I am not suggesting that we bring multiple by-laws for approval at the March town meeting.
Tomorrow we are asking residents to express a preference for a set of bylaws through ranked choice voting, The preferred option would then be presented for approval in March. Options C and D as being voted on tomorrow are incomplete because we do not have answers to these questions: - Building heights/stories - PB having override prower through special permits - Commercial space requirements - Allowance of fees in lieu of affordable units If HCA zoning is "exactly zoning by laws" why are we voting under incomplete assumptions? On Fri, Dec 1, 2023 at 3:42 PM Margaret Olson <marga...@margaretolson.com> wrote: > Town Counsel has advised us that we should not bring multiple potential > zoning by-laws to town meeting. The state regulates how zoning changes are > handled. > > A zoning article at town meeting is a straight yes/no vote on a very > specific set of changes. We can not have any sort of multiple choice vote > as we can for a "sense of the town" vote. So if we were to bring the zoning > by-law changes for all five options to town meeting we would have five > warrant articles. In what order should they appear? If the first one passes > do we go on and vote on the others? As a voter who supports the HCA but > doesn't like the variant that comes first in the warrant what should you > do? Vote no, holding out for your preferred option, or do you vote yes to > ensure we do comply? If all five are on the warrant what happens > if multiple options pass? > > Margaret > > > > On Fri, Dec 1, 2023 at 2:59 PM Karla Gravis <karlagra...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Given that, according the Chair of the Planning Board: >> >> 1. "*Compliance with the HCA is "exactly zoning by laws*" >> 2. "Z*oning by-laws are the implementation of HCA compliance*" >> 3. These by-laws are not ready >> >> Then, why are we voting tomorrow? >> >> To emphasize how rushed this process has been, significant changes to the >> densities across options C and Ds were communicated on Wednesday evening >> (without any public meetings). >> >> The areas where the Planning Board hasn't agreed on the bylaws are: >> building heights/stories, giving the PB special permit powers to change >> densities and heights/stories, parking and allowing fees in lieu of >> affordable units. These are all critical questions as we evaluate the >> different options. How are we expected to discuss the merits of these >> options without a full understanding of those issues? >> >> LRHA has a stance on these open questions. Option E has a set of >> setbacks, height/story limits and floor area ratios for every district. We >> are distinctly opposed to providing variances to all of those items, as >> well as units per acre, through a Planning Board special permit. >> >> >> >> On Fri, Dec 1, 2023 at 2:38 PM Margaret Olson <marga...@margaretolson.com> >> wrote: >> >>> Compliance with the HCA is *exactly* zoning by laws. The zoning by-laws >>> are the implementation of HCA compliance. There is no way to comply with >>> the HCA without voting to amend the zoning by-laws. >>> >>> If the town votes down the proposed zoning by-laws in March, and the >>> sense of the town is that we want to comply but the planning board >>> presented an unacceptable set of regulations, then the planning board will >>> go back to work and try again at a special town meeting at a later date. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>> >>>>
-- 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.
