"Open meeting discussions point to a lot of possible concessions to private entities (applying for grants on their behalf, in lieu fees, increasing height restrictions to 48", quid pro quo exchange of land, reduction of commercial space at the mall). Option E is the only one that allows all of the pieces to be disclosed to residents with time to deliberate and understand the various issues at play without having to vote down compliance with the HCA in March."
There is no "quid pro quo exchange of land." Any change in use of town-owned land would require 2/3 vote at a Town Meeting to approve. Just because an idea has been mentioned in meetings does not mean that there is any plan to exchange that land, which again, could not be done outside of town meeting. There is also no planned reduction of commercial space at the mall. RLF representatives have only tried to be realistic about the mall, which is suffering the same fate and future prospects as all in-person retail across the US. Claiming that Option E would "protect commercial retail in our Village Center" is disingenuous, and as far as I know, no one from the group who came up with Option E has met with any tenants, or RLF management, to discuss what specifically would protect retail there. The entire concept of open meetings, which the group who developed Option E seems so determined to parse every moment of, has been entirely lost with the creation of Option E. Letting a special-interest group, which has had secret meetings to develop these options, with no public notifications of meetings or publication of minutes, put an option up to vote has done more to damage the integrity of this process than anything else I've seen. ** Lastly, anyone who feels strongly about protecting the existing retail at the mall should commit to doing more shopping there, especially this holiday season.** -- *Sara Lupkas*
-- The LincolnTalk mailing list. To post, send mail to Lincoln@lincolntalk.org. Browse the archives at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/private/lincoln/. Change your subscription settings at https://pairlist9.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/lincoln.
