LINCOLN, MA-This town is eyeing a number of parcels of land herenear the Minute Man National Historic Park as a possible site todevelop affordable housing. The town's percentage of affordablehousing has recently slipped below 10%, which makes the areavulnerable to developers with comprehensive permits.

The land is owned by the state highway department and accordingto Debra Parkhurst of the town's planning department, “surplusstate land used to be cheap.” It is still unclear what the statewould charge for the parcels. Parkhurst tells GlobeSt.com that thetown would like to develop affordable housing reasons on the sitefor idealistic reasons. At one time, she says, “we were above the10% mark.”

While she acknowledges that 40B projects–in which a developercan bypass local zoning laws if a town has less than 10% affordablehousing and the developer's project has at least 25% affordablehousing–are a sensitive issue for the town, she insists thatLincoln doesn't feel as threatened by 40B projects as some othertowns because property is so costly here. “Developers can just gosomeplace else and get more for their dollar,” she notes.