining the viability of Donelan’s. I would also want to keep a commuter rail lot. For environmental reasons, I want to support people who already use the commuter rail. Keeping a grocery store in the mall also supports the environmental mission of the town — to have more people walk rather than drive to amenities. I would also like to see a large percentage of these units at the mall be affordable. If the mall is rezoned through the HCA, we could only ask developers for 10% of the units to be affordable.

What I have heard is developers do not want to go through Town Meeting. That is the line that has been repeated. I agree that developers would rather not have to negotiate with the town. They would not get as much of what they want, which is profit. People have said that developers won’t go through town meeting, and therefore the only way to get housing at the mall is to push it through the HCA. I am skeptical of this.

We the undersigned Lincoln voters have carefully reviewed the options for compliance with the Massachusetts Housing Choice Act at the Special Town Meeting on Saturday, Dec. 2. We plan to support Option C for the following reasons:

• Option C, in which all the rezoning takes place near the train station and in the area surrounding the mall, provides the best and most likely opportunity to create a vibrant, welcoming center for this town.  
• We have confidence in the Rural Land Foundation to live up to its mission to acquire, protect, and steward conservation land in Lincoln as it has done conscientiously since its formation in 1965.

Option C is preferable to Option E because:

• Option E does not include the mall in its rezoning plan. We believe improvements in the mall will not happen in the near future if we delay the process for future Town Meeting approvals.
• Option E designates 54.3% of new units at Battle Road Farm, a disingenuous plan since approval of new housing is unlikely to take place. Battle Road Farm has a cumbersome and complicated process in which 100% of condominium owners must approve a requested change. In terms of approval for new housing, Battle Road Farm is a non-starter.
• We believe that affordable housing can be achieved in other ways in the rezoned areas. We are content, for now, to agree to 10% affordable housing in the mall area.  
• We believe that Option C offers the most environmentally sound approach to joining efforts to address greater Boston’s housing needs and strengthen the use of the commuter rail, while also maintaining our commitment to conscientious stewardship of our environment.

Therefore, we support C, which will:

• Strengthen Lincoln’s commercial area, creating a vibrant center for the town.
• Provide a timely and honest response to the housing crisis in greater Boston.
• Enable Lincoln to work toward an optimal housing affordability ratio.
• Adhere to our values of cherishing our environment while supporting the human needs of our larger community.

“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.

By Benjamin Shiller

After spending a lot of time thinking about the various options for the Housing Choice Act, I have become very concerned about potential consequences of having too much growth too quickly. I thought the most concentrated housing option, Option C, might be manageable at the stated increase in units — 454, or about a 20% increase in Lincoln (excluding Hanscom) housing units. However, digging deeper, I learned that the increase could be much higher than stated, raising serious concerns about unintended consequences. The reason for the severe underestimate is the inclusion of properties with substantial wetlands and town-owned lands. The state compliance model heavily discounts such properties, excessively so, raising the concern that the actual number of additional units may be more than twice as high.

I have created this video, explaining this in more detail, which I hope you might consider viewing. 

There are plenty of ways to do more than our part to alleviate the local housing shortage without jeopardizing our town. We could try to choose parcels more selectively to avoid a surprise. For example, we could choose parcels that are privately owned and which do not contain wetlands. 

There really doesn’t seem to be any rationale for including public lands, as they do not count at all towards compliance. For example, it has been claimed that the DPW needs to be included for contiguity, because the road counts as public lands rather than “public ways” which are to be exempted from contiguity. However, even if you think roads on municipal land do not count as “public ways,” which seems contrary to how Massachusetts defines a public way, one could change it to a municipal road with the stroke of a pen, then drop the DPW from Option C.  

Ryan Estate poses a bigger issue, but one that can be solved with a little creative thinking. Ryan Estate is probably needed for contiguity for options where the majority of the acres surround the mall. However, Ryan Estate could be assigned to its own subdistrict with much lower density, eliminating the risk of surprises. Option E does this.

I close with a question. Proponents of Option C have repeatedly claimed that development would take place slowly over time. If that is the case, then what is the harm of selecting a less risky option, like Option E, along with the mall redevelopment, which together would increase housing units (yes, new housing) across Lincoln by about 15%? This would already be a very large change especially since it is all concentrated in one area. We could do that, then see if substantial rapid development causes any issues. If it does not, then we could do additional rezoning to increase housing units further, and avoid the HCA limitation of 10% affordable units. I have difficulty seeing why all of our housing expansion has to occur right now under the Housing Choice Act.

Benjamin Shiller is a member of Lincoln Residents for Alternative Housing.

“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.

By the Rural Land Foundation Board of Directors

As the December 2 Town Meeting approaches, we thought it would be helpful to briefly remind you of who we are, why we think our preliminary proposal to redevelop the mall with by-right mixed-use zoning is in the best interest of Lincoln, and our current thinking of the HCA options.

The RLF and its mission

The Rural Land Foundation (RLF) is a nonprofit land conservation organization whose central mission, along with our sister organization the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust (LLCT), is to help protect the rural character of Lincoln. The RLF board, made up of 17 Lincoln residents and its three Lincoln resident staff members, all care deeply about this town.

While our primary goal is to help the town conserve land through acquisition, creative planning, and limited development, we also own and operate the mall for the benefit of Lincoln residents. Proceeds from operating the mall fund our land conservation activities in Lincoln. Through the years, RLF’s creative model has helped us work with the town to conserve more than 2,500 acres of land and create over 80 miles of interconnected trails. Whether it is protecting most of the 100+acre Wheeler Farm back in the early 1960s with a limited development model, or more recently, conserving much of the Wang property and providing an opportunity for the town to create a much-needed athletic field, our goals and commitment are to help the town meet its needs and preserve its rural character.

RLF’s preferred option

At the December 2 Special Town Meeting, the town is asking Lincoln residents to vote on a preferred zoning warrant article that meets the requirements of the Housing Choice Act (HCA). Four of the zoning options (C, D1, D2, and D3) allow the town to take credit for the mall rezoning towards the total number of units the state requires for Lincoln to comply with the HCA. We think all four of these particular options make sense for the town to take credit for housing units zoned at the mall. It is our belief that Option C creates the best opportunity to:

• Create new multifamily housing near public transportation
• Provide economically diverse housing options and create affordable housing that may actually be built
• Help the mall’s valued tenants in an otherwise struggling retail environment
• Minimize climate change impacts

We see this as an exciting opportunity to work with town residents and officials to revitalize our small commercial area and create a sustainable and vibrant town center. For any potential redevelopment that is considered at the mall, we are committed to help the town ensure a commercial-based town center for the long term.

Why by-right zoning is best for redeveloping the mall

We are asking for the by-right mixed-use zoning for the mall vs. the Town Meeting process because we believe it:

• Provides the most financial flexibility
• Creates site planning clarity for RLF and a future developer
• Allows the mall to be on the same competitive playing field for developers as other HCA by-right zoned areas within Lincoln and surrounding towns
• Is more likely to attract essential outside capital for much-needed reinvestment in the mall
• Still preserves our commercial center and is more likely to create a vibrant and sustainable town center

Public process

RLF is fully committed to a public process that, in addition to Planning Board site plan review, includes numerous feedback sessions with town residents and many other opportunities to let us know what you like and what you don’t like. Our last redevelopment project at the mall in the early 2000s, where we saved the post office and Donelan’s from leaving, involved a process that included Town Meeting and nearly seven years of listening and public feedback, much of which we tried to incorporate. The uncertainty, cost, and length of that process almost resulted in the project not coming to fruition.

We know many residents are very concerned about the future of the commercial center and we appreciate that interest. The RLF board and staff have worked hard over the years to maintain a commercial center for Lincoln and we hope to ensure a vibrant and sustainable center for the future. It is our belief that a well-thought-out “Lincoln-scale” redevelopment project will help our valued tenants at the mall continue to thrive. However, ultimately, Lincoln residents control the future of our commercial center by either shopping there and using the services or not.

Trust and support

As we have done for decades with our conservation projects, we are respectfully asking you for your trust and support. RLF has a track record across decades of being a thoughtful steward for the town. We are asking the citizens of Lincoln to trust our organization to do what’s best for the community at the mall, consistent with our nonprofit mission, and we seek more flexibility in achieving these goals. We want to continue to partner with the town to improve its socioeconomic diversity while maintaining its rural character, thriving agriculture and open space for enjoyment by all.

P.S. We know that there have been a lot of specific questions about the project and RLF. We will continue to try to answer those questions through the FAQs on our website and the HCAWG website.

RLF board members are Michelle Barnes (chair), Susan Allen (vice chair), Kenneth Bassett, William G. Constable, Daniel England, Andy Falender, Andrew Gnazzo (vice treasurer), James Henderson, Weston Howland III, Diana Jong, Gwyneth Loud, Robert Mason, Ellen Meadors (treasurer), Paul Shorb, Nancy Soulette (secretary), Andrew Stevenson, and Susan Welsh.

“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.

By the Mothers Out Front Lincoln leadership team

Lincoln’s Mothers Out Front leadership team enthusiastically endorses HCA Option C.

We believe that transit-friendly housing is a climate solution. By increasing housing density near public transportation and within the town center, Lincoln will be part of the solution to both the regional housing crisis and climate. In Lincoln and statewide, we feel that housing, climate, quality of life, diversity, inclusion, and a thriving economy are all critically important community issues.

We therefore support enacting zoning changes that comply with both the law and spirit of the MBTA Communities Act. We vigorously encourage construction of additional housing at the mall and near Lincoln’s train station. Option C is the only plan that does not increase density near or in the expanding Hanscom airport and Lincoln’s one environmental justice community.

We encourage the town to continue advancing a broad program of climate mitigation, environmental justice, and resilience strategies through our 2023 Climate Action Plan, including sustainable building practices, ecological landscaping around new development, and minimizing carbon emissions.

We extend our sincere appreciation to our Select Board, the Housing Choice Act Working Group, town staff, and all who have worked towards developing these zoning options.

We wholeheartedly hope you will join us on Saturday and Vote for Option C.

Lincoln’s Mothers Out Front leadership team members are Emily Haslett, Staci Montori, Rachel Neurath, Trish O’Hagan, and Candace Pearson.

“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.