Planning Board advances 50 percent lot coverage cap in HCA zoning draft

LINCOLN -- January 5, 2024, Lincoln Planning Board advances 50 percent lot-coverage cap in HCA zoning draft. At a Jan. 5 working session, members Margaret Olson, Gary Taylor and Ethan Flint reviewed Utile-produced build-out scenarios for the Rural Land Foundation mall site and Codman Road, settling on a combined building-and-parking coverage cap of 50 percent across all three sub-districts and a reduced 15-foot village center front setback. Utile's model showed a redeveloped mall yielding roughly 49,000 square feet of commercial, down from 55,000, at 2.5 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet, with retail frontage at 83 percent meeting the draft's 80 percent threshold. Members split on allowing a fourth story by special permit at 48 feet; Co-Chair Lynn DeLisi's written comments opposed it, Taylor wanted it preserved as something "we need in the future," and the question was deferred to Jan. 9. Residents pressed for a maximum 100-unit "bulldoze exercise" schematic of the mall parcel, which Utile agreed to produce.