South Lincoln/HCA*

Should Lincoln try to ease the burden on taxpayers with a shift in property tax policy, and/or encouraging more commercial and housing development in South Lincoln? Residents got a chance at last week’s State of the Town meeting to discuss both ideas, and will likely have a chance to vote on then in the spring.

In the wake of the big tax increase resulting from the school project, the Property Tax Committee has been studying two ideas to help reduce the strain for some Lincoln homeowners: a local version of the existing state circuit-breaker program, and a residential tax exemption. Both ideas were also discussed at a public forum last month.

A circuit-breaker program would limit the percentage of income a homeowner would have to pay in property taxes based on their income, assets, length of time in town (10+ years), and age (65+). Funding would come from a small across-the-board tax rate increase. A residential tax exemption would exempt a certain percentage of the value of everyone’s property, meaning that the tax burden would shift toward those with higher-valued homes to benefit those with homes at the lower end of the range.

Under the local circuit-breaker scenario, “everyone pays a little bit more in order to provide significant benefits to those with identified need,” Selectman Jennifer Glass said at the November 2 town-wide meeting. Homeowners in Sudbury, which has a program like this, have seen an average increase of about $73 a year as a result, she added.

Glass acknowledged that some residents are unhappy with the idea of another tax hike for some property owners so soon after the big increase, seeing it as a “bait and switch” move. The median tax bill in fiscal 2020 rose by 12.7%, and the tax rate went up from $14.03 to $15.36 per $1,000 of assessed property. Of that new total, $1.95 is earmarked for the school project, she said.

Neither idea will be implemented without a town-wide vote; “it’s too big a policy decision to make without consulting the town,” Glass said, urging residents to fill out a short survey to express their opinions.

Residents at the October 15 forum were open to the circuit-breaker idea but mostly negative about a residential tax exemption. Sentiment was much the same for the few residents who spoke last Saturday.

“A residential exemption would have been a great discussion three years ago and might have factored into the decision-making process” about the school, former Finance Committee member Peyton Marshall said. “Now we’re encountering buyer’s remorse [when] people who didn’t show up in December opened their tax bill.” As a result, the town is in a “period of disequilibrium” when some are thinking of selling their homes either soon, or after the school project is finished.

“We should consider all this in three to five years after people have made their housing decisions… It’s really explosive” to discuss it now, Marshall said.

South Lincoln zoning

In an effort to make Lincoln more attractive to residents and businesses and perhaps boost the tax base, rezoning part of South Lincoln around the commuter rail station was also discussed at an earlier public forum.

At the State of the Town meeting, Planning Board members presented the proposal to replace the B-1 and B-2 districts in South Lincoln and create a new South Lincoln Village District zone with two subareas: Village Business and Village Residential (VB and VR). Handouts included a draft of bylaw language (created with the help of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council) that will be up for a vote at the Annual Town Meeting in March 2020.

In both subareas, the proposal would allow (by special permit) multifamily housing, with a “density bonus” in return for amenities and affordable housing. It would also expand the parameters of projects that would be allowed by right, and would set out design guidelines for the Planning Board to apply when evaluating projects. Mixed-use buildings could be up to 2.5 floors high along Lincoln Road, with residential structures up to three floors father back from the road.

A recently completed mixed-use project in West Concord is “something on the order of what we want to see,” Taylor said. That project includes 74 housing units and 36,000 square feet of commercial space, and is located very close to the commuter rail station, village center, and rail trails.

The rezoning proposals come from a subcommittee of the South Lincoln Planning and Implementation Committee. As detailed in this presentation by Planning Board chair Margaret Olson, SLPIC’s goals include promoting the area as a vibrant public gathering place; encouraging business and professional services; offering a broader range of housing options; and supporting more sustainable transportation through MBTA station improvements, better parking, and regional shuttle services.

Former board member Robert Domnitz worried that the changes won’t get Town Meeting approval if residents didn’t retain veto power over individual projects. However, the current path for getting town go-ahead is “a very cumbersome process that makes development a lot harder,” said board member Gary Taylor.

“It’s clear what we’re asking you to do is place some confidence in the Planning Board. It’s a more streamlined process and that’s intentional,” Taylor said. “It’s very difficult to shape projects on the floor of Town Meeting.”

One of the goals is to make South Lincoln more attractive as a place to shop for Lincoln residents and others who already drive through town without stopping, while also encouraging everyone to use the commuter rail and underground parking. However, some residents said there will be more cars and traffic in the area if more housing is available, regardless of whether the commuter rail is more heavily used.

“We’re not lowering traffic in the sense of absolute numbers, but there will be less traffic impact going forward than there would be otherwise,” Taylor responded.

Resident Sarah Mattes urged officials to expand and publicize the commuter parking that’s already available before considering “drastic zoning changes.” Others questioned where there was real demand for more commercial and transportation services in South Lincoln from residents who already live there.

Consulting engineers detailed the need for new Department of Public Works facilities in a presentation to the Board of Selectmen — but with the school project underway and a new community center up next, the town isn’t likely to have the money for a major upgrade any time soon.

As part of a larger project to look at rezoning and redeveloping parts of South Lincoln, Weston and Sampson was hired in 2017 to identify the current and future needs of the DPW and to identify a potential site to address those needs. Their report released in January suggested a new facility costing about $15 million.

The Lewis Street DPW facility was built in the 1950s and 1960s, “and there’s been a significant increase in their responsibilities, but the facility really hasn’t kept pace,” Jeffrey Alberti, vice president and general manager of the Facilities division at Weston and Sampson, told the board at its April 22 meeting. The covered vehicle storage space is inadequate; “they do a great job of packing them in like sardines” with only inches of clearance, while other equipment is stored in makeshift structures of concrete blocks.

The facility is also out of compliance with current mechanical, fire, and plumbing codes and presents “safety concerns and operational inefficiencies,” Alberti said.

The firm showed a sketch of how one might reconfigure the current DPW site with new structures including enclosed maintenance, vehicle leaning and storage areas, but even then, the school buses now parked there would probably have to move to another new site. “It becomes tight once you start developing it with a new building,” Alberti said. “And it’s not really allowing for many other public functions” such as public parking or a public septic system.”

The firm drew up a list of potential sites for a refurbished or related DPW bases on the properties’ size, zoning, current use, floodplain, wetlands, conservation designation (if any) and present use. Other possible sites identified in the study are on:

1. Old Bedford Road across from Battle Farm Road, on land owned by the Massachusetts Port Authority
2. Virginia Road just west of the Lincoln North office park, on land owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
3. Virginia Road just north of site #2, on land owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
4. North Great Road between the transfer station and Mill Street, on land owned by the federal government
5. Cambridge Turnpike, on land owned by Farrington Memorial

Narrowing down the choices will require “a much higher-level assessment of the preferred site or sites” including subsurface conditions as well as zoning and permitting costs, Alberti said.

Building or rebuilding the DPW facility regardless of location would cost about $15.2 million. That figure includes the cost of decommissioning and demolition of the current site plus temporary facilities during the construction period, but would not include land acquisition costs. The facility will also have to include at least one structure (the salt shed) that’s 30 to 40 feet high to accommodate the salt pile and trucks.

“This is a pretty shocking number to many people because they look at these facilities as the highway barn and the garage, but I like to tell everyone that this is an operational facility and it has to be designed to today’s building codes,” Alberti said. This includes equipment to pressure-wash sanders and trucks and then collect and store the runoff for later removal, as well as a stormwater system that’s more complex than those found on the average street.

Selectman James Craig asked if any of the other towns Weston and Sampson has worked with have broken out their DPW facilities into more than one site. Actually, Alberti said, about 95% of towns are consolidating their DPW into a single site for greater efficiency, though some towns store seasonal equipment off-site.

“Given our capital commitments, spending $15 million is down the road a ways,” noted SLPIC member Gary Taylor.

DPW Superintendent Chris Bibbo said afterwards that “whatever the study would recommend would be fine with us” and that it would be “acceptable” to wait several years for a renewed facility. “We have equipment storage that’s very, very tight, but we manage to keep all the equipment under the garage roof,” he said.

The DPW is currently doing some renovations to update its office space using money from its regular operating budget for materials and labor by DPW staff as time permits, Bibbo said.