AMPUp Advisory Committee - Oct 23rd, 2025

Meeting held via remote participation. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/37556/18.

Committee Updates

(Dave Fatula, AMPUp) Mr. Fatula tells the committee about the Economic Development Forum that was held last night. The event was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and about 45 people attended. Katie Luczai gave a presentation on Ninigret's economic development findings. We talked about zoning, having the ability to develop vertically, and to make Arlington attractive to a younger audience. Feedback is being compiled and will be provided to Stantec.

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker says there was another focus group for historical and cultural resources.

(Rebecca Gruber, AMPUp) Ms. Gruber says that both focus groups mentioned the need for some kind of public bulletin board, to get the word out for events. How do we communicate with the Arlington Community?

(Ann LeRoyer, AMPUp) Ms. LeRoyer says the historic and cultural focus group meeting had around 25 attendees, mostly folks from historic and arts groups. There were concerns around communications, funding, resource, lack of spaces, and costs to rent. They're interested in having spaces for public performances. Some people wanted a digital bulletin board.

Stantec Updates

(Phil Schaeffing, Stantec) Mr. Schaeffing says that Arlington is a very engaged community. There have been 957 on-line contributions, 624 map pins, and 3,435 votes on the map. The committee has also done 20+ pop-up events.

From the first visioning survey, economic development, open space and recreation, and transportation came out as the top items.

From the interactive map, 60% of contributions were "improve or change", 26% were ideas, and 15% were important places. We've received 624 comments from 213 contributors. Lots of these are transportation-related, and a smaller number involve land use and development.

Quick poll #1 asked about the things Arlington needs in the next ten years. The top items were housing choice and affordability and local businesses and jobs. "Other" was the third-ranked choice, where most of the comments related to transportation, trees, and the town budget.

Quick poll #2 asked what types of housing and businesses people wanted to see more of. Responses showed a preference for 4--20 unit homes and affordable housing. On the business side, people were interested in retail, entertainment, and restaurants.

Several items from the paper surveys had response rates of 50% or more. These included: Arlington not having enough housing units, people feeling connected to Arlington through their neighborhoods and communities, prioritizing affordable housing to be more inclusive, and having more density near transit and commercial areas.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber notes that the survey didn't define "affordable" and the word could have been interpreted in different ways.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says Stantec is using this input to revise visions and goals, to raise questions, and to look at areas to focus on. Notes from the focus groups have been a big part of this. Stantec will present preliminary strategies next Tuesday, and they'll inform priorities and implementation strategies. The more people that are filling out surveys means that more people are aware of the effort.

(Dave Fatula, AMPUp) Mr. Fatula has a question about the affordable housing aspect. We can't make more lower-case "a" affordable housing by snapping our fingers, and the cost is influenced by a lot of things. He asks how Stantec would recommend addressing this.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the housing market is influenced by lots of factors, and we have to begin by recognizing them. The town has control over the amount and type of housing that's allowed to be built. We can leverage public band, but zoning and the regulatory environment are one of the best levers the town has.

(Grant Cook, AMPUp) Mr. Cook sees two things. First, Arlington has been discriminating against apartment buildings for 50 years, since the time we banned them. This takes time to fix. Also, Arlington can't do this alone, we need state action. We have the Arlington Housing Authority, the Housing Corporation of Arlington, and zoning. The majority of land in town allows only a single-family home, and 90% allows single- or two-family homes. Allowing more types of housing on more land will make a difference over the years.

(Steve Revilak, AMPUp) Mr. Revilak says the consumer price index has increased roughly 100% since 2000 -- over the last 25 years. In the same period, the average assessed value of a single family home has increased by about 400%, so the cost of housing has gone up at four times the rate of inflation. Housing wasn't always this expensive. This problem was a long time in the making, and Mr. Revilak agrees that it will take years to address.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says there are things we can to do change the dynamic over time.

Public Meeting Prep

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the next public meeting will be held one week from tonight, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm. It will be structured so people can drop in and stay for as long as they want. It will start with a presentation, followed by an interactive open-house component. There will be a zoom option. Material will be posted to the project website and there will be a survey afterwards.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber asks if the zoom link will be added to the town calendar.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says he can work on that.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says she's been thinking about the best way to handle the logistics of a hybrid meeting.

(Arthur Prokosch, AMPUp) Mr. Prokosch suggests that the zoom meeting have the same timeframe as the in-person one.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says she'll have someone from staff attend the zoom meeting, so they can answer questions.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the presentation will review the feedback we've received so far, then share the revised vision and goals. Afterwards, there will be five stations. Each station will have a summary of existing conditions, goals, strategies, and ways to provide feedback.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber asks what the five stations will be.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that Stantec would like to have one station for each subject area, but some will have to be combined due to staffing constraints.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber wonders if members of the community will be able to get their head around the public facilities and services topic.

(Lillian Hartman, AMPUp) Ms. Hartman believes they'll be able to do that.

The group discusses which topics make sense to combine.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says Stantec has been re-interviewing staff members, so we have been getting good feedback.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber hopes the topics can be presented in ways that are familiar to people.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says there are connections between topics, and some things affect several of them.

(Lillian Hartman) Ms. Hartman asks where we are in the overall timeline, and if there will be another meeting to discuss strategies.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that next week's event will be the main public meeting. There will be another big public event early next year, for presenting the draft plan.

(Angelique Bradford, AMPUp) Ms. Bradford asks if the planning department can print flyers.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says her office can do that.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford would like to have the presentation materials posted to the website by October 31st. She'd like to pass out information to trick or treaters.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says he can do that.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber asks what we're doing to publicize the event.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says we're going a news article, talking about it on the next DPCD update, and using word of mouth.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber offers to announce the event on the Arlington List. She suggests doing a follow-up article, to direct people to the website survey.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says there's a banner about the event on the town website.

(Dave Fatula) Mr. Fatula thinks this speaks to the communications gap we've heard about in focus groups.

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch says that Arlington Town Notices come out roughly once per week, and he finds them helpful.

(Dave Fatula) Mr. Fatula agrees, but we need something that's obvious and not complicated.

(Ann LeRoyer) Ms. LeRoyer suggests sending a notice to town meeting members, and asking them to forward information about the event.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says she can do that.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber asks how committee members should provide feedback on the draft goals.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker asks committee members to send their feedback directly to her. She expects us to spend a few weeks refining goals.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford says there was a long thread on Reddit about what Arlington needs. She suggests that might be useful.

New Business

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker informs the committee that one person has expressed interest in replacing Mr. Roubenoff as chair. Anyone else who's interested should let her know

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber notes that the next scheduled meeting will fall on Thanksgiving day.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker will send a doodle poll to choose a different date.

=Open Forum}

There are no speakers for the open forum portion of the meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 19:11.