Lincoln Board Approves New ZBA Member, Accepts Teddy Bear Preschool Traffic Review

LINCOLN — July 15, 2013 — Lincoln Select Board accepted an independent traffic review clearing a new preschool's site plan at the Concord and Farrow Roads intersection. The board commissioned Haner Swanson Incorporated to peer-review a traffic study prepared for the Teddy Bear Club, a bilingual French-English preschool opening at 239 Concord Road in September with capacity for 55 students per half-day session. Engineer John Vankor of Haner Swanson told the board the original study's methodology was appropriate, that no auxiliary turn lanes are needed, and that the school would add at most 1.2 seconds of delay at the intersection in a worst-case scenario. Neighborhood residents raised concerns about idling vehicles on Farrow Road and the adequacy of sight lines near utility poles, while one resident questioned whether the study's modeling had accounted for the near-tripling of traffic on Farrow Road during the 30-minute drop-off window. The board also voted unanimously to appoint retired real estate developer Eric Snyder as an associate member of the Zoning Board of Appeals for a three-year term, and reached consensus to shelve a CPA-funded Lincoln-Sudbury softball field rehabilitation after bids came in well above estimates.