By Ken Hurd

At one of the recent forums hosted by the HCAWG (Housing Choice Act Working Group), one particularly insightful resident posed a poignant question to the proponents of an alternative Option E. She asked, “What is it you stand for?”

Although there was no immediate response, we now know the answer, according to the mailing most residents recently received about a meeting planned by proponents of Option E. You can find it on the back of the flyer under the label “Our Guiding Principles,” and I would like to highlight what I see as some inconsistencies.

Create more affordable housing

Many proponents of an alternative Option E express concern that the HCA limits the percentage of affordable housing to 10%. Because Lincoln normally requires 15% affordable units in any multi-family development, the delta of their concern is 5%. In Lincoln’s case, the HCA requires zoning that will allow 635 units, and 5% of that would be 32 units. As a reminder, the HCAWG responded early on to the residents of the Ridge Court Condominium property, a.k.a. the “flying nun” apartments. Despite the fact that this property is one of the most logical to include in the rezoning, they asked to be excluded in order to preserve the 36 units of relatively affordable apartments that already exist. The HCAWG agreed, and the delta of this exclusion represents more than the 5% about which the alternative proponents are so concerned.

Protect commercial retail in our village center

To anyone who has paid any attention to the state of retail services in Lincoln Station over the last ten years, they might have noticed a decline or turnover in establishments and an increase in vacancies. This is occurring not just at the mall but in the entire Lincoln Station area. As noted in the 2010 Comprehensive Long Range Plan, “the town needs to be receptive to more housing near the train station,” and as was predicted in 2010, “small businesses currently operating around the train station may find it very difficult to survive in the future unless the area includes more housing and, ironically, more businesses.” Absent more housing, existing retail will most likely continue to wither away.

Safeguard Lincoln’s wetlands protection bylaw

As noted multiple times by the HCAWG, all underlying regulations required by the bylaws of Lincoln will continue in effect, and that includes all wetland protections currently in place.  

Focus on locations with existing infrastructure while minimizing the need for greenfield construction

If this means rezoning Battle Road Farm, it would appear that this is no more than a tactic to subvert the intent of the Housing Choice Act since condominium regulations make it nearly impossible to create new housing in that location.

Preserve historically significant properties

A worthy goal, but with the few significant properties that exist in the Lincoln Station area, this could most likely be accommodated by any of the options with a minor adjustment.

Honor the legacy of past generations’s work to create a variety of housing choices and multi-family housing

Most Lincolnites, particularly those who know the town’s history, will agree with this statement. Time and again, previous generations have stepped up to do more than Lincoln’s fair share in preserving open space while also increasing our housing stock to accommodate a variety of needs. In my opinion, it would be a slap in their ancestral faces to shirk our responsibility to the region by raising the drawbridge and rezoning for the least amount of new housing possible while claiming compliance.

Save our key in-town parcels from HCA’s 90% market-rate zoning mandate, allowing funds from Lincoln’s limited Affordable Housing Trust to be more wisely spent for much-needed low- and moderate-income housing units in Lincoln

To me, there is no correlation between saving in-town parcels and using AHT funds for needed housing. This “principle” advocates for nothing more than kicking the can down the road toward inaction. 

Finally, I think we can all agree that the Housing Choice Act is forcing our hand no less than in many of the surrounding communities. I hope that we can rise to meet this challenge as past Lincoln residents have done so many times before. There is no question in my mind that we can be as creative as our forbears and find solutions that will maintain the town’s character that we all cherish. I sincerely believe that this will be best achieved by voting for Option C.  

So please, join me in supporting Option C as the best way to revive the Lincoln Station area as well as to meet our responsibility to the region by creating more actual housing consistent with our town vision statement, namely:

“Fostering economic, racial, ethnic, and age diversity among its citizenry through its educational, housing and other public policy.”

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“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

By Jonathan Soo

All Lincoln residents should feel threatened by how Option E supporters changed the rules so that they could force a plan developed in secret by an unaccountable private group onto the December 2 Town Meeting ballot and making what should have been an unofficial survey into a binding vote* for the plan that will be presented at the March 2024 Town Meeting.

In 2022, after the MBTA Communities Act was signed into law, the town created a detailed plan describing how it would develop a zoning bylaw. The town committed to having a town working group create a new zoning bylaw, followed by public hearings leading up to the March 2024 Town Meeting.

The town’s Housing Choice Act Working Group (HCAWG) collectively spent hundreds of hours evaluating and developing a number of options, gathering feedback from affected residents in a series of information sessions, and carefully ensuring that the proposed options meet not only the state’s requirements but also federal Fair Housing Act requirements, Lincoln’s Comprehensive Long Range Plan, and other obligations. 

This fall, a small group of people opposed to additional housing in the town center decided that rather than making their case in March, they would hijack the process by developing their own plan using every loophole available to make sure no new housing could be built there. This plan was developed in secret by a small group of self-selected insiders, with no minutes or records of who participated or even when meetings were held.

On November 14, the Select Board voted to change the rules of the game. It asked HCAWG to rubber-stamp Option E so that it could be added to the ballot without review, and announced that the informal survey at the December 2 Town Meeting would be changed into a binding vote to select the option to be placed on the March ballot, effectively adding a primary vote to the process with two weeks’ notice — with one of those two weeks being the Thanksgiving holiday.

Even if Option E was developed in a legitimate way, changing the December 2 vote from a survey to a binding vote is an incredibly unfair change to the process. It is simply not possible for town residents to digest and evaluate all of the options in just a few days, especially since one of the options has only been publicly known for a single week. Too many residents will be entering the meeting with no real understanding of the implications of voting for each choice, to be swayed by a few minutes of rhetoric before the vote.

On top of this, many residents will be unable to rearrange their schedules at short notice to attend the meeting, assuming they hear about the changes at all. Most residents interested in the process still have a postcard on their refrigerators describing the December 2 meeting as “‘Sense of the Town’ from residents via an informal paper ballot on preferred option – C or D.”

Of course, Option E was not developed in a legitimate way — not in any way that should be acceptable for the town to place on a binding ballot. By placing it on the ballot and stating that it is a viable choice for the March 3 vote, the Selects are saying that the town stands behind it morally, ethically, and legally. No zoning law developed in secret should be allowed on any town ballot.

Every Lincoln resident, no matter which of the town’s options they support (C, D1, D2, or D3), should go to Town Meeting and vote against Option E as long as it has not been rejected. 

* Editor’s note: Although the vote is binding, changes may still be made to bring the measure into compliance with state law if necessary — see the HCAWG website (Q&A #4 under “2023 11 22 FAQs).”

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“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

By Ruth Ann Hendrickson

I support new and more affordable housing in Lincoln, and I’d like to see most of it in the area of the train station and the Lincoln Mall. I will therefore be supporting option C at the Special Town Meeting on December 2.

1. Option C is the best hope for retaining the retail businesses at the mall. I remember when the roof caved in and Donelan’s was out of business for over a year. We missed them terribly. If we even needed a pint of cream, we had to go out of town.

Retail is struggling all over the country, but I notice that West Concord (population 7,003 per census data: ACS 2021), which developed a large apartment complex near the Nashoba Brook a few years ago, has managed to retain real retail, not just banks and restaurants. I am hoping that with enough new housing in the mall area, we also could have a thriving retail center.

2. History shows that adding new housing enriches the town. Yes, change is always worrisome. When Farrar Pond Village near where I live was proposed, the neighbors were violently against it because of traffic fears. The traffic has not materialized, and Farrar Pond Village has turned out to be a wonderful place for Lincoln people to retire. Recently, because of the cost of housing, it has also attracted families with children, to the extent that they have built a playground.

When the town developed Lincoln Woods, people were aghast — a much denser than Farrar Pond Village, and right there in the middle of town! And yet I know someone who works at Donelan’s who is able to live there, and a friend of mine who has MS is also able to live there to be near her mother. This complex has definitely given living options to Lincoln people who needed it. The proposed new housing would again add housing for our children and those who work here.

3. Our agricultural heritage is safe. Remember, 40% of the Lincoln is permanently in conservation. Forty percent! Those fields will continue to be farmed by local farmers. Codman Community Farms belong to the town and will also remain in perpetuity. The trails we love to walk will always be there. Adding some higher density housing near the train station will not affect that.

4. Do not be fooled by Option E. Some think that, if we chose Option E, we can slow down and develop housing at our own pace under the Town Meeting process. Most of the towns around us, however, will have designated large areas as multifamily by right. What developer in his right mind would risk thousands of dollars to take a proposal to Town Meeting only to see it voted down, when he could easily go to the next town and develop something by right?

The RLF will be unable to replenish their endowment and revitalize the mall in this new housing development environment. Please vote to allow the RLF to develop the mall/housing complex by right. The RLF is a nonprofit whose mission is to assist the town of Lincoln in shaping its land-use destiny. History has show that they can be trusted to work to the town’s benefit.

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“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.