MBTA Communities Working Group - Mar 28th, 2023
Meeting held via remote participation. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/31771/18.
Debrief of Public Forum
Overall, the first public forum went well. One of our outreach goals was to have conversations around the topic of multi-family zoning, and give people the opportunity to be heard.
What's the bridge between taking the results of a broad survey and developing a more detailed proposal? Many of the questions involved maps, and we'll be able to do a map-based presentation of the survey results. There are also free-form textual answers, and those will require additional analysis.
There's a question about whether the MBTA district should be form-based, and whether Arlington would be better served by a form-based zoning code. A number of the survey responses expressed concerns about building shape and size. There haven't been discussions within the planning department about moving to a form-based code, but other communities are adopting them. Arlington's zoning bylaw is heavily use-based, and it would be challenging to adapt. However, we could frame the multi-family district in terms of dimensional regulations, and be less prescriptive about the number of dwellings allowed. In the long run, form-based may be the way to go, and we could do the multi-family district in a way that lends itself to a transition to form-based.
There's a question about whether Utile is looking at our Housing Production Plan, or considering a 40R district. The Housing Production Plan focuses more on district regulations, and doesn't have a lot of site-specific redevelopment recommendations. The multi-family districts could be done via 40R.
There's a question about whether there's town-owned land that could be used. The answer is generally no. The town doesn't own many parcels, and the ones it does own tend to be small, open space, or have existing municipal uses.
We've had approximately 550 survey responses so far.
Stakeholder Analysis
Theresa Marzilli leads this part of the meeting. We do several brainstorming exercises centered around groups we want to engage during outreach.
Homework
Vince drafted a vision statement. Read and provide feedback.
Kelly has started developing an FAQ. Review and comment.
Look at the visioning kit and provide feedback.
Kelly will need assistance analyzing the survey data, coding textual responses, and so on. Several group members volunteer to help with this.