AMPUp Advisory Committee - Dec 12th, 2024

Meeting held via remote participation. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/35284/18.

Review of Meeting Minutes

Review and approval of meeting minutes was deferred until the next meeting.

Updates on Consultant Selection

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker tells the committee that the consultant selection subcommittee held a series of interviews, followed by a lengthy discussion of the submissions. They selected Stantec, and Phil Schaeffing will be the project manager.

(Phil Schaeffing, Stantec) Mr. Schaeffing says he's an urban designer and planner and a senior associate at Stantec. They recently finished a planning project in Watertown and are working on another in Peabody. He's familiar with the greater Boston area, and is excited to work in Arlington.

Mr. Schaeffing says that Stantec is a large interdisciplinary firm that employs lots of different specialized professionals. They'll be working with Ninigret Partners, who will cover the economic development portions of the plan. Stantec has done a number of projects in Arlington, including the redesign of the Mass Ave. and Appleton St. intersection. He says that different members of the team will be involved at different points in the process, for specific topics or community outreach.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker asks if Mr. Schaeffing can talk about Stantec's approach to community outreach.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says there are several aspects to their approach. Being community-based is one component, as residents, business owners, and workers all have essential expertise in the community. Stantec prefers to take an interdisciplinary approach, which includes looking at how the different subject areas overlap. They're also implementation-focused, and consider who will be involved in the comprehensive plan's implementation. Finally, Stantec tries to create planning documents that are user-friendly, visually rich, and easy to understand.

Stantec has a three-phase proposal for engagement. The first phase involves visioning; this includes an interactive website, mapping tools, surveys, and in-person meetings. They also like to host a visioning forum. Phase two includes topic and neighborhood workshops, which get more into the details of the plan. The third phase is an open house to present the draft plan. Mr. Schaeffing says this is an iterative process of asking questions and reporting back. They strive for transparency, and he'll look to the working groups for ideas on community groups and businesses to contact.

(Paul Selker, AMPUp) Mr. Selker acknowledges the committee's desire to hear from a fully representative group of residents, but says we may not be able to do that. He asks if there are ways to measure how unrepresentative our outreach efforts are.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that on-line components and surveys will have demographic questions, and that helps to provide a sense of how representative the responses are, as well as which groups we're not hearing from. He's done outreach events at schools, as a way to get younger residents involved. It's harder to collect demographic information during in-person events, but you can look around and get a sense of who's in the room. He says it's also important to look at where and how events are being promoted.

(Arthur Prokosch, AMPUp) Mr. Prokosch says that volunteer committees do a lot of work in town. He thinks these committees should be on the list of stakeholders.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says he'd like to talk with these groups early in the process.

(Lillian Hartman, AMPUp) Ms. Hartman says she likes surveys. Arlington has a big survey in January, which is run by Envision Arlington. She asks if it would be possible to have a few questions there.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says he'll talk with Ms. Ricker about that.

(Tristan Boyd, AMPUp Chair) Mr. Boyd asks how often Stantec will be joining our advisory committee meetings.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing expects to set up a regular schedule n January. He thinks it will generally be every other meeting, but can be more often when necessary.

(Ann LeRoyer, AMPUp) Ms. LeRoyer thought that Stantec's application looked good. She asks if the selection subcommittee could provide more information about the process.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says there was a clear preference for Stantec.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd says that Stantec handled the interview questions very well. The selection committee also had a long discussion at the end of the process, which helped to provide clarity. He feels confident about the selection process.

(Rebecca Gruber, AMPUp) Ms. Gruber says the candidates we interviewed were all very good, and the committee would probably be happy with any of them.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that a number of people on the selection subcommittee listed Stantec as their first choice.

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch says he's generally impressed with Stantec's work on land use and transportation. He asks about their strength in environmental and climate issues.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd says that Stantec has an enormous wheelhouse of professionals; there's a lot of breadth to the organization. He feels comfortable with their level of expertise.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker thinks the RFP was clear about its desire to weave environmental and climate issues throughout the subject areas. She's worked with Ninigret Partners in the past, and found them to do good work.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd says he kept notes on the interview questions, and Stantec touched on nearly every one of them. He notes that not every applicant was asked every question, but Stantec's answers were comprehensive.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber says she liked Stantec's outreach approach. She knows that outreach work is hard, and Stantec had ideas that were different from what we've done in the past. She thinks we'll be able to connect with lots of people.

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker says that Stantec clearly wasn't afraid of disagreement and conflict, and he appreciated their honesty in that area. He'd like to better understand their vision for involving this committee in the process. He'd like the committee to be involved and have a chance to contribute.

Spring Events - Semiquincentennial

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd works for the town of Concord and helps them plan events. He's aware that Arlington has a number of events planned around Patriots Day, which might provide good tabling opportunities. He asks if there are other events we should keep in mind.

(Steve Revilak, AMPUp) Mr. Revilak says the Arlington Heights Holiday Stroll is happening on Saturday, but that might be too soon. The Heights also has a Spring Fling event.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker suggests setting up a shared calendar that committee members can add events to.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber says we'll want to direct people to a website. She suggests putting a QR code on outreach materials. She supports the idea of getting a few questions on the Envision Arlington survey.

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker believes that Stantec was planning to set up a website for the comprehensive planning effort.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd agrees that an internal calendar could be helpful. He thinks we might need to set up some kind of structure for how we talk to the public.

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker thinks we should have a set of principals for the solicitation of input.

(All LeRoyer) Ms. LeRoyer says the Old Schwamb Mill will have a 250th exhibit, and she believes we'd be able to table at their venue. She suggests sending a post card to residents. She says there will be a Revolutionary War re-enactment on April 20th and the Arlington Historical Society will hold an event on May 17th.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak appreciated the Boston Planning Department's tabling at open streets events. They typically had interactive ways to solicit feedback, like putting pins on a map and writing notes on slips of paper. He felt they were successful engagement strategies.

(Lillian Hartman) Ms. Hartman believes that most people think that master plans are boring, so it's important to find a way to explain how the planning efforts are relevant to them. She notes that there's been a general shift towards calling these "comprehensive plans", rather than "master plans".

There's a short discussion about use of the two terms, and whether it would be worthwhile to change the committee name.

(Angelique Bradford, AMPUp) Ms. Bradford asks if we're limited to tabling at town events.

Several committee members shake their heads "no".

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd ask if open meeting law applies to tabling events.

Several committee members nod their heads "yes".

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd thinks we can start signing up for outreach and tabling events, once the weather gets warmer.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber suggests doing outreach at Arlington EATS community meals.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that the Planning Department has a table and chairs, and there's nothing stopping the committee from doing outreach. She would prefer to keep the outreach material organized.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford wants the committee to keep accessibility in mind. She hopes that material could be translated into the 2--3 languages that are commonly spoken in Arlington, that printed materials have large print, and that we provide cart services for the hard of hearing. Ms. Bradford loves accessibility.

New Business

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak says that part of Monday night's ARB meeting will be devoted to citizen zoning articles. Mr. Revilak doesn't know what will be proposed, but he invites members of the committee to attend.

The next AMPUp Advisory Committee meeting will be held on January 9, 2025.

Meeting adjourned at 6:59 pm.