Planning Board hears FOMA case for modernist design guidelines under Housing Choice Act

LINCOLN — July 25, 2023 — Lincoln Planning Board hears modernist pitch as Housing Choice Act bylaw drafting advances. Friends of Modern Architecture president Andrew Glass and presenter Dana Robart asked the board to anchor its station-area design guidelines in five principles — simple massing, transparency, intentional open space, pedestrian connections and considered materiality — drawn from Lincoln's 20th-century modernist legacy. Town Planner Paula Vaughn told the board her Section 12.8 draft splits the compliance zoning into a 3A overlay and a separate Village Center Mixed Use District covering the RLF parcel, commuter lot and Doherty's, structured to avoid the commercial-requirement trouble Lexington hit with the state. Attorney Joel Bard believes a single 50 percent town-meeting vote will suffice. Co-Chair Gary Taylor pressed the presenters on what leverage a by-right statute leaves the town; member Margaret Olson said special-permit density incentives let the board "be fussy about the design, because it's a special permit and we don't have to give it." Members approved June 27 and July 11 minutes 4-0.