The Mall at Lincoln Station (2016 photo)

The Planning Board has released a draft of its zoning map and bylaw amendments establishing new multifamily zoning overlay districts to comply with the Housing Choice Act on January 23. There will be several public forums and hearings before residents vote on a final draft at Town Meeting in March.

The draft is summarized and linked on the January 24 update on the Housing Choice Act Working Group website. Highlights for the mandatory mixed-use Village Center subdistrict:

• 33% of the floor area of all the buildings on the lot must be commercial
• At least 80% of the building’s ground floor frontage facing the public road and the first 100 feet of the primary access must be commercial or street-activating uses.
• If the total commercial development on the lot reaches 45,000 square feet of commercial use, the 33% minimum requirement will no longer apply. The Planning Board may reduce the required percentage of commercial uses by special permit upon a finding that economic and market conditions do not support the required amount of commercial space.
• There are several commercial uses that are not permitted, including service stations or repair shops, manufacturing and assembly, gun sales. Drive-through services are also prohibited except by special permit.
• A maximum density of 25 residential units per acre is allowed, and at least 10% of the units must be affordable housing units.
• There must be at least one parking spot for each residential unit. The number of spaces for commercial units will be determined by the Planning Board during site plan review. There will be no parking in front of buildings except as approved by the Planning Board.

The draft will most likely be amended based on public feedback gathered at several upcoming sessions:

• Thursday, Feb 8 — Zoning bylaw forum, 6:30–8 p.m. in person at Bemis Hall.
• Friday, Feb. 9 — Zoning bylaw forum, 8:30–10 a.m. via Zoom
• Tuesday, Feb. 20 — Zoning bylaw public hearing, 7–8:30 p.m. on Town Hall and on Zoom
• Tuesday, Feb. 27 — Forum on design guidelines (not yet released), 7–8:30 p.m., Lincoln School
• Thursday, March 14 — Town Meeting preview forum, 7–8:30 p.m. via Zoom

In the Village Center subdistrict, the mall’s bank building (currently two floors) and the Something Special building (currently one floor) are being proposed for redevelopment. That space totals about 13,000 square feet, Rural Land Foundation Executive Director Geoff McGean said in an email to the Lincoln Squirrel.

There are currently no first-floor vacancies in the Something Special building and one small unleased office space on the second floor of the newer Tack Room building, which is not part of the property being proposed for redevelopment by the RLF. Those two buildings have approximately 13,000 square feet and 12,000 square feet of rentable space, respectively, McGean said.

Asked if the RLF would raise rents (as calculated by square footage) in a redeveloped building, McGean was equivocal. “Out of respect for all the tenants, we can’t give you specific rent amounts and it would be premature to speculate on future rents since market conditions could change significantly by the time any new space is built,” he said. “We will work with all the tenants to try to meet their future needs. We anticipate that some of the tenants may want smaller spaces.”

It’s still unclear where the current tenants (assuming they plan to reopen in the redeveloped building) will go while construction is underway.

The post office and Donelan’s both threatened to leave in the early 2000s unless they got more space. That space was built only after a seven-year public process. The project cost about $9 million and was financed largely by a mortgage taken out by the RLF which it’s still repaying.

The Rural Land Foundation unveiled early concept sketches of what a redeveloped Lincoln Mall might look like with two floors of housing above a commercial ground floor.

At a January 18 Zoom forum, RLF Executive Director Geoff McGean recapped the RLF’s work since 2020, when they began looking at how to revitalize the mall while also adding housing. They first considered redeveloping all of the older easternmost building that includes Donelan’s. Analysis showed that the site could accommodate up to 100 units of housing while still including a “substantial but likely reduced amount of commercial space,” he said. However, this couldn’t happen unless Donelan’s was “removed or substantially altered,” and the RLF decided that was a no-go, even though including that amount of housing was thought to be the most financially viable option.

Instead, focusing instead on the rest of the older building, the RLF — aided by Union (designer of the Riverwalk housing in Concord) and a developer consultant — unveiled two visual concepts for 40 units of housing and 5,000–10,000 square feet of first floor and/or street-activating use space. Street-activating uses are those open to the public including  but not limited to shops, restaurants, lobbies, offices, and other service activities, according to a January 10, 2024 explanation posted on the Housing Choice Act Working Group web page. Such uses may also include “spaces accessory to residential uses in multi-family or mixed-use buildings such as fitness or community rooms.”

The two design directions — a traditional pitched-roof and a more modern flat-roofed look on the same footprint — would include one- and two-bedroom rental apartments of 600–800 square feet, but several residents said that’s too small for families. “This was a first attempt at maximizing the amount of units on that portion of the site,” McGean said.

Contrary to speculation by some, Donelan’s has “given no indication that they want to leave and is a critical tenant at the mall, he said. He declined to answer a resident question as to when their lease expires and whether a second phase of redevelopment would affect that space.

“Until they come to us saying they want to change the space, it’s important to keep it as is. If they wanted to downsize or add space, I think we would jump on that and work with them and try to create some housing along with that,” said McGean, who urged residents to shop there and at other mall businesses.

The Bank of America space will have to change, however. Even if they stay on after redevelopment, the drive-up teller window “would probably not be able to exist” since the car turnaround area occupies too much valuable space, he said. The bank also occupies a second floor, and McGean indicated that the RLF would welcome any desire by the bank to remain in the mall but downsize.

Earlier, the RLF had considered selling the entire four-acre property with conditions after the mall building was redeveloped but has since changed its thinking to maintain a ground lease. “We have to be comfortable as an organization and as stewards of property, leaving it so it can’t change in a way the town doesn’t want,” McGean said.

Although current plans call for retaining the mature trees along Lincoln Road, adjacent construction “will fatally damage their root systems,” and the canopies would have to be cut back as well, said resident Deb Howe, who is an arborist. “I would say those oak trees are probably toast.”

There are many hurdles to overcome if the redevelopment vision is to become reality, McGean said. Among the needs:

• Honoring the current tenants’ leases and trying to accommodate them in the refurbished mall
• Successfully negotiating with The Community Builders (owners of Linciln Woods and the wastewater treatment facility that serves both those homes and the mall) to upgrade that system to allow for expansion
• Attracting a developer willing to invest in a project
• Getting approval from the RLF’s mortgage lender to take down part of the property that’s acting as collateral for the loan
• Getting town approvals, including March 2024 Town Meeting approval of the proposed Housing Choice Act rezoning, incorporating feedback from community forums and neighborhood meetings and, eventual site plan approval from the Planning Board, which would probably involve a traffic study

McGean also assured forum attendees that the RLF is not going bankrupt, but is “hoping to attract investment in the mall to ensure the long-term viability of a town asset,” and is not “in bed” with a developer. Civico, which developed Oriole Landing, has been a “helpful advisor” but the town has not made any legal agreements with them or any other developer, he said.

Click on images below for larger versions with captions:

A conceptual drawing of the front of the mall (Donelan’s is at left rear) shared by the RLF last June. 

The Rural Land Foundation will hold a public forum on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. via Zoom to present preliminary conceptual plans for redevelopment of a portion of the mall at Lincoln Station. There will be a brief presentation followed by time for questions and feedback. Click here for the Zoom link (passcode: 466177).

The mall building closer to Lincoln Woods (excluding the Tack Room, Post Office, etc.) is under discussion along with other areas in South Lincoln for rezoning to comply with the Housing Choice Act. The RLF, which owns the mall, has been in discussions for some time with Civico about ideas whereby Civico would redevelop the mall while adding a second and third floor for multifamily housing as stipulated in the HCA.

Whatever is eventually proposed will have to conform to the revised zoning bylaw now being drafted by the Planning Board in preparation for a vote at the March 23 Annual Town Meeting. The board at one point was considering whether to allow a building height of 48’ and a fourth story by special permit (up from the current limits of 36 feet for residential buildings and 42 feet for mixed-used buildings) but decided on January 9 to remove that proposal from the zoning bylaw, according to the Jan. 10 update posted on the Housing Choice Act Working Group web page.

The draft bylaw currently requires that 33% of the total square footage of all buildings on a parcel be for commercial use. In addition, 80% of a building’s frontage along Lincoln Road or along a private right of way (e.g. the driveway into Donelan’s) must be dedicated to commercial use, the update notes. For the other three subdistricts (Lincoln Woods, Lincoln Road and Codman Road but not the Village Center subdistrict that includes the mall), the Planning Board is also considering a new “building footprint + parking” parameter that limits the footprint and parking to no more than 50% of the lot. 

The number of potential housing units on the site will depend on numerous site constraints (including parking, circulation, access) and the overall economics of any proposed redevelopment project, RLF board chair Michelle Barnes said in a December 20 email to the Lincoln Squirrel.

Civico, which developed and later sold the Oriole Landing project, has been in talks with the RLF to design a mutually acceptable mall project, with the possibility of Civico eventually buying or leasing the property from the RLF. Any future sale would include deed restrictions that would mandate a certain proportion of commercial use in perpetuity, Barnes has said. RLF has no legal agreements with Civico or any other developer at this point in the process, Barnes said in December.

A redevelopment project would also require additional septic capacity. The mall uses the same wastewater facility as Lincoln Woods, which is owner by TCB (The Community Builders). Barnes said last month that the RLF has had “very preliminary discussions” with TCB about the possibility of a redevelopment project and that a design study is underway.

The schedule of Planning Board meetings, public hearings and community forums on the HCA can be found here.