Precinct 4, 5, 6 Meeting - Apr 17th, 2025

Meeting held via remote participation.

Comprehensive Plan Update

Angelique Bradford says the Comprehensive plan is a public process to update the vision for Arlington. The updated plan will serve as a guide for the town over the next 10 years. She encourages people to fill out the survey on the project's website, and add points to the map. She says there will be additional participation options in coming months. The project website is \url{https://engagestantec.com/Arlington-comp-plan}.

Article 43 - Public Shade Trees

Susan Stamps presents her article on public shade trees. She's part of Green Streets Arlington, a group that formed several years ago to advocate for trees and green spaces. This article would amend the shade tree section of the zoning bylaw, which requires developers to plan public shade trees. The ARB voted to support it, 4--1. Her hope is to address heat islands.

The shade tree bylaw applies to new construction and redevelopment throughout town. Her article would have the tree warden approve the trees for each project. It would require a 2" caliper rather than an 10' height, and would change maintenance standards to the USDA Forest Service Owners Manual. Owners would be responsible for maintaining the shade tree for three years.

There's a question about drawbacks.

Ms. Stamps doesn't think there are drawbacks. She says there will be more work for developers, since they'll have to construct tree wells and plan street trees.

Someone asks if homeowners will be responsible for maintaining the trees.

Ms. Stamps says that owners are responsible for maintaining the trees.

Article 40: Allowing Two-family homes in R0, R1

Dave Levy presents his warrant article, to allow two-family homes in districts that are currently restricted to single-family only.

Mr. Levy has been an Arlington resident since 2015 and he lives in an R1 (single-family) zone. His article would allow two-family homes in the R1 and R0 districts, which are restricted to single-family only. New two-family homes would have to follow the exact same dimensional regulations as new single-family houses.

Mr. Levy says he voted against this proposal when it was before town meeting in 2021. He was concerned about schools, growth, and ADUs. Today, the only kind of new single-family homes being built are around 4000 square feet, and sell for two million dollars. That's our policy, and it keeps people out. He changed his opinion during debates on the MBTA Communities zoning. There was a high school student who asked "where am I supposed to live". Allowing more two-family homes in part of the toolkit to making housing more affordable.

Mr. Levy says he's heard concerns about two-family homes and ADUs. He challenges attendees to take a 6000 square foot lot and map out a two family home plus two ADUs while staying within the 35\% lot coverage limit. Arlington hasn't permitted many ADUs, and growth is slow. Around 20 single-family homes are rebuilt each year in Arlington, so there won't be a huge change overnight. He says the changes under the MBTA Communities act have also been slow, and he asks attendees to give serious consideration to his proposal.

Tom Bordman says he lives one street away from Mass Ave, and someone is building a four-family under the MBTA Communities act. He's concerned that Arlington will look like Somerville.

Mr. Levy says that's a multi-family district, and not a single-family district.

JoAnne Preston lives in a two-family district. She says there are one-family homes being turned into two-family homes, and that each of the new two-family homes is more expensive than the old one family

Mr. Levy says the current median selling price of a single-family home in Arlington is \$1.1M, and yeah that stinks. New single-family homes cost more than \$2M, so why can't we cut them in half? He says a no vote on this article is a vote in favor of the status quo, which is new \$2M single-family homes.

Article 36 - No Net Loss of Commercial Space

Kristin Anderson presents her warrant article. She runs a business in the heights and says there's not enough space for local businesses in town. It took four years for Arlington Brewing Company to find a space. She says that Arlington needs more space for businesses.

Ms. Anderson's slides are not working, and she ends her presentation.

Article 38 - Use Regulations in Residential Districts

Andy Greenspon presents his warrant article, which would allow a few select types of businesses in residential districts. He's added a definition of Neighborhood Artistic Production, which contains the less intensive uses allowed by Artistic Production.

Mr. Greenspon goes through the list of uses he's proposing to allow. Things like corner stores and offices would be allowed in the R3 (three-family) through R7 (high density apartment) districts. There wouldn't be any changes to dimensional regulations like height and setbacks.

There's very little vacant commercial space in Arlington. In December of 2024, the town's vacant storefront registry listed eight vacant business parcels. R3--R7 are mostly located near arterial streets, and close to existing business districts.

Mr. Greenspon spoke with the town's economic development coordinator, who says there are lots of home occupations in town. There's less financial risk in starting a business from home. Arlington already has business and residential districts mixed together, due to the mish-mash of our zoning map.

Andrew Fischer would be more sympathetic if he knew where the R3--R7 districts were. He hopes Mr. Greenspon is willing to campaign to support the town's overnight parking ban.

Mr. Greenspon says he'll have a map to show town meeting. Most of the R3--R7 parcels are located around the town's arterial streets, like Mass Ave and Broadway. He doesn't understand Mr. Fischer's reference to parking.

Andrew Fischer says he's talking about people parking overnight on the streets. He says the streets will eventually be full, like Somerville.

Anna Henkin has a question about the ARB's report on Article 38. It expressed concern over things like waste water and infrastructure. She asks how that will be addressed.

Mr. Greenspon says those concerns were related to restaurants and catering, and he's taken those uses out. He says that business licenses are governed by other laws, so not everything is done through zoning.

Select Redevelopment Board Articles

Mr. Revilak is a member of the Redevelopment Board, and he'd like to provide an overview of the more substantive ARB articles.

Article 25 - Accessory Dwelling Units

Arlington Adopted an ADU bylaw in 2021, that allowed ADU's by right in conjunction with single- and two-family dwellings, in any business or residential district. Last year, the legislature passed the affordable homes act, which requires cities and towns to allow ADUs in any district where single family homes are allowed.

There are places where Arlington's ADU bylaw conflicts to the new state law and regulations; Article 25 will bring our ADU bylaw into compliance. One of the main changes is the elimination of the owner occupancy requirement, when the ADU is built.

Article 26 - Transportation Demand Management

The Zoning bylaw has a set of minimum parking requirements for various uses. Applicants can request an reduction in these minimums (i.e., provide less parking) by providing a Transportation Demand Management plan. It's essentially a set of measures to reduce dependency on private cars.

While we were working on the multifamily districts to comply with the MBTA Communities act, the ARB recognized that the set of TDM strategies listed in the bylaw weren't a good fit for purely residential uses, like multi-family housing. They were also challenging for smaller developments. Article 26 adds TDM measures: e-bike charging, and proximity to a frequent bus line. For practical purposes, "frequent bus line" is the 77. Smaller projects (less than 10 dwellings and less than 3000 square feet) would be required to provide two items, rather than three.

Article 27 - Delete Inland Wetland Overlay

This change to the zoning bylaw was recommended by town staff and the Conservation Commission. The ZBL has a wetlands protection provision that pre-dates the State's wetland protection act. It's outdated and difficult to enforce. For example, the Inland Wetland overlay relies on a high water table map, and there is no such map. We're proposing to remove this section to clarify that wetlands are protected by state and local wetland protection laws, which are administered by the conservation commission.

Pat Hanlon asks why this shouldn't be left as a belt and suspenders measure. And, what happened to the affordable housing overlay articles?

Mr. Revilak doesn't think the inland wetland district provides anything in the way of belt and suspenders. It's an overlay district, but there's no map of the overlay. It's partially defined by areas of the zoning map denoted as having a high water table, but the map doesn't denote any such areas. It tries to define wetlands in terms of elevation, which isn't how wetlands are defined. In the worst case, it's conceivable that someone could use the IWD to appeal a decision of the Conservation Commission, arguing that the zoning requirements took precedence.

As for the affordable housing overlay articles, both articles would establish overlay districts, which are map changes. Our bylaw requires petitioners for map changes to send certified or registered letters to all affected property owners and abutters, and neither petitioner met that technical requirement.

Article 29 - Parking in Residential Districts

This is a rewrite to section 6.1.10 of the bylaw. It specifies where parking in residential districts is allowed, and also covers second driveways. The rewrite is largely focused on clarification and improving readability. It does two additional things: provides more detail on when a second driveway is allowed, and (2) provides more detail about the vegetated buffer that has to exist alongside a driveway.

Article 32 - Rezone B1 parcels

This article proposes to change B1 parcels to B2A. Each of these is a business district, so why change? B1 is much more restrictive, both in terms of the size of buildings that can be built, and what kind of businesses that can occupy the parcels. Since Arlington has a very limited amount of land that's zoned for business, this is really an effort to put what we have to better use. Article 32 should facilitate more investment, allow more types of businesses in more places, and probably add some residential units.

Article 76 - Development of the Fox Branch Library

Alham Sadaat presents article 76, which would affirm the town's commitment to reconstruct the Fox library in East Arlington. Arlington didn't secure funding this time around because the state determined that we had a low need factor. The Library board of trustees is committed to getting a new library. Passing this resolution will help with future grant applications.

Article 12 - Expanding Committee Eligibility to All Residents

Josh Solomon says that article 12 would expand committee membership to all Arlington residents, even those who are not registered to vote. Residents eighteen years or older could serve on any committee. Committee would have the option to allow 16--18 year olds to serve.

Steve Revilak says this would open up committee membership to people who were born in other countries but haven't attained citizenship. He thinks those residents should be able to participate in local government.