Lincoln boards vote unanimously to submit Option C for MBTA Communities compliance

LINCOLN -- October 10, 2023, Lincoln advances compact Option C to the state and gives Util four weeks to test an alternative. The joint Select Board, Planning Board and Housing Choice Act Working Group voted unanimously Tuesday to submit Option C, 639 modeled units across 64 acres at 15.6 units per acre, to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities for pre-adoption review, with the village-center rezoning of the Rural Land Foundation mall site counted alongside the station-area district. Roughly 75 percent of 229 State of the Town respondents preferred Option C. Select Board Chair Jim Hutchinson pushed for a second option, calling it "probably the single biggest thing we're going to do as a town for this generation," and the boards will reconvene Nov. 13 to evaluate a possible Option D. Town Counsel Joel Bard of KP Law told residents he has reversed his 2021 view of compliance: "Shall means shall."