Planning Board, Selectmen endorse Oriole Landing

The Planning Board voted unanimously this week to recommend passage at Town Meeting of a measure that would give preliminary approval to the Oriole Landing mixed-income housing project.

In its recommendation, the board included several conditions that will be reflected in conditions for any future approval of the developer’s formal application. If the Town Meeting measure (which would create a development district within the North Lincoln Overlay zoning district and also approve a preliminary land use plan) passes by a two-thirds majority, Civico Development must then come back to the Planning Board within two years to obtain a special permit and site plan review.

In the first portion of the board’s public hearing on March 6, neighbors protested the 60-unit proposal on a number of fronts, saying the project is too large, will cost the town money due to increased school enrollment from tenants, will significantly increase traffic in the neighborhood, and will allow the town to dispense with any future efforts at increasing affordable housing in town.

At the hearing continuation on March 20, Andrew Consigli of Civico detailed changes in the proposal that resulted from community input at various meetings and open houses. The original proposal called for a four-story building of rental units (15 percent of them affordable) plus a condo building. The plan now calls for no condos and two 30-unit rental buildings of two and a half to three stories, with 25 percent of the units deeded as affordable. Consigli noted that this adjustment was made possible by the promise of a no-interest loan of $1 million from the Lincoln Housing Commission. The sum does not need to be repaid to the town unless the affordability deed restrictions are terminated for any reason in the future.

Rather than tearing down the 1870s Dexter C. Harris house on the property, Civico has pledged to spend up to $100,000 to relocate the house between the two rental buildings and repurpose it as an open three-season indoor space for gatherings or studio use.

In response to traffic concerns, Civico agreed to a left-turn-only restriction out of the Oriole Landing driveway onto Mary’s Way from 6:30-9:30 a.m. on weekdays. The company also agree to donate $25,000 to Lincoln’s Complete Streets program to improve street safety and accessibility for drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. (Last fall, the town received a $400,000 state grant for 10 projects that must be completed by September 2018.)

In their March 19 vote to endorse the Oriole Landing project, the Board of Selectmen specified that the $25,000 should be used if possible to create a roadside path along Old Concord Turnpike near the development. The Department of Public Works is also planning to paint a center line on Mary’s Way. In addition, Consigli said he was looking into the idea of offering a fee-based shuttle service between the development and the Alewife MBTA station.

“It’s a better plan from when we first came in with,” he said.

The town hired Lynne Sweet of Newton-based LDS Consulting in Newton to look at Civico’s fiscal impact statement. Her report estimated a net positive fiscal impact to the town of about $114,000 annually—just under the $115,000 predicted in the analysis commissioned by Civico.

“The margins are very slim for this project,” Sweet said of the development’s projected finances. Because of the reduced density from the original plan and things like the LEED certification, “the numbers are really tight; there’s not a lot of wiggle room to add more costs,” she said in concluding that the $1 million loan is in fact necessary to make the project financially feasible.

“For me, this was a difficult decision,” said Planning Board member Lynn DeLisi after the vote.  “I was very impressed with Civico and how they interacted with the community, but on the other hand, I have great sympathy for the neighborhood. Cathy O’Brien made some very good points.”

O’Brien, who lives on Cambridge Turnpike and whose mother Mary’s house abuts the development site, raised numerous objections at the earlier public hearing. On March 21, she confirmed on LincolnTalk that she was the source of a town-side mailing that reiterated those objections and urged residents to vote “no” vote at Town Meeting.

“Neighborhoods are personal—it’s where we live,” Selectman Jonathan Dwyer said earlier this week when Selectmen unanimously voted to endorse the project. If voters approve it, “we need to help the neighborhood get that it needs to help them live with it.”

Selectmen James Craig and Jennifer Glass also expressed sympathy for the neighbors, who have had to live alongside two construction projects at The Commons as well as the Route 2 project in recent years. However, they couldn’t pass up an opportunity to guarantee the town’s state-mandated affordable housing minimum for years and thus avoid a much larger 40B housing project that could bypass local zoning restrictions. Weston and Wayland are both facing the real prospect of “unwanted large-scale developments that are really going to change the fabric and essence of those communities,” Craig said.