AMPUp Advisory Committee - May 22nd, 2025

Meeting held via remote participation. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/36852/18.

Review Meeting Minutes

The committee approved minutes from their March 2025 meeting.

Mr. Benson would like to revise a portion of the minutes from April 2025; those minutes will be reviewed at the next meeting.

Stantec Update

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker says she's received meeting in a box materials from Stantec, and will forward them to committee members.

(Steve Kearney, Stantec) Mr. Kearney admires the committee's dedication to community engagement. He feels we've done more so far than other communities typically do throughout the entire process. He encourages committee members to keep good records so we can accurately summarize the level of participation.

The project website has gotten over 3000 visits from 2000 unique visitors. May 15 and May 16 were the biggest days for survey responses. There have been numerous map pins, and reactions to pins on the map. 42% of survey responses are from people aged 39 and under, so we are hearing from a younger audience.

Stantec is making progress on the existing conditions analysis, and the economic development portion should be ready next week.

(Paul Selker, AMPUp) Mr. Selker says there are two different websites for the comprehensive plan: one that Stantec set up, and this committee's page on the town website. He asks if copies of committee minutes should be posted to Stantec's site.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker thinks we could include the meeting schedule, and links to the town website.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says we've gotten 456 completed surveys and 807 total contributions from 482 contributors.

(Tristan Roubenoff, AMPUp Chair) Mr. Roubenoff asks when we'll get chapter-specific questionnaires, as we'll be starting chapter outreach meetings soon. People have asked him how long the survey will be up. He thinks it would be useful for the survey page to provide a closing date.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney will discuss this with Ms. Ricker. We plan to do additional surveys as we go through the existing conditions analysis.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff thinks there's been an organic push to use the existing survey to provide feedback on economic development.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that economic development and housing have been hot topics lately, especially at town meeting.

(Arthur Prokosch, AMPUp) Mr. Prokosch asks if the additional surveys will be different than the meeting in a box materials.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says they will be different. The meeting in a box is largely a mechanism for reaching out to additional groups. The meeting in a box questions are conversation starters.

Outreach Update and Management

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says we had a few people table at EcoFest and attend True Story Theater's performance at Drake Village. The True Story folks wanted to see community building emphasized as part of the comprehensive plan. Their performance was moving, and they're interested in having us come back. Ms. Hartman and Ms. Ricker are discussing times to meet.

(Rachel Dunham, AMPUp) Ms. Dunham asks how we should tell committee members about groups we'd like to reach out to.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says committee members can contact him, or Ms. Ricker.

(Rebecca Gruber, AMPUp) Ms. Gruber says the Affordable Housing Trust Fund participated in PorchFest last year. They walked around to different performances and handed out materials.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that outreach postcards should be ready by the end of next week.

(Cheryl Miller, AMPUp) Ms. Miller would like a clearer picture of how to pass along feedback from outreach events.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says he spoke at the beginning and end of the Drake Village performance, and provided information about the survey. Several people asked us to come back.

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller asks how we'll get feedback to Stantec.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says the meeting in a box materials have a sheet for writing down qualitative feedback. Make notes of peoples responses, and return those to Stantec.

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker thinks the existing survey could be printed out, and filled in by hand.

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller wants to make sure we have ways to collect feedback that isn't represented by survey questions.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber asked what True Story Theater viewed as community building.

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch talked with the troop leaders. They meant building connections and community resilience. They felt such efforts were important to plan for, and to devote resources to.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff also spoke with the troop leaders. He felt they gave us some room for interpretation on what community building meant.

(Ann LeRoyer, AMPUp) Ms. LeRoyer thinks this is something that could be tied to general theater and arts outreach.

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch appreciated their request to focus on the human aspects of receiving input. He asks how we're collecting different types of information. Do we have a spreadsheet or specific format.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker feels like we need something to add events to.

(Steve Revilak, AMPUp) Mr. Revilak says the most important thing is to make sure that feedback is written down. This could be in a spreadsheet, or in a document. Having it written down matters more than the specific format.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff knows there's a town email address for the comprehensive planning effort. We wonders if that would be an appropriate place for taking long-form feedback.

(Angelique Bradford, AMPUp) Ms. Bradford wonders if the Stantec site could have a generic comment form

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller thinks that could be nice.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says the survey is similar to the questions asked at the first outreach meeting. We were originally going to close the survey in late April, but left it open in order to solicit feedback from Town Meeting Members. The current cut-off date is June 8th. She likes the idea of a comment form, so the website always has a way to capture engagement.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford says the committee has had good ideas that float but never land. She offers to keep a running list of outreach ideas, so we have them in a central place. We'll want to keep records of what events we attended, their dates, what groups were involved, and how many people attended.

(Rachel Dunham) Ms. Dunham likes the idea of having a list, and a point person to stay on top of it.

(Rebecca Gruber) Mr. Gruber would like the list to be something everyone can see.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford asks if we can have an agenda item at each meeting for outreach calendar updates, even if it's just a few minutes.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff asks if we'd document which communities we're trying to have events in.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford answers in the affirmative.

The Committee has been in need of a second chair. Arthur Prokosch is nominated to serve as Co-chair. Mr. Prokosch accepts the nomination, which is unanimously approved.

Planning Topic Sub-groups

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker will provide the subgroups with lists of boards and committees that they might wish to speak too. These lists can serve as starting points for sub-group outreach.

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller asks if the sub-groups will be aligned with chapters, and could they have input on potential survey questions.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker thinks that could be a question for Stantec. The meeting in a box questions are rather generic, and topic surveys are further down the road. She'd start by talking to boards and committees, and then moving on to surveys.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff isn't sure how to integrate the cross-cutting concerns into all of the topic areas.

(Eugene Benson, AMPUp) Mr. Benson thinks that land use and zoning should be one of the last topic areas addressed, so that other topics can influence it.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker suggests interviewing that Arlington Redevelopment Board and Zoning Board of Appeals for land use and zoning. She expects the writing of that chapter to be influenced by others.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff thinks that housing, transportation, and economic development are all likely to influence land use and zoning. Perhaps land use and zoning is a cross-cutting concern.

(Ann LeRoyer) Ms. LeRoyer thinks that land use and zoning could be combined and introduced at the start of the plan. This will be easier to gauge once we see something tangible.

Youth Sub-committee

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak asks if the Arlington Youth Collaborative would be an appropriate group to reach out to.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says the Arlington Youth Collaborative has been meeting for ten months, and participation has ebbed and flowed. That group could be a starting point.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker would like to say a few words about sub-groups and notice requirements. Several of the sub-groups are small, and there's no risk of reaching quorum. She's going to discuss how to approach this with the legal department.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says there's a Resilience Fest happening at the Arlington Reservoir on May 31st. It would be good for the open space and recreation sub-group to attend this event.

New Business

There is no new business this evening.

Open Forum

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

Adjourn

(Arthur Prokosch) Mr. Prokosch would like to review work items that we've mentioned tonight.

• Mr. Revilak, Mr. Benson, and Ms. Ricker will work on minutes.
• Stantec will provide clarification regarding the difference between survey responses and website inputs. They'll also add the survey closing date to the website.
• Ms. Bradford will start to create a centralized list of outreach events.
• Ms. Ricker will speak with Town Counsel, regarding notice requirements for sub-group meetings.

Meeting adjourned at 19:15.