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Community center planners mull input including a Smith site

A group of Lincoln design professionals wrote a memo to campus planners urging that they consider locating the community center on the current Smith school site rather than on the Hartwell side of campus, but the reaction among community center planners was lukewarm last week.

At its February 14 meeting, the Community Center Preliminary Planning and Design Committee reviewed feedback collected on the initial set of six concepts for a community center. Most popular with residents at the community workshops on January 30 were Schemes 2, 3A, and 3B. The latter two options call for retaining and renovating all three Hartwell pods, but 3B put some of the parking between the main Hartwell building and Lincoln Road where the Strat’s Place playground used to be. Residents and the CCPPDC liked the building shape and location of Scheme 3B and the parking in Scheme 3A, so architect Maryann Thompson will include an illustration with that combination in the next round of designs she’ll present at the March 13 CCPPDC meeting.

The CCPPDC also decided that, regardless of which option is selected, there will not be parking on the Strat’s Place site, and any pods not folded into the community center will be renovated (work that would have to include new windows and bathrooms as well as fire code and handicapped accessibility upgrades). However, that renovation work could be done separately from the community center construction.

“We’re waiting to see what the school [which owns the pods] is going to do with these buildings,” CCPPDC Vice Chair Margit Griffith said. “The community is not necessarily aware of who owns them and who has the right and the budget” to demolish or renovate them.

The Smith idea

The February 12 memo addressed to both the CCPPDC and the School Building Committee addressed several issues with the school and community center proposals. Among its recommendations: putting the community center on the space currently occupied by the old Smith building. That space would be freed up if the town chooses for school option B6, which concentrates the building on the north side of the ballfield. The authors note that there is community interest in preserving the 1953 Smith gym, which has historically appealing wooden rafters and floors as well as a stage.

Sketches of two concepts for a community center on the Smith side of the campus (click to enlarge).

In response to the memo, Thompson presented two options for a west-wide community center, one with 35,400 square feet and the other with 28,600 square feet. A 19,000-square-foot building would be sufficient to meet the needs of the Council on Aging and the Parks and Recreation Department, according to 2014 estimates.

Both plans would be more expensive than any of the east-side proposals due to higher construction and renovation costs associated with the larger footprints, though Thompson did not have exact cost estimates as of last week. Reusing some of the Smith building is also less than ideal for seniors because of the long hallway they would have to traverse. The gym’s acoustical properties also make it problematic for use by seniors, Council on Aging Director Carolyn Bottum noted. Furthermore, despite the larger total footprint, the rest of the community center might actually be a bit squeezed since the gym takes up so much of the space, Thompson added.

“Programmatically this doesn’t work well, according to the earlier community center study committee,” resident Sara Mattes commented. “To spend more money on rehabbing something that doesn’t meet programs needs and requires additional parking, paving over what was going to be green space, seems to be a bit of an anathema.”

“If it was cheaper [than the Hartwell options], then maybe the town would say it’s worth suffering some of the challenges that go along with it, but learning that it’s at least as expensive and maybe more, as well as more expensive on the operating side—I don’t know how we could justify it to the town,” CCPPDC member Tim Christenfeld said.

Of the Smith building, resident Owen Beenhouwer (also an architect) said, “I think it’s a candidate for coming down. I think we need to be building for the future and not just keeping the past half alive.”

Thompson acknowledged that “you would never get a gym like that now” with its wooden rafters and natural light. “I don’t think it should get torn down, but I don’t know what to do with it.”

The memo authors urged the school and community center planners to hold a joint charrette as soon as possible to better coordinate campus planning and discuss possible ways to keep the Smith gym.

The memo was written by Doug Adams, Gary Anderson, Ken Bassett, Lucretia Giese, Ken Hurd, Judith Lawler, Brooks Mostue, David O’Neil, Steven Perlmutter, Dana Robbat, and Peter Sugar. Adams, Bassett, Perlmutter, and Sugar were members of the School Building Advisory Committee that was formed after the 2012 defeat of the school plan that had been accepted for funding by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). Giese and Robbat are among the founders of Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln.

Adams and Bassett were also members of the “Fireside Seven,” a group of Lincoln architects and designers who developed an L-shaped design alternative after the 2012 vote in hopes of retaining MSBA funding. That alternative was rejected by the agency as being too different from what it had approved originally.

Community center group looks at next set of ideas on Tuesday

The current layout of the Hartwell area and the available parking on the Ballfield Road campus (click to enlarge).

Residents can see the next round of design ideas for a community center at the regular meeting of the Community Center Preliminary Planning and Design Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 4:45 p.m. in Hartwell Pod A.

The CCPPDC and architects showed six options at workshops on January 30 with restimated price tages of $13 million to $16.5 million and have been going through comments left by residents on sticky notes. They also welcome feedback via email at CCPPDC@lincolntown.org.

The committee is also working to incorporate the work of the School Building Committee. Early results from the SBC workshops on January 23 indicated that 77 percent of attendees preferred a mostly new school building at an estimated cost of $89.8 million.

The SBC is taking the lead on campus planning because the school is a much larger project and also because the school owns the buildings on the east side of the campus, even those not being used by the Lincoln School. The four buildings on that side—the main Hartwell building and the three pods—collectively house the school district administration, the Lincoln Integrated Preschool, the Magic Garden Children’s Center, the Parks and Recreation office and program spaces, LEAP, storage spaces, and the school’s repair shop.

“There has to be a place for all of these things between the two projects. This is why we’re taking a whole-campus approach to the planning and why the CCPPDC is following the SBC; we’re not at the same design stage on purpose,” said CCPPDC Vice Chair Margit Griffith. “They refine, we refine; we share feedback, they share feedback. Much of what they do will inform our process.”

77% in survey prefer a mostly new school building

An outline of Option B6 with new construction in blue and renovated areas in gray. The new southeast portion would have two floors. (Click image to enlarge.)

The vast majority of residents surveyed after January 23 presentations on options for the Lincoln School preferred the most compact and expensive scheme costing an estimated $89.8 million. Option B6, which concentrates the school on the north side of the ballfield, includes a two-story classroom segment.

The School Building Committee and architects will host a “mini workshop” showcasing work that’s been done since the January 23 workshops on Friday, Feb. 9 at 9:30 a.m. in Bemis Hall.

Of the 156 residents who completed a feedback survey after the two community workshops in January, 77 percent preferred Option B6, which calls for a mostly new building that retains the two gyms and auditorium (see pgs. 38-43 in the January 23 slideshow). Fifteen percent preferred a comprehensive renovation (Option A3.4, pgs. 32-36) with an estimated price tag of $88.3 million, while 5 percent chose the repair-only scheme costing $48.7 million.

The School Building Committee is still going through the written comments in the surveys. However, SBC Chair Chris Fasciano said there had been feedback on the fact that the three comprehensive renovation options (A1.1, A3.4 and B6) call for three fewer classrooms than the school now has, or would have in the “optimal program” concepts shown at the State of the Town meeting in November (excluding the new preK classrooms). “We have asked the design team to come up with concepts that include those classrooms in the plans. We hope to see them soon,” he said.

All of the latest series of options call for moving preK from Hartwell to the main school building, which would also contain an area for school administration while leaving the district administrative offices (superintendent of schools, etc.) at Hartwell. If preK does in fact move, other functions, such as technology might move out of the school and into Hartwell, but “it’s important to note that no final decisions have been made at this point in the SBC process,” Fasciano said.

Some of those who attended the workshops wondered if the school would quickly become too small if the Oriole Landing project, which calls for 60 units of mixed-income housing, is approved and more families with children move into town.

“Most of the housing in Lincoln is single-family housing that could turn over at any time, so flexibility is an important part of any plan. We’re confident that the current designs could accommodate normal fluctuations in student enrollment, including any potential increase from construction at Oriole Landing,” Fasciano said, adding that the 2012 MSBA project had the same number of classrooms as the current essential program.

In addition to the regular SBC meetings (the next is February 13), there are other meetings on the school project coming up. The design team and some of the architects who live in Lincoln will meet on Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 1 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room to explore design ideas for the project concepts. On March 7 at 7 p.m. (location TBA), sustainability consultant Bill Maclay and the desing team will  talk about the sustainability implications of the range of project concepts.

A second set of community workshops will take place on March 13.

Resident raises money for cow shelters, but farmer questions need

Lincoln resident Barbara Peskin has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for two permanent cattle shelters at Codman Community Farms—an effort that’s highlighted differing perceptions of animal welfare and the funding needs of the farm as a whole.

Peskin started thinking about the campaign after seeing CCF cows exposed to stormy weather last fall. She noted that the MSPCA had recommended a shelter for a field that didn’t have one, so Farm Manager Pete Lowy placed a livestock trailer in that field for the winter. Another cattle pasture already has permanent shelters.

“It honestly broke my heart that the cows were out there with no protection. I just felt a strong compassion for the cows. I have a strong compassion for all animals. I’ve learned from the MSPCA that while cows raised for beef have very little protection in Massachusetts, they are supposed to be given protection in severe weather,” Peskin said.

However, beef cattle are hardier than they may appear, and shelters can actually cause other problems, Lowy said.

“Beef cows don’t need shelter, just a windbreak,” he said. “As long as they have access to plenty of hay and water, they’re sturdy and fine. Even the cows on the hill rarely hang out in the shelters. Manure building up in the shelters becomes a health issue, which is why most farms with beef cows don’t have shelters.”

There are no cows on the Codman North field during the winter since it lacks permanent fencing. In the summer, they need shade but not protection from the rain, so they have a portable sun shade that can be moved along with the temporary electric fencing that the farmers shift every few days to rotate grazing areas.

Cattle shelters are not high on the funding priority list for CCF, but Lowy told Peskin to “go for it” if she wanted to raise money on her own and donate the shelters, which will cost a total of $7,240.

“We have a long list of projects for the farm for 2018 and 2019, and we’re focusing on improving the pastures through improved fencing and animal rotations rather than fixed shelters,” Lowy said.

Peskin’s GoFundMe page acknowledges that CCF “has many pressing issues that require funds” and shelters are not a high priority for Lowy or the CCF board. However, while the cows may not need shelter to survive, “surviving is not all there is to life… we can improve their well-being and comfort by providing them with shelter.”

In an email to the Lincoln Squirrel, Peskin added that, “they [the cows] are beings, and I think the shelters would set an example for Lincoln children and all our visitors that we have compassion for all animals. I would note that the Drumlin Farm cows do get these shelters and better (I know Drumlin has more money and volunteers). The shelters are a small but important gesture we can do for the Codman cows that will give them some protection from driving rain, driving snow, and high heat.”

Public forums and other meetings scheduled for Oriole Landing proposal

A schedule of important dates for the Oriole Landing proposal (click image to enlarge or click here to see this on the town’s Oriole Landing website).

Civico Development and town officials have scheduled several public forums and meetings on the proposed Oriole Landing mixed-income housing development. The next forum is Tuesday, Feb. 6 from 2:30–4 p.m. in Bemis Hall.

If approved, Civico will build 60 units of housing—15 of them deed-restricted as affordable—in two adjacent buildings on Mary’s Way abutting The Commons (see this January 15 Lincoln Squirrel article for more information). The developer touts the proposal as a way to attract both new residents and current Lincoln residents looking to downsize but stay in town.

Residents will be asked at the March 25 Annual Town Meeting to approve two measures relating to the project: a zoning change to establish a North Lincoln Planning Development Overlay District, and a preliminary development and land use plan for the project. If it gets those approvals, the plan must later undergo a site plan review with details on traffic and environmental impacts and get a special permit from the Planning Board.

More information:

 

21 Lincolnites take out candidacy papers for town election

As of Thursday, Feb. 1, the following residents have taken out nomination papers for town offices that will be up for election on March 26, 2018:

Board or CommitteeOpenings/termsCandidates
Board of AssessorsOne for three yearsEdward Morgan*
Board of Health
One for three yearsPatricia Miller*
Board of SelectmenOne for three yearsJennifer Glass*
Cemetery CommissionOne for three yearsSusan S. Harding,* Carol DiGianni
Commissioners of Trust FundsOne for three years—
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park TrusteesOne for four yearsJonathan Rapaport
Housing CommissionOne for three years, one for two years, one for one year Evan Gorman,* Bijoy Misra,* Keith Gilber
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional District School CommitteeTwo for three years**Gerald Quirk,* Carol Marie Kasper, Robert Stein
Parks and Recreation CommitteeOne for three yearsAdam Hogue, Rey Romero, Sarah Chester
Planning BoardOne for three yearsGerald Taylor*
School CommitteeTwo for three yearsPeter Borden,* Alvin L. Schmertzler*, Catherine Bitter
Trustees of BemisOne for three yearsMimi Borden
Water CommissionOne for three yearsRobert B. Antia*

* incumbent

There are still no candidates for Commissioners of Trust Funds position.

Nomination papers must be taken out by Friday, Feb. 2 and filed by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 6. A final list of candidates who will appear on the ballot will be published after that.

A Q&A with author of “Miranda’s War,” a novel set in Lincoln

Howard Foster

Chicago attorney Howard Foster is the author of Miranda’s War: A Novel of the UpZone set in Lincoln. The protagonist, a wealthy Lincolnite married to a professor, uses her new position on the Conservation Commission to fight what she sees as hypocritical zoning attitudes in town. Foster will give a talk and book-signing on Monday, Feb. 5 at 1 p.m at the Lincoln Public Library. The Lincoln Squirrel recently interviewed him by email.

Tell me a bit about how you came to write the novel. Why did you set it in Lincoln specifically? Clearly you’ve spent some time in Lincoln—did you ever live here, and if so, when?

I grew up in Newton and have always thought Lincoln was unique and fascinating. I’ve lived in Chicago for the last 28 years and have traveled all over the country and have not seen a place like it culturally and politically.

Have you been involved with disputes over local planning and zoning, either as an attorney or a property owner?

Yes, as a lawyer, over cell towers. Very dull.

Miranda seems to be a contradiction in some ways. For example, she’s bright, cultured and well educated, yet she scoffs at academics. Why?

She is married to an academic and reviles them. She thinks they are guilt-ridden hypocrites, but she loves to live among them.

Do you consider Miranda to be a hero, antihero, or something else? Put another way, do you share her beliefs about zoning?

That’s a great question. She is true to what she regards as the original mission of the Lincoln Board of Selectmen who imposed two-acre zoning circa 1951. They wanted to stop sprawl after Route 128 was built and keep the town semi-rural. But she is also using her cause to embarrass the academic liberals she disdains. She wants them to have to admit they are snobs and elitists.

What made Miranda the way she is?

She comes from a small city in northern Vermont that is fairly rural, and was exceptionally bright, ambitious, socially snobbish, driven to marry someone like Archer. She also has a mental illness, impulse control disorder, which makes her interactions with others fraught.

Your publisher’s website says it promotes books for “readers of a conservative or libertarian bent.” Would you use those words to describe yourself? How have your views on politics and culture evolved during your life?

I am politically center-right, not libertarian. I know the publisher, Adam Bellow, who started Liberty Island. Over time, I have become much more interested in economics. It explains everything that happens.

The book talks a lot about wealthy suburban guilt. Do you think many of the people in real life in towns like Lincoln are hypocrites who aren’t sincere about giving economic opportunity to lower-income people? 

Yes.

The book raises some basic questions about the nature of zoning and land use. In a perfect world, how much control do you think should people be allowed to have over things like the appearance of their neighbor’s houses and how other people’s property in their town is used?

A lot. I took some liberties in the book. For example, I do not believe Lincoln has a [house] color code in its zoning ordinance—at least I could not find it in the statute—so someone could paint their house bright orange and get away with it. Yet nobody does that. So there is a de facto color code in place. Lincoln is more regimented than almost every other community in the Boston area and far more so than any in the Midwest. The people who live there want that, and those who don’t like it don’t live there. That seems fine with me.

You obviously wrote the book  before Trump became president and focused a spotlight on political correctness, isolationism, and “America First.” If you were to start writing the book today in light of the events and conversations over the past year, would you do anything differently?

I think Miranda does mention Trump’s name once, but that was, as you say, before he was elected.  My publisher, Mr. Bellow, thinks she is a Lincoln version of Trump. There are definitely some similarities, though she is much more refined than him. I can see her using a phrase like “let’s make Lincoln great again,” building more of a wall with the outside world, disdaining those that want to enter illegally and change the town, etc. If I were writing it now, I would draw this parallel explicitly, and so would everyone around her. That would be very troublesome for her because Trump is so unpopular in Lincoln.

What’s been the reception to the book? Have you written other books, and do you plan to write another?
This is my first. The reception has been decent. I’d like more events like the one in Lincoln. Mr. Bellow would like me to write a sequel which takes Miranda to the next level. I’m thinking about it.

Community center schemes posted; workshops on Tuesday

The current layout of the Hartwell area and the available parking on the Ballfield Road campus (click to enlarge).

The Community Center Preliminary Planning and Design Committee unveiled a series of concepts on their website on Sunday in advance of two public forums on Tuesday, Jan. 30. The building will be a new home for the Parks and Recreation Department and the Council on Aging as well as other community groups.

Residents will have a chance to examine, discuss, and comment on the concepts from Maryann Thompson Architects and the CCPPDC on Tuesday from 8–10 a.m. or 7–9 p.m. in Hartwell B pod. The concepts call for demolishing at least one of the existing pods and building a community center north of the main Hartwell building, with various configuration options for 100-110 parking spaces, compared to the current 54 spots in the Hartwell lot. Early cost estimates range from $12 million to $16.5 million.

The CCPPDC is working in parallel with the School Building Committee, which unveiled three project concepts for the Lincoln School (as well as options for repair-only and repair-and-minimal-renovation) on January 24.

Based on earlier feedback from residents, the community center architects created some preliminary designs based on guiding principles including:

  • Sustainability
  • Natural light and views
  • A casual gathering space for the Council on Aging that is not shared with other organizations, as well as “nooks” for other small gathering spaces
  • A nexus or center of activity where paths cross
  • A plan that improves the overall condition of the wetlands within the Hartwell area

The plans are summarized below (click on the small images to see larger versions), with pros and cons of each concept as identified by the arhcitects. The full report can be seen here.

Scheme 1 – Central secondary green with peripheral parking ($13–15.5 million)

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Scheme 2 – Central main campus with green “L” ($13–15.5 million)

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Scheme 3A – Infill with peripheral parking ($13–15.5 million)

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Scheme 3B – Solar infill alternate with peripheral parking ($12.5–15.5 million)

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Scheme 4A – Woodland path scheme with centralized parking ($13.5–16.5 million)

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Scheme 4B – Woodland path alternate with centralized parking ($12–14 million)​

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Lincoln women rally on one-year anniversary of 2017 event

(Editor’s note: Click here to see Lincoln Squirrel coverage of the 2017 women’s marches in Boston and Washington, D.C.)

To the editor:

Last Saturday, four women from Lincoln—Lucretia Giese, Julie Hibben, Suzy Karl and I—joined the throngs of marchers on the Cambridge Common to commemorate and advance the goals of the first anniversary of the extraordinary Women’s March of January 21, 2017.

It was an unexpectedly mild January afternoon, and the crowd was a cheerful and lively mix of families, students, women and men, young and old (though predominately young), and even pets. There was not an actual march. Rather, one might call it a rally or gathering featuring several speakers from diverse backgrounds, including Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, Congresswoman Katherine Clark, and Cambridge Mayor Mark McGovern.

Two of the signs seen on Cambridge Common. (Photos courtesy Barbara Slayter)

We four Lincolnites largely milled around the Common with others trying to inch ever closer to the platform so we could hear the speeches and see Healey’s “The Future is Female” T-shirt. While we heard only parts of her speech praising activists for standing up for immigrants, safe communities, health care and civil rights, we had ample opportunity to marvel at the clever signs and posters and enjoy the presence of children clad in pink jackets, hats or mittens, and the many dogs with pink (even pink plaid) woolen coats. I had dusted off my pink “pussy hat” from last year’s march and joined the ranks of pink-hat-clad women!

Organizations touting their advocacy roles ranged from Jamaica Plain’s Grandmothers for a Brighter Future (of which there is an active contingent in Lincoln) to the Boston Mayday Coalition, which focuses on protecting undocumented immigrant workers from the threat of deportation. Issues were also well represented on numerous signs: “I March for 100% Renewable Energy,” “Save DACA Now,” “Resist Deportation,” and “Black Lives Matter.”

Left to right: Suzy Karl, Lucretia Giese, Julie Hibben, and Barbara Slayter.

The expansion of the continuing Women’s March agenda was reflected in the sign saying “We rise by lifting others, all genders, all abilities, all races, all religions.” Noteworthy was an emphasis on respect, dignity, and full equality for all people, which was reflected in speakers who represented not only women from minority groups but also those concerned about prison reform and violence.

Is last year’s Women’s March morphing into a movement? Is women’s activism, whether on specific issues or in seeking office, emerging into a significant political phenomenon? This remains to be seen, but the continuing energy exhibited by women activists is heartening. Posters such as “Grab ‘Em by the Polls,” “First We Marched, Now We Run,” and “See You at the Polls” suggest that we’ll be hearing more from the marchers of 2018.

Sincerely

Barbara Slayter
7 Trapelo Rd.

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Considering and comparing school options on Tuesday

An important milestone in planning for the Lincoln School project arrives on Tuesday, when residents will have a chance to voice opinions and ask questions about a range of renovation and construction concepts.

In November and December, architects presented options for a mostly new school (the “B” options) or renovating and adding to the existing building (the “A” options). On January 10, the School Building Committee saw a subset of those concepts: option A1, four variations on option A3, and the least expensive “B” concept. Estimates for those six options start at $73 million, whereas a repair-only project would cost about $48 million. However, cost estimates and building design sketches are very approximate at this stage, the SBC noted.

The identical workshops will be on Tuesday, Jan. 23 from 8–10 a.m. and 7–9 p.m. in the Reed Gym.

At both sessions, the Finance Committee will also provide a high-level overview of updated financial parameters. Preliminary finance numbers were discussed at the multiboard meeting earlier this month. The workshops will serve as an opportunity to make comparisons in advance of a special Town Meeting on June 9, when they will a vote on a preliminary design.

The framework for evaluating choices includes these guiding principles:

Educational program:

  • Create engaging and inspiring learning spaces
  • Foster 21st-century learning skills
  • Facilitate communication and collaboration
  • Optimize connection to the natural environment
  • Integrate pre-K into the Lincoln School

Community:

  • Campus feel — maintain or enhance the connection with the outdoors and other parts of campus
  • C0mmunity spaces — enhance and/or add spaces shared with the community such as the auditorium. a dining commons, and gymnasiums.
  • Sustainability — provide a sustainable, energy-efficient and healthy building
  • Financial responsibility — provide a long-term, financially responsible solution.

SBC consultants are further refining the baseline repair concept to get a firmer understanding of the minimum cost, and they are also working with sustainability expert Bill Maclay to analyze the energy and lifetime sustainability impacts of each concept.