Arlington Redevelopment Board Retreat - Dec 14th, 2024

Meeting held in the community safety building. Materials were available from https://arlington.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/MeetingView.aspx?MeetingID=2175&MinutesMeetingID=-1&doctype=Agenda.

Review of Planning and Community Development and Board Accomplishments and Objectives

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker says there was a lot of activity around last year's Town Meeting. A few days ago, the Attorney General's office approved the remaining warrant articles that were adopted in spring 2024. One of their decisions included a number of suggestions for how to update Arlington's ADU bylaw.

Arlington received a $4M MassWorks grant to improve the intersection of Mass Ave and Appleton St. Ms. Ricker thinks that grant was a direct result of the multi-family district that the town adopted for MBTA Communities. She says the state looked favorably on communities that have passed the required zoning changes.

The Planning Department has been working with the Director of Libraries on a feasibility study for the Fox. We may need to move that parcel into one of the multi-family district in order to support housing above the reconstructed library. Ms. Ricker says that Town Manager Jim Feeney is supportive, and this will require a few moves by the board. A mixed use project might require zero parking, due to site constraints. However, it is still a library-first project.

Ms. Ricker says the Arlington Housing Authority has expressed interest in the site, and are working with the Cambridge Housing Authority to assess options. The disposition will likely be a long-term lease, if the Housing Authority partners with the library.

Ms. Ricker says the Arlington Master Plan Advisory Committee has been meeting monthly. They've gone through a consultant procurement process and selected Stantec to work on the project.

Ms. Ricker says she's trying to get the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Task force back together.

The board has held hearings for a number of projects during the last year. Staff may request a change to board regulations that would give them 21 days to turn around a decision, rather than the current 14 days.

Signage was a topic of discussion during the join Select Board/ARB meeting. When sending out materials for business license renewals, the Select Board included materials that mentioned sign compliance.

Economic Development Coordinator Katie Luczai has been involved in a lot of planning efforts for the 250th celebration, including speaking with the MBTA about bus schedules. The reenactment will take place on April 20th. She's established a partnership with the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, and is trying to support other small business efforts. These efforts have led to the creation of three new murals in Arlington Center.

After the board denied a special permit for a two-family home on Dudley Street, the department received numerous questions about artists housing. The Committee on Arts and Culture has drafted guidelines, but they're concerned about being the committee that decides who is and who isn't an artist. Boston has a similar program, and the Mayor's office of Arts and Culture has an extensive list of guidelines.

Ms. Ricker says that the ZBA issued a decision that referred to the town's Residential Design Guidelines, and the applicant has been pushing back. Staff is having discussions with the Legal Department on how best to incorporate design guidelines into special permit decisions, along with the extent to which they're able to do so. Next year, DPCD will issue on RFP for an update to Arlington's Commercial Design Guidelines.

Staff did a site walk with Stantec, for the safety improvements to Park Ave. Stantec is looking at several intersections, and they may be contemplating curb extensions and rectangular rapidly flashing beacons.

The Minuteman to Mystic Valley Parkway connector is another town transportation project, and we're working to find matching grants.

The town received a $1M dollar grant to do a redesign of Broadway. Toole is working on a traffic calming guide.

(Steve Revilak, ARB) Mr. Revilak asks if the redesign of the Warren and Broadway intersection is still on the table.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker answers in the affirmative.

(Eugene Benson, ARB) Mr. Benson suggests incorporating more rain gardens into roadway reconfiguration, along with green infrastructure projects for filtering and retention.

(Kin Lau, ARB) Mr. Lau asks about the status of Mass Ave and Appleton.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says the project was scoped at $8M, and we received a MassWorks grant for $4M. We may have to phase that project to meet budgetary constraints. The redesign covers a stretch of Mass Ave, and includes three intersections.

Ms. Ricker says that Ms. Suarez has been running a program to distribute ARPA funds to affordable housing projects.

(Sarah Suarez, Assistant Planning Director) Ms. Suarez says the town issued all $3M in available grants. There were at least four applicants, plus a multi-family acquisition.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says she's gotten a sense of the difficulties that our dimensional regulations create, especially in a few districts.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson thinks the town could have interacted more with the MBTA. We have a transit advocacy group called Extend the Red Line and they have a bus working group. Mr. Benson says the MBTA is planning to redevelop the Alewife station garage. Arlington and Lexington are the top two communities that park there. The garage reconstruction could provide an opportunity to separate combined sewers and improve stormwater management.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak thinks the town has opportunities to improve bus service. While the MBTA runs the buses, they don't control the roadway. The MBTA's Better Bus Toolkit is full of street designs that can make buses run more efficiently, and Mr. Revilak hopes they can be considered during roadway improvements.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson says that Arlington's multifamily district for MBTA Communities is along Mass Ave and Broadway. He thinks there's a connection between the T and Arlington's goals.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker's last topic is the MBTA bus turnaround in Arlington Heights. She says the building would cost $125k to renovate. Discovering that there's lead paint has made the T more interested in doing something with it.

Discussion of 2025 Board Goals

(Rachel Zsembery, ARB Chair) Ms. Zsembery notes that Monday's meeting agenda has a slot for members of the public to discuss zoning articles with the board.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says she hasn't heard about any citizen articles, aside from the group working on an affordable housing overlay.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery would like to discuss what the board would like to work on during the coming year. Some of these may be warrant articles for the spring, and others could take more time. Her list includes: removing single- and two-family homes that abut the bike path from environmental design review, revisions to the B1 district, bringing our ADU bylaw into compliance with state law, having a shared resource for enforcement, and understanding if our special permit process will be affected by the economic development bill.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson understands that the economic development bill grants a two-year extension to outstanding special permits.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery adds artists housing and the Arlington Heights business district to the list.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak would like the board to consider removing the special permit requirement for renting rooms in the R districts; he feels there's no way to enforce it directly, and there are equity issues. He'd like to see the board modernize the zoning bylaw's open space provisions, but thinks we can start by removing the slope requirement for usable open space. Parts of Arlington are hilly, and the slope requirement creates unnecessary obstacles there.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson would like to rewrite section 5.3.21.A, so the board can agree on what it means.

Last year Mr. Benson had a conversation with (Conservation Planner) David Morgan about how the bylaw treats open space, and he might pick up those conversations. This could include things such as creating a cemetery district, and rezoning Article 97 parcels as open space. Mr. Benson says that most church properties are zoned R1, and that may be something to reconsider.

Mr. Benson thinks we may need changes to accommodate marijuana cafes. He'd be interested in resubmitting the article to remove the inland wetland district, if the ZBA and Conservation Commission were supportive of doing so.

Finally, Mr. Benson is interested in extending the MBTA-C district in East Arlington, since it will be a few years before we get to the business district there. There's also a duplicate section in the ZBL that should be cleaned up.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak says the duplicate section is 5.3.21, which deals with landscaped buffers. The redundancy crept in a few years ago, when we recodified the zoning bylaw.

(Kin Lau) Mr. Lau says he'd like to clarify how upper-story step-backs are interpreted.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says we did that last year, and the bylaw change was just approved by the Attorney General's Office.

(Shaina Korman-Houston) Ms. Korman-Houston says she's interested in buffer zones, expanding the MBTA-C district, and rezoning of churches.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak asks if anything's happened with the sale of the St. Camillus church property.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says the Boston Archdiocese issued an RFP for the sale of the property, and some of the respondents have contacted her. Most were looking at housing. The site could become a 40B, or something covered by the Dover amendment.

(Shaina Korman-Houston) Ms. Korman-Houston says the Archdiocese has a moratorium on new land agreements until March, so that the new Archbishop has time to get settled in.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery would like to discuss what the board should move forward with in the spring. She'd like to move forward with removing the environmental design review requirement for single- and two-family homes that abut the Minuteman Bikeway.

The board can work on revisions to the B1 district in January.

Updating the ADU bylaw to comply with state regulations is a must-do.

Ms. Zsembery recalls the discussion of liquor control from the join Select Board/Redevelopment Board meeting. She'll see if the Select Board plans to pursue anything in that area, and if they'd be interested in a letter of support.

Regarding a shared enforcement resource, that request would have to come Inspectional Services and the Planning Department. Ms. Ricker says she'll confirm where we are in the budget cycle.

Removal of the special permit requirement for renting of up to three rooms can go forward for this spring. Mr. Benson notes that the use is allowed by right in the business districts. Mr. Revilak says he's just contemplating a use table change, where it would be allowed by right in the R districts. Ms. Korman-Houston suggests checking to see if this matches the intent of the sanitary code.

The board would like to move forward with revisiting open space, rewriting or modifying 5.3.21.A, cemetery zoning, and non-open space parcels that are protected by state law. Mr. Benson will follow up with David Morgan.

The board would like to consider rezoning church properties, and they'd like staff to provide a map of where these properties are.

We may need to reconsider the restriction on the distance between cannabis locations, depending on what the state guidelines are. Ms. Ricker will follow up with Select Board administrator Ashley Maher.

Ms. Ricker will follow up with ZBA and Conservation commission chairs, regarding the removal of the inland wetland district.

Removing the duplicative sections on landscaped buffer requirements can go forward in the spring.

The board can examine the provisions for artist housing, if time allows.

Several members of the board are interested is discussing an expansion of the MBTA-C district in East Arlington. There's also interest in amending the bylaw's transportation demand provisions.

Members of the board are interested in revisiting off-street parking regulations, but that's likely to be a longer term project. Mr. Revilak suggests the board begin discussing this after the spring town meeting.

Ms. Zsembery feels that the board won't be able to get to all of these things, and we'll need further discussions about prioritization.

Meeting adjourned.