Planning Board approves Long Meadow porch addition, opens B1/B2 zoning rewrite

LINCOLN — June 14, 2022 — Lincoln Planning Board approves Long Meadow porch and opens broad rewrite of South Lincoln business zoning. The board voted 4-0 to approve a 269-square-foot screen porch and portico at 26 Long Meadow Road for William Hobbs and Carolyn Mitchell, with Co-Chair Lynn DeLisi absent. Architect David Whitney agreed to correct a misread cluster lot-width figure; Co-Chair Gary Taylor said the half-century-old document's "six" had been read as a zero. The board then spent most of the meeting on the B1 retail and B2 Lewis Street districts, where identical uses face site plan review on one side of the street and ZBA special permits on the other. "It's not workable," Taylor said. Staff cited a Title 5 cap of 10,000 gallons per day — roughly 90 bedrooms — that effectively forecloses mid-sized developments. The board also approved prior minutes as amended, softening "pushing a certain agenda" to "advocating" in a reference to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.