Precinct 1, 3, 7 Meeting - Nov 24th, 2025

Meeting held via remote participation. The event was organized and facilitated by Vince Baudoin of precinct 1.

Introductions

(Vince Baudoin) Mr. Baudoin takes suggestions for agenda items.

(Len Diggins, formerly of Precinct 3) Mr. Diggins says he recently resigned from the Select Board and moved to Somerville. He still feels very connected to Arlington and would like to expand on the connections he built while living here.

(Betty Stone, Precinct 7) Ms. Stone thinks it might be useful to have an office hours plan, to extend the idea of precinct meetings.

126 Broadway

126 Broadway is a mixed-use building proposed for the Mass Ave/Broadway multi-family district. It's currently undergoing site plan review by the Arlington Redevelopment Board.

(Ellen Aamodt, Precinct 7) Ms. Aamodt says the building is out and out ugly. Precinct 7 has tastefully done buildings but this one has no redeeming features.

(Asia Kepka, Precinct 1) Ms. Kepka considers Arlington's streets to be unsafe. Her friend was hit by a car. She says that 126 Broadway is close to a high traffic area and will have so many people. There will be a lot of deliveries. She thinks this is a really dangerous location with limited parking. She would like to see a three or four- story building, and thinks the proposed five-story building is unhealthy.

(Samia Hensi, Precinct 1) Ms. Hensi asks what the issue with 126 Broadway is.

(Vince Baudoin, Precinct 1) Mr. Baudoin invites Steve Revilak to describe the project, since he's on the Arlington Redevelopment Board.

(Steve Revilak, Precinct 1) Mr. Revilak says that 126 Broadway is currently undergoing hearings with the Arlington Redevelopment Board. He can speak as an individual board member, but he cannot speak for the board as a whole. 126 Broadway is in the Mass Ave/Broadway multifamily district, and the applicant has proposed a five story building with fourteen apartments. They are requesting the mixed use bonus for providing 1400 square feet of commercial space, and the affordable housing bonus for providing 50% more affordable units than otherwise required.

(Laurel) Laurel asks if the applicant is trying to bend the rules.

(Jen Litowski, Precinct 3) Ms. Litowski actively advocates for street safety on Broadway. The biggest issue is through traffic, both from other communities and other parts of Arlington. She'd like to have daylighting at intersections. This project isn't responsible for the kind of traffic we see on Broadway. Staffing and budget are the main things slowing down Arlington's efforts to improve street safety. She says we need staffing to do this. Ms. Litowski asks about the rules for overlay districts and base zoning apply, and how affordable housing works.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak says the multi-family overlay district, which is Section 5.8 of the zoning code explains how it interacts with base zoning. The affordable housing aspects are covered in 5.8.4.G.

(Adam Lane, Precinct 3) Mr. Lane thinks that 126 Broadway is the wrong building for the site. He says that 80 Broadway was thoughtful and sensitive, but this building is less so. The ARB has done work to improve the design, but he thinks it's still a story too big. He asks if the ARB will allow the bonus provisions. He's concerned that we could end up with an ill-conceived building.

(Joanne Cullinane, Precinct 21) Ms. Cullinane thinks the building doesn't hit the percentages for the bonus requirements. She says there was a process to create the zoning language, the developer had to choose one set of rules, and they made a choice. She focuses on the words "at least" in 5.8.4.E.2 and doesn't believe the rounding rules in 8.2.3.A should apply. She thinks the applicant needs to provide four affordable dwellings, and not three, in order to get the bonus. She thinks the bylaw language is straightforward, but understands that there can be disagreements.

(Charles Hartshorne, Precinct 1) Mr. Hartshorne posts a link to the building plans.

(Larry Slotnick, Precinct 7) Mr. Slotnick thinks the proposed project is disrespectful to the neighborhood. He thinks the building is very boxy, and if the ARB allows the developers to pick and choose, then we're not doing right by the town. This particular parcel on the block is not suitable for development of this nature. Mr. Slotnick doesn't see this part of Broadway turning in to a commercial center, and he doesn't think commercial spaces benefit the town.

(Joseph Pinicaro) Mr. Pinicaro doesn't think the 126 Broadway proposal meets the letter of the law. He thinks the bylaw could be interpreted in such a way that the bonus is not allowed.

(Claire Odom, Precinct 7) Ms. Odom asks what we can do about this. The next hearing date for 126 Broadway is Jan 12th, and she encourages people to attend, write letters, and voice their concerns. She's also concerned that there were only twelve minutes for public comment at the last meeting. She thinks developers must obey laws and consider neighbors. She thinks the proposed building is very destructive.

(Jeremiah Van Buren) Mr. Van Buren thinks there's an alternative to the disagreement about rounding. The developer could simply leave the building the same size, but include one fewer unit. He says that might not be the desired result.

(Alexandra Lee) Ms. Lee says aesthetics are very important and the building is too big for the lot. There's no context and no vision for Broadway. She says this is an unsafe corner, and thinks there will be issues with kids walking to school.

Crosby Park

(Adam Lane) Mr. Lane is concerned about the resurfacing of the tennis courts in Crosby Park. The courts are in poor condition, and the Parks and Recreation department requested Community Preservation Act funds to have them resurfaced. He says this will be an economically heavy lift. It will take $1.1 million to resurface the courts. There's a total of $8.5 million in CPA funds this year, but only $2.5 million of that is available to open space and recreation. Mr. Lane wants the courts to be resurfaced, and the Community Preservation Act Committee will need to know there's support for doing so. The next Parks and Recreation committee meeting is Tuesday December 9th. If the surface isn't repaired soon, Parks and Rec say that they may need to shut the court down.

(Joe Pinicaro) Mr. Pinicaro says he's writing a document to send to the Parks and Rec Commission.

East Arlington Environmental Issues

(Asia Kepka) Ms. Kepka is concerned about trees, trash, and invasive plants. She says there's a lot of development in Arlington and she's concerned about the number of mature trees being cut down. East Arlington is a heat island. We should try to protect trees rather than planting them and letting them die. There are no benches to sit on during the summertime. The tree canopy will help economic development. She hopes we can have a serious plan to create more trees and shade.

(Charles Hartshorne) Mr. Hartshorne says the MWRA wants to loosen combined sewer overflow discharge limits, but is getting push-back. He says the town has a program where they'll plant trees in people's yards, which is better than planting along the sidewalk.

(Jen Litowski) Ms. Litowski would like to see bump outs to give trees more room and to calm traffic.

(Asia Kepka) Ms. Kepka says that some developers are not willing to save trees, like along Mill Brook. There's limited green space in East Arlington. Lots of street trees on Mass Ave and Broadway are not next to homes and are not watered. Tree maintenance can't be a hobby.

(Susan Stamps, Precinct 3) Ms. Stamps says the tree committee knows about every project in town and the Tree Warden provides updates on projects that require tree plans. The Tree Committee is frustrated on a number of fronts. The Tree Department doesn't have enough money to plant all the trees they want and the town only has the capacity to water one-third of the trees that need to be watered. In many municipalities, tree planting is done by the Planning Department rather than the DPW. Somerville has an urban forest planner, but public works does that job in Arlington. Ms. Stamps says that a planting option was taken out of the tree protection bylaw; she'd like to see it put back, along with a three-year maintenance plan.

(Jo Anne Preston, Precinct 5) Ms. Preston wants to support street trees because they can sequester carbon emitted by automobiles. She thinks we should ADA-compliant tree grates.

(Susan Stamps) Ms. Stamps says that DPW is starting to use tree grates, but they're very expensive.

Upcoming Override

(Rebecca Younkin, Precinct 7) Ms. Younkin is a member of the finance committee. Once the Select Board approves putting the override on the ballot, the Town Manager's office will prepare two budgets -- one if the override passes and one if the override fails. People can see what will need to be cut by comparing the two budgets.

(Greg Dennis, Precinct 1) Mr. Dennis says the town election will be held on March 28, and the override may be done on town election day. Two seats on the Select Board will be up for election, along with three seats on the School Committee, and a one-year school committee term to fill Jane Morgan's seat. Unlike town meeting, where there's one race for all open positions, School Committee will have different races for different term lengths.

Block Parties

(Vince Baudoin) Mr. Baudoin says we've had a couple of good block parties on Silk Street. He encourages others to hold them.

(Susan Stamps) Ms. Stamps says that a block party on Grafton Street would require the entire street to be blocked off. The police departments wants 90% of abutters to agree before they'll do that.

(Vince Baudoin) Mr. Baudoin thinks it's 80% rather than 90%, but that decision can be appealed to the Select Board. For Silk St. block parties, we only closed off one small block.

(Susan Stamps) Ms. Stamps says the tree committee is considering tree bylaw amendments for the next town meeting.

Meeting adjourned.