Planning Board approves Pine Ridge Road addition, defers dark-skies bylaw vote

LINCOLN — January 27, 2026 — Lincoln Planning Board approves Pine Ridge addition but holds back dark-skies bylaw endorsement. The board voted 5-0 on Jan. 27 to approve a 275-square-foot second-floor addition at 12 Pine Ridge Road and to permit average-natural-grade height calculations, after abutter Susan Katz Sliski objected to interior-light spillover the board said it cannot regulate. Members spent more than an hour on the Dark Skies Subcommittee's draft general bylaw — which would lower the residential color-temperature cap to 2,700 K and require commercial and town-owned sites to retrofit 20 identified noncompliant fixtures within five years — but declined to endorse it. Select Board member Jennifer Glass said her board supports the goal but objects to running parallel general and zoning bylaws, the five-year municipal deadline, and unequal treatment of single-family versus condominium owners, calling the subcommittee's education work "your superpower." Planning Director Paula Vaughn-McKenzie also reported a stop-work order will issue on the new four-unit building at 150 Lincoln Road, where the first floor was built 17 inches taller than approved, making the structure an illegal third story.