 Thanks so much for joining us here at ACMI today. My name is Summer Maxwell, and we will be discussing a topic that has been a long-standing source of heated debate here in Arlington, affordable housing, more specifically the effects of the new multi-family zoning requirements for MBTA communities, of which Arlington is one. I have the great pleasure of being joined today in studio by Erica Schwartz, the executive director of the Housing Corporation of Arlington, and Claire Ricker, the director of Arlington's Department of Planning and Community Development. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here today. Glad to be here. The MBTA community's law was passed in 2021 and has many complex nuances. It created the concept of zoning capacity, which determines how many units of housing a land parcel can hold, regardless of what structures currently exist on the property. The law assigned each MBTA community, of which 175 towns and cities across the Commonwealth qualify, a minimum number of zoning districts that must meet the standards for multi-family housing. So let's get right into the discussion. My first question is for Erica. Can you explain a little bit more about what HCA does and how the MBTA's community act ties into that? Sure. Well, the Housing Corporation of Arlington is an independent, nonprofit, community development corporation. That's sort of the type of organization we are. And this means that we are Arlington based and Arlington driven, so our board and our members are of and for Arlington organization. And our focus is on both creating, sort of building, creating, and providing affordable housing, which is increasingly needed as, you know, I started doing this work well over 20 years ago, and it felt like a crisis then, and that crisis for housing has just gotten somehow astronomically worse over time, so providing that affordable housing. And then we also have a set of social programs to support families in other ways so that they can remain stable and strong. And we do also do some civic engagement. Certainly we'll be engaging people more to help particularly low-income people, but also anyone get more involved in decision-making locally. Excellent. Thank you. Now, Claire, why did the Commonwealth make this MBTA community's law, in your opinion, and what was the intended effect? Well, the MBTA community's law is the most significant housing legislation that has been passed by the Commonwealth probably in the last 50 years. It's been passed since Chapter 40B, which I think, you know, we've discussed ad infinitum and people know, you know, how that particular piece works. This law was passed, I think, as a way to promote multi-family housing through administrative function that the state does actually have a say in. The state does, you know, cities and towns do derive their power to zone from the state. It's a delegated power, so the state does, indeed, set the terms for the zoning. And I think there was just real recognition by the Baker administration, honestly, which is very interesting, you know, considering, you know, that was a Republican administration. And very clearly they felt the need to respond to, I think what people were seeing is sort of this large hurdle to development of multi-family property, where a lot of the carrots that were out there, different other pieces of legislation that were more carrots than stick were working somewhat but weren't really resulting in any significant, you know, moving of the needle in terms of housing inventory, in terms of the number of housing units that were being produced. And so, through a series of legislative actions, the MBTA communities law reduced the threshold for passage of zoning bylaw from a supermajority to a simple majority. So often, many of these projects were able to be sort of derailed by one vote of a planning board member. And so, you know, I think this was just a real response at the state level to recognize the authority that they have in, you know, in zoning and to reset the rules to, you know, provide for development of more and more housing. I mean, it's very clear that we're in a crisis. Now, and is Arlington already in compliance with this law, or is the town going to have to make some changes to be in compliance? So Arlington is not in compliance with the MBTA communities law, but we are not alone. Not many places are automatically in compliance. The MBTA communities, I think the real, you know, the item that we're discussing is this idea that the state wants to promote development of more housing close to transit stations. And initially, this was, you know, the kind of the strategy that we were going to take on. But as we started to work through, I think, the guidelines and requirements of doing something like that, the state was actually quite responsive to communities like Arlington, who would have then had to concentrate, you know, a certain number of units, a certain, the capacity to develop a certain amount of units very, very close to the ALY train station. And last August, the state, I think, you know, in a very positive way responded to, you know, these critiques and said, you know, we are going to, you know, detangle Arlington, for example, and a few other communities from needing to respond specifically to heavy rail transit and start responding a little more to, I think, the transit that we use all the time in Arlington, which is bus. And so in allowing Arlington sort of the freedom then to not necessarily plan for additional units around the train lines, you know, now we have both, I think, the wonderful opportunity and the very, very complex problem of deciding where in our, you know, five and a half square miles, we are going to put these kinds of zones that can, where we can develop the kind of housing, multifamily housing that the law is providing for. Thank you. Now, Erica, back to you. What are some of the potential benefits you could see this change of this law being implemented for Arlington? Well, you know, it's complicated and difficult to build housing at all, and it's a little more complicated and difficult to build affordable housing. And part of those complications and difficulties of building anything is cost. Right now Arlington zoning is a little complicated and there's sort of layers of changes that have happened that aren't always kind of uniform. You find one rule here, and then you're referred over here, and then there's sort of another layer of requirement that might negate what you found over here. And that can make it really difficult for us to find sites that are, that are suitable and that are feasible. It can make it difficult for us because unlike a large developer, we can't sort of buy a parcel and then take our time to figure out the zoning and take our time to figure out if it'll work. We don't have the resources for that. So it makes us less able to compete on the market with developers who might have much deeper pockets and who in some cases might be less preferable for local people than the local nonprofit. This MBTA communities, once the town figures out what's the best place to have these zones, those will be areas where it's much more known for us that we can do multi-family and it eliminates some of that layer of time and cost and use of our zoning attorney and it makes it a little more certain what we can do and how we can move forward. And I think it also will set these zones where there has been a lot of thought already put into where does it make sense to have these multi-family zones and then we can come in and say, okay, now let's add another layer of thought to that and how can we make some really beautiful affordable housing. Thank you. Now, Claire, this next question is for you. How might all of this affect the life of the average Arlington resident? Oh, wow. That's an interesting question. I think there's an argument to be made for a number of things. First of all, I think what I want to say is that when we're talking about multi-family housing, what we are really talking about is three families and larger. So a three-family counts as multi-family housing. I mean, we're not necessarily talking about a project that's 50 plus units in every instance. What makes sense? What's contextual is obviously, that would be great. This is what we want to see built. But again, we're not necessarily talking about big housing developments, five, six stories. I mean, we could be talking about a three-family, a four-family, a duplex that has been replaced by a four-family. I think one of the things that's really interesting and talking about how would this impact just an Arlington resident now, Arlington has just really clearly articulated values about the community that they are, about the community that they're looking to be. And so I think an example of how that plays out, unfortunately in our zoning by-law is we do have an inclusionary zoning by-law, which means that we are requiring an affordable unit, 15% of developed units need to be affordable. So if we build 100 units, 15 need to be affordable. If we build four units, zero need to be affordable. It's only until you get to six units that we can require an affordable unit. And so not having a pathway to build six units with our one affordable unit, that's clearly counter to the goals, the stated goals of this community. This is an opportunity, I think, for Arlington to really, really design a future in line with their goals. And again, this is going to happen slowly, incrementally. It can happen six units at a time. And it could happen with larger projects. But again, we are talking about potential and we are talking about outcomes. And so I think just one really easy thing to think about is, hey, yeah, as a community, six units doesn't seem so bad, especially since it gets us that inclusionary unit and allows us then to therefore see the values and the goals of our community played out in the built environment. Now pivoting back to Erica, what is your overall takeaway from this law? Do you think it's a good solution to the affordable housing crisis? The affordable housing crisis requires many, many, many solutions. And I think this is one vital tool of many. There are a lot of communities with, I would argue, not as positive values as Arlington that Claire was referencing. And I think one reason why this MBTA communities law came along is because statewide there are so many communities that are so determined to keep out certain populations and to keep out rental housing and to keep out even a two unit or a three unit or a four unit that it's just become impossible for people to live there. And then you have huge and increasingly larger populations in our state who are barred from living in some places. And some of those people are still barred from living in Arlington, not I think because of most people's values here, but because our zoning and the way development plays out just simply doesn't allow them to afford to live here. So this is one tool that I think is essential, one part of like a many, many piece puzzle in approaching this from a lot of different ways. Zoning is one way, more money is another. There's a lot of tools, but I think this is one essential tool. And I think in my experience in Arlington, there's so much thought that goes into how things play out here that I'm looking forward to seeing how that process plays out and where these zones will end up being and it will be a public process as I understand it with lots of opportunities for input. So I think it's an important tool and the way it's going to be implemented I think is equally as important for the benefit of the whole town. Excellent points from both of you in support of this law, but Erica, I understand not everyone in town is on the same page. For those that disagree with you, what are some of the arguments you've been hearing from them? Why are some people opposed to this? For me? For me. You know, there's a few things that I'm hearing and I can understand that this is sweeping legislation and it will be impactful. And I can understand, you know, certainly in a community like Arlington, how, you know, I don't want to necessarily say how scary, but how uneasy you know you could feel around, you know, something like that. I mean, I think there are a few things to keep in mind. One is that this is applicable to 175 cities and towns. We're all working towards passage. There are only, there are a very, very small amount of cities and towns that are pushing back and saying no, eight out of 175. So we, it's in Arlington's interest to comply. I think just generally for participation and just, you know, the regional responsibility of housing. I think another thing I'd like to point out is that, you know, we don't know, and I can't tell you, and I think this is again something else that makes folks uneasy, what the development pressure really is in Arlington? We don't know. We don't know if we are more attractive to develop than say Newton, who's also working on there by law, or Belmont, who's also working on theirs, you know, and the list goes on. I think that there is a lot of concern that, you know, once MBTA communities gets passed, that's it. We're going to see this tidal wave of development immediately come in and we're not going to have the, you know, the ability to handle it. I don't see that happening given, you know, just generally the expanse that we're talking about. I think the other part is, you know, Arlington for a long time has been a place that has, you know, it really views itself as, you know, we're a place for a first-time home buyer. We are a place where trades people buy homes or a place where teachers fire. These sorts of people are the folks that live in Arlington. And when you get to a median home price, it's in the top 95% of the country. If you're buying a home in Arlington, you are paying in the top 95% for your property. Those aren't the people who are necessarily buying homes here any longer. These are folks who are looking for a second home, you know, they're moving out of their first home into their second home or whatever. And this is where we start to run into, you know, I think a real something that I'm hearing a lot of is, you know, we're getting these tear-downs and then they're being replaced by these large homes. Well, first-time home buyers are really looking for, you know, these smaller homes that they can start out in. And when you are moving out of your, you know, your initial house into your second house, you want something bigger. And that's not something that Arlington can provide right now. And so we're really seeing a lot of these like kind of big, small, big, small, you know, developments going on honestly just because of the demographics and truly because of the income of folks who are looking for housing in Arlington right now. Erica, what have you heard from people who are in opposition to this law? What are they saying? I don't know. I haven't heard, I haven't necessarily spoken to that many people about this law in particular. I do know that there's, you know, naturally for all of us, because as humans there's a discomfort often for change. And it's scary when you don't know exactly what the change is going to look like and when maybe you're not completely in control of that change because you don't own all the land in Arlington and you can't control what happens on it. I think from our perspective, we are made up of residents in Arlington who care deeply about this issue and are really thoughtful. So we will never develop anything that we can't feel proud of, you know, we build housing and then we own it. It's ours. That's, and my board members live in Arlington and, you know, we are always advancing things that we think are best for this community. But when we develop something, it's new and it's different. And it, you know, we've acquired a lot of existing buildings that were already there and kind of kept them looking more or less the same. But we've also developed lots that were more or less vacant or severely, very underused and we've put something larger than what was there before. So I think people are nervous about change and will that somehow change the feeling of their community. And I think we probably all just need to be continuing to have conversations that maintain the culture that we care about and the values we care about. And I think that's the way you can absorb change in the built environment while not changing the fabric of the community or the culture of the community. And hopefully this conversation is part of that. Now, Claire, back to you. Arlington has until the end of 2024 to be compliant from my understanding. That's correct. How do you see this playing out here in Arlington and what can community members do to have a say in these decisions being made? Oh, I'm so glad you asked. So we've already had two meetings of MBTA Communities Working Group, which is a group that I set up under the jurisdiction of the ARB, the Arlington Redevelopment Board. There are 11 members. Everybody who indicated interest in being on the working group was accepted to the working group. We've had two meetings so far where we've really started to talk about what our community process will look like, what community participation will look like. We have a tentative first public meeting scheduled, we think, for March 9th. I will absolutely have to confirm that, but we think we're going to have our first public outreach session on March 9th. And what we've been doing in the working group is trying to find a way to communicate what is a, it's not a problem, but what is an exercise in vision and what is an exercise in potential with a public who is watching this play out on the property they own right now. And so having a conversation where we're saying, you live in a single family house today and one day maybe someone would be able to build four units on this. This is hard. This is a hard thing to kind of wrap your mind around. Well, is it going to happen today? Is this going to happen in the next year? I mean, I think these are some of the things that we're having in the working group, having conversations about communicating this challenge. But there will be ample opportunity for public involvement, for community comment. It's clear to me that the answer to this, where the district goes, what it's going to look like, the best answer will come from the community. And we're very, very involved in the community process and outreach that we think is necessary for Arlington. And fair, I think, you know, we should be as transparent, as communicative as we can be about what's going on and how we're looking at implementing this, because we are looking to implement it. I want to say, oh, hold on, so they would have an opportunity to participate. So what we're looking to do, I think, in terms of, you know, the scheduling is we have kicked off our working group meetings. We'll be kicking off community outreach. We are looking to a special town meeting in the fall for passage. So this year, at Spring Town Meeting, there will be very few zoning warrant articles to be discussed. We are moving most of the zoning warrant articles to the fall town meeting. We are tentatively have circled October 18th for that meeting, which is the Wednesday after Indigenous Peoples' Day. Again, we'll have to confirm. The reason that we are planning to do this is because we are also looking to participate, the town is also looking to participate in a fossil fuel band pilot. And in order for the town to participate in this pilot, we need to have passed MBTA communities zoning by the time of the application for the fossil fuel pilot in February. So if we pass, no, when, excuse me, when we pass in October, we will have November, December for review by the AG and then January to apply for the fossil fuel band, which will be available to us in February 2024. So our schedule is really kind of, again, guided by the community's desire to participate in this fossil fuel band. And this is just one of the things we need to do to get us to there. Well, this has been so informative. You've clearly given me and our viewers a lot to think about. Before we wrap up, Eric, is there anything else you'd like to add that you want our viewers to know about the HCA or the MBTA communities law? Well, I just want to say thank you. There are so many people who are very supportive of not just our organization, but more importantly, our mission of affordable housing. And I have found that this is a very warm and welcoming and compassionate community. We owned 150 units of affordable housing throughout Arlington, very integrated. So you might not even know where they are when you pass them. But I just appreciate this community that is so involved and just very thoughtful and caring about so many of these issues. And Claire, anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up? No, I just, I think we like to keep in mind we need more housing of all kinds everywhere. And this is a real good opportunity for Arlington to participate in where they'd like to see it and what it should be. All right. Well, thank you so much. This has been a conversation with Erica Schwartz and Claire Ricker. I'm Summer Maxwell. I hope you have all learned a bit more about affordable housing in Arlington and the MBTA communities act. Thank you so much for joining us and we hope to see you again soon.