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Public Comment Period: Opportunities to Engage
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We are pleased to share a draft of Vision Lynn with you! The Planning team will be accepting comments on the plan from April 10 to May 15, just email Lauren.Drago@LynnMA.gov. Throughout this period, we will be presenting the plan at different meetings and hosting office hours to answer any questions.
Presentations
Planning Board - Tuesday, April 11 | 5pm
Human Rights Commission - Tuesday, April 18 | 6pm
GALA Board - Thursday, April 20 | 7pm
City Council - Tuesday, April 25 | 6pm
Zoning Board of Appeals - Tuesday, May 2 | 7pm
Office Hours
Chat with the Planning Department about what’s in the plan and share your feedback.
Office Hours: Land of a Thousand Hills
Thursday, April 27 | 8:30-10:30 am
Land of a Thousand Hills, 61 Munroe Street, Lynn, MAOffice Hours: Online
Tuesday, May 2 | 5-7pm
Registration LinkOffice Hours: Brickyard Collaborative (English Only)
Thursday, May 4 | 10-11am
Brickyard Collaborative, 760 Western Ave, Lynn, MAOffice Hours: Online
Tuesday, May 9 | 1-3pm
Registration Link -
LYNN TODAY: Top Takeaways from Lynn’s Existing Conditions
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By Aaron Clausen
It has been a little over a year since the City through the Planning Department kicked off the planning and public engagement process to create a comprehensive plan for the City, called Vision Lynn. Since that time we have heard from over a thousand residents, business owners, and workers about what Lynners want for the future of their city. To complement the rich input we’ve been gathering from the community, we also worked with our consulting firm, Utile, to conduct a deep dive quantitative analysis of the City. The result is Lynn Today, a 200+ page slide deck that both summarizes research conducted in previous planning efforts and utilizes newer data to explore important topics and themes.
There is plenty to consider in the Lynn Today report, but there are three points that have particularly stuck with me as we’ve continued the planning process:
Lynn is a global city. With one out of three Lynners born in a foreign country, we have the pleasure of hosting a variety of different cultures and backgrounds in our community. Most of our foreign-born residents (71%) originally hailed from Latin America, contributing to the fact that nearly half (44%) of all residents identify as Latino. When we talk about international immigration, it’s typical to imagine someone newly arriving to U.S. soil; it’s worth noting that the majority of foreign-born Lynners (70%) have been here since before 2010, over ten years.
This richness of diversity–both in terms of nationality, as well as race and ethnicity–is one of Lynn’s core strengths. Lynn youth will grow up having been exposed to many different cultures and languages, which will better prepare them for our increasingly diverse and interconnected world. Business districts like Union Street can provide cuisine or showcase art from nearly every continent in a short walk, inviting visitors and residents to come and try something new. The dynamism that defines multicultural communities, when allowed to thrive, is a cornerstone to the creation of vibrant, exciting and innovative cities. And, of course, Lynners see the importance of diversity too: 40% of survey respondents identified “diversity” as one of the things they love most about the city.
Lynn needs balanced growth. Lynn Today takes a chapter to explore fiscal sustainability, which is particularly important as we consider the costs of what Lynners have identified as priorities: improved infrastructure, more modern school facilities, and better-maintained natural resources and amenities. The $450M budget Lynn has to tackle these worthwhile priorities is raised partially through property taxes (34%), with most of the remainder coming from state aid (61%). Looking closely at property taxes, we see 90% of Lynn’s total tax value comes from residential property, which is a higher share than any of our comparison communities (Brockton, Chelsea, Revere, Salem, and Somerville). This ratio puts a significant burden on our residential property owners. We need to encourage new commercial development to achieve a better, more balanced, tax base.
Property taxes are the primary source of funds that are generated and controlled by City policy, however the City is legally constrained in how it raises property taxes. A healthy fiscal outlook requires new growth (in other words, property taxes from new development) each year, but a stronger ratio of commercial or industrial tax value in the long term will create a stronger, more resilient, tax base. This shouldn’t be strip-mall style retail–which takes up a lot of land and contributes comparatively little to the City’s bottom line–but instead major employers in advanced manufacturing, research and development, and or other businesses in growing industries, like life sciences and clean energy. The forthcoming arrival of Soliyarn is a testament that this is not just a pipe dream. Mixed-use development that effectively brings these types of employers together, along with housing and retail in a balanced way, can provide a stronger tax base delivering needed services while addressing other objectives like better access to housing and jobs.
Housing remains one of the biggest challenges for Lynners. Our community feedback has been loud and clear: housing affordability is one of the biggest issues facing Lynn at the moment. Lynn Today spends a chapter on this topic to highlight our existing mix of housing, concerns about the age and quality of our housing stock, the housing cost burden a majority of our community faces, and the mismatch between the housing that is being added and the housing that appears to be needed. The data and community feedback are clearly aligned.
What stood out to me, however, was in the chapters outside of housing. Lynners are working at about the same rate as other communities in Massachusetts, but tend to be making relatively low incomes, with 44% of our households making less than $50,000 a year. This may be in part because three of the five biggest employment sectors for Lynners are in relatively low wage industries: healthcare and social assistance, retail trade, and accommodation and food service. As we move forward, we should not only be exercising every tool to support housing affordability, but also be working to hone our workforce development ecosystem to ensure Lynn workers are ready for well paying jobs in growing, high-wage industries. Our workforce development plan, currently underway, will help us understand how to do that.
Of course, these are just three of many interesting themes that have emerged in our year-long conversation about the future of Lynn. If you are interested in reviewing the data and drawing your own key takeaways, I invite you to visit our project page at www.lynnincommon.com/vision-lynn and download the Lynn Today analysis yourself.
I also encourage you to participate in the Vision Lynn planning process, which we hope to wrap up this Spring. Our Vision Lynn Open House will be at the Senior Center on Saturday, February 4 from 10:30am to 12:30pm; we will be discussing how to use the built environment of Lynn to make our shared community vision a reality (English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Khmer interpretation available).
If you can’t make that, we’ll be at The Brickyard Collaborative on Tuesday, February 7 from 1-3pm for office hours to answer any questions you have on the plan (English and Spanish interpretation available).
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Lynnside Out Results
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There was music, free food, ice cream, and a bouncey house: it certainly didn't feel like a typical public meeting, but the Vision Lynn team used August 27th's Lynnside Out event to gather feedback from 750 attendees on the comprehensive plan.
174 participants submitted comment cards about their vision for Lynn's future. Consistent with what we had heard in our earlier visioning surveys, the most common themes were wanting a clean and safe community and affordable housing.
We asked participants to tell us where they lived, worked, and hung out in Lynn, but also where they would be interested in seeing more housing, jobs, and neighborhood services.
Where do you live (orange), work (purple), and play (yellow)?
Where would you like to see more housing (purple), jobs (blue), or neighborhood services (green)?
We also asked participants to tell us what they thought was "good development" and what was "bad development". The statements people seemed most inclined to feel identified good development were "Development located to make the most of public transportation," "Housing that is affordable for Lynners who already live here," and "Development that minimizes the displacement of existing Lynners."
Our friends at RAW Art Works hosted a community art project that asked youth to help create a vision of their ideal neighborhood and share their dreams for Lynn's future. The resulting public art piece is on display at the foyer of City Hall.
The Vision Lynn team had a great time meeting everyone and hearing the different perspectives and ideas for Lynn. If you missed the event, you can still tell us what you think "good development" means or share where you think more housing, jobs, and neighborhood services should go.
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Vision Survey Results
Share Vision Survey Results on Facebook Share Vision Survey Results on Twitter Share Vision Survey Results on Linkedin Email Vision Survey Results linkTo make sure we’re heading in the right direction, we recently asked the Lynn community for input on its vision for the future. What themes should a community vision address? What kinds of vision statements ring true to Lynners?
We tried to reach as many people as we could:
- We used an online survey in English and Spanish,
- We went in-person to local events and neighborhood hotspots with activity boards, and
- We conducted written surveys through Khmer and Haitian Creole interpreters.
In total, an estimated 779 people gave their opinions! The online survey had 706 unique responses, an estimated 43 people interacted with our activity boards in person, and 30 people took the written survey through an interpreter.
Vision Statements
People were shown seven statements that emphasized different visions for Lynn’s future. Online and in-person participants could choose up to three statements that inspired them the most. From that process, some favorites emerged. The top three statements relate to safety and comfort; equitable access to resources; and strong, diverse, and connected communities.
Table: Online and in-person vision statement selections
Vision Statements
Number of Selections
Percent of online and in-person respondents making selection
A city where people feel safe and comfortable where they live, work, learn, and play.
316
42%
A city where all community members have the housing, transportation access, social connections, and educational or economic opportunities to live a fulfilling life.
259
35%
A city to be proud of, with strong, diverse, and connected communities that take care of our shared spaces, natural resources, and each other.
186
25%
A city where new development maximizes community benefits by providing good quality housing, economic opportunities and upgraded infrastructure.
150
20%
A city where everyone feels valued, informed, and empowered to participate in the decision making that affects our community.
128
17%
A city with neighborhoods that are vibrant, active, convenient, and provide a small town feel while offering amenities of a larger city.
116
15%
A city that honors its history and plans for future generations by preparing for changes in the economy and climate.
75
10%
Written survey participants got a slightly different question. They were asked to rate the statements with 1 (dislike), 2 (neutral), or 3 (like). The average score of each statement was 2.60 or above, meaning on average all statements were supported by respondents!
Table: Written survey vision statement ratings
Vision Statements
Average rating by written survey respondents
A city where all community members have the housing, transportation access, social connections, and educational or economic opportunities to live a fulfilling life.
2.93
A city where new development maximizes community benefits by providing good quality housing, economic opportunities and upgraded infrastructure.
2.90
A city where people feel safe and comfortable where they live, work, learn, and play.
2.83
A city where everyone feels valued, informed, and empowered to participate in the decision making that affects our community.
2.83
A city to be proud of, with strong, diverse, and connected communities that take care of our shared spaces, natural resources, and each other.
2.83
A city with neighborhoods that are vibrant, active, convenient, and provide a small town feel while offering amenities of a larger city.
2.80
A city that honors its history and plans for future generations by preparing for changes in the economy and climate.
2.60
Vision Themes
We asked online and in-person participants “What central themes should Lynn consider when setting a long-term vision?” We gave them nine potential themes to choose from, and they could choose up to three. Online participants could select “Other,” and specify another theme if they wanted to.
Chart: Visioning themes
Housing affordability, economic opportunity, cultural diversity, and vibrant places were the top four themes identified by the public. 60% of participants selected housing affordability as a central theme the vision should address. It was the only theme selected by a majority of participants, though almost half (48%) selected economic opportunity. Of the 46 write-in responses online, 17 related to schools and education.
Who responded?
As part of the online and written surveys, participants could give some basic demographic information to help us understand who we are reaching in the community. (In-person participants weren’t asked to give demographic info.)
Age
Respondents were asked “What is your age range?” and given seven age categories to choose from.
- Just over half (55%) were aged 35-54.
- 21% were aged 25-34.
- 14% were 55-64, 7% were 65-75, and 3% were 18-24.
- 1% were over 75, and less than 1% were under 18.
Chart: Age range
Race and Ethnicity
Participants were asked two questions related to race and ethnicity: “Are you of Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin?,” and “How would you describe yourself?” when presented with five racial categories.
- 38% of respondents said they were of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.
- 52% of respondents would describe themselves as White, 13% as Black, 6% as Asian, and 1% as Indigenous American. 10% would describe themselves as two or more races.
- 18% chose “Other,” with 7% specifying a response. 67% of the respondents who specified a response wrote a category related to Hispanic or Latino origin, or gave a specific ethnic origin typically associated with Hispanic or Latino origin.
Chart: Hispanic, Latino, and Spanish Origin
Chart: Racial Self-Descriptions
Home Location
Respondents were asked “What is your home ZIP code?” and given an open entry.
- Almost half (47%) of respondents came 01902, the areas of eastern Lynn and near (but not including) Downtown. This includes neighborhoods around East Lynn, the Highlands, and the Diamond District.
- 25% of respondents were from western Lynn (including neighborhoods like West Lynn, the Lynnway, and Pine Hill).
- 24% of respondents came from the vicinity of Ward 1.
- 3% of respondents came from Downtown proper.
- 1% of respondents stated they lived outside Lynn.
Table: Home ZIP Code
Zip Code
Description
Count
Percent
01901
Downtown Lynn
22
3%
01902
Eastern Lynn
333
47%
01903
PO Box
1
0%
01904
Ward 1
174
24%
01905
Western Lynn
176
25%
Other
Outside of Lynn
9
1%
