AMPUp Advisory Committee - Jun 26th, 2025

Meeting held via remote participation. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/37127/18.

Stantec Update

Summary of Community Input

(Phil Schaeffing, Stantec) Mr. Schaeffing recounts that we held a project kickoff meeting in April. 112 people signed in to the event and there was good geographic turnout throughout the community. The project website opened around the same time, with a survey and an interactive map. Over 125 people have left comments on the map, and there've been 1700 votes in response to the comments.

One of the outreach questions asked residents to write a headline about Arlington in the future; the purpose of the question was to get a high level feel of where Arlington is today and where people would like to see it in ten years. The responses emphasized sustainability, inclusive housing, transportation (with an emphasis on safety and multi-modal transportation), economic vitality, strengthening the three commercial districts, and broader ideas about quality of life, equity and inclusiveness. The range of answers will mean looking at how these things connect, and how to balance priorities.

People have named public spaces and parks, business districts, the library, and civic institutions as important places in Arlington. For areas to improve, people named the business centers, underutilized properties, and many specific roads and intersections. Many of the interactive map comments focused on transportation, whereas the in-person meeting covered a broader range of topics.

People felt that economic development, open space and recreation, transportation, and housing were the most important topics for Arlington's future. These four topics ranked similarly.

Committee Activities

(Steve Kearney, Stantec) Mr. Kearney says that Arlington has far exceeded what other communities do in terms of public engagement.

A comprehensive plan provides overall long-range policy directions to a community. Not every detail goes in to the plan, but it provides direction.

The meeting in a box is an outreach tool that will help us determine what residents and community groups feel is important, and what issues to focus on during the next ten years. Stantec would also like to identify tensions that will need to be resolved. Mr. Kearney says that hearing from town boards and committees is valuable, and that listening is important.

Stantec has created a web site for electronically submitting meeting in a box materials: url{https://tinyurl.com/AmpUp-MIAB}. There's a new version of the meeting in a box which includes the submission URL.

Mr. Kearney suggests having shorter conversations at live tabling events. He suggests "What do you think Arlington needs most over the next ten years?", and perhaps one or two other questions. He asks committee members for feedback on this suggestion.

(Steve Revilak, AMPUp) Mr. Revilak thinks that's a good suggestion. In an earlier meeting, we discussed tradeoffs of depth vs breadth. Mr. Revilak thinks the meeting in box materials are a good way to go into depth, while shorter interactions at tabling events are good for breadth.

(Eugene Benson, AMPUp) Mr. Benson says there's nothing in the meeting in a box materials that talks about equity. He'd like to see equity addressed in the comprehensive plan, along with an outreach question that speaks to it.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the meeting in a box materials have a page for open-ended notes, and additional comments could be incorporated there.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson would like to know if people think that Arlington is falling short now, and if so, how it should change. Or something along those lines. He thinks that equity is not a separate concept, but should be incorporated into all areas affecting the plan.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney agrees that visions and goals need to reflect what's coming from the community. He thinks the vision statement from the 2015 Master Plan can serve as a starting point. He suggests starting with the top elements that have come from the community in visioning surveys: housing for all, thriving neighborhood centers, and a strong sense of community. These could be augmented with a few more sentences. He asks committee members for feedback on this suggestion.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak would prefer a vision statement that provides direction, and he's in favor of stating a direction that came from public input.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says the 2015 Master Plan had a lot of goals. Having too many goals can make it difficult for a plan to be actionable. He's appreciate hearing what is important, what can be combined, and what might not be relevant. This feedback will help Stantec develop an action-oriented Comprehensive Plan.

Existing Conditions

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that Stantec has reviewed town plan and talked with many members of town staff. Ninigret Partners is talking with business owners and the Chamber of Commerce. Arlington's population has been growing, though the Donahue Institute anticipates that rate of growth will slow.

Four percent of Arlington's land is zoned for commercial use (the B1--B5 districts) and two percent is zoned for industrial (the I district). From a map perspective, Arlington doesn't have a lot of land allocated to commercial activities.

The number of housing units permitted in Arlington has been trending down over the last ten years. 86% of new permitted units were in buildings with two or more dwellings.

(Grant Cook, AMPUp) Mr. Cook asks if this includes building replacements, which could indicate turnover rather than housing growth.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing answers in the affirmative.

Health Care and Social Services are Arlington's largest employers, making up 21% of jobs in the town. Arlington has many consumer establishments, where consumer spending is often driven by their experience with the business.

Arlington has limited physical space for business growth, and there's been a large change in the number of employees working from home. This affects commuting patterns, and patronage to businesses around town.

Approximately half of Arlington's open space is owned by the town, and three-quarters of the open space is permanently protected. The renovated Robbins Park Playground was the town's first universal design playground.

(Rachel Dunham, AMPUp) Ms. Dunham asks for clarification on what "limited space available" means for economic development.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the amount of physical land zoned for business and industrial uses is small. There are vacant spaces available, but there are real challenges in upgrading them. Spaces for larger businesses -- medium-sized office buildings, for example -- are in particularly short supply.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cooks says there are only a few large parcels in town, like the Mirak car dealership, and Arlington Coal and Lumber. He asks were Arlington could have a large office building.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson says this is another key challenge; we don't have space along the main road corridors.

Mr. Benson would like to go back to open space and recreation. He wonders if the town's existing spaces meet the needs of the community when it comes to equity. There aren't facilities available for some sports, like cricket. He asks if we're missing part of the population, and how we can go about finding them.

(Katie Noyes, Public attendee) Ms. Noyes asks who determines who fills an opening in a store front. She thinks that some businesses don't add much to communities, like the roofer and insurance company in Arlington Heights.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says this is an example of what the town controls, and what the town can encourage. Landlords have the ability to choose their tenants, or they can choose to leave their spaces vacant. Housing is another example: the town can create opportunities for more housing to be built, but the town doesn't build housing itself.

Mr. Schaeffing says we'll finish community visioning over the coming months, and move into plan development during the fall. The goal is to bring a draft plan to town meeting for adoption in the spring.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cook notes that Arlington's town meetings start in late April, and people will need time to read the new plan.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson says the Redevelopment Board will need to adopt the plan before it can go to town meeting.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the next steps are to continue looking at public feedback, revising visions and goals, and exploring topics in more detail.

Outreach Update

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker understands a few members of the outreach committee met with members of the tree committee. She asks how that went.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak says the meeting took place on Monday night. The members of the tree committee wanted to understand what's involved in a master plan, what the timeline and general process is, and how to participate. We provided them with a copy of the meeting in a box materials, and encouraged them to hold a meeting with tree committee members.

(Cheryl Miller, AMPUp) Ms. Miller asks if we have a way to track who we've met with?

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that Angelique Bradford had offered to maintain a spreadsheet of outreach efforts. The outreach committee still meets, in between our monthly full committee meetings.

(Arthur Prokosch, AMPUp) Mr. Prokosch says the outreach committee meetings have evolved into the monthly hybrid meetings.

(Ann LeRoyer) Ms. LeRoyer says Ms. Bradford offered to set up a spreadsheet for outreach efforts. She wasn't able to go to the tree committee meeting, but did speak with one of their members. They talked about having a large meeting with open-space related groups.

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller asks if there will be minutes from the hybrid meeting.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says yes, but she's fallen behind in getting them distributed for review.

Topic Groups Update

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that Tristan Roubenoff has been organizing topic group meetings. She understands that the housing and transportation groups have met.

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller says she was interested in being on the equity group, but hasn't heard anything about a meeting.

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch believes that Ms. Miller was the only one who expressed interest in that group, and it's possible that no meeting was organized.

Meeting adjourned.