I have received some questions from residents trying to understand why our HCA proposals overlay zoning over existing multi-family districts. I thought the rationale was important enough to share it with the wider public.
I believe the town would be better served by separating as much as possible the zoning exercise required for compliance approval from actual development. Zoning existing multifamily developments accomplishes that goal, as those properties already have the characteristics we would like to see and they are unlikely to be redeveloped. Let me explain the logic behind the separation. HCA compliance requires us to zone a certain number of acres to a certain density by right. What that means is that as long as the developer does not go past our height and setback bylaws, they do not need to ask the town for feedback. This is not what historically happened in Lincoln. Historically every multi-family development was a give and take between the developer and the town. In that process the town was able to extract important concessions like the number of affordable units, measures to reduce environmental impact, etc. While that give and take was quite important, for areas rezoned under HCA the town's influence is diminished even further as developers would get an override over certain town bylaws the State considers too restrictive. Among them two are chief: affordability and wetland setbacks. The state will only allow us to ask a developer to include 10% affordable units. The town’s bylaws require 15%, and historically the town has never approved anything below 25%, including some units reserved for low income households. 25% is also the lowest percentage of units for an entire development to count towards 40B State requirements. The other requirement at odds is wetlands setback. The town’s bylaws require 100’ and the State only gives us 50’. This difference would be critical in some sensitive areas like Codman Rd. Our view is that it is detrimental to the town’s general interest to allow a developer to build a large multifamily building without going through town meeting approval. The success of Oriole Landing is testament to the usefulness of town meeting: a win-win for the town and the developer. We have actually learned from other towns like Winchester that we can drive a much tougher bargain than we have done in the past. We see with skepticism claims that the Oriole Landing developer, who made an estimated $12M profit and was able to get through town meeting in nine months, does not want to go through town meeting again. Lincoln has historically not been an obstructive town towards multi-family developers and there is no reason to think that would change now that HCA has lowered Town Meeting approval thresholds from 2/3 to just a simple majority. I ask all residents to consider that when they vote to rezone an area, they are de facto abdicating their democratic right to influence future development. David Cuetos Weston Rd
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