The headline and a sentence in the fifth paragraph of the story headlined “Sale closes on Wang property; town will be asked for $850,000” have been modified to clarify that voters will be asked to appropriate more than $850,000, with an as-yet-unspecified additional sum to be requested for building an athletic field. The story has been changed to reflect these clarifications.
Sale closes on Wang property; town will be asked for $850,000+
The Wang property is outlined in blue. The lot on which the house sits is in yellow. Click image to enlarge.
The sale of the 16-acre Bedford Road property owned by the late An and Lorraine Wang was completed on November 17 for $2.375 million, and residents will be asked at Town Meeting to approve the purchase of 12 of those acres for use as conservation land and a new town athletic field.
The Rural Land Foundation (RLF) bought the property together with the Birches School, which plans to relocate to the remaining four acres, including the Wangs’ 12,000-square-foot house at 100 Bedford Rd.
The 16 acres of land comprise seven parcels along Bedford Road and Oak Knoll Road with a total assessed value of $2.3 million and a full development value of $3 million to $4 million, RLF Executive Director Geoff McGean said in October when the planned deal was announced.
The RLF and Birches have agreed to carry the cost of the property until the 2017 Town Meeting, when voters will be asked to pay the two organizations $850,000 and to allocate an additional as-yet-unspecified amount to build the athletic field. If residents reject the proposal, the RLF and Birches will seek to develop the property, which has three potentially buildable lots, to recoup their investment.
Officials hope to have the $850,000+ appropriated from funds collected through the Community Preservation Act. Those funds derive from a 3 percent surcharge on property tax bills, supplemented by money from the state, and can be spent on open space, preservation of historic structures, provision of low and moderate income housing, and recreation.
“The decision to pursue this opportunity was done in concert with two partners: Birches School and Parks & Recreation,” McGean said. “We had three different organizations, each with its own unique needs, and the Wang property provided a potential path forward for all of us. We are grateful to the Wang family, which made this transaction an affordable possibility.”
“We’ve been searching for land for more than 15 years and we recognize that when an opportunity like this comes along, we need to seize it,” said Parks & Rec Director Dan Pereira. “The town doesn’t have the ability to act on short notice, so we’re fortunate to be able to partner with the RLF and Birches School to make this an option for the town. Lincoln is also able to take advantage of significant cost savings, since Birches School will be building and maintaining the parking lot for the potential field.”
“This is an exciting opportunity to balance these different community needs while also connecting an important property to adjacent land already in conservation,” said Lincoln Conservation Director Thomas Gumbart.
The Birches School, which currently has 45 students in rented space in the First Parish Stone Church, has already begun to renovate the home, working with Lincoln architects Woodie and Loretta Arthur of D.W. Arthur Associates Architects. The school hopes to move into their new facility by Fall 2017.
Officials will schedule future public meetings to discuss site plans and project funding.
News acorns
‘Nutcracker” reading and dancing
The Lincoln Public Library will host a reading of The Nutcracker with dancers from the Commonwealth Ballet Company on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 11 a.m. During the event, which is geared toward young children, dancers will act out some of the parts in rich and colorful costumes.
Give nature-based holiday thanks at Drumlin Farm
On the day after Thanksgiving, join Massachusetts-area artists at Drumlin Farm for the annual “Giving Thanks for Nature and Our Senses,” a family outdoor art experience. Welcome back your senses on a nature walk with interactive artist demonstrations, enjoy art installations throughout the farmyard, and make your own nature-inspired crafts on Friday, Nov. 25 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Highlights include:
- 4-H Club Food Drive: Bring non-perishable goods and our 4-H club will donate all items to Open Table in Concord.
- The Grey Whisker Pickers
- Wildlife sketching
- Natural sculpture by William Turville
- Nature crafts workshop with Musketaquid artists
- Installations and gallery artwork by local sculptors, painters, and photographers
- Storytelling with Ron McAdow
Admission: $9 for adults, $6 for seniors and children. Free for Mass Audubon members and Lincoln residents. Cohosted by Mass Audubon and Musketaquid Arts & Environment.
Support families in shelter from domestic violence this holiday season
On Sunday, Dec. 4 from 1-5 p.m., Mango Tree Artisans at 410 Boston Post Road in Sudbury will host a special shopping event to benefit the Sudbury-Wayland-Lincoln Domestic Violence Roundtable. Enjoy light refreshments while you shop, and mention the Roundtable to have a portion of your purchase donated to the organization.
Each year, the Roundtable sponsors a family from one of three local agencies for the holidays. Those agencies need help to provide happy holidays for families in shelter and to meet the ongoing needs of additional families who have been victims of domestic violence. Sponsored families are anonymous, though the agency will share the number of family members and their ages. Match yourself with a smaller family to sponsor, or invite relatives, friends, and colleagues to join you in sponsoring a larger family. For those who can’t sponsor a family, gift cards for food, clothing and other necessities to stores such as Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, CVS, Target, and Stop & Shop are welcome. Wrapping paper, ribbon and tape are also needed. To learn more about how you can help, contact:
- REACH Beyond Domestic Violence (Waltham) — Deborah Heimel, 781-891-0724 ext. 108, deb@reachma.org
- The Second Step (Newtonville) — Cindy Laughrea, 617-467-5334, holidaygiftdrive@thesecondstep.org.
- Voices Against Violence (Framingham) — Simone Williams, 508-820-0834 ext. 2114, swilliams@smoc.org.
Ornament workshop at deCordova
Create an ornament of your own design at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum’s ceramic ornament workshop on Saturday, Dec. 10 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For adults and children 10+ accompanied by an adult. The cost is $25–$45; click here to register.
‘Coming attractions’ aired at SOTT open forum
During the open forum segment of the November 12 State of the Town meeting, residents and officials made comments on past issues and previews of “coming attractions”:
Town athletic fields
Lincoln’s athletic fields are in poor condition because there are too few of them to allow a normal “rest period” for each field, said Parks and Recreation Committee chair Jonathan Dwyer, adding that the group will soon “begin discussions with you on what to do.”
Marijuana sales
“It’s time to discuss marijuana,” said Lynn DeLisi, who is vice chair of the Planning Board. In light of the fact that Massachusetts just voted to legalize sales of recreational marijuana, “South Lincoln could have a marijuana candy store” subject to age restrictions, she said. “I would like to see Lincoln free of marijuana establishments.”
Two years ago, a medical marijuana dispensary in Lincoln was proposed, but the Board of Selectmen declined to send a “no opposition” letter,” Selectman Peter Brain noted. The approved legislation is “full of regulatory holes… this is some we’re going to have to study as soon as we have some new information. We can’t tell yet what will be permitted where and in what circumstances,” he said.
School project
The Massachusetts School Building Authority has said they will notify Lincoln in January as to whether the town will be invited into next year’s funding pipeline for a school project, School Committee chair Jennifer Glass said. “Whatever the answer is, yea or nay, it will be all hands on deck as a town to figure out our next steps and to move forward. We will be asking for everyone’s full participation.” If the state again declines to consider funding a project, the town may have to paying for a project alone.
Town meeting format
A group has formed to discuss the structure of Town Meeting, which some believe impairs full participation by all residents due to its multi-hour in-person Saturday format. “I’d like you to be open. There’s been a lot of talk from the younger generation and we need to listen. I want us to think very, very carefully about it,” said Town Moderator Sarah Cannon Holden.
Lincoln newcomers
The town recently sponsored an event to introduced new residents to Lincoln, and the Town Clerk’s office has distributed limited copies of printed booklets that they are working to put online for everybody’s use, Selectman Renel Fredriksen said.
Gas leaks
Resident Alex Chatfield highlighted a local environmental problem: leaks from underground gas mains. Though some leaks in town—notably a long-standing odorous leak on Bedford Road near the First Parish Church—eventually get repaired, utilities are not required to do so in a timely fashion, and even when they do, they are allowed to pass on the cost to customers. The Home Energy Efficiency Team website, which has links to maps showing locations of gas leaks in every city and town in Massachusetts, shows that Lincoln had more than 40 unrepaired leaks in 2015.
Natural gas is “80 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide,” Chatfield said. “Embedded in all our bills is the cost of the gas they’re allowing to leak out into the atmosphere.”
The Massachusetts Municipal Association has tried to address this with the state legislature, “but we haven’t been able to make any progress” unless a leak is so severe that it poses an explosion danger, Town Administrator Tim Higgins said.
Residents hear about affordable accessory apartment proposal
A proposed bylaw change would make it easier for homeowners to create accessory apartments in Lincoln as a means of increasing the town’s supply of affordable housing.
The Affordable Accessory Apartment Program is a public/private partnership between individual homeowners and the town whereby homeowners rent accessory apartments to tenants who earn 60–80 percent of the area’s media income, Lincoln Housing Coalition member Pamela Gallup explained at last week’s State of the Town meeting. (The Housing Coalition is a collaboration among the Housing Commission, the Affordable Housing Trust and the Lincoln Foundation.)
Homeowners would have an incentive: a loan of up to $25,000 from the town to create or renovate an accessory apartment. The loan would secured by a lien on the property but would not contingent on the homeowner’s income, and it would have to be repaid in full when the house is sold. The property would also have a 15-year deed restriction, although it could be terminated with 60 days’ notice at the end of a tenant’s leaser term. In addition, the homeowner would get a property tax exemption for the accessory-apartment portion of the house.
To qualify under the program, each affordable accessory apartment must have a separate entrance and off-street parking, and must not exceed 1,200 square feet or 35 percent of the home’s square footage. Prospective landlords would also have to submit certified architectural plans and demonstrate that their septic system is adequate. After receiving a special permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, they would have to select tenants from a waiting list of those who applied to the town.
The goal of the program is to create 10 new affordable accessory apartments that qualify for inclusion on the town’s subsidized housing inventory before the 2020 census. Ten percent of every Massachusetts town’s housing must be affordable, and Lincoln is currently at 10.9 percent. Gallup said. That figure is projected to fall to 10.08 percent by 2020. If the ratio falls below 10 percent, developers would be allowed to build affordable housing without following the town’s zoning rules on density, setback, height, etc.
Qualifying income limits for tenants range from $38,363 to $51,150 for a single person and $54,788 to $73,050 for a family of four. Fair market rent as calculated by the federal government for Lincoln would be $1,029–$1,372 per month for a one-bedroom unit.
The program would have the advantages of spreading affordable housing throughout the town, creating a source of income for homeowners, and providing housing options for town employees, single people and young families, Gallup said.
Lincoln currently has about 70 known permitted accessory apartments and an unknown number of unpermitted units. If some owners of those units converted their apartments to meet state guidelines and got special permits, the town could increase its affordable housing inventory without any new construction.
The town itself owns and manages seven units of affordable housing, though there are also privately owned units in Lincoln Woods and The Commons.
Resident Tom Sander suggested that the town collect loan repayments before the house is sold so some of the money can be reinvested in the program. He also suggested prioritizing homeowner applications according to how close they are to the train station, making it more attractive for commuter tenants.
In answer to an audience question, Gallup said renters must re-verify their income with the town each year to remain qualified for the apartments; if their income rises above the guidelines, they have 18 months to move out.
For the program to go forward, residents must approve three things at Town Meeting in March: amendments to the accessory apartment bylaw to conform with state Department of Housing and Community Development rules, creating the homeowner property tax exemption, and allocating Capital Planning Committee funds for the loan program.
“There’s absolutely no downside for the town in going into this program, as far as I can see,” said former Planning Board member Bob Domnitz.
Lincoln bikers help fight cancer (Lincoln Through the Lens)
Correction
A November 14 article headlined “Benefits and hurdles for solar array at landfill discussed” used an incorrect abbreviation when saying that a solar array at the transfer station could have “a capacity of 1.4 mW” (milliwatts). It should have said “a capacity of 1.4 MW” (megawatts). The original article has bene edited to reflect this correction.
Benefits and hurdles for solar array at landfill discussed
A report by the Solar PV Working Group concluded that the best site for a municipal solar photovoltaic array is the capped town landfill, with the roof of the public safety building coming in second.
Solar Design Associates, a consulting firm hired by the solar working group, looked at 25 potential sites in town. A solar array at the transfer station could have a capacity of 1.4 MW, while a roof-mounted array on the public safety building could generate 58.6 kW. Selectman Renel Fredriksen summarized the report at the November 12 State of the Town meeting and said the group hoped to have a proposal to vote on at Town Meeting in March.
If and when a site is selected, the town would sign an agreement with a private firm to purchase, install and maintain the solar PV equipment, and in return, the town would receive lease payments and/or reduced electricity costs. In a 2015 report, BlueWave Capital said a solar installation on the landfill site could produce more than 50 percent of Lincoln’s municipal electricity.
One problem, though: the landfill is now designated as conservation land, and state law requires that if the town wants to open it to solar use, it must designate another parcel of the same size to offset the loss to the town’s inventory of conservation land. Officials had hoped that part of the Hargreaves-Heald property purchased by the town earlier this year could be used for this purpose, but the state has since said that this was not acceptable.
Removing land from conservation status requires unanimous approval by the Conservation Commission and two-thirds majority votes by Town Meeting and the state legislature.
The town and Minute Man National Historic Park would also have to renegotiate the easement given by the park to the town for access from Route 2A to the landfill. There is a “polite disagreement” with the park about what uses are permitted by that easement, “but once have a concrete proposal, we’ll resume that conversation,” Town Administrator Tim Higgins said.
Once a Lincoln School project is underway, the Ballfield Road campus is promising site for a future municipal solar PV array, as is the soon-to-be-rebuilt Minuteman High School, Fredriksen noted.
In the meantime, “there’s lots that we can do now to to change our electricity use, like getting a home energy assessments or buying more renewable energy,” said Green Energy Committee member Sue Klem, adding that residences account for 80 percent of electricity energy in town.
Small-scale agriculture expansion discussed at SOTT
Opportunities for small-scale commercial raising of animals and sale of animal products will be expanded if residents approve a zoning bylaw change at Town Meeting in March.
Current rules under the 2011 Right to Farm bylaw allow property owners to sell produce and flowers on lots of any size, but animal products such as meat, dairy, eggs, wool, honey, etc., may not be sold on parcels of less than five acres, and animals may be kept only for personal use on those parcels.
Allowing sales from smaller-scale farming would be “consistent with common agricultural practices in Lincoln” and would “help feed the community and offer valuable skills to young people to keep agriculture flourishing,” Agricultural Commission co-chair Ari Kurtz explained at the State of the Town meeting on November 12.
There are currently more than 16 active farms on 500 acres of agricultural land in Lincoln.
The changes would impose a small-agriculture minimum lot size of 80,000 square feet (a bit under two acres) and allow annual sales of no more than $5,000. The maximum number of “animal units” permitted would be one per acre. An animal unit is defined as one 1,000-pound cow, five goats or sheep, two pigs, 30 fowl or 20 rabbits (bees would be limited by gross sales rather than number of insects). The revised bylaw would also add requirements and definitions for best management practices for handling livestock and manure.
Anyone who felt their neighbor was in violation of the rules could complain to the Board of Health, Kurtz and AgComm co-chair Lynne Bower said. Prospective small-scale farmers would not have to request a special permit, but submitting a simple application to the town’s building inspector is “worth exploring,” Kurtz said.
Although agricultural land is taxed a a lower rate than residential property, there will be no tax implications because, by state law, parcels under five acres may not be classified as agricultural, Kurtz said. The change wouldn’t itself open to the door to marijuana cultivation because selling marijuana will also require a state license and permit, he added.
In response to a question about the $5,000 annual earnings limit, Kurtz and Bower said the number was “just a stab in the dark” and could either be revisited periodically, or indexed to another figure that increases over time.
News acorns
How to talk to kids about the election
Licensed psychologist and Lincoln resident/parent Cris Ratiner will lead a conversation on “How to Talk with Your Children About the Election and Its Aftermath” on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room. Ratiner has worked with parents and families in ordinary times as well as extraordinary times (9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Boxing Day tsunami). Anyone with questions may email her at crisratinerphd@gmail.com.
Second open space forum on Wednesday
The second community forum for the Open Space and Recreation Plan update takes place on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall Donaldson Room. The group is in the final phase of community outreach and goal setting (see the Lincoln Squirrel, July 20, 2016).
‘How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying’
LSB Players, the theater production company of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, presents How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying on November 16, 17, 18 and 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school’s Kirschner Auditorium. The musical traces the journey of J. Pierrepont Finch as he follows a guide that instructs him on how to rise to the top of the corporate world on charm and cunning alone. This hilarious satire is based on an actual book by Shepherd Mead, and is a clever, tongue-in-cheek send-up of corporate life featuring familiar songs by Frank Loesser like I Believe in You, The Brotherhood of Man and Been A Long Day. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for senior citizens/students. Click here to reserve tickets.
Sheila Katz
Talk on Israel/Palestine nonviolence
Sheila H. Katz, Professor of Middle East History at Berklee College, will present “Connecting with the Enemy: A Century of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Nonviolence” on Monday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln Public Library. The talk presents the first comprehensive history of grassroots nonviolent alternatives to the lethal collision of the two national movements despite condemnation by their own societies, repetitive diplomatic failures, harsh inequalities, and endemic cycles of violence. Presented by the GRALTA Foundation (Grass Roots Awareness, Learning, Travel and Action), which is also organizing an Israel-Palestine study tour from Jan. 4-14, 2017. For more information, call Steve and Barbara Low at 781-259-1300.
Lincoln seniors invited to dinner next Wednesday
Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School warmly invites Lincoln senior citizens to a Thanksgiving dinner at the school on Wednesday, Nov. 23 at noon, complete with performances by the L-S Jazz Band and dancers. Please call the Council on Aging at 781-259-8811 to sign up.
‘Gratitude Trees and Campfire’ at Farrington Nature Linc
Start your Thanksgiving holiday with an evening focused on thankfulness and time spent in nature at Farrington Nature Linc on Wednesday, Nov. 23 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. During the “Gratitude Trees and Campfire” program, families can decorate preserved leaves to create a beautiful gratitude tree to take home, make leaf-inspired table art, listen to stories around the campfire and eat s’mores. Registration is required; call or email Program Director Brianne at brianne@naturelinc.org or 978-764-9186. Suggested donation: $10/person. Farrington Nature Linc is at 295 Cambridge Turnpike (Route 2 eastbound) directly after Gerard’s Farm Stand.
Thanksgiving night contra dance
Lincolnites are invited to a Thanksgiving Night contra dance on Thursday, Nov. 24 from 7-10 p.m. in the Smith School gym featuring musicians Larry Unger and Julie Metcalf, and caller Chris Ricciotti. All ages and abilities are welcome. Tickets are $6 for adults and students, $4 for children 10 and under. Sponsored by the First Parish Church. For more information, call 781-259-0692 or email kwinchell@comcast.net.