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, probably February 3rd or 4th.

Meeting adjourned at 19:21.