| “Presented” is pretty generous.
On the one hand the E option was covered in about 10 minutes, with confused details, few specifics, offers of things like “none of this will actually be built” and “we can add that parcel in if needed”, as if it’s some throwaway, and half of the presentation came from a car. There was also an effort to somehow claim credit for future rezoning of the RLF property, the most logical of all lots to rezone — certainly more so than the two inter-related residential properties on Lewis Street that aren’t contiguous, while insisting the RLF be excluded because… it’s not clear. What are we meant to understand and what is smoke and mirrors?
On the other, this morning you were able to pinpoint and share track changes in an official town document, flagging yet another perceived, though quickly debunked, conspiracy aimed at the people who are working in an official capacity.
The lack of transparency on the part of whatever you want to call E is pretty clear, isn’t it? Or can we see into your process, and understand how you arrived at something we are meant to take seriously?
(And am I understanding correctly that we are now not meant to trust Utile? They’re in the tank, too?)
Sent from my iPhone On Nov 28, 2023, at 4:08 PM, Karla Gravis <karlagra...@gmail.com> wrote:
Option E was presented in a public meeting on 11/21. You can look at the video of the meeting here .
The citizens group came together organically, not unlike the citizens group that sprung up in Newton (and displaced five incumbents in the recent elections). The Brookline Select Board also worked with citizen groups, going as far as visiting each building on Harvard St to make decisions on which ones to include as a group. This form of citizen involvement is happening in other towns.
100 residents emailed the Selects asking for an additional option to Options C and Ds. I would argue the “special interest” here is the inclusion of the RLF project into *every* single option the HCAWG has presented, even though many people have requested an option without it. I would also argue it is a special interest when RLF employees criticize a grassroots citizens group, without disclosing their affiliation to the RLF. Another “special interest” is Civico having a say in our bylaws.
Why does every single HCAWG option include the mall? There would have been no need for a citizen-generated option if the HCAWG had 1) put forth an option without the mall and/or 2) addressed the numerous concerns (and mistakes) with options C and D. These concerns were brought up publicly.
Let’s remember Utile created the options in private meetings. There were no open discussions where the HCAWG went parcel by parcel as to what was included or not. Utile came up with the options privately (based on some loose guidance but no parcel-by-parcel open discussion whatsoever) and then were presented to the public. Perhaps if there had been open discussions with Utile, we would have been quicker to catch the multiple mistakes in the submission before it was sent to the State. (18 extra acres of parcels, LW zoning at 20 units/acre, etc). Must be noted that it was the citizens' group who caught the mistakes.
This strikes me as extremely hypocritical in regard to the way the dialog has unfolded over the past few months.
Why should this group receive preferential treatment in terms of the process used to develop an option we are being asked to vote on? Many members of the group who developed option E have spent the last few months demanding transparency, calling into question the ethics of the volunteers on the working group and elsewhere, destabilizing the process, and generally using the public forum of Lincoln Talk as a bully pulpit to push their agenda.
I am asking for meeting and voting records in order to fully evaluate the merits of and intent behind option E, just like many have asked for and received for Options C and D.
To vote for an option (E) that has not had the same level of public scrutiny is a terrible idea.
John
I am writing in response to
recent comments on Lincoln Talk, one of which accused the Lincoln Residents for
Housing Alternatives (LRHA) of being a “special
interest group, which has had secret meetings to develop…options with no public
notifications of meetings or publication of minutes”. This group of residents
sprang up organically from individuals using Lincoln Talk, our only open-ended
Town-wide communication platform. They
did not have the advantage of being appointed as committee members by the
Selects. Instead, they attended
meetings, read distributed information, and looked up relevant Massachusetts’
law. Their ideas grew during back-and-forth
discussions on Lincoln Talk. There is no open meeting law to restrict residents
from talking together. To characterize these discussions as ‘secret meetings’
is offensive to me. These individuals, without a
hierarchy of leaders but with similar ideas and meeting mostly on line, created
a web site with fact-based information regarding the Housing Choice Act
and a fifth option, now called Option E. While I have not contributed to the website,
I have taken a strong interest in the analysis presented there. To my knowledge, there is no ‘special
interest’ that unites the group other than basing their opinions on data and analysis and showing where that leads. And that leads me to Option
E, which is entirely
compliant with HCA rezoning rules. Its main difference compared to Options C and D, is
that it excludes the Lincoln Mall from HCA development. It excludes the Mall
because many of us, listed as supporters on the LRHA website, believe it
is the most likely to be developed and we want it to be developed subject to Town approvals: we want more affordability and better control of the layout and design than a ‘by right’ developer might give us. As a 20-year member of the Lincoln
Land Conservation Trust and a supporter of the RLF, I want to see the
Mall filled with wonderful condos, one of which I might buy when we are ready
to downsize! I do not criticize the Town
staff, the RLF, and the appointed Working Group members. They have done a great job getting us to this
point. But everyone has their own lens for Lincoln’s response to the housing
crisis. Let’s not criticize those
residents who have invested their time and volunteered their skills to create
alternatives. We will all meet on December 2nd to make the best
choice we know how to make for Lincoln’s future. See you there!
Lynne Smith 5 Tabor Hill Road Lincoln, MA 01773 cell: 781-258-1175
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