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."