Select Board approves MEPA letter opposing Hanscom hangar expansion

LINCOLN — February 10, 2023 — Lincoln Select Board approves letter demanding broader environmental review of Hanscom hangar expansion. The board voted 2-0 on Feb. 10 to send Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act regulators a letter, drafted by member Jim Hutchinson, raising "grave concerns" about a proposed 27-hangar, roughly 495,000-square-foot expansion at Hanscom Field and requesting 10 specific analyses in the forthcoming Environmental Impact Report. Hutchinson said the proponent's claim that adding "90 football fields worth of space" would cut emissions "struck me as hard to believe." Chair Jennifer Glass pushed to foreground Lincoln's environmental justice exposure — the town runs Hanscom Public Schools a mile from the site and over 30 EJ census tracts sit within the five-mile circle — and questioned the adequacy of the $400 fine for post-11 p.m. flights. The requests cover ferry flights, fuel-farm spill and fire plans, Class 4 aircraft capacity, de-icing runoff, and noise. Member Jonathan Dwyer was absent; the Feb. 14 MEPA deadline drove the schedule.