Planning Board endorses Housing Choice Act zoning 3-2 for March town meeting

LINCOLN — February 26, 2024 — Lincoln Planning Board endorses Housing Choice Act zoning 3-2 over co-chair objections. Co-Chair Margaret Olson, Rob Ahlert and Susan Hall Mygatt voted to send the Option C bylaw — including the Lincoln Mall in the 3A overlay — to the March 23 Annual Town Meeting, while Co-Chairs Lynn DeLisi and Gary Taylor read a joint statement urging the board to either remove the mall and form a 10-to-12-person resident negotiating committee or pass the article over entirely. Olson said she had a "moral obligation" to follow December's town meeting direction and would be "absolutely outraged" if a board ignored such a vote. The board tightened the special-permit standard for reducing the 33 percent commercial requirement to require documented vacancies, marketing efforts and an independent consultant's finding paid for by the applicant under MGL Chapter 44 Section 53G, struck a 45,000-square-foot threshold, and directed Town Planner Paula Vaughn to draft Lexington-style language automatically raising affordability from 10 percent to 15 percent if EOHLC accepts a revised feasibility study.