South Lincoln/HCA*

South Lincoln sidewalk, other improvements on the way

April 23, 2018

A new sidewalk will appear in coming weeks between the Cambridge Trust Co. building and St. Joseph’s Church.

Now that the weather is finally improving, a new sidewalk will soon be installed across from the Bank of America in South Lincoln, which pedestrians in the area have been requesting for years.

The sidewalk, which was removed during a road construction project eight years years ago and never replaced, is one of the projects funded by a $400,000 Complete Streets grant the town received last fall in an effort spearheaded by Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Burney and the South Lincoln Planning Implementation Committee (SLPIC).

The package of projects, which Burney said should be completed by September 2018, also includes informational kiosks, safety improvements to the intersection of Route 117 and Lincoln Road, wayfinding signs, and repairs to some sidewalks and roadside paths.

The South Lincoln Revitalization Project includes several SLPIC working teams that are looking at wayfinding, planning and zoning, the Department of Public Works site on Lewis Street, the MBTA station, and the green on the east side of the mall between Donelan’s and Lincoln Woods. The goals are outlined in this presentation made at the State of the Town meeting in November 2017.

The town plans to apply for a second $400,000 Complete Streets grant next fall to fund the following projects, according to Burney:

Project	Location	Funding request
Complete Streets gap analysis and strategy for trails, sidewalks, biking, school bus routes, and places of interest	Town-wide	$108,000
Intersection improvements study and construction	Intersection of Lincoln Road and Codman Road	$25,000
Bicycle improvements	Town-wide	$50,000
Repaits to culvert, wooden pedestrian bridge, and sidewalk	Lincoln Road	$20,000
Intersection improvements study and construction	Five Corners near library	$40,000
Intersection improvements study and construction	Intersection of Route 117 and Tower Road	$25,000
Parking lot study and improvements including pay kiosk and lighting	Lincoln Station commuter lot	$132,000

Trail’s End Cafe to close after this week

February 27, 2018

Trail’s End Cafe is closing after this week, and there are no immediate plans to offer breakfast fare at its nearby sister restaurant, Lincoln Kitchen.

In a February 26 post on the LincolnTalk email list headlined “Exciting News from Lincoln Kitchen,” general manager Manny Rodriguez announced that Matt Molloy had been named as the new culinary director for Lincoln Kitchen and the Trail’s End restaurant in Concord. Both restaurants as well as the Trail’s End Care are co-owned by Lincoln residents Jim and Carol White. Near the end of the email, Rodriguez said that Trail’s End Cafe would close on March 2.

“It really didn’t work out for us. We enjoyed doing it, but financially it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Jim White said in an interview with the Lincoln Squirrel. “The cafe is a small business, and as we’ve learned, what it offered in the way of breakfast food and sandwiches competed with Donelan’s. I think we should provide to the town a really first-class lunch and dinner restaurant, and Lincoln Kitchen really is that option.”

Trail’s End Cafe opened in October 2016 and Lincoln Kitchen opened almost exactly a year ago. They replaced the Whistle Stop, which closed in July 2016, and AKA Bistro, which shut its doors two months earlier. In August 2016, the Whites and their daughter Elizabeth Akehurst-Moore signed leases on both South Lincoln properties, which are owned by the Rural Land Foundation.

According to Rodriguez’s email, Molloy has 20 years of experience including acting as the longtime Chef de Cuisine at Lumiere in Newton, executive chef at Beacon Hill Bistro and The Inn at Hastings Park in Lexington, and a chef instructor at Le Cordon Bleu Boston. He is leaving his current position as a chef at a software company in Lexington.

“Hiring Matt Molloy really was independent of the closing of the cafe,” White said. “Our chef in Concord left and we really need a chef of Matt’s caliber to be responsible for the menus in Lincoln Kitchen and Trail’s End Concord as well as Concord Market, which will have a lot of prepared foods.”

The 15,000-square-foot Concord Market is under construction in Millbrook Tarry between Keyes Road and Lowell Road in Concord, a commercial plaza owned by the Whites that is also home to the original Trail’s End, and is aiming for a mid-July opening, he said. “Obviously it’s taking a lot of resources and it requires a lot of attention. It’s a major operation. I think the cafe in Lincoln is a nice little spot, but it’s too small for us to really be worth our effort.”

Molloy will start work on March 5, but White said he didn’t know when diners might see changes in the restaurants’ menus.

South Lincoln revitalization ideas gathering steam

November 7, 2017

An aerial perspective of what the green might look like (click to enlarge).

Major construction projects involving the Lincoln School and a community center attracted much of the limelight at the State of the Town meeting, but a third more modest project may also come to pass: revitalizing South Lincoln, piece by piece.

Several past studies by the town have consistently identified a desire for the area to be a “vibrant, walkable and sustainable village… but to be honest, not a lot of progress has been made over the years,” Margaret Olson of the South Lincoln Planning Implementation Committee (SLPIC) said at the November 4 town-wide meeting. Now, however, ideas are sprouting from SLPIC’s project teams for wayfinding, the MBTA station, placemaking, and village planning and zoning. Suggestions, discussion, and pictures are available on an interactive website at at courb.co/lincoln.

One of the goals of the Placemaking Team is revitalizing the green space tucked into the southeast corner of Donelan’s. The Rural Land Foundation, which owns the property, commissioned a study by Concord landscape architect Lemon Brooke LLC of how the space could be made more enjoyable and useful for the public. Their report includes illustrations of ideas for seating and a play area to replace the “tot lot” on the other side of a brushy area close to Lincoln Woods.

The underutilized green next to Donelan’s.

The town recently learned that it was turned down for a $50,000 matching grant from MassDevelopment to fund the work (which would cost a total of about $100,000). The SLPIC Placemaking Team will exploring other possible funding sources such as grants, crowdfunding or the possible use of Community Preservation Act funds, said Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Burney.

The Wayfinding Team will help solve the problem that “when you come to town for one thing, you don’t know other things are there,” said Olson, who is also chair of the Planning Board. Part of the $400,000 Complete Streets grant that the town recently received will help fund signs and informational kiosks in South Lincoln as well as roadway markings and other measures improve pedestrian, transit and bicycle circulation around Lincoln Station.

The Planning and Zoning Team is working on drafting new regulations to encourage a mix of housing and commercial uses in South Lincoln and will present them for a vote at a special town meeting in November 2018, Olson said. SLPIC has also commissioned a study of the DPW site on Lewis Street with an eye to possibly consolidating or moving some of its functions.

The MBTA team is thinking about improvements to the commuter rail station, which has inadequate signage, no passenger shelters or bike amenities, and is not ADA-compliant. Olson noted that the MBTA is under pressure to improve train travel times, and a handicapped-accessible platform such as the one in West Concord would make passenger boarding and alighting much faster. It’s also almost impossible under current conditions to get a bike onto the train “unless you’re pretty young and pretty strong,” Olson remarked.

Interactive website brings residents into South Lincoln planning

October 18, 2017

A screen shot of the South Lincoln revitalization website at courb.co/lincoln.

Using a new interactive website, residents can look at a map of South Lincoln, see some of the improvements being discussed, and add their own comments and suggestions.

The project page at courb.co/lincoln was created for the Lincoln Planning Board and the South Lincoln Planning Implementation Committee (SLPIC), which are working to make the area around Lincoln Station a vibrant, walkable and sustainable village center. Officials can post updates and respond to comments by residents as part of the public process, which also includes in-person workshops and events.

The project team behind the website can drop a “pin” on certain areas of the map to invite discussion. For example, when users click on one of pins, it opens a text box saying “If this underutilized green space next to Donelan’s and Lincoln Woods was revitalized, what events would you like to see held here?” Residents can then post and read each other’s responses, much like the comments section at the bottom of a blog post, or add their own pins to start discussion on another specific area of South Lincoln. Participants receive a notification when the project team replies.

The town was recently awarded a $400,000 Complete Streets grant for 10 projects in town, some of which include including signs, roadway markings, crosswalks, bike racks, and informational kiosks in South Lincoln. One of the website pins asks residents where they wold like to see these kiosks located.

The web platform was created by coUrbanize, a startup founded by urban planners from MIT with the goal of supplementing the traditional community process that planners use by connecting people online. “Traditional planning workshops are important, but they can be a challenge for many people to attend,” said coUrbanize co-founder Karin Brandt. “By using technology to reach people and lowering the bar to participation, we can ensure that more voices are heard.”

Board approves study of DPW site

October 3, 2017

The 2014 study by the Planning Board identified four quadrants in South Lincoln as defined by the railroad tracks and Lincoln Road: (1) Codman Farm, (2) the mall, (3) Ridge Road, and (4) Lewis Street. Parcels in red are town-owned land.

The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to authorize a study of the Department of Public Works site on Lewis Street that would look at options for repurposing the site as part of a potential South Lincoln rezoning effort.

Before the vote, several residents spoke against the study, fearing that the DPW will eventually be relocated to the transfer station site off Route 2A in North Lincoln.

Objections to the proposal by the South Lincoln Planning and Implementation Committee (SLPIC) first arose publicly over the summer. Residents expressed concern about the cost or cleaning up the DPW site, which is used for trucks, road equipment and school buses, as well as the environmental sensitivity of the transfer station site.

Gary Taylor, a member of SLPIC and the Planning Board, asked selectmen to authorize $9,800 to hire civil engineering firm Weston & Sampson to assess the DPW’s functions and needs as well as potential site consolidation (e.g., leaving the DPW on Lewis Street but shrinking its footprint to repurpose some of the land), opportunities for relocating some or all of its functions to another location, and the potential for combining resources for some DPW functions with neighboring towns or MassPort.

Lincoln’s 2010 master plan reiterates a 1999 recommendation to consider redeveloping the DPW site to support housing and commerce, and to “see if it makes sense to include the DPW site in efforts to rezone, revitalize and redevelop in South Lincoln,” Taylor said. The 2014 South Lincoln study also “identified an opportunity to create additional transportation-oriented housing by redeveloping the existing light industrial properties and relocating DPW garage,” he added.

“I think this is a very necessary due diligence as part of any thoughtful planning. I think you have to take a look at this four-acre parcel and see what all the options are,” said Selectman James Craig.

Oakdale Lane resident Keith Hylton repeated the concerns he voiced to the board in July about possible well water contamination from vehicles at the transfer station site and its proximity to the Minute Man National Historical Park (MMNHP). Weston recently built a new DPW faculty that cost $15 million, he said.

“Whatever site you look at, there’s got to be procedures for meaningful involvement by stakeholders early on,” Hylton added.

Some residents wondered why the amount requested was just under the $10,000 threshold that requires the town to solicit competitive bids. Meanwhile, others including MMNHP Resources Program Manager Margie Coffin Brown speculated that $9,800 might not be enough to do a thorough study of the DPW and alternative sites.

The study “really is all about whether or not the land could be put to better use and whether or not it’s feasible to relocate it or consolidate,” Taylor said. Any future rezoning proposal would come only after “a lot of further study” on costs and impacts, and would not occur for at least five to seven years, since the town faces major school and community center projects in the near future, he added.

Letter to the editor: DPW proposal generates important questions

August 24, 2017

To the editor:

I was heartened to read the story (“Residents wary of planned study on relocation of DPW,” August 14, 2017) about the July 31 Board of Selectmen meeting where several Lincoln residents voiced strong objections to the proposal within the South Lincoln Planning and Implementation Committee (SLPIC) to relocate the DPW facility to the undeveloped 37-acre parcel on Mill Street that houses the transfer station.

I spoke in opposition to the proposal, noting that the 37-acre Mill Street parcel is an environmentally sensitive site. Although some have referred to the parcel as the “transfer station site,” the transfer station actually takes up a very small portion of the parcel. The vast majority of the 37 acres are in a natural state and could easily be mistaken for Lincoln conservation land. The area is residential. Moreover, the Mill Street parcel sits well within the Cambridge Reservoir watershed.

Almost all of the many residents living near the Mill Street parcel are on well water. The activities of the DPW facility, fueling and maintenance of heavy equipment and storage of hazardous waste, would impose a risk to the water sources of homeowners in the vicinity of the parcel if the DPW were to be relocated there. In addition, the DPW activities would impose a risk of contamination to an important source of Cambridge’s water.

As a town, we owe a duty to our own residents to avoid subjecting any group of them to a substantial risk of harm through the actions of our elected officials. In addition, we owe a duty to the people of Cambridge to protect their water sources from contamination by pollutants.

Although I spoke of the Mill Street area at the meeting, the point I urged on the Board of Selectmen applies with equal force to every community in the town. The DPW facility has proven itself to be environmentally harmful. I asked the selectmen to adopt a resolution either prohibiting or strongly discouraging the relocation of the DPW to any area within the town that is substantially more environmentally sensitive than its current location. I happen to be aware of the sensitivity of the Mill Street parcel, but there may be other areas under consideration by SLPIC that are also sensitive (e.g., because of similar well water dependency). So far, SLPIC has not revealed any other alternative sites under consideration.

There are many other issues noted by North Lincoln residents who attended the Board of Selectmen meeting (a video recording can be found here).

One such issue is the enormous price tag of the proposal. Weston recently constructed a new DPW facility at a cost of $15 million. The remediation costs (at the current site) alone would run into the millions, and cannot be estimated precisely until the current facility is destroyed and remediation requirements fully evaluated. The overall expense would contribute to an inordinate tax burden and could crowd out other projects such as the new school building or the community center.

The enormous relocation costs (to any area) might be acceptable if all town residents would benefit greatly from adopting the proposal. However, the goal of the relocation proposal is inconsistent with the town’s history of development—as a zero-sum scheme, it would disadvantage one part of town to offer a phantom benefit to another part. In addition, the proposal would result in the taxpayer subsidization of a private commercial developer. Why should Lincoln residents incur a burden of tens of millions of dollars to subsidize a private developer?

I hope town residents will urge SLPIC to present a careful and thorough examination of the costs and benefits of the relocation proposal before asking the town to give $9,800 to a consulting firm to study the feasibility of relocation. The current request for funds from SLPIC—a vague, one-page letter that appears to assume that the selectmen are all on board—is completely silent on the potential taxpayer costs of the proposal, the potential for environmental harm, and even a justification for the ultimate goal. Why spend scarce public resources studying the feasibility of a proposal that has not been adequately justified and most likely would be harmful to the town if implemented?

Sincerely,

Keith Hylton
5 Oakdale Lane

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.

Residents wary of planned study on location of DPW

August 14, 2017

Several residents at a recent Board of Selectmen meeting protested the notion of moving the Department of Public Works to the transfer station area, but planning officials stressed that they intend to study a range of options for the DPW site.

The South Lincoln Planning and Implementation Committee (SLPIC) plans to ask the Board of Selectmen for about $9,000 to pay a consultant to study the DPW site on Lewis Street. SLPIC and others are interested in the possibility of using part or all of that property as part of a larger effort to revitalize the South Lincoln area centering on the train station and surrounding commercial area. Moving the DPW elsewhere would free up valuable land that could be put to commercial, residential, and/or municipal use.

The issue arose at a selectmen’s meeting in June and again on July 31, although SLPIC postponed a planned appearance at that meeting. Nevertheless, several residents spoke in opposition to the idea of moving the DPW to the transfer station.

“That’s probably one of the most environmentally sensitive sites you could find in this town,” said Oakdale Lane resident Keith Hylton, noting that the DPW’s work involved diesel fuel and other chemicals and the transfer station lies within the Cambridge reservoir watershed. Some houses in the area also use well water, he added. In addition, there could be contamination in the soil at the Lewis Street site that could cost “millions” to remediate if the town planned to convert it to some otherl use, Hylton said.

If the Lewis Street study does show environmental issues that need to be addressed, “you can’t ignore it,” said former Planning Board member Robert Domnitz, a Mill Street resident. “If you start walking down this path, you may find yourself locked into a cleanup that not only costs a lot of money but impairs the forward-looking value of that parcel.”

“We understand that this is a sensitive issue,” Lynn DeLisi of SLPIC, who is also a member of the Planning Board, said on Sunday. Some years ago, a different study apparently recommended moving the DPW to the transfer station site, “but we don’t know details; that’s partly why were having another meeting” before going before selectmen with a budget request, she said.

There is no language in the draft charge for the yet-to-be hired consultant about the transfer station, and SLPIC will look at a variety of options for the DPW site, including moving some functions to a neighboring town or simply preserving the status quo, DeLisi said. Also, if the consultant makes a recommendation that SPLIC or a majority of residents are opposed to, “we don’t have to pay attention to it.”

However, if the new study does show potential hazards from environmental contamination on Lewis Street that must be rectified, “we have a right to know about it—it’s right in the center of town,” DeLisi said.

Also at the July 31 Board of Selectmen meeting (as summarized by former Selectman Peter Braun), the board:

Accepted a plaque presented by members of the Donaldson family to rededicate the Donaldson Room and to honor Robert Donaldson (1870-1964), who was a selectman for 28 years and builder of some 80 Lincoln houses and the original town office building.
Met with Mothers Out Front, an organization that includes Lincoln residents, that is focused on natural gas leaks and other environmental issues.
Approved a curb cut requested for 19 Granville Rd., following a recommendation by the Planning Board.
Discussed concerns raised by abutters with respect to a new Wayland soccer field to be located in a meadow close to the Lincoln town line in the Oxbow Road area.
Heard reports from Town Administrator Tim Higgins regarding:
- Questions raised by several residents about compliance of the June 19 Board meeting with the Open Meeting Law.
- Requests by wireless carriers for installation of repeaters on utility poles.
- Initial activities of the Community Center committee.
Scheduled further discussion of Old Winter Street traffic questions for September 25.
Scheduled the State of the Town Meeting for November 4 and had an initial discussion about the agenda.
Discussed its continuing efforts to coordinate with the Housing Commission and other boards regarding the town’s affordable housing strategy.
Discussed proposed content for its next newsletter.
Heard liaison reports from:
- Selectman Jennifer Glass on the School Building Committee’s activities, including its engagement of an Owner’s Project Manager and its process for considering an architectural firm.
- Selectman James Craig on highlights of a report from a consultant by the Cycling Safety Committee on ideas for accommodating cycling on roadways.

Committee to study future of DPW site on Lewis St.

June 15, 2017

As part of its work to revitalize Lincoln’s commercial downtown, the South Lincoln Planning Implementation Committee is seeking funds to hire a consultant to do a feasibility study of relocating the Department of Public Works site on Lewis Street.

“Every time we peel that onion back and look at South Lincoln, the subject of that site comes up,” Town Administrator Tim Higgins commented at the June 12 Board of Selectmen meeting. “They feel it’s a due-diligence item to either rule possibilities in or rule them out, because it may bear on the rest of the South Lincoln area. If you think the DPW site is in play, it takes our thinking in a certain direction.”

About 10 years ago, DPW officials were asked to evaluate other possible locations for their trucks and other equipment, and they determined that the transfer station was the only other feasible site on town-owned property. The new study will seek to “expand the aperture” and look at other options such as co-locating some DPW functions on land owned privately or by MassPort near Hanscom Field, for example.

There’s quite a bit of town-owned land in Lincoln, but most of it is under conservation restriction. However, it’s theoretically possible to “swap out” other land “if there’s an appetite in town for freeing up the DPW site for a different kind of development,” Higgins said.

But resident Robert Domnitz, a former Planning Board member and co-founder of the Northside News, indicated there might be resistance to moving the DPW to the north side of town. “This needs to not be a dollars-and-cents, square-footage exercise, but a sense of what the folks up there would like to see happen or not happen,” he said at the selectmen’s meeting.

One idea that’s come up is moving the transfer station to the Lewis Street site instead of vice versa. “The transfer station is probably the most social place in town,” Domnitz said, and having it in South Lincoln “would bring hundreds of customers to the area.”

Other topics discussed at this week’s Board of Selectmen meeting (summary courtesy of former Selectman Peter Braun):

The board interviewed four of the eight candidates who asked to be considered to be appointed as at-large members of the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee. Selectmen plan to appoint four at-large members at its next meeting after interviewing the other candidates.
The board voted to appoint Lawrence Buell to the open seat on the Conservation Commission.
The board interviewed Evan Gorman and Bijoy Misra for the two vacant elected seats on the Housing Commission. In accordance with statutory procedures, the board and the Housing Commission jointly make the appointments for the remainder of the vacant terms.
The board discussed with school officials how and when to coordinate the hiring and interaction of the architectural consultants who will advise the School Building Committee and the Community Center Planning and Preliminary Design Committee.
Town Administrator Tim Higgins noted that the public event to celebrate completion of the Rt. 2/Crosby’s Corner project will take place at the lower parking lot of The Commons In Lincoln at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 16.

Hydration station opens in Station Park

May 10, 2017

Lincoln Garden Club members Sue Seeley and Agnes Wiggin, and Lincoln DPW foreman Steve McDonald.

The Lincoln Garden Club dedicated the new public hydration station at Station Park in South Lincoln on May 6. The water fountain will allow pedestrians and bicyclists to stop for individual drinks of water and fill water bottles.

In a brief ceremony, Garden Club members thanked some of the people who helped create the facility, including Chris Bibbo, superintendent of the Department of Public Works, and his foreman, Steve McDonald, who performed the installation; and the Board of Water Commissioners and Greg Woods, superintendent of the Water Department, who funded the water connection. The Garden Club provided funding from previous fundraisers, particularly the garden tour in 2015. Sue Seeley cut the ribbon to officially open the hydration station.

Station Park was created in 1970 and has been maintained by the Garden Club since 1972. In 2015, the club installed a native flower bed with over 300 plants.

After that everyone enjoyed a refreshing glass of Lincoln water. The photos courtesy of Bob Wadsworth is of Lincoln Garden Club members Sue Seeley and Agnes Wiggin and Steve McDonald, Lincoln DPW Foreman. The other is of Denise Bienfang, Club president

Denise Bienfang, president of the Lincoln Garden Club.

South Lincoln hydration station stages ribbon-cutting

May 2, 2017

The Lincoln Garden Club is having a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Station Park on Saturday, May 6 at 10 a.m. to celebrate the opening of its latest project: the installation of a granite water fountain for the town of Lincoln. The park is located across the Lincoln Mall at 145 Lincoln Road.

The native-plant flower bed at Station Park installed in 2015.

The Garden Club decided to have the water fountain built at the Park it has been maintaining since 1972, inspired by last year’s warrant article, sponsored by the Lincoln School eighth grade, to install a hydration station at the school gym. DPW Superintendent Chris Bibbo and his staff, as well as the Lincoln Water Department, were key in designing and installing the fountain, which can be used by bicyclists and walkers to fill water bottles and get a drink of water.

Station Park was created by the town in May 1970 and has been maintained by the Lincoln Garden Club since 1972. In the fall of 2015, the Garden Club installed a native plant bed, designed by the New England Wildflower Society. Like the water fountain project, the installation of the native bed was funded by the Lincoln Garden Club and encompasses approximately 300 native plants.