Lincoln Planning Board pulls cluster zoning rewrite from Town Meeting warrant

LINCOLN — March 8, 2023 — Lincoln Planning Board pulls cluster zoning rewrite, advances wireless and accessory apartment articles. After more than an hour of debate over town counsel Joel Bard's proposed amendment to Section 6.6 of the cluster development bylaw — meant to cure a potential constitutional takings problem in the existing public-access and conveyance language — the board voted to pass over the article at Town Meeting. Member Margaret Olson said the board lacked "really crisp explanations" to justify the change and saw no "tremendous legal risk" in inaction. Resident Buzz Constable, a former board member, had submitted competing edits. The board then unanimously placed on the warrant a wireless communications facilities amendment codifying the town's existing administrative handling of eligible facilities requests under federal law's 60-day shot clock, and approved final language allowing accessory apartments within principal dwellings by right — eliminating Planning Board recommendation and ZBA special permit review for those units while requiring one parking space and prohibiting split ownership.