AMPUp Advisory Committee - Jul 24th, 2025

Meeting held by remote participation. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/37202/.

Introductions

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker introduces Dave Fatula. Mr. Fatula is an Arlington business owner who's involved with the Chamber of Commerce. He's interested in filling a vacancy on the committee, so Ms. Ricker invited him to join us tonight.

Review minutes

The committee approved minutes from their April, May, and June 2025 meetings.

Stantec Update

(Phil Schaeffing, Stantec) Mr. Schaeffing says that Stantec's main goal for this evening is to discuss preliminary revisions to the 2015 Master Plan's visions and goals, based on public feedback we've gotten so far. He'd like to get general agreement on the preliminary changes so we can move forward with them as a working draft. These can be revised later if needed. The focus should be on big picture ideas and themes, and less on word choice.

Mr. Schaeffing shows the vision and goals statement from the 2015 Master Plan. In public feedback, people really valued the sense of community they feel in Arlington. There's been real interest in housing options, local businesses, and the business districts. He recommends adding "New development and redevelopment that enhances sustainability and resilience".

(Ann LeRoyer, AMPUp) Ms. LeRoyer is disappointed that Open Space appears later in the list.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the list ordering came from the 2015 Master Plan.

(Angelique Bradford, AMPUp) Ms. Bradford appreciates the statement "Arlington will be a welcoming place", and feels that means "affirming". She asks about protections for all different types of people.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that was mentioned a few times, but it wasn't a major theme. He thinks we can elaborate on that point in the plan strategies.

(Rebecca Gruber, AMPUp) Ms. Gruber has questions about how we'll share this with the public. Maybe we should explicitly say that the ordering of bullet points doesn't reflect priority. She wonders if people might question the bullet points in relation to the opening sentences.

(Grant Cook, AMPUp) Mr. Cook wonders if commercial vitality should be mentioned in the opening statement.

(Paul Selker, AMPUp) Mr. Selker thinks there's a risk in "trying to make everything louder" in the opening paragraph. He thinks the Committee needs to be open to the idea that some things are more prominent than others.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing reminds the committee that the vision statement is intentionally broad. Goal and strategies will be more detailed.

(Tristan Roubenoff, AMPUp Chair) Mr. Roubenoff thinks the first sentence is good. He notes that there are several bullets about nature, but only one about housing.

(Dave Fatula) Mr. Fatula agrees with what Mr. Selker said about turning the volume of everything up. He suggests using more direct language. He'd like some mention of economic development in the vision statement.

(Steve Kearney, Stantec) Mr. Kearney acknowledges that different groups have different areas of interest. He thinks some prioritization is important, because no community can do everything.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that sustainability and DEI are cross-cutting concerns, so they're not mentioned directly.

We move on to discussing individual goals. The first is "Preserve and improve the town's fiscal stability". Committee members are generally on board with this.

The next area is Land use. Mr. Schaeffing would like to discuss "Increase housing variety and non-residential development opportunities" as a potential goal.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff thinks the revision is good. He asks about including something about subsidized housing, and suggests clarifying what "non-residential development means".

(Paul Selker) Mr. Selker thinks we want more housing in general, as opposed to just increasing the variety of housing available.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cook thinks there may be push-back on having more housing as a goal.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber thinks the ARB can change the wording if they like, as they'll be the body that approves the plan.

(Claire Ricker, Planning Director) Ms. Ricker says the ARB is the only board that can approve the plan. The Select Board and Town Meeting can endorse the plan, but they cannot approve it.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says these goal statements will be shared for feedback. He says there are areas of tension, and it's impossible to have a plan where everyone is happy with everything.

(Arthur Prokosch, AMPUp) Mr. Prokosch endorses use of the word "more", because it's the only way to address many of the different priorities in the plan. People who aren't in favor of more housing are still in favor of other things where more housing is a pre-requisite.

We move on to Mobility goals.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says there are aspects of mobility that the town can control, and aspects they we can't.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cook doesn't think there's a general problem with parking. We do have issues with parking in mixed-use developments, because of our prohibition on overnight street parking.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford thinks that people want the ability to get to where they're going. There should be a mix of auto parking, bike parking, and accessible parking spaces. She suggests more general wording like "helping people go where they want to go".

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says we can't control through-trips. He thinks it's important to acknowledge that a lot of traffic doesn't begin or end here.

(Dave Fatula) Mr. Fatula asks if parking will be brought up elsewhere.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that parking will be brought up in the land use section.

(Dave Fatula) Mr. Fatula thinks we'll need to increase the amount of parking, if we encourage more commercial development.

The next section is Housing.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak requests that we do not use the phrase "preserving the character". Historically that phrase has meant "preserve white neighborhoods", or "preserve neighborhoods of a certain socio-economic composition". He'd like to see us use a different word.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing suggests the words "enhance" and "preserve" could go. There are places for that, but "preserve" will likely stand in the way of Arlington becoming a more inclusive community.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cook thinks the mention of affordable housing should say what kind of affordable. There's a distinction between housing that's relatively inexpensive and subsidized housing with income restrictions.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that some communities are using the phrase "attainable housing".

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber suggests keeping the goal related to mixed-use. Affordable Housing can raise questions about segregation in town.

(Cheryl Miller, AMPUp) Ms. Miller disagrees with the criticism of the word "character". She lives in a neighborhood that has a lot of greenery, and she appreciates that. She says that people are giving opinions today and asks if that's what we're supposed to be doing. She can't live in a dense places because there's too much stimulation. She hears that "character" has been used as a term of exclusion, but she feels it's more reflective of the things people value.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says the committee has to help prioritize what we've heard from the public. The opinions being shared on this call are critical, but he thinks they're being done through the lens of trying to understand what we've heard from the public.

(Cheryl Miller) Ms. Miller says that majority approaches aren't inclusive, because people who aren't in the majority don't get what they need.

(Steve Kearney) Mr. Kearney says this is why it's important to get a lot of input, so we're not hearing just from people who tend to go meetings.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says housing is complex. Different strategies can apply in different parts of town.

The next topic is economic development.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says that Ninigret Partners has heard a lot of feedback about improving the regulatory environment for businesses, and improving build-out potential. He suggests "create and support the organizational capacity related to economic development" as a goal.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cook asks what that means.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says examples of this would include business improvement districts, or organizations what work with specific business districts.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak says that Arlington has very little land zoned for commercial use. He asks if public input had expressed opinions about building up the existing districts, or expanding the areas where businesses are allowed.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says he's heard that from a few people, but more of the comments centered around the lack of office and industrial spaces.

(Dave Fatula) Mr. Fatula thinks the revised points are fair. Improving the business districts is good. He asks if we could recommend public initiative that will help drive the business districts.

(Phil Schaeffing) Mr. Schaeffing says the strategies will get more into how to promote economic development.

It's 7:30 pm, and several participants have hard stops. We haven't gotten through the entire set of goals, so we'll continue this discussion at our next meeting.

Outreach Update

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that planning staff are holding an outreach meeting with Menotomy Manor residents tonight.

Meeting adjourned at 7:35.