Yes, for sure those units will remain affordable in perpetuity! But I wonder what a million dollars can build! Can we build 2 multi family homes, each house with 4 apartments that the town owns out right and rent them out at true affordable price of 25-30% one’s take home pay?
We gave one million dollars to the developer in exchange for a guarantee of affordability when the rental price is not affordable by the common folks!
Susanna S Giles Road Just to be clear: the Oriole Landing affordable units are protected in perpetuity; the change of ownership is immaterial to the status of those units. If we wanted to allow a developer to build mixed-use (commercial + residential) in the mall area, we can always do so through town meeting. We do not need to wait for HCA.
However, because Civico has said they do not want to go through town meeting again (slide 34 of the SOTT deck linked below), the HCAWG wants to rezone the mall area through HCA, even though the acreage does not count towards our compliance requirement. Rezoning through HCA also means that we lose the ability to vote on actual plans/blueprints.
I am not against redeveloping the mall area. However, let's not reduce our residents' input by bending to the will of a developer. Let's remember we gave Civico a $1M no-interest loan for the 15 affordable apartments in Oriole Landing, and they turned around and sold the building for $32M. Like someone else has said on this thread, it is indeed troubling.
By law all property has a "by-right" use. In the case of the Mall the base zoning is B-1, so the current by-right use is retail, businesses, and professional offices.
Speaking as a concerned citizen:
The inclusion of by-right Mall development in the HCA, and resulting need for septic upgrades funded by state grants sounds like a case of “If we had some ham we could have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs.”
And Colleen, I agree with you that the Mall sale should be decoupled from the HCA. That area is one of the most visible elements of Lincoln’s “institutional spine”, and the decisions about how it is developed shouldn’t be sold off without a 2/3 Town meeting vote. This land is not just an RLF asset; given its location and presence in the South Lincoln streetscape it is a Town asset.
Deb Howe
Sent from my iPad
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