Town of Lincoln: Request for Proposals “Camper’s World” Development

August 21, 2024

Background: Over the past 50 years, the Town of Lincoln has transformed from a paper mill town with some seasonal tourism to a 4-season destination resort town. Currently, the vast majority of the housing in our town consists of second homes and short-term rentals. Second homeowners and tourists are now occupying the homes that have historically been used to house full-time residents. Local families are no longer able to find or afford local housing.
Additionally, this has caused a reduction in our school population, a reduction in community volunteerism, and a loss in the feeling of community.
At the 2024 Town Meeting, a warrant article was submitted to purchase a 322-acre parcel of land with the goal of providing a range of housing types that will appeal to families, couples, and individuals who are looking to live and work locally. The Town signed an Intent to Purchase with the landowners, which allowed us to secure the property as we went through the Town Meeting process. Voters agreed by over a 60% majority to appropriate $4M to acquire the property.

Vision: The town seeks to sell this property to a developer who will:

• Build a residential development with various housing types to accommodate fulltime local residents.
• Provide adequate common space, open space, and recreation space.
• Build a mix of both market-rate and affordable workforce housing.
• Deed a portion of the 322 acres back to the Town. In concert with a developer, the Town would like to develop this portion of the land, or use it for recreational purposes. This would be done cooperatively with a developer in order to augment, not compete with, the developer’s project.
• Incorporate cost-effective, energy efficient design in the buildings.

Response deadline: Friday, September 27, 2024

Read the full Request for Proposals here.