The quid pro quo deal is not just an idea, it is an active plan to incent a property owner (TCB) to open up their water treatment plan to enable another private property owner (RLF/Civico) to save itself the cost and space of building its own septic. Mr. Taylor has mentioned this plan twice during Planning Board meetings. Coincidentally, there have been three Select Board meetings to discuss the potential conveyance of town property. The Selects have refused disclosing which parcels were discussed. Regardless of the need for a town vote to convey this property, how can this plan be represented as advancing the general interest of townspeople?
The RLF Chair has been very explicit in public meetings about the plan to reduce commercial space at the Mall. This a verbatim quote from the November 8th Community Forum: "We are not trying to increase the amount of square footage of commercial space we have at the Mall. So right now what we are thinking of doing would in fact on net decrease the amount of commercial space we have at the Mall by some amount." 1:46:59 https://cloud.castus.tv/vod/lincoln/video/6553ef5bc9f26400089ffb98?page=HOME Lincoln Residents for Housing Alternatives is not a special-interest group. There is no special economic profit any of us will derive from Option E. As has already been discussed, one of our members is a property owner of a parcel that would be rezoned under every option, including E. The only interest we are defending is the general interest of the residents of Lincoln. We are just a group of residents, open to anyone in town who shares these concerns. In fact, many residents joined the group only recently and have made very substantial contributions. I am somewhat perplexed by the comment of us not having minutes of our meetings. We are not a public body or a board of directors, just a group of residents. It is not a relevant critique. There are certainly residents in town who work for the biggest economic beneficiary of the rezoning under options C-D, namely the RLF. They are of course entitled to sharing their opinion, but I would argue it would be good practice for them to share their underlying conflict of interest when speaking publicly on this matter. David Cuetos On Tue, Nov 28, 2023 at 9:34 AM Sara Lupkas <sara.lup...@gmail.com> wrote: > "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. > >
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