According to Article II, Section 2 of Lincoln's General Bylaws, and in accordance with Massachusetts General Law, the Select Board may call a special town meeting at any time.  See https://lincolntown.org/DocumentCenter/View/85251/General-By-laws-2023?bidId= 

According to Massachusetts General Law, citizens may request a special town meeting by gathering 200 signatures or 20% of registered voters, whichever is smaller.  The Select Board must schedule the meeting within 45 days of receiving the request.  See the Secretary of State's guide for more information:  https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/cis/download/Guide_to_Town_Meetings.pdf

No.  Although this complex deal requires some give and take between Farrington and the developer, the direct use of Town CPA funds is for land conservation, not housing. As a side note, in 2025 the state is projected to provide a 20 - 25% match to our CPA funds.  CPA funds are explicitly intended to fund in full or subsidize this type of project.  These are existing funds and property taxes will not go up to fund the project. 

Buyers of the three income-restricted houses may not have incomes exceeding 80% of Area Median Income (https://www.mhp.net/assets/resources/documents/one__income_limits.pdf).  The 3 income-restricted units will count towards the Town’s Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI).

Yes.  About 16% of single family homes in town are valued at $1M or less (which is the approximate expected price of the smaller, market-rate homes in this project) and Lincoln's median assessment is $1.45M.  A small number of tear downs annually in combination with additions to existing homes impacts the town's stock of smaller single-family homes.

The Panetta land is very restricted due to wetlands.  We need a diverse stock of housing in town, and while multi-family apartment units fill one type of need, this project offers small homes that add a different type of diversity to Lincoln's housing stock.  

The Housing Coalition does not recommend using Affordable Housing Trust funds for this project for the following reasons:

• Value for investment:  The AHT currently has about $1.6M in available funding, most of which has been set aside from Community Preservation Act funds.  For many years, the Trust’s policy direction has been to ensure the maximum number of Affordable units are created for the investment made.   For the Nature Link project, it would require approximately $650K per unit to turn a market rate home into one that is available to buyers at 80% of Area Median Income (AMI).  And, unlike rental-unit projects such as Oriole Landing, increasing from 15% to 25% of units designated as income-restricted does not allow us to count all of the units on our Subsidized Housing Inventory.  
• Ownership Model:  Our experience with other income restricted housing in town has taught us that it is not an easy model to maintain over time without setting aside considerable funding to ensure the regular upkeep and capital expenditures that are required to maintain a home.  The Panetta/Farrington project will be detached homes with a condo model that charges monthly fees and will require shared expenses for large future capital costs such as road and septic maintenance. 
  1. The income restricted units will have proportionally lower condo fees, which increases the fees for the market rate units. If you buy down more units, you increase costs for the remaining units, which risks moving them out of the moderate price range.
  2. What if the Town bought the units and rented them out?  The Town would need to buy the units at market rate and would then be responsible for their share of upkeep in the future.
• Housing Production Plan:  The Housing Commission is about to embark on renewing the town’s Housing Production Plan.  The purpose of the Plan is to take stock of our current availability of income-restricted housing and to work with the Lincoln community to identify future opportunities to build housing should property become available.  The Coalition believes Trust funds should be guided by an updated Plan.

No. This land is not part of the HCA zone approved by Town Meeting. This project is being brought to Town Meeting under the existing North Lincoln Overlay Zoning.  

The NL Overlay District and its requirements are found in section 12.5 of the Zoning Bylaw and allows a property owner to propose a project other than single-family housing on a conforming lot (i.e. minimum of 2 acres) by bringing the exact proposal to Town Meeting for 2/3 majority approval.  Over the past 40+ years, 5 projects have been developed using the overlay:  Battle Road Farm NL-1; Lincoln North Office Building NL-2; NL-3 was a proposal for an Inn that did not go forward; Minuteman Commons NL-4; The Commons NL-5; and Oriole Landing NL-6.  The current proposal will be NL-7.

The housing will be developed as a joint venture between Civico, which built Oriole Landing, and Brendon Properties. The housing will be designed by Union Design. A similar type of development was designed by Union Design, which built the Riverwalk community in West Concord (https://unionstudioarch.com/projects/riverwalk/)

This purchase agreement gives Farrington Nature Linc funding that allows them to continue their mission of bringing inner city children to experience nature on the Lincoln site.  Importantly, it also gives them a long-desired opportunity to have access to their property off of Page Road in addition to the busy Route 2 driveway.

No. This is a complex deal that balances the needs of multiple parties, and this is the moment when all the stakeholders have come together.

Yes, a new public trail will be established through the Farrington site that will connect to Page Road and existing trails on the Osborne Farm property.

The individual property owners will have to make the decisions that are best for them.