Town Meeting - May 19th, 2025

Night seven of Arlington's annual town meeting. Materials were available from https://arlington.novusagenda.com/Agendapublic/MeetingView.aspx?MeetingID=2254&MinutesMeetingID=-1&doctype=Agenda.

Voting records are available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/74427.

Announcements

(Liz Pyle, Precinct 8) Ms. Pyle is on the board of Arlington Belmont Crew. They're a non-profit that serves 80 rowers. Their boat trailer was stolen over the weekend. Someone drove it onto the bike path, then down through Cambridge and Belmont, hitting things along the way. Many of the boats were damaged. A suspect was apprehended in Belmont. Ms. Pyle says the organization would appreciate support in rebuilding their program.

(Scott Mullen, Precinct 3) Mr. Mullen makes an announcement on behalf of Zero Waste Arlington. The town has a new waste contract starting in July. Residents will get 64 gallon carts by default, but can opt for a smaller size.

(Beth Melofchik, Precinct 9) Ms. Melofchik says that 13 Forest Gallery is running an exhibition called People, Plants, and Revolution. It closes on Friday. The Old Schwamb Mill is also having presentations next week.

(Betty Stone, Precinct 7) Ms. Stone says there are more orange flags around town, for pedestrians in crosswalks. She's a member of Everywhere Arlington Liveable Streets, which is a group that works for safe accessible streets.

(Jim Feeney, Town Manager) Mr. Feeney says this is public works week. DPW will hold at open house at their new facility on Thursday.

Article 38 - Use Regulations for Residential Districts

We're back to article 38.

(Christian Klein, Precinct 10) Mr. Klein says there are two substitute motions. The Greenspon motion mostly applies along the arterials. Mr. Klein checked prices. The average commercial rent in Arlington is $39/square foot/year, and the average residential rent is $36/square foot/year. There's not much of a difference. If a lessee wants to open a business in their home, they must get permission from their landlord. The Fleming motion redefines home occupation. Mr. Klein is the chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals. They just finished a six-month hearing for a commercial property in an R district. What the ZBA approved is significantly less than the Fleming amendment would allow. He agrees that the rules for home occupations need to be liberalized but thinks the Fleming amendment liberalizes them too much. Home occupations require a special permit if there will be customers or pupils. He thinks this could vastly increase the number of special permit requests. Mr. Klein asks who would be responsible for enforcing these zoning bylaw provisions.

(Michael Ciampa, Inspectional Services Director) Mr. Ciampa says enforcement would be done by Inspectional services. This might require extra resources.

(Christian Klein) Mr. Klein suggests that town meeting not vote for either motion.

(Sanjay Newton, Precinct 10) Mr. Newton asks if the ARB met to discuss these motions.

(Rachel Zsembery, ARB Chair) Ms. Zsembery says the board previously discussed the Greenspon motion and reported their position to town meeting. The board discussed the Fleming motion earlier this evening. Zoning is challenging to write. Ms. Zsembery says the regulations for home occupations should be looked at, but the Fleming motion has a number of technical flaws and should go through a public hearing process.

(Robin Bergman, Precinct 12) Ms. Bergman sees issues with the Fleming motion but thinks we need expanded abilities to work at home. Ms. Bergman is a knitwear designer who's been in business for 40 years. Sometimes she has part-time employees working for her, and was reported to Inspectional services. There are many challenges to running a small business. Ms. Bergman has a space in Concord and her rents went through the ceiling. A new landlord made improvements to the building and her rent quadrupled. She does have clients over, but they're few and far between. Needing a special permit to see clients is too much.

(Steve Moore, Precinct 18) Mr. Moore thinks working at home is already allowed, and these two motions expand it. Mr. Moore regularly attends ZBA meeting and they do an excellent job at balancing the needs of residents. He doesn't think these amendments were thought through. The fact that the ARB didn't support them should say something. Mr. Moore says he doesn't appreciate citizen petitions.

(Peter Gast, Precinct 2) Mr. Gast asks if the ARB is committed to bringing this article next year, if it's voted down tonight.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery says the board thinks there's a lot of potential in the Fleming amendment. The board would be happy to work with Mr. Fleming and Mr. Greenspon if they proposed this as citizen petitioners.

(Austin Brown, Precinct 6) Mr. Brown asks if it's legal to run a business from your home.

(Mike Ciampa) Mr. Ciampa says it depends.

(Austin Brown) Mr. Brown says it's not a great idea to have all of your subcontractors working out of your apartment.

(Mike Ciampa) Mr. Ciampa suggests this might be too much information.

(Carl Wagner, Precinct 15) Mr. Wagner moves the question.

Motion to end debate succeeds on a voice vote.

Greenspon substitute fails, 57--149--8.

Fleming substitute fails, 35--160--8.

The ARB's recommendation of no action passes by voice vote.

Article 39 - 17 Palmer Street to the Neighborhood Multifamily District

(Rachel Zsembery, ARB Chair) Ms. Zsembery says Article 39 proposes to add 17 Palmer Street to the Neighborhood Multifamily district. The board recommends favorable action by a vote of 5--0.

(Mark Kaepplein, Precinct 9) Mr. Kaepplein says he lives next door to this house. The other night, town meeting approved 7--9 Palmer Street changing from B1 to B2A. Mr. Kaepplein asks why 21 Palmer isn't being rezoned as well. He says he didn't get a notice of the map change.

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker says that neither 17 nor 21 Palmer Street were included in the Neighborhood Multifamily District. 13 Palmer was originally included to maintain district contiguity.

(Mark Kaepplein) Mr. Kaepplein says he's not in favor.

(Chris Loreti, Precinct 7) Mr. Loreti asks how many condominiums could be built on the site, if the property is not rezoned. He suggests the building contains an illegal apartment.

(Steve Revilak, ARB) Mr. Revilak notes that Chapter 40A has a statute of limitations on work done without a permit.

(Chris Loreti) Mr. Loreti says that 5--7 Belknap Street was redeveloped under the Neighborhood Multifamily District, and that's not the kind of development we want to see in Arlington.

(Andy Greenspon, Precinct 5) Mr. Greenspon asks why the owner of 17 Belknap filed this warrant article.

(Steve Revilak, ARB) Mr. Revilak says the owner has a three-family house, and they want to add three more dwellings to the property.

(Andy Greenspon) Mr. Greenspon supports the article. He thinks it will fit in with the fabric of the neighborhood and add more housing.

(Beth Ann Friedman, Precinct 15) Ms. Friedman asks if 17 Palmer street was a B1 property that was rezoned to B2A.

(Rachel Zsembery) Ms. Zsembery answers in the negative.

(?) A town meeting member moves the question.

Motion to end debate passes by voice vote.

Article passes, 127--82--7.

Article 40 - Two Family Construction Allowed By Right in R0 and R1 Residential Zones

(Rachel Zsembery, ARB Chair) Ms. Zsembery says that Article 40 proposes to allow two-family homes in the R0 and R1 districts. The board was split, 3--2. Board members supporting the article noted there are already two-family homes in these districts without any adverse impacts, and that article 40 will not change existing dimensional regulations. One board member who was opposed cited the ADU bylaw as being sufficient. The other opposing board member expressed concern over the lack of outreach. The board discussed the motion to commit, and did not support it. The board and staff were concerned about the additional workload a study committee would create. Additionally, postage for the mailing of notices in the substitute motion would cost over $10,000.

(David Levy, Precinct 18, Article Proponent) Mr. Levy says his article would allow two-family homes to be built in the R0 and R1 districts with no changes to setbacks or parking. He voted against this measure when it was proposed in 2022, but has since changed his mind. Mr. Levy grew up in Newton and his parents were able to sell their house for $1.6M. He bought a house in Arlington in 2016 which is now worth $1.25M; this works out to be 5.5% appreciation per year. New single-family construction typically costs $2.4M. R1 has a minimum lot size of 6,000 square feet with a 35% limit on lot coverage. That allows 2100 square feet per floor. The largest house you could build wouldn't leave room for an ADU, and there are no two-family homes that have two ADUs. The article isn't changing setbacks or the tree protection bylaw, and won't affect the tree canopy any more than existing bylaws. There are around 1000 historical homes in these districts along with many non-conforming lots; these factors make change very difficult.

Tear-downs tend to happen on conforming lots with smaller homes, under 1500 square feet. We have around 27 of these per year. Let's say that 20 of the 27 become two families -- that means we can welcome twenty new families to Arlington each year. If we can't reduce the cost of living it will become harder and harder to hire workers. Arlington houses sell for $581 per square foot and condos sell for $577 -- that's nearly identical. Replacing one large single-family home with two smaller units will put downward pressure on the market. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund has set a goal of helping to produce 100 new affordable units. The Housing Corporation of Arlington is building 43 of those at 10 Sunnyside Ave, at a cost of around $800,000/unit.

Mr. Levy would like to give adult children the chance to live here. Two family homes offer a chance to build equity, and more flexibility than ADUs. Two family homes offer more options for elderly care and multi-generational households. The lack of housing options within 495 leads to more traffic and congestion because people are commuting from far away. New condos that cost $1M are less expensive than new homes which sell for $2M.

(Beth Ann Friedman, Precinct 15) Ms. Friedman offers an amendment. Instead of allowing two-family homes to be built by right in the R0 and R1 districts, her amendment would allow them by special permit. She filed the amendment because she doesn't believe enough outreach has been done. She has small ranch on a large lot, which would be a good candidate for a tear-down. She says a two family home could just be two McMansions. She's also proposing to change the definition of R1, because she believes it will stay predominantly one-family. She hopes the article is defeated because she doesn't want two-family homes in the R0 and R1 districts. She says new construction is expensive.

(Gary Goldsmith, Precinct 11) Mr. Goldsmith has a motion to commit, which would create a fact-finding committee to study, analyze data, and report to Town Meeting. This is just a referral for study so we can make an informed decision. He doesn't necessarily oppose two-family homes, but he thinks we lack the facts regarding long-term effects. There is a serious housing shortage and there have been accusations of bad faith. We want more regional housing at a balance of other things. This deserves serious investigation. Issues include parking, private ways, water and sewer, ADUs, trash, recycling, school capacity, and the fact that there are few sidewalks in R0. Mr. Goldsmith thinks this isn't a modest change. He asks if there has been adequate notice, and whether duplexes generate enough taxes. He asks how similar approaches have turned out. He says we owe it to each other to reflect deeply.

(Joanne Cullinane, Precinct 21) Ms. Cullinane has a motion to amend Mr. Goldsmith's motion to commit. She thinks her amendment will provide better representation on the study committee. Article 40 has generated a lot of debate, but most people don't know about it. She says the town created a public process for MBTA Communities zoning and the town has a duty to set up a public process for this. She says that resident concerns are valid. Her amendment would include representatives of the finance committee, school committee, tree committee, and transportation advisory committee. Ms. Cullinane feels these are the areas that residents are most concerned about. She thinks that developers can out-bid anyone. The debate is tearing the town apart. Citizens should not propose such big changes to our bylaws. She reads comments submitted as part of an opposition petition.

It's 21:30 and we take a ten minute break.

(Remy Macaluso, Precinct 3) Ms. Macaluso is trans, poly, and queer. Arlington is a queer-friendly community and we have to consider homophobic base impacts. Single-family homes impose a standard of being straight and white. Single-family zoning is the worst offender, because it's biased against non-nuclear families. Article 40 doesn't solve our housing problems but it's an important step. It just changes the rules around where walls, doors, and kitchens can be. It affects the last place in Arlington where these exclusions apply. We don't need a delay. Just vote yes.

(Jennifer Litowski, Precinct 3) Ms. Litowski supports article 40. She thinks it's one of many approaches to address housing and affordability. She hears "you can't add density until you fix transit". Ms. Litowski thinks we can't work on these things one at a time. They're all multi-year efforts and have to be tackled simultaneously. What comes to town meeting comes one measure at a time. Zoning happens in town meeting. Transportation changes happen in the Transportation Advisory Committee. The affordable housing overlay was a proposal to produce more affordable housing. These thinks can reinforce each other. Town investment helped to make the Housing Corporation of Arlington's project at 10 Sunnyside Avenue possible, along with street improvements on Broadway. This allows a little more housing for a few more families.

(Arthur Prokosch, Precinct 4) Mr. Prokosch supports article 40 as a small step in the right direction. A middle school student interviewed him as part of a civics class project. The student asked questions like "What social issues are most important to you?" and "What are you doing locally?". Having housing nearby helps. People with trans kids need places to stay. Mr. Prokosch says he's working to add more housing to Arlington.

(Michael Ruderman, Precinct 9) Mr. Ruderman supports the motion to commit. He asks how many voters there are in town.

(Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12) Mr. Jamieson says there are about thirty-three or thirty-four thousand.

(Michael Ruderman) Mr. Ruderman wants to talk about ducks. If something walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. He thinks this change should have been noticed by certified mail. Pushing the question to a study committee will resolve that problem. He invites the public to be heard. Mr. Ruderman says he received three emails about Article 40; that's a lot, but he suspects there is more interest. He supports the Cullinane amendment. He rejects any argument that it's too difficult to conduct ourselves this way, and $10,000 for a mailing is worth it. He says the motion to commit is not a stalling tactic, and referring to a study committee is a good intention.

(Gordon Jamieson, Precinct 12) Mr. Jamieson says he's been contacted by constituents. He asks what problem we're trying to solve. Is it the world's problem, or Arlington's. Children who grow up here would like to stay. People would like the ability to age here. R0 requires a 9000 square foot lot. R1 is 6000 square feet, but many of the lots are non-conforming. Looking at setbacks and open space, the max footprint of a building is around 1800 square feet, and 2.5 stories in height. There's no way to build an ADU when a building maxes out it size. Mr. Jamieson suggests that we already have what we want. The classic two-family has an older generation on the first floor and a younger one on the second and third floors. He thinks that's what we need. He thinks we should focus on all the ways we can promote ADUs. A single family home with an ADU is like the classic two-family. He agrees with the ARB that now is not the time for a study committee.

(Paul Bayer, Precinct 13) Mr. Bayer asks how many issues the ARB looked at.

(Steve Revilak, ARB) Mr. Revilak says article 40 is the third time this two-family proposal has come to town meeting. There was more study in 2020 and 2022; the state of affairs is generally the same in 2025. In 2020, Town staff performed an analysis on R0 and R1 parcels. A significant number are non-conforming, undersized, have historic properties, or fall under the jurisdiction of the conservation commission. Many of them cannot be redeveloped by right. In 2019, staff performed a ten-year study of home replacements in Arlington. We have an average of 27 single and two-family homes that are redeveloped each year. This is a very small fraction of the 20,460 homes that Arlington had as of the last census. Mr. Revilak says it's a short tail that isn't going to wag the dog.

(Paul Bayer) Mr. Bayer says that if town meeting votes in favor of the motion to commit, it will be because town meeting members believe they need more detail to look at.

(Colin Bunnell, Precinct 5) Mr. Bunnell says we've heard a lot about homeowners during this debate, but less about renters. He's a renter and an attorney that represents renters in tenant/landlord disputes. He's taken calls from tenants when landlords refuse repairs, try to engage in sexual exploitation, or raise the rent by 50%. Affordable housing does not address this problem. The housing market can be used to punish tenants, even the ones living in Housing Authority property. When these cases go to court, 90% of tenants lack representation but a super-majority of landlords are represented. Lives are being ruined now, by a broken housing market. We got here through decades of restrictive zoning. He says it's not our obligation to complete the work, but we are not free to quit it.

(Brendan O'Day, Precinct 14) Mr. O'Day is against Article 40. He says diverse housing is desirable, but getting rid of single-family zoning would also get rid of single-family homes. He used to live in East Arlington, where nearly all of the homes were two- and three-family. He had two kids, and needed to drive more. He had a third kid, and wanted to move into a single-family home with more room. Kelwyn Manor would have been ideal, but those homes never turn over. Mr. O'Day says he would have needed to move out of town if there were not single-family homes here. He opposes the article because small families sometimes grow.

(Xavid Pretzer, Precinct 17) Mx. Pretzer wonders how many Town Meeting members have reached out to renters in their precincts. Their aunt lived in Arlington for decades, until they were forced out by rent increases. We say we want to support refugees and queer people, but our regulations prevent homeowners from doing that. There are two-family homes that are converted to single-family and there's no risk of transforming all of the single-family homes to two-family. We've adopted an ADU bylaw and multi-family zoning for MBTA Communities. In both of these cases, change has been slow. They ask what we're referencing when we say "neighborhood character". Allowing more two-family homes was a recommendation from the housing production plan in 2022, and some point we have to move forward with that. Article 40 is a simple proposal. They asks if the planning department could do fact-finding without a study committee, if article 40 doesn't pass.

(Claire Ricker, Planning director) Ms. Ricker says the department is sensitive to the importance of housing. They'd be able to explore deliverables in the form of memos or short reports.

(Xavid Pretzer) Mx. Pretzer asks town meeting to vote their conscience now, rather than refer matters to a committee. Especially if some precincts can't have representation.

(Jill Krajewski, Precinct 21) Ms. Krajewski has a motion to amend the Cullinane amendment. She motions to strike the text "from precincts that are predominantly in R0 and R1" from sections A.h and A.i. She asks how "predominantly in R0 and R1" would be determined.

(Steve Revilak, ARB) Mr. Revilak says this could be done by comparing precinct maps with zoning maps. In the event it was unclear, one could use GIS maps to calculate how much of each precinct was in each zoning district.

(Jill Krajewski) Ms. Krajewski asks if we've ever had town meeting committees that excluded certain people.

(Greg Christiana, Town Moderator) Mr. Christiana isn't aware of any.

(Len Diggins, Select Board) Mr. Diggins isn't aware of exclusions being done on the basis of residency. But requirements to include certain groups can have the effect of excluding others.

(Jill Krajewski) Ms. Krajewski thinks that all town meeting members are elected equally. She lives in an R2 district but feels she can interpret data as well as someone living across the street in an R1. She thinks the language in the Cullinane amendment is exclusive and sets a bad precedent. She's worried about future committees being more exclusive.

(David Bean, Precinct 8) Mr. Bean says his main issues are proper notice, density, and teardowns. Mr. Bean says that most of the historic districts have large homes that would be turned into condos through interior renovation.

(Michael Cunningham, Town Counsel) Mr. Cunningham explains the town's demolition delay bylaw.

(David Bean) Mr. Bean asks about interior subdivision of historic homes.

(Steve Revilak, ARB) Mr. Revilak says there is a provision of the bylaw devoted to that. It's called "conversion to apartments" and the intent was to preserve large historic homes by allowing them to be converted into apartments. However, that is not what article 40 is proposing.

(David Bean) Mr. Bean says he's concerned about seeing ads for leafy condominiums in historic districts.

(Rebecca Gruber, Precinct 10) Ms. Gruber says she plans to vote yes. Less than 20--25 residential parcels are redeveloped each year, and you might get two new neighbors rather than one. She encourage everyone to open their hearts to new neighbors.

(Bob Radoccia, Precinct 11) Mr. Radoccia says he was recently asked to drive someone to Kendall Square. He was overwhelmed by the traffic. Cambridge was a tunnel of trees, cars, and bike lanes. It was awful. When Mr. Radoccia came back into Arlington on Broadway the clutter wasn't there and he could see. Mr. Radoccia says this will bring Somerville to Arlington. ADUs will fill up yards and the neighborhoods will go to hell. Arlington was always a family town. Somerville only has three little league teams.

(Marvin Lewiton, Precinct 16) Mr. Lewiton lives in a two-family home in an R1 district. His house pre-dates zoning. Mr. Lewiton talked to a bunch of his neighbors, the vast majority of which live in single-family homes. None of them viewed his two-family home as a blight. He's more concerned about small capes being turned into large mansions. Small capes will be bought and leveled, and there's a small number of these that happen each year. Not every house will have an ADU and not every single-family home will become a two-family. It will be a lot less expensive to buy half of a two-family house than a 4000 square foot single-family. He urges a vote in favor of Article 40, and against the Friedman amendment.

(Elizabeth Carr-Jones, Precinct 14) Ms. Carr-Jones says that Article 40's main motion offers a solution to teardowns. Redevelopment is happening house by house, in some places more than others. The main motion might be the best solution, but she'd like to explore more options. Public process is essential, and there should have been more notice. She hopes the study committee will reflect and engage the entire community. We need people trying to solve problems.

It's around 23:00 and Town Meeting adjourns until Wednesday.