When the Lynn City Council voted on Sept. 7 to approve a 181-unit development at 50 Friend St. and a 12-unit project slated for 56-58 Ocean St., a critical voice was missing from the debate: City Planner Aaron Clausen.
“I was not involved in those discussions. Normally, you would have the Planning Department offer comment,” Clausen said on Monday.
City-zoning language does not require the planner to comment on special permit requests, like the Friend Street project, that come before the council.
Without Clausen invited to offer his insight and expertise on the development proposals, councilors relied on the developers and — in the case of the Ocean Street project — Ward 3 Councilor (and mayoral candidate) Darren Cyr’s advice to shape their votes. (Councilors Dianna Chakoutis and Wayne Lozzi did not attend the Sept. 7 meeting and Councilor Brian Field abstained from voting).
Cyr told fellow councilors that the 12-unit proposal represented a scaled-down plan from the one originally proposed by the developer.
“I told them they had to downsize it,” Cyr said in explaining the scaled-down project.
Councilors can say it is their prerogative not to seek the planner’s advice on developments requiring special permits. But we call the decision to not include Clausen in the Friend Street and Ocean Street deliberations a serious omission with citywide implications.
After more than two decades without a planner’s advice, the city hired Clausen in April 2020, where he brought with him extensive expertise to Lynn from his former jobs as a planner for Lowell and Beverly.
A primary focus of his job — and any urban planner’s job — is to understand how zoning is a tool that, if applied intelligently, can be used to shape and focus a city’s economy. It is the most powerful tool available to city councils to transform a municipality’s tax base into an economic-engine starter.
Beginning in 2013, the Lynn City Council’s most forward-thinking members sketched out zoning reforms with the aid of legal experts, including School Committee member and attorney Jared Nicholson (who is also running for mayor).
That tedious work crafted zoning language which provided long-term quality-of-life safeguards for Lynn residents while also streamlining the process developers and other zoning applicants go through to get their projects built.
Individual development proposals must be viewed against the backdrop of citywide zoning objectives. That’s why Clausen’s advice should have been sought by councilors on Sept. 7.
“My role is to offer professional advice,” he said.
The Friend Street and Ocean Street projects are each located at heavily-trafficked locations: The Friend Street site borders Friend, Silsbee and Mount Vernon streets and is located a block from the Harrington School and the Commuter Rail tracks. The Ocean Street site is located two blocks from the Lynn-Swampscott line and one block from the ocean.
Clausen’s input was not the only expertise on 50 Friend St. that the council failed to seek out: City economic development, housing, and inspectional services officials were also not consulted.
According to unconfirmed reports, an elected official and a real estate professional met with Amazon representatives — without Clausen. Neither of those said to be at the meeting would comment.
If those reports are accurate, then they reflect a lack of commitment to transparency and professional guidance that must be addressed by city elected officials committed to Lynn’s best interests.
