AMPUp Advisory Committee - Aug 28th, 2025

Meeting held via remote participation. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/37366/18?curm=8&cury=2025.

Review Minutes

The committee approved minutes from their July meeting.

Stantec Update

Survey Update

(Steve Kearney, Stantec) Mr. Kearney provides committee members with an update on the mini survey, which has gotten 266 responses to date. The survey provided a list of topics and asked people to pick the one that was most important to them. Housing and Local Businesses/Jobs were the top two categories, with 28% selecting housing and 29% selecting local businesses and jobs. Biking and walking received 10%, recreation received 2%, sustainability and climate received 12%, DEI received 0%, and 19% percent of responses fell into the "other" category.

There was variation when the results were broken down by age group. Housing and Local Businesses/Jobs were still the top priorities but different age groups prioritized them differently. Housing was the main concern for respondents aged 20--39. Local Businesses/Jobs where the top priority in the 40--59 and 60+ age groups (though the 60+ group prioritized housing more than the 40--59 group). Overall, respondents showed strong concern about housing.

When asked how they found out about the survey, 13% of respondents found out through committee members, 28% found out through word of mouth, and 27% found out through email.

(Paul Selker, AMPUp) Mr. Selker says that several people told him that they would have liked to rank the choices, rather than picking one.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says that's good feedback. Prioritization will become more important when we start working on strategies.

Visions and Goals

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney would like to continue workshopping the visions and goals section of the comprehensive plan. Stantec has made suggested revisions based on feedback submitted so far. They're trying to make the goals more succinct and action-oriented.

Relative to the 2015 Master Plan, Stantec suggests some minor changes to the Historic and Cultural Resources section, but not significant ones.

(Eugene Benson, AMPUp) Mr. Benson questions the removal of the word "diverse" from the phrase "diverse cultural resources".

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says the intent was to make that goal more terse and less wordy.

(Rebecca Gruber, AMPUp) Ms. Gruber says that "diverse" has several meanings, so there are a range of ways to interpret it.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson questions the omission of the word "diverse" with the larger attacks on DEI happening today.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber suggests looking for a different word, that better expresses the meaning the goal is intended to convey. She's not sure that "diverse" is the right one.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson asks about changing the phrase "meet, play, and grow" to "socialize".

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says this change was also based on public input. Residents of all ages wanted more spaces to socialize.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson is concerned about leaving out "play" when several Arlington playgrounds are being closed because they're unsafe. He doesn't think that "socialize" captures the need there.

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker suggests removing the words "to socialize".

(Tristan Roubenoff, AMPUp) Mr. Roubenoff suggests leaving in the word "diverse". He asks if there was feedback about not mentioning DEI.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says there haven't been a lot of comments about DEI, one way or the other. He'll check with his team to verify, though.

(Cheryl Miller, AMPUp) Ms. Miller asks about the phrase "of all ages". She says this doesn't address the myriad of ways in which people could be different.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says a good deal of public input has focused on having things available for younger kids.

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker thinks that goal makes sense in terms of public spaces, but isn't really related to historic and cultural resources.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber suggests removing "for all ages" and going into more detail in the chapter text. There's generally a dearth of meeting spaces for groups that want to organize -- spaces for community building. She's not sure what chapter that would fit into.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney suggests that meeting places might fall under public facilities.

Natural Resources and Open Space is the next area. Mr. Kearney has highlighted two areas for discussion. The first involves resilience, and the second involves "treasuring" parks and recreation facilities. He suggests changing "treasuring" to "improve".

(Lillian Hartman, AMPUp) Ms. Hartman thinks of two types of open spaces: parks and conservation lands. She asks about goals relating to conservation land.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff notes that the last point talks about adapting to meet changing needs. He thinks that's a good framing.

Public Facilities and Services are next.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney suggests removing two goals from the 2015 Master Plan: the one about balancing the need for revenue with new redevelopment (this would be more appropriate under fiscal stability), and the one about expanding recreational facilities (this would be more appropriate under Open Space and Recreation).

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber notes that the goal about capital planning essentially describes the town's current capital planning process.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney suggests it could be kept in as a reminder of a constant and ongoing process.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber says the town has a long list of capital needs. She asks if this that's something we need to continuously prioritize. The word "guide" may understate the issue.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says he wants to ensure the plan is ambitious, but also realistic and achievable.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says that overrides stress the need for more revenue. He suggests having something about looking for new revenue streams.

(Lillian Hartman) Ms. Hartman says the 2015 plan was very open-space heavy. She suggests dropping the first goal.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson asks if we're asking to do anything new for services, either something we don't do today, or something we don't do well.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says that specific strategies will focus on that.

Next Steps

(Steve Kearney) Stantec will attend our Town Day booth, though they're still working on the details. They may have a survey with a few simple questions, and something interactive. They'd like it to be fun, and to include something for kids. Stantec would like to have a few committee members who could help with 1--2 hour shifts.

In terms of the overall planning process, we are in the plan development stage. We should plan to hold focus groups in September and October. There was a Sustainability focus group in August which was well-attended and successful. There will be a strategy workshop sometime in November, in order to collect feedback on draft strategies for the plan.

Outreach Update

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says staff has been involved in setting up a number of meetings. She informs the committee that John Alessi will be moving on, and she'll handle items related to the transportation chapter. Ms. Suarez will share a document that lists events coming up over the next months, so committee members can sign up for them.

New Business

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says he'll be resigning as chair and leaving the committee. He bought a house outside of Arlington and will be moving in October.

Open Forum

There are no speakers for tonight's open forum.

Meeting adjourned at 7:06 pm.