Bravo david On Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 3:39 PM David Cuetos <[email protected]> wrote:
> The quid pro quo deal is not just an idea, it is an active plan to incent > a property owner (TCB) to open up their water treatment plan to enable > another private property owner (RLF/Civico) to save itself the cost and > space of building its own septic. Mr. Taylor has mentioned this plan twice > during Planning Board meetings. Coincidentally, there have been three > Select Board meetings to discuss the potential conveyance of town property. > The Selects have refused disclosing which parcels were discussed. > Regardless of the need for a town vote to convey this property, how can > this plan be represented as advancing the general interest of townspeople? > > The RLF Chair has been very explicit in public meetings about the plan to > reduce commercial space at the Mall. This a verbatim quote from the > November 8th Community Forum: "We are not trying to increase the amount of > square footage of commercial space we have at the Mall. So right now what > we are thinking of doing would in fact on net decrease the amount of > commercial space we have at the Mall by some amount." 1:46:59 > https://cloud.castus.tv/vod/lincoln/video/6553ef5bc9f26400089ffb98?page=HOME > > Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives is not a special-interest > group. There is no special economic profit any of us will derive from > Option E. As has already been discussed, one of our members is a property > owner of a parcel that would be rezoned under every option, including E. > The only interest we are defending is the general interest of the residents > of Lincoln. We are just a group of residents, open to anyone in town who > shares these concerns. In fact, many residents joined the group only > recently and have made very substantial contributions. I am somewhat > perplexed by the comment of us not having minutes of our meetings. We are > not a public body or a board of directors, just a group of residents. It is > not a relevant critique. > > There are certainly residents in town who work for the biggest economic > beneficiary of the rezoning under options C-D, namely the RLF. They are of > course entitled to sharing their opinion, but I would argue it would be > good practice for them to share their underlying conflict of interest when > speaking publicly on this matter. > > David Cuetos > > On Tue, Nov 28, 2023 at 9:34 AM Sara Lupkas <[email protected]> wrote: > >> "Open meeting discussions point to a lot of possible concessions to private >> entities (applying for grants on their behalf, in lieu fees, increasing >> height restrictions to 48", quid pro quo exchange of land, reduction of >> commercial space at the mall). Option E is the only one that allows all of >> the pieces to be disclosed to residents with time to deliberate and >> understand the various issues at play without having to vote down >> compliance with the HCA in March." >> >> There is no "quid pro quo exchange of land." Any change in use of town-owned >> land would require 2/3 vote at a Town Meeting to approve. Just because an >> idea has been mentioned in meetings does not mean that there is any plan to >> exchange that land, which again, could not be done outside of town meeting. >> >> There is also no planned reduction of commercial space at the mall. RLF >> representatives have only tried to be realistic about the mall, which is >> suffering the same fate and future prospects as all in-person retail across >> the US. Claiming that Option E would "protect commercial retail in our >> Village Center" is disingenuous, and as far as I know, no one from the group >> who came up with Option E has met with any tenants, or RLF management, to >> discuss what specifically would protect retail there. >> >> The entire concept of open meetings, which the group who developed Option E >> seems so determined to parse every moment of, has been entirely lost with >> the creation of Option E. Letting a special-interest group, which has had >> secret meetings to develop these options, with no public notifications of >> meetings or publication of minutes, put an option up to vote has done more >> to damage the integrity of this process than anything else I've seen. >> >> ** Lastly, anyone who feels strongly about protecting the existing retail at >> the mall should commit to doing more shopping there, especially this holiday >> season.** >> >> >> >> -- >> *Sara Lupkas* >> >> -- >> 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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