I fully agree with the HCA working group's stated goals to promote socioeconomic diversity and encourage use of public transit by increasing the affordable housing stock near Lincoln Station. I also agree with people who worry about the impact of development on quality of life in Lincoln. Clearly there is a number of units that would be too much for Lincoln center to handle, but it is hard for me as an individual to figure out what that number is. I would like to see housing increase in Lincoln center incrementally so we can balance these goals. The question in my mind is: how do we achieve this? Do I trust the current process (to go through town meeting) or do I trust developers? The state created the HCA because it does not trust the towns. There is a history of exclusionary housing policies across the state. They want developers to have the right to build housing without going through the town. I, however, trust the town over developers. I believe enough Lincolnites feel the same way I do--that we can balance the need for more affordable housing and maintain the beauty of our town. I am not saying developers are evil;they just clearly have different priorities than residents.
So, I think we should be very careful with how we choose which parcels are included in our proposal to the state. Once we give up our power, we cannot get it back. I would like to see ~150 units go up in Lincoln Center, hopefully with 20-30% being affordable. Once we see how that affects traffic in Lincoln Center and at 5 corners and whether traffic light alleviate this traffic, we can make further decisions about where additional housing should go. The current parcels included in proposal "C" would allow for a shocking 1100 additional units. This seems like way too much. Even 300-600 units is hard to wrap my head around right now. The traffic study conducted in 2021 considered 250 units, and did not even study traffic at the 5 way stop. Thank you to the Select Board/HCA working group for reconsidering other options for the December 2nd vote. I am hopeful the town can come to an option that will get a "yes" in March (although if we need to I am also OK with extending the timeline--this just seems important to get right). I would like an option that includes ~150 new units in Lincoln Center. I am not saying this is the maximum I would support in the future, but this would allow the incremental change that I believe would best for our town. It would allow the town to decide what happens after those first 150 units, NOT the developers. Laurie Gray
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