View source for AMPUp Advisory Committee - Jan 30th, 2025

Meeting held via remote participation.  Materials were available from
https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/35893/18?curm=1&cury=2025.

=Review Meeting Minutes=

The committee approved minutes from their November 14, 2024 and
December 12, 2024 meetings.

=Introductions: consultant team and committee members=

The Committee is introduced to two members of Stantec's Consultant
team: Phil Schaeffing (Project Manager) and Steve Kearney (Principal
in Charge).  Mr. Schaeffing asks the committee members to briefly
introduce themselves, and state their main interests in the master
planning process.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson is a member of the Arlington Redevelopment
Board, and is interested in all parts of the plan.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd is interested in housing, long range issues,
and transportation.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford is a Town Meeting member.  She's
interested in housing and community outreach.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cook is a Town Meeting member.  He's interested in
housing and commercial development.

(Rachel Dunham) Ms. Dunham is interested in economic development and
housing.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber has served on several committees,
including the MBTA Communities Working Group, the Affordable Housing
Trust Fund, and the Library Board of Trustees.  She's interested in
outreach and housing.

(Molly Hargrove) Ms. Hargrove is interested in economic development.

(Ann LeRoyer) Ms. LeRoyer is a Town Meeting member, and a member of
the Open Space Committee.  She's interested in open space,
sustainability, and outreach.

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller is a member of the Special Education
Parental Advisory Committee.  She's interested in accessibility and
conflicting access needs.

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch is a Town Meeting member.  He's
interested in housing, climate issues, and transportation.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak is a member of the Arlington Redevelopment
Board and a Town Meeting member.  He's interested in housing and
active transportation.

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker is interested in land use, housing, and
engagement.

(Rachel Weil) Ms. Weil is interested in climate, accessibility, and
housing.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says it's not surprising to see a lot
of interest in housing, and he feels the group has a good diversity of
interests.  

=Planning process: overview and schedule=

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that Stantec will be responsible
for the overall process including community engagement, and Ninigret
Partners will help with the economic development portions.  There will
be two additional Stantec consultants working on the project --
Allison Leflore and Alanna Wittet.  The overall planning process will
take around 18 months, with the goal of presenting the plan to Town
Meeting in the Spring of 2026.

Stantec is starting to work on the inventory and analysis phase, which
will provide a sense of where the town is and allow them to identify
relevant trends.  This phase includes outreach to town departments and
interviews with town staff, and will take place during February and
March.

The public engagement portion will kick off with a community visioning
session.  The engagement process will continue into early summer, and
the goal is to hear from a representative sampling of the population.

Stantec will work on plans and recommendations, starting in mid- to
late-summer.  There will be a public engagement component in this
phase of the work.  They plan to present a draft plan during an open
house event next winter, and have the final version ready for Town
Meeting in the spring.

Although there are several elements to the master plan, it's important
not to think of them in isolation.  The pieces work together and
affect each other.  Sustainability and resiliency are cross-cutting
concerns that affect all of the topic elements.

Visioning will identify overarching goals and policies relevant to
achieving Arlington's vision for the future.  The implementation plan
will include a list of who's responsible for working on the individual
goals, along with recommendations to track progress.  It's important
to hear from department heads as the implementation plan is developed.

Public engagement will involve listening throughout the process,
reporting back what was heard, and showing how feedback was
incorporated into the plan.

Arlington has done a lot of plans, and these will fit into the master
plan framework.

Mr. Schaeffing closes by saying that Stantec is working on initial
outreach plans and developing a public website for the master planning
effort.

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker notes there are seven statutory areas that
master plans have to cover.  He asks if the plan will be structured
that way.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that Stantec usually starts by
asking how the structure of previous plan has worked out.  Their goal
is to produce a planing document that's workable and user-friendly.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says that the organization of Watertown's
previous master plan worked well, and they kept that organization for
the updated version.

(Lillian Hartman) Ms. Hartman would like the web materials not to be
ephemeral.  She encourages Stantec to find a way to host the website
using town resources.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says he's already started talking to
town staff about how to balance the communications.

=Community Engagement=

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the visioning forum will be the
first big public event.  During the forum, they'll identify where the
town is today and discuss relevant trends.  Each outreach phase will
have an online component.  The visioning phase will end with a draft
vision statement and a set of draft goals.

The next workshop will cover draft recommendations and check for
alignment and look at the town's priorities.  The third workshop will
be an open house for the draft master plan, with the goal of
soliciting feedback before the plan is formally reviewed.  Stantec
plans to have interactive meetings along with options for online
feedback.

Mr. Schaeffing says he'd like to be adaptable through the process,
especially when it comes to public outreach.  He'd like the outreach
to be accessible, which means being non-jargony, equitable, and trying
to target as representative a sample of the community as possible.
Engagement will be both in-person and online, and they'll try to make
the events and activities enjoyable.  Not everyone will agree with
everything, but people should feel like it's a good process.

Stantec will do a lot of listening, and reporting back of what they've
heard.  They want to identify stakeholders and build relationships.
Engagement is often the hardest part of the work, as master plans are
less tangible and immediate.

The online component will include interactive maps, surveys, an idea
wall, and having presentations on the website.

The committee's role will be to serve as ambassadors for the process,
and to encourage community members to participate.  This includes
doing pop-ups at local events, distributing flyers, and sharing things
on social medial.  Mr. Schaeffing believes it's important to meet
people where they are.

(Rachel Dunham) Ms. Dunham asks how the visioning forum will tie in to
pop-up events.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the visioning forum will be a
big public meeting.  Pop-ups will be smaller events that try to engage
people and lead them to the project website.  He says it's important
to meet people and get their thoughts.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber says there are two populations in
Arlington.  One group participates often, and its members often say
the same things; the second group is everyone else.  She'd like these
outreach events to be different.  Perhaps they could be done at the
high school rather than town hall.  She says we need to get people
that we haven't been able to get in the past.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says he'll work with Director Ricker
on what's been done in the past.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd asks if the smaller events will be themed --
focusing on housing and transportation, for example.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing suggests treating the smaller events
as promotional opportunities.  Ask people a few targeted questions, as
appropriate for the type of event.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd asks if pop-up events will be done by a
combination of committee members and Stantec, and what the scale of
those events will be.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that Stantec will do the major
events, and provide a toolkit for others to use at smaller ones.
Stantec will develop materials and literature.

(Lillian Hartman) Ms. Hartman isn't sure about the value of big
in-person meetings.  She'd prefer to see more smaller events and
pop-ups.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says he'll think about how to be
responsive to that, and how to make smaller events effective.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says there are other opportunities for
smaller events, like meetings in a box and focus groups.  The
committee can also do side meetings.

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller is also concerned about relying on a small
number of big events, or only in-person events.  She'd also like to
see more smaller events.  She asks how Stantec will assess diversity
of representation.  She asks if specific surveys can target specific
audiences, and if Stantec can provide an outreach blurb for committee
members to use.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says they won't weight in-person vs
online participation.  They'll try to design similar questions for
both, and don't want to give preference to in-person meetings.  Online
surveys will have a set of demographic questions, and those provide
information about who is responding.  Mr. Schaeffing says that Stantec
will develop and share a standard blurb.

(Rachael Dunham) Ms. Dunham agrees with the ideas of trying to talk to
people and showing up for a variety of events, like beer gardens and
soccer games.  She's hoping that people can volunteer as they are
able.

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker would like to get an idea of what Stantec is
scoped to do, and where the committee can dive in.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney thinks we can produce a tremendous result
if Stantec provides tools and the committee is engaged.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cook says that large meetings are one tool, but they
tend to draw a homogeneous audience and can turn into a forum for
speech making.  He suggests reaching out to PTOs and businesses.  He
asks about approaching existing town committees, which tend to have a
lot of expertise in their respective areas.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that community engagement needs
to be tailored and adapted.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak says that significant outreach efforts
tend to weight all responses equally.  For example, if 50 people
provide feedback at a meeting and 2000 people provide feedback via a
survey, then you have 2050 pieces of feedback, and the survey produced
more information than the meeting.

(Ann LeRoyer) Ms. LeRoyer says the Open Space Committee used lawn
signs and QR codes when they were working on the Open Space and
Recreation plan.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that could be a great way to
reach more people.

(Lillian Hartman) Ms. Hartman says she's willing to walk around and
post handbills.  Most neighborhoods have places where people routinely
post things.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says it's important to be focused on
creating a record for each interaction, and not just listening to
verbal comments.

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch says it's also important to get quality
and depth, especially when there are tradeoffs involved.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson notes that Town Meeting starts in April.
He suggests that we present something to Town Meeting or provide a
short report.  He thinks that Town Meeting Members will be key to
making this event a success.  

=Terminology: master plan vs comprehensive plan=

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker offers to follow up with the group via
email, regarding the question of whether to call this a "master
plan" or a "comprehensive plan".

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch suggests taking a straw poll.

The majority of committee members are in favor of calling it a
"comprehensive plan".

=AMPUp Meeting Schedule=

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that the second Thursday of each month
no longer works for Stantec's schedule, so we'll have to decide on a
new meeting time.  Ms. Ricker will send a poll to gauge the
availability of committee members.

=New Business=

The committee's next meeting will be in February.

Meeting adjourned at 19:21.

[[Category:Public Meetings]]