The Attorney General's threats should not influence town voters. A court case would take years to produce a final result. No developer is going to break ground on a project that has a 50-50 chance of being ordered demolished.
I don't take the threat seriously anyway. The law specifies the consequences for noncompliance: ineligibility for certain types of grants. It does not authorize Andrea Campell to kick down your front door and move 29 more families onto your lot. She may sue for the PR value and then we'll have to spend some money on lawyers. The grant money we are talking about is a small fraction of the deferred maintenance on our water system, or a small fraction of the cost of the community center we will be voting on. It's not going to make or break our budget. I will probably vote for the rezoning because I think it's the right thing to do. I won't vote for it just because some town boards say I have to vote for it. John Carr On Wed, Nov 15, 2023 at 6:14 PM Eben Holderness via Lincoln <lincoln@lincolntalk.org> wrote: > > Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s worth clarifying that > despite what some have indicated in recent discussions, there are not “many > neighboring towns” rejecting the HCA. In fact, of the 177 towns/cities that > fall under the law, I can only identify one town, Holden, that continues to > reject the law (several other communities that missed the initial 1/2023 > deadline to submit a zoning plan have since submitted theirs and are now in > compliance). Holden’s situation is — one could argue — a bit unique in that > they have no MBTA service within the town boundary (and indeed, the town > manager did initially claim that they “didn’t realize” they were considered > an MBTA community). It’s also worth noting that Holden is now being sued by > the Central MA Housing Alliance for non-compliance, and the MA attorney > general’s office has indicated they intend to as well. > > While I begrudgingly support adding a “None of the Above” option to the > December ballot, I think it’s foolhardy to even consider an outright > rejection of the HCA. Do we really want to lose access to millions in grants > while also becoming “that town” that is resisting any and all change? > -- 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.
