The Ayer Planning Board voted 4-0 to approve the Lincoln Hills development on Oct. 14th, concluding a seven-month long public hearing process that upset many abutters and residents as they learned about the building density, stormwater requirements and anticipated noise levels during ledge grading.
The developers of Lincoln Hills proposed the Open Space Residential Development at 0 High Street and 38 Groton Harvard Road, which sits up and behind other properties.
The development covers 13.67 acres across multiple property lots within Ayer’s A2 Residential District. Under Ayer’s bylaw, developers get the maximum benefit when they agree to preserve 50 percent of their property as open space. Here, the developer set aside 8.05 acres as open space – just over 50 percent – and the Planning Board approved 34 units of housing across the rest of the property. The development includes three affordable units, which meets the town’s Inclusionary Housing Bylaw of 10 percent of the units.
The 8.05 acres will be protected as open space under a conservation restriction. This includes 6.78 acres of wooded open space and 1.27 acres for construction of a retention basin for stormwater infrastructure. The retention basin will be positioned near the sidewalks on Groton Harvard Road.
Read the final stamped site plan approval plan.