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Town survey goes live; planning board backs grassroots outreach and schedules June 16 forum
Summary
The Lincoln Planning Board heard that the master-plan survey is live, reviewed options for a direct mailer and lower-cost outreach, and set a public forum for June 16 while asking members to help distribute flyers and track outreach.
The Lincoln Planning Board was told the townwide master-plan survey is live and that early responses are already coming in, and members agreed to prioritize grassroots outreach over costly mass mailings while reserving the option of a limited in-town mailing.
The survey presentation came from the project team (Presenter, Speaker 5), who said the SurveyMonkey questionnaire and project website are active and that the group needs to protect links during an upcoming town-website migration. The presenter recommended broad outreach April–June and said the team wants to use the June 16 public forum to share early findings and encourage more residents to complete the survey.
Board members discussed outreach tactics and costs. The presenter said mailing printed double-sided postcards to roughly 1,000 in-town postal addresses would be about $1,000 for printing and bulk mail; expanding to many out-of-town property owners could add roughly $2,000–$3,000. The board noted the project’s overall outreach budget and the town manager’s direction to limit spending now; Presenter said the project budget was roughly $80,000 and that the team was “a little over $30,000 remaining.”
Members favored lower-cost channels where possible: targeted Facebook posts, local community forums, HOAs, business mailing lists, handouts at the library and senior center, and volunteer distribution at employers and community events. Several board members volunteered to post on community Facebook pages, contact HOAs and employers, and bring printed flyers to events. The presenter offered to keep a shared spreadsheet tracking who distributes materials and where.
The board also discussed event tactics for the June 16 forum. Presenter said the forum will be June 16 at 6 p.m. in the town meeting room and suggested making the event an “ice cream social” to draw families and encourage on-site survey completion; Presenter added, “The survey is gonna stay open till July 1.”
Next steps: the project team will continue daily checks of the project web link, produce a printable PDF of the survey for town locations, circulate digital flyers for social channels, and maintain a distribution-tracking spreadsheet. The board asked members to coordinate local postings and report back before the June forum.
