And taxes to offset additional services Could we require the developer to build condos rather than rental units in Option C? Or any option for that matter. Don't we want more owner-occupied housing for young families, for seniors down- sizing, and to expand our diversity? Must all 625 units be rental? Hi all -
I don't think anyone is arguing whether or not to comply but rather HOW we comply.
Option C has some flaws ...
1. Affordable Housing - it allows parcels like Lincoln Woods to be converted to 3A "HCA" zoning which means they can be redeveloped with mostly (90%) market rate housing which as you can see from Oriole Landing, is very expensive for a middle income resident 2. Traffic - 635 units of residents (e.g 1200 people) in one area will likely have 1000+ cars and while a couple of their trips per month might be walking, most of them will not. We will 'likely' have a mess of cars in S. Lincoln, not just at rush hour, but all day and on weekends. Maybe that is the 'lively' town center people are envisioning, but not me. 3. Visual Appeal - we can have Planning Guidelines all day long but in the end, we are talking about big buildings and a lot of them all in one area. Think in your mind as you read this about 21 Oriole Landing buildings all in S. Lincoln. This is realistic because 635 has to be the modeled gross density (per the 3A downloadable model) which accounts for wetlands, septic, and parking). I have a visual "Lego" site plan for this should anyone want to see how this could very realistically be laid out. 4. Pace - Lincoln will be attractive to developers and they know the only thing that has stopped them in the past is 2/3 vote at Town meeting. That will be gone once the "HCA Zoning" is enacted. These parcels will be very attractive and as much as we are told this will take decades, i just don't believe it. We need to be prepared for a lot of development in the next 5 to 10 years with Option C. 5. Environment - this is where my understanding gets a little fuzzy but by putting wetlands into HCA zoning using the State maps with 50' buffer, we may even get more density that we are expecting because the State DEP can trump our local conservation laws if we try to block a developer from building in wetlands that were promised in HCA zoning.
I think the HCAWG got pressed for time in August/September and felt they needed to submit something for review to the State which they have done, fine, no problem.
Now they are considering new options. But which options? We will be sending in 10 alternatives to the HCAWG team today to get feedback before D1 and D2 get fully baked. We hope they will be given time for consideration before the Oct 24 Planning board meeting (next week!). Why the rush?
Hopefully together, we can come up with a better solution.
Thanks,
Rob
Hello LincolnTalkers,
I do not wish to rub salt in anybody’s wounds, and I certainly understand the anxiety around the possibility of change, but I’d like to remind everyone why the Housing Choice Act was enacted, not in the first place, but as a last resort.
In many of Boston’s surrounding suburbs, there have been decades of resistance to providing more housing using techniques such as local zoning restrictions, concerns about traffic counts, burgeoning school populations, declining property values, and increased taxes to support additional services, etc. And now, I hear the argument that we won’t have enough affordable housing if we allow any new development.
In full disclosure, when the Housing Choice Act first appeared, I was not a fan because it was such a blunt instrument. However, I now believe its good intentions far exceed the cost of compliance if a community works in good faith to meet the challenges of providing more housing in the greater Boston area. As Bob Kupperstein stated, by the simple law of supply and demand, if all towns in the metropolitan area do their part, more housing will help take the pressure off the un-affordability of existing housing stock.
Furthermore, encouraging greater diversity in the types of housing will increase the diversity of people who can and will live in Lincoln. This will include the gamut from younger households to aging seniors who no longer want to maintain their larger homes or multiple vehicles, from those who work here to those who share the desire to live in bucolic setting.
I do believe the Housing Choice Act Working Group has done an excellent job of parsing through the Act’s cumbersome formulas to arrive at an optimum solution that not only meets the legal requirements but also the spirit of the legislation. As an added benefit, their recommendation comports with the goals of Lincoln’s Comprehensive Long-Range Plan adopted unanimously in 2010. Its highest priority was to create a walkable village center with more housing clustered around public transportation and a more robust commercial center in the Lincoln Station area.
Finally, if you have any doubt about whether or not Eastern Massachusetts has a housing problem, you may be interested in the upcoming report prepared by The Boston Foundation entitled “Exclusionary by Design, An Investigation of Zoning’s Use as a Tool of Race, Class, and Family Exclusion in Boston’s Suburbs, 1920 to Today.". It will be available for download from their website when it is released on November 8th, and you are welcome to join their presentation by registering on the link shown below..
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Please Join Us For
Exclusionary by Design
An Investigation of Zoning’s Use as a Tool of Race, Class, and Family Exclusion in Boston’s Suburbs, 1920 to Today
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Wednesday, November 8th, 2023
10:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Zoom Webinar |
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This report is timely as policymakers are pushed by the scale and persistence of our regional housing shortage to consider state-level zoning reform in new ways. Other states have recently passed laws that reclaim some land use authority for state or regional governments, and Massachusetts is in the process of implementing our own MBTA Communities Upzoning law. What can we learn about the past 100 years of municipal zoning in Massachusetts to inform these state efforts? Will current local efforts be sufficient, or will we need further state-level zoning reform to address these problems at scale? Can municipalities be trusted to act in good faith and at the scale necessary?
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Boston Indicators is the research center at the Boston Foundation, which works to advance a thriving Greater Boston for all residents across all neighborhoods. We do this by analyzing key indicators of well-being and by researching promising ideas for making our city more prosperous, equitable and just. To ensure that our work informs active efforts to improve our city, we work in deep partnership with community groups, civic leaders and Boston’s civic data community to produce special reports and host public convenings. |
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Respectfully, Ken Hurd
Lifting the Human Spirit by Design
781-259-3300
781-259-8900 cell
www.keha.com
... The only ones benefiting from the HCA are developers.
That's just not true. Affordable housing is one way to help the housing crisis, but it's a supply and demand problem, so increasing the supply will help buyers/renters on the demand side.
There isn’t just a housing crisis. There is an AFFORDABLE housing crisis. That missing word is important when you’re going to use diversity and equity to describe it.
Yes, but they are interrelated. When there was adequate housing supply in EMass, there wasn't an affordability problem.
-Bob
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The LincolnTalk mailing list.
To post, send mail to [email protected].
Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/.
Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
--
--
The LincolnTalk mailing list.
To post, send mail to [email protected].
Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/.
Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
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