Select Board sets Housing Choice Act schedule, approves Pierce House budget and sergeant promotion

LINCOLN — October 23, 2023 — Lincoln locks in Housing Choice Act path to March town meeting and approves Pierce House budget. The Select Board, meeting jointly with the Planning Board and Housing Choice Act Working Group, set a four-step schedule — Oct. 24 Planning Board presentation of new options D1 and D2, twin Nov. 8 public forums, a Dec. 2 Special Town Meeting straw poll, and a Nov. 13 multi-board meeting — to settle a single zoning article before the state's 90-day pre-adoption compliance window. Option C, concentrating all required units within a half-mile of the train station, is already with the state. The board separately voted 3-0 to send Rep. Carmine Gentile a letter seeking a $2 million line item in the state housing bond bill for Lincoln's Affordable Housing Trust, backed a $500,000 FY25 CPC request toward a $2 million trust target, approved a Pierce House FY24 budget projecting a roughly $50,000 cash loss driven by a $45,000 unbudgeted kitchen rebuild, and unanimously promoted Detective Ian to sergeant. Working group member Steve Gladstone reminded residents the upcoming vote "is only about zoning."