AMPUp Advisory Committee - Nov 16th, 2024

Meeting held via remote participation. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/35283/.

Review and Approve Meeting Minutes

The committee amends and approves minutes from their October 14, 2024 meeting.

Review Open Meeting Law

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker would like to give committee members a refresher on Massachusetts Open Meeting Law, in preparation for the upcoming warrant article season. The Master Plan Update Advisory Committee has a quorum of eight, and committee members cannot meet in a way that establishes a quorum outside of a public meeting.

(Rebecca Gruber, AMPUp) Ms. Gruber thinks that some committee members may want to attend Arlington Redevelopment Board (ARB) meetings. Such meetings should be cross-advertised, if more than eight committee members plan to attend.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker agrees. She says that Open Meeting Law also covers things like deliberations on committee business. If there were a quorum of members at an ARB meeting (for example) they could not deliberate on committee business; any such deliberations would require minutes.

(Tristan Boyd, AMPUp Chair) Mr. Boyd asks how we should coordinate attendance at ARB meetings.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker suggests emailing Mr. Boyd and herself. If enough people plan to attend, we can cross-advertise.

(Paul Selker, AMPUp) Mr. Selker read the Open Meeting Law and accompanying regulations. He says that social gatherings are specifically exempted if no deliberations take place. He thinks the deliberation aspect is one of the more important components of the law.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker agrees. The appearance of deliberation could be an issue.

(Ann LeRoyer, AMPUp) Ms. LeRoyer asks about Open Meeting Law and Town Meeting.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber says there are a different set of laws that apply to Town Meeting, but it's best to be conscientious.

Update on Consultant Selection

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says the selection subcommittee ranked the proposals according to the RFP rubric, and those rankings were submitted to the Town's procurement office. The subcommittee started holding interviews, and have met with Stantec, MAPC, and Barrett Consulting. They've scheduled a meeting with Goldson and should be able to make a decision by the end of next week.

New Business

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd has a question about ways to engage the public. Concord and Lexington have big 250th anniversary events planned; a similar event in Arlington could provide an outreach opportunity.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says there will be an event in April of 2025. She expects to see lots of people in Concord and Lexington and hopefully Arlington as well. She believes we could take advantage of that.

(Ann LeRoyer) Ms. LeRoyer asks when community meetings will begin.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says we're planning to have the consultants on board in December. After that, creating a community participation plan and outreach strategy will be one of this committee's first tasks. She expects things to kick off in the spring, though the timeframe for the first forum is still TBD.

Ms. Ricker says the next committee meeting will be on December 12th.

(Ann LeRoyer) Ms. LeRoyer asks if the consultant will be there.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says this will depend on whether the contract has been signed by then.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd asks if the committee would be open to scheduling another meeting, if the contract hasn't been finalized by then.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says she's always anticipated that this committee will meet at least monthly, with additional meetings as necessary.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber asks about meetings for the smaller subject area-focused groups.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker thinks that people can be as involved as they'd like to be.

Open Forum

Two members of the public attended tonight's meeting; Ms. Ricker asks if they have any comments.

(Kristin Anderson, Upland Road West) Ms. Anderson asks how many meetings the committee has had so far.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that the committee has met once per month since May.

(Kristin Anderson) Ms. Anderson asks if all of the meetings have been on Zoom.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that so far, all of the meetings have been held via zoom.

(Kristin Anderson) Ms. Anderson asks if there are any committee openings.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says the only open seat is for the Select Board liaison.

(Susan Stamps, Grafton Street) Ms. Stamps says she's tried to attend every committee meeting. She's interested in environmental aspects, like trees and climate resilience. She says the town's tree protection bylaw used the 2015 Master Plan for background and justification.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that, per the RFP, the intention is to weave resiliency throughout the plan.

Meeting adjourned.