Arlington Heights Business District - Nov 5, 2025

Presentation given at the Peirce school cafeteria. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/37515/.

Economic Development Coordinator Katie Luczai provides an update on planning efforts for the Arlington Heights Business District.

Right now, we're talking about the future of Arlington Heights at a 10,000 foot view. We presented these ideas last year, based on work done in 2019. People felt those ideas seemed dated and we've been working on an update.

What is the Arlington Height's Business district? This is a new proposal for a zoning district, which would replace the mish-mash of districts in the Heights. We want to make it easier for businesses to open while being mindful of conditions that are unique to the Heights.

Ms. Luczai summarizes a timeline of work done.

• In 2009 Arlington hired a consultant to look at revitalization of Arlington's commercial districts.
• In 2015, Arlington adopted it's first comprehensive plan.
• In 2018, the Arlington Heights Neighborhood Action Plan Committee was formed, based on recommendations in the 2015 Comprehensive Plan.
• In 2019, the initial Arlington Heights Neighborhood Action Plan was published.
• The effort was put on the back burner in 2020, due to the pandemic.
• Re-engagement on the Arlington Heights Business District restarted in 2024.
• In 2025 we conducted a new survey, which had 1,200 responses. The committee was re-engaged, and they've worked on creating a vision statement and an initial area for the district.

Future work will include impact studies, fiscal analysis, and then actual zoning recommendations.

Arlington Heights was identified as an area for expanding businesses, housing, and mixed-use development. Other recommendations involved working with the MBTA to activate the bus depot and developing design guidelines.

The complexity of the zoning map in Arlington Heights creates a barrier to someone who wants to start a business here, but doesn't know how to navigate our zoning bylaw.

Town-wide goals also played a part in this process. We wanted to lower barriers to entry for new businesses. From the current Comprehensive Planning process, we heard that economic development was a top priority for residents. We want to enhance pedestrian safety and look for areas for economic growth.

Belmont is trying to do a similar thing for Belmont Center. Their fiscal analysis projects an additional $3M/year in tax revenue for a full build-out. Newton has done similar planning efforts in their villages.

1,239 people responded to the Arlington Heights survey. 70% of the respondents live or work in the heights.

Things that people liked: having a strong sense of community, 15-minute neighborhoods, the variety of small businesses in the heights, the feeling that it's a quaint neighborhood, and the proximity to bus stops.

Things that people felt needed improvement: expanding local businesses, walkability and traffic calming, and having gathering spaces.

Things that people felt were critical issues: safety, parking, vacant storefronts, the dated/stale feel of the area, a focus on creating foot traffic, and the lack of night life.

The committee's vision statement incorporated elements like: maintaining a sense of community, expanding the strengths of the Heights, making the area more of a destination, and having a more cohesive architectural style.

There are 4,262 bedrooms within a five-minute walk of Arlington Heights, and 9,858 bedrooms within a ten-minute walk.

The current proposal has the Arlington Heights business district stretching from the Foot of the Rocks to the Lexington Line. How far north and south of Mass Ave the district extends is still an open question.

From here, the meeting breaks out into table discussions. My table focused on the question of "what would you like to see in Arlington Heights". Our answers included:

• Parklets
• Traffic calming
• walkability, which would including replacing the brick sidewalks with something else (they're a tripping hazard), and widening the sidewalks.
• Making it easy for good businesses to be here
• Filling the vacant storefronts
• Having better connectivity between the Heights and the Minuteman Bikeway.