Joint Select Board/Redevelopment Board Meeting - Sep 16th, 2024

Meeting held in the School Committee Room at 14 Mill Brook Drive. Materials were available from https://arlington.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/MeetingView.aspx?MeetingID=2113&MinutesMeetingID=-1&doctype=Agenda.

Select Board Chair Steve DeCourcey and Redevelopment Board Chair Rachel Zsembery introduce the meeting. The agenda was developed jointly by the chairs.

Select Board member Eric Helmuth was unable to attend tonight's meeting.

Arlington Heights Business District

(Rachel Zsembery, ARB Chair) Ms. Zsembery says the Redevelopment Board was planning a rezoning of the Arlington Heights Business District (AHBD) before work started on multi-family housing for MBTA Communities. The rezoning is based on work done for the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Action Plan. The goal is to establish a more cohesive business district and to encourage higher and greater uses. During the MBTA Communities rezoning, we defined the shape of the AHBD to tie in with the multifamily zoning. Ms. Zsembery says the Affordable Housing Trust Fund is also working on an Affordable Housing Overlay proposal. The trust fund brought the idea to the Redevelopment Board last year, and we asked them to work on their outline and engagement plan. The Redevelopment Board expects to bring the AHBD rezoning to town meeting in the spring of 2025.

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker says the Planning Department has reconvened the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Action Plan Advisory Committee, and tabled at the Arlington Heights spring flight. There will be more community meetings in the heights during October and November.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says that another goal is to look at the commercial properties we have available. Our Economic Development Coordinator has identified several obstacles for establishing a new business in the heights. There aren't enough spaces that are 3000 square feet or larger, and some haven't been well-maintained. She says the Redevelopment Board wants to look at the area comprehensively.

(John Hurd, Select Board) Mr. Hurd says the Heights is due for an overhaul. He says that parking is a challenge, and he'd like to preserve what we have. The Select Board has discussed expanding the parking benefits districts beyond Arlington Center, and they'd like to study whether metering would make sense in the heights. He thinks the Heights is ripe for a fresh look.

(Diane Mahon, Select Board) Ms. Mahon says there are people that live in affordable apartments above those storefronts. She says several people have told her they're concerned with displacement, and she'd like to give an answer to those tenant concerns.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says that Arlington has inclusionary zoning, which requires a certain number of units to be affordable. She says we could look at bonuses in exchange for providing additional affordable units. She believes the AHBD outreach process will be similar to the one used for MBTA Communities.

(Kin Lau, ARB) Mr. Lau agrees with inclusionary zoning and bonuses. He thinks the Select Board can help with tax incentives, perhaps by providing a tax benefit for a few years. He says that Arlington is lacking in housing in general. He thinks that redevelopment could go hand in hand with filling retail spaces, because many are in need of renovation. Mr. Lau notes that Boston is doing some of this now.

(Eugene Benson, ARB) Mr. Benson says the board can create incentives, but builders can take them or leave them. He believes the town could help out by setting up a relocation fund.

(Shaina Korman-Houston, ARB) Ms. Korman-Houston notes that the state has regulations around expiring covenants, and it may be worth exploring them.

(Steve DeCourcey, Select Board Chair) Mr. DeCourcey says these ideas will require input from a number of bodies. He notes that Somerville is doing something with tax increment financing to help with the redevelopment of the former Star Market site in Winter Hill.

(Len Diggins, Select Board) Mr. Diggins says that transportation is a consideration. If we have a lot of development at a particular site, we'll need to think about how to get people in and out. He says we can think about different forms of transit, like shuttle buses or vehicle sharing. He says we can work with the MBTA to improve travel on Mass Ave.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson says the Arlington Heights bus turnaround could be an important site to consider. He thinks it's underutilized.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says the Board hasn't had discussions with the MBTA about that site.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery expresses appreciation for the letter that the Select Board sent to the MBTA, regarding the redevelopment of Alewife Station.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd says that parking in the Heights could be a challenge.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says that not having overnight parking makes off-street parking reductions a challenge.

Parking

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says the Select Board has extended their overnight parking pilot, and it's scheduled to run through the end of June. There are 78 participants, and the fee is \$1 per night. He says that participants are pleased to have the opportunity to take part in this program.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd thinks the parking pilot was successful.

(Steve Revilak, ARB) Mr. Revilak says that his favorite Arlington parking story involves the Capitol Square Theater building. The building has five or six off-street parking spaces on Lake Street. According to Arlington's current parking minimums, the building would need over three hundred spaces for just the theater and apartments. With the maximum parking reduction the ARB could give, the building would still need 75 spaces. Mr. Revilak thinks Arlington's off-street parking requirements are too high in general. Despite the lack of off-street parking, that building has been a successful business location for over a hundred years.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson says the bylaw requires one off-street parking space per residential dwelling, and there's no parking requirement for the first 3000 square feet of commercial space in a mixed-use building. The board can waive parking minimums if there's no place to provide additional parking on-site, and residential parking requirements can be reduced by up to 75\% in conjunction with a transportation demand management plan. He says the question is "do we remove parking minimums?", and the Redevelopment Board has mixed feelings about that. He thinks that no minimums are easier if residents can park in the street. That's the balance. While the overnight parking pilot has been successful, the fact that it's a pilot means there's no guarantee the program will be around year after year.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says the pilot is structured such that every participant has a spot available in town parking lots during a snowstorm.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd notes that daytime parking restrictions can be different than overnight parking restrictions. For example, there might be parking allowed overnight, but a two-hour restriction during the day.

(Len Diggins) Mr. Diggins says that one of the Select Board's goals is to have a review of parking policies. For example, restricting parking to one side on certain streets in East Arlington. He thinks there are lots of goals to achieve, and we can adjust the price points. He thinks it would be beneficial to have shared vehicles available in town lots. This would serve the needs of residents who need only occasional access to a car.

(Kin Lau) Mr. Lau thinks that overnight parking can be compatible with two-hour parking during the day; those spaces would be shared between residents and businesses. He says we can't solve everyone's issue, but we can make it easier to cohabitate.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says that so far, the Select Board has been doing everything town-side. They could consider having different regulations in different areas.

Parking Benefits Districts

(Jim Feeney, Town Manager) Mr. Feeney says we're planning to evaluate the expansion of parking benefits districts into one or two of Arlington's other business district. The evaluation will happen in FY2025. He says the study will consider costs and neighborhood impacts.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson suggests the town use different meters.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak says that people usually want three things when it comes to parking: they want it to be convenient, available, and free. The issue is that you can only have two of those things at a time. When priced appropriately, metered parking is convenient and available, and parking around the block is available and free. Mr. Revilak believes that streets in Capitol Square are already used like this. For example, restaurant staff typically park on side streets during their shift. He thinks the availability of side-street parking in East Arlington could make it easier to establish a parking district, as compared to the Heights.

(Len Diggins) Mr. Diggins suggests that the evaluation include general street design, for overall safety.

Affordable Housing Overlay

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery offers to provide an overview of the Affordable Housing Overlay. A working group came to the ARB in 2024 with an idea for an as-of-right overlay district. The Redevelopment Board felt that more public process was necessary, and that it might be a challenge without allowances for overnight parking. She says there are ways to make it work, and that working group is looking at something that allows affordable housing by right, with site plan review. She says this wouldn't be limited to the business districts, and they've asked to eliminate off-street parking minimums in the overlay. She says the board was concerned about a lack of parking minimums, without knowing what was happening with overnight parking.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says the working group is still figuring out standards and the size of the district. The ARB has discussed reserving additional parcels for bigger business districts. She's unsure if the business districts should mirror the parking benefits districts.

(Kin Lau) Mr. Lau says that not everyone on the board agrees with restricting the district to certain areas.

(Len Diggins) Mr. Diggins is in favor of this. He understands the desire to preserve business districts, but he thinks businesses will benefit from having more people living nearby. He says this gives us another place for shared vehicles.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says the board is interested in having mixed use redevelopment in the business districts. Her concern was in allowing fully residential properties there, by right.

Liquor Licenses

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says he's heard about businesses being frustrated by our alcohol regulations.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says she's asked the town's Economic Development Coordinator to write a memo regarding liquor licenses. There was a wine shop that was interested in opening in Arlington, but we have no package licenses available. Arlington Brewing Company was also concerned about the need to serve food. Our all-alcohol licenses have a fifty-seat minimum; not all of them are used because there aren't many restaurant spaces that large.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey asks about the "no more than two drinks without food" policy.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd says he's always been uneasy with the two-drink limit. It's hard to enforce, and he'd be open to revisiting that rule. He says that one of the business models for breweries is to bring in food trucks, or have patrons bring their own food.

(Diane Mahon) Ms. Mahon says the two-drink limit came from a particular Select Bard member years ago. She's also willing to revisit that regulation. She's had conversations with the Arlington Brewing Company folks, and they can't find a storefront to accommodate them. She's also willing to re-assess the fifty-seat minimum for all alcohol licenses.

(Len Diggins) Mr. Diggins is also in favor of revisiting, as long as people are safe and it doesn't result in impaired driving.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says he's also open to reconsidering these things. He doesn't want to see Arlington run into the issues that Boston is having, where all their liquor licenses are used and they're being sold at exorbitant prices.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney thinks that lowering the seat limit for all-alcohol licenses might lead to an uptick, as restaurants with beer and wine licenses try to convert to all-alcohol. He says that some restaurants are interested in serving a single type of hard liquor, rather than all types.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says the we should be flexible with creative ideas that come to us.

Signage Enforcement

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says she's looking at ways to get better at having businesses following the sign bylaws. She's seen an uptick in the number of non-conforming signs installed. She understands that the Select Board usually imposes a condition that signage be properly reviewed, and the Redevelopment Board wants to see signage of appropriate quality and quantity. She'd like to see what the ARB can do to help support the Select Board's efforts.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd says there are quite a few violations, but there isn't a clear indicator of how to enforce the bylaw. Inspectional Services doesn't have the resources to go out and do sign enforcement. He'd like to come up with a mechanism for enforcement.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey thinks the issue happens sometime after the Select Board approves the business license.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery asks how often we do outreach to new businesses.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says she gets applications regularly. She says it's more challenging when signage changes, or gets installed without a permit. The prescriptiveness of our sign code is a challenge, and it's difficult to get some sign companies to be responsive to that. She wonders if we could consider something punitive, noting that we don't see everything that goes up.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery asks if it's really a staffing issue. She thinks we might need a part-time resource to address the quantity of non-conforming signs in town.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says we're getting good compliance when businesses apply for sign permits. He says the town has the ability to triple permit fees when work is started without a permit.

(Len Diggins) Mr. Diggins says this is a challenging issue. He wants to make sure that businesses are treated equally in terms of enforcement. He thinks it would be good to see some figures, in terms of the number of violations and their impact.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says there are plenty of urban planning studies, and lots of research about the lack of attention to signage.

(Diane Mahon) Ms. Mahon thinks that 50\% of the problem is communication. Perhaps some of the bylaws need to be translated into other languages.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says that his office is starting to produce translations of some applications and documents. This is something he's pursuing as part of a language access plan.

(Diane Mahon) Ms. Mahon would like the ARB to think about whether some of their applications could be translated.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says that zoning codes are hard to read. It would be beneficial to make them more accessible.

(Kin Lau) Mr. Lau knows that there's a process to starting a business. He asks if there's a process for renewing business licenses.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says that licenses are renewed annually. He says we could ask applicants to affirm that they're compliant with the sign bylaws at the time of renewal.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney suggests sending out educational material with the license renewal forms. He says that we currently rely on formal complaints, and we only get around five of them per year.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd says that business licenses are renewed in a batch at the end of the year. There are around 200 renewals in a typical year.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak suggests including a question like "have you changed signage in the last 12 months" in the renewal form. That information would tell us where to look for non-compliance.

Cannabis Control

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says the town can issue three licenses to cannabis establishments. The process starts with a host community agreement. Next, the applicants go before the Cannabis Control Commission, then the Redevelopment Board, and then the Department of Health. The host community agreement requires an applicant to get all relevant approvals, but doesn't establish a deadline for doing so.

(Jim Feeney) Mr. Feeney says there are two or three potential applicants for new cannabis licenses. One of our three licenses is in limbo.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that Calyx Peak had a site and applied for environmental design review, but they couldn't come to terms with their landlord. She's had discussions with Mr. Feeney about how to handle this. It's not clear which board should call the applicant back in.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd says there aren't a lot of sites that comply with the boundary conditions in the host community agreement. Perhaps we could revisit those requirements, in order to make more sites available.

(Len Diggins) Mr. Diggins thinks this should come back to the Select Board, and their should be a time frame so that we can deal with inaction by an applicant. He thinks that East Arlington could handle two cannabis establishments.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson says that changing the number of licenses or boundary distances would require action from Town Meeting. He thinks it would be good to know the Select Board's preferences.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey thinks that might happen this spring or next, based on the number of inquiries.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd says the number of cannabis licenses was based on the number of all-alcohol licenses in the town, and more of those are available now.

(Michael Cunningham, Town Counsel) Mr. Cunningham says that the town could increase the number of cannabis licenses to match the current number of all-alcohol licenses, but it's not required to do so.

Arlington Master Plan Update (AMPUp) Advisory Committee

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that she gave a master plan update presentation to the Select Board over the summer. The 2015 Master Plan committee had a Select Board liaison. The Committee's first task is to evaluate consultant proposals. They'll likely meet 1--2 times/month once the process gets going. At the time she presented, Ms. Ricker says that none of the Select Board members felt like they had enough time to serve on the committee. She says the Redevelopment Board would like to have a liaison, but are open to other options.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says the master plan is an important document, which informs many of the things the Redevelopment Board does. She thinks there should be a Select Board member involved.

(Len Diggins) Mr. Diggins asks to have a discussion when the full Select Board is present. He thinks there should be a Select Board member involved.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says the board had a discussion, and the board members were concerned that none of them felt they could commit the time. He asks if the ARB would consider a designee or liaison.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson says the AMPUp committee came to consensus about wanting a liaison, rather than another member.

(Diane Mahon) Ms. Mahon says she'd like a board member, or a designee. She says this has been done before. There will always be hurdles that we come up against, and that we want to present the Master Plan in the best way possible.

(John Hurd) Mr. Hurd says he can accept a Select Board member, or a board liaison.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery suggests going back to the AMPUp committee, and getting their thoughts.

Vacant Storefronts

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey says the Select Board sometimes gets questions about vacant storefronts. He asks about the process for getting back to landlords. He asks what kind of feedback we get from landlords, and what we can do. He wonders if Chapter 121B could be an option.

(Note: Chapter 121B is a state law that deals with urban renewal).

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says we send out letters and do regular inspections. We build an inventory of properties and put them on notice of getting a fine. If fines accumulate, we could put a lien on the offending property.

Regarding Chapter 121B and urban renewal, we'd have to start with an urban renewal plan. She says the process can be lengthy, but it could be worth it.

(Steve DeCourcey) Mr. DeCourcey asks about fines.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that some landlords pay, and some do not.

(Michael Cunningham) Mr. Cunningham says the Attorney General's office just approved Town Meeting's to the vacant storefront registry bylaw. The changes still need to be advertised, but should go into effect soon.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says the ARB has discussed urban renewal plans. She's glad to hear that the Select Board is supportive of such arrangements.

(Kin Lau) Mr. Lau suggests identifying some of the storefronts that aren't leasing; maybe we can give the owners an incentive to renovate. He says he's looking for a carrot rather than a stick.

(Len Diggins) Mr. Diggins says we have to understand the economics. He likes the idea of an urban renewal plan, and notes that vacant storefronts aren't unique to Arlington. He asks how much an urban renewal plan would cost.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker estimates that an urban renewal plan for Arlington Center might cost around \$100k.

Meeting adjourned.