Arlington Redevelopment Board Retreat - Oct 19, 2025
Planning Director Claire Ricker notes that town meeting has passed over 50 zoning articles in the last 10 years. She provides an overview of things that the board and her department have worked on during the last year, including:
- The Arlington Heights Business District
- The Comprehensive Plan update, which has involved several meetings per month.
- a $1M dollar grant for a reconfiguration of Broadway as a complete street.
- The Mystic-Minuteman Bikeway connector
- Safety improvements to Mass Ave and Appleton St. The town has received $4M in grants for this work and is applying for another $4M.
- Safety improvements to Park Ave
- The Acquisition of 840--846 Mass Ave, which involved an ARPA grant and an MBTA Community Catalyst Grant
- HCA's property at 10 Sunnyside Ave is moving forward
- Arlington's designation as a housing choice community
- The Arlington 250 celebration
- Flooding prevention projects at McClennan Park and Mill Brook
- Work on a zoning amendment for cool surfaces
Community development block grants have come through this year, but this may be the last year for the program. CDBG funds provide 1/4 of the planning department budget. They also fund several positions at the Senior Center and the Council on Aging's transportation program.
The Archdiocese of Boston has put out an RFP for their Poet's corner property. This may become a 40B project or an assisted living facility, due to zoning limitations on the site.
The town is considering disposing of some of the small properties that it owns -- 1,000 square feet or less. These would be sold to private property owners, subject to Town Meeting approval.
Ms. Ricker will request an enforcement position in next year's budget. The resource will be shared with Inspectional services.
Staff are planning to expand the use of workflows in OpenGov. The goal is to make OpenGov a centralized platform for all town permitting.
The board and staff discuss whether it's possible to grant dimensional relief under site plan review -- setbacks for example. The consensus is that dimensional relief is not an option, unless it's explicitly mentioned in the zoning bylaw.
Planning staff are about to start first round interviews for the Transportation Planner position. Ten candidates have applied.
Phil Eng met with town staff to discuss the Alewife Garage redevelopment. The discussion also covered cuts in bus service to Arlington, and Mr. Eng was open to addressing that.
The board and staff discuss potential warrant articles for the spring town meeting. These may include
- 9 articles proposed by the ZBA
- A request for study funds, to continue work on the Arlington Heights Business District.
- Changes to regulations for Home Occupation
- Removing the Certified mail requirement for map changes
- Four articles to update and clarify the MBTA Community Multifamily district rules. These are mostly clarifications.
- Three articles suggested by Mr. Benson. These are mostly clarifications to the bylaw.
- Two articles from the town's environmental planner. One of these will update the Floodplain Overlay district for new FEMA requirements.
The Arlington Heights Business District won't be ready for the spring town meeting, but it could potentially be done in the fall. Belmont is undertaking a similar effort for Belmont Center and some elements of their process are worth considering. Belmont also produced a comparable communities document that could be useful for us. Staff recommends taking a broader view of the heights, including things like traffic calming, and placemaking.
Capitol Square rezoning will be deferred.
Staff and the Board discuss urban renewal projects. We could do a single-property urban renewal project at 366 Mass Ave, or we could do a larger plan that covers a wider areas. A larger plan would require funding.
111 Broadway (aka Arlington Automatic Transmission) will be demolished by the end of the year.
Zoning codes for Brookline and Newton have sections that address abandoned properties. These are worth looking at.