Mixed reviews for proposed senior living community

Traffic, lighting and tree coverage were among the issues residents raised during the first public hearing on the New England Deaconess Association’s proposal for a senior living community at the former BIIC property off Route 2.

The association formally presented its detailed plans for the 197-unit project, broken down between a congregate building, a number of clustered cottages, two existing buildings on site and a 30-unit rental building that counts toward affordable housing, at the Planning Board meeting Jan. 31.

The board will revisit the issue at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, in Town Offices and will conduct a site walk at 19 Cambridge Turnpike at 10 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 11.

The proposal, named The Groves of Lincoln after the grove of apple trees on the site that many have asked be protected, remains similar to that which Town Meeting voted on last fall.

Town Meeting approved preliminary plans for the project, allowing proponents to move it forward and file a formal application with the Planning Board. During a series of public hearings, the board will take a closer look at the project’s details, before voting whether to approve the project.

The plan does include minor changes to the configuration of the cottage clusters on the site, in accordance to advice from the board before Town Meeting asking that some units not be as close to Route 2 as they had been depicted. The revised plan removes four units that were previously bordering Route 2, and places them in the middle of the site, behind the congregate building.

Board members, not entirely satisfied with the execution of their request, asked the proponents to tweak the plan again. Board Chairman Ken Hurd said the new placements took away from the community green space designed in the middle of the site, by the congregate building.

“What I see is a little less variety,” said Hurd. “It only happened in a few places but it was kind of a key place.”

In addition, residents who live near the proposal said they were not happy with portions of the lighting and landscape plans. They cited a sense of the meeting vote taken at Town Meeting, asking that the proponents plant taller trees and shrubs than what was planned.

“I just don’t feel the presentation tonight has been responsive to that sense of the Town Meeting vote,” said Jack Reynolds of Sandy Pond Road.

Project engineer Dave Albrecht said about 75 trees between 6 inches and 12 inches in diameter and 85 shrubs already on site would be able to be kept and used. About 100 non-bearing fruit trees will also be added to the site, he said.

Tim Oldfield of Sandy Pond Road said it would be helpful if dense evergreens were added to the site, to cut off any light bleed from the development.

“It’s a dark corner of town,” he said. “We’d like to keep it as dark as we can.”

Residents and board members also took issue with the proposal’s plans for 17-foot-tall dual period-type streetlights, placed 100 feet apart, and for 15-foot high streetlights lining what is now Bethany Road, which connects the proposal to Sandy Pond Road. Proponents have said throughout the process this access would be used by residents only until the Route 2 widening proposal is completed. The main entrance for the community would be on Route 2.

“Sandy Pond Road is unlit,” said Sandy Pond Road resident Andy Cole. “It would change the entire flavor of the neighborhood.”

Proponents agreed to remove the streetlights on Bethany Road from the lighting plan.

Association CEO Herb Taylor said the need for a senior living community such as this one is already apparent in the community. Without any marketing or advertising, the association has already accepted 25 deposits from people looking to move in once the project is constructed, 20 of which are from Lincoln residents.