 Well, why don't we go ahead and get started. I think we can call the meeting to order with with three of us so we'll go ahead and see I think ACMI is recording. So we will call to order the May 3 meeting of the town of Arlington redevelopment board. Good evening this open meeting of the Arlington redevelopment board is being conducted remotely consistent with Governor Baker's executive order of March 12, 2020, due to the current state of emergency and the Commonwealth due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. In order to mitigate the transmission of the COVID-19 virus we have been advised and directed by the Commonwealth to suspend public gatherings. And as such the governor's order spends in the requirement of the open meeting law to have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location. Further, all members of public bodies are allowed and encouraged to participate remotely. For this meeting the redevelopment board is convening via zoom as posted on the town's website identifying how the public may join. I know that this meeting is being recorded and that some of the attendees are participating via video conference. Accordingly please be aware that other people may be able to see you and take care not to screen share your computer, anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. So we'll now take a roll call vote to ensure that all of the members of the redevelopment board and members of the Department of Planning Community Development are here. We'll start with Ken Lau. Yeah. Eugene Benson. Present. Melissa Tentacolas. Present. I'm Rachel Zimbari. I'm here. And from the department we have Jennifer Rates. Present. And Kelly Linema. Yeah. Great. Thank you. So let's see moving into the first item and our agenda this evening, which is docket number 3650 a continued public hearing for 190 and 192 to 200 Massachusetts Avenue. We have received a request from the applicant to continue the hearing to June 7. So I'll first maybe start by asking Jenny to confirm that that date does in fact work with our agenda. Yes, it does. I'm sorry I'm having a screen sharing problem, which hopefully will not continue throughout this meeting. No problem. Yes, June 7 was confirmed as the next possible option. Great. So I'll open it up for board discussion. Any, any questions or concerns with that request starting with Ken. No, no question. I like the fact that they are requested extension to work on having more commercial space on the first floor. Great. Jean. The extension is fine with me. Great. Melissa. Yep, fine with me. Great. Any other discussion by the board and I'll open it up for a brief public comment. All right. Any members of the public who have any questions about this request for extension, please let me know by raising using the raise hand function. Seeing none, we will close public comments and move to a vote. Is there a motion to extend. Excuse me to, to grant a continuation of the hearing to June 7. So motion. For a second. Great. We'll take a roll call vote. Ken. Yes. Jean. Yes. Melissa. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Yes, all right. All right. Thank you. Yes, all right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, as well. So docket number 3, 6, 5, 0, it's continued to June 7. So correct, Jenny. We have received that. Yes. Yeah, we did receive that it's just and it's been posted as correspondence received. So you just need to accept it as correspondence and we'll pick it up at the next meeting on the 17th. Great. So that has been noted as correspondence received. So that closes agenda item number one will now move to agenda item number two, which are department updates to the housing production plan and open space and recreation plan and I'll turn it over to Jenny. Thank you. I'm hoping that I can share this. If I can't I might need Kelly I might need you to do this. I've never had this problem before so. Okay, did that work. It seems like. Yes, and I'm not frozen. You're good. Okay, great. That's two things so great. I'm just gonna start with the open space recreation plan. Which is basically the plan that we have was a five year plan with two different extensions. So at this point it's somewhat dated. But it is now going to be updated through with the Farlington open space committee leading that charge. I want to remind the board that Wendy Richter is the air bees designate to the open space committee, and I think that at a future meeting we should have her attend and perhaps provide an update. What I provided in the materials are basically the proposal that we received and accepted. The public participation plan with the timeline so I think it might just be easiest to see if the board has questions about any of the process. And also just simply note that the first public forum is happening on June 10. We have the town's website is completely up to date with the open space recreation committee at open space committees. Details related to this planning process and all of the documents will be posted on that page, as well as any, you know, upcoming engagement opportunities. So, are there any specific questions about the open space committee, and or the open space recreation plan. Okay. None right now. No. Jean. No, I don't have any. Melissa. Jenny, I had a question in terms of kind of recreation and open space. Would, would this group be looking at kind of more like underutilized or kind of public realm like, you know, park let type stuff or alleyway kind of things. They could look at those types of opportunities usually it's related to larger parcels of designated open space. It's something that I can certainly bring to them as something that you that is of interest. It's not traditionally something that is explored in the open space recreation plan but I think if you looked at it from more of like a pocket park, like a pop up that kind of thing I, I think that that would fit. I mean, I think, for my experience, it seems like, you know, kind of recreation rethinking some of those pocket type areas and kind of unique. Kind of underlie underutilized spaces. And that sometimes lay in commercial districts might have a nice kind of synergy with the local businesses so that you're able to activate it and maybe bring some play or fun that then attracts more foot traffic. And I think that would be cool to add to our kind of recreation perspective. That's great. Thank you so helpful. Thank you Melissa and Jenny I agree just hearing Melissa speak about that I know that that certainly dovetails well into what the Arlington Heights neighborhood action plan committee has been speaking about in terms of how to activate some of the smaller open space area so I think that was a really great call out the Melissa me. Great. Are there any other specific questions about the plan or the process, or anything you're curious about, if not, I would love to see you participate at the June 10th forum. I do have a question. That's okay. Okay. You know, years years ago, Arlington bought a bunch of wetlands out in the neighboring town, and it's still like acres and acres of wetland out there. Is that true Jenny. I mean, yes, but it's, it is a long time ago it's just part of the town of Arlington but it's technically in Lexington. But yes. But is that open space for us. So what is that. It is. Yes, and it's, it's talked about, and both the master plan and the open space recreation plan. Recreational opportunity and connection and we've done a lot in the last three or four years to make sure that we preserve a connection to that for the town of Arlington, especially since Lexington has gone through some has had some development pressures around that area, including in the area where people park to access that recreational opportunity. So we, we are actively engaged in both the open space committee in Arlington and Lexington communicate with one another to ensure and conservation commission to ensure that that stays a viable space, and it's accessible to the town. I just found that out a couple weeks ago trying to face it right around there. And I didn't know that. And I found that we actually own it. Can I've been there I've walked it, I've been lost in there even with a map. It's a really interesting place I'd recommend going and getting lost in there. Well I was going to do that with my son but I think that's a great up. I don't know. I didn't see much talk about that. I wouldn't mind exploring maybe using that as as a great little park somewhere you know where we can. I'm not sure too many people Arlington know about that. Okay. You know maybe we bring that up and say hey there's opportunities here, like you said, that you can go there and have a nice peaceful walk and we're trying to maintain that that's something we, we're trying to encourage you so as a part. There's a map available online, the paths, and there's a committee, something like the Arlington Great Meadows. Yes, that worked on it for a long time. Okay, I did not know about that I apologize. All good ideas and the fact that you know there's plenty more people who probably need to know about it and don't aren't aware of the opportunity may not know about the parking. All kinds of things so it's a it's a very good suggestion, and I'll make sure to mention that as well. Thanks. Any other questions or comments on on the this first one before we move to the housing production plan. And then we'll take public comments after we do both the outdoor space, as well as the housing production plan. I think. Yes. Time permitting we do have to end the meeting. We do. Right exactly but I would I would like to I know that there are some people who joined so I do want to make sure that we reserve some time for. Yes, absolutely. This is the housing production plan, which we have secured the services of Barrett planning group with the sub consultant Horsley Whitten Horsley witness also the consultant who's during the open space recreation plan but is the lead consultant on that team. And the housing plan implementation committee is the group that is serving as the as it says here de facto advisory committee. They are going to be meeting this Thursday to kick off their discussion. We are in the process of updating the webpage. We'll be issuing a press release shortly. And intend to have a combination of focus groups and interviews. And then we're going to have a time over the course of this month, varying times. We are aiming for a community meeting in June, although we've, we have stated that it will be June 2nd here. That is a little bit contingent upon the ending of town meeting. If town meeting continues into the first week of June, for some reason, possibly, then I think we would want to look at a following we might want to hold another date in June. So that we give people some breathing room. The second intent, as I mentioned, is the date currently being held for the open space recreation plan forum and I would prefer not to have two forums that week. So I'm looking at the week after that. That would be the first meeting. And usually what happens at that meeting is sharing of information about the current, you know, the demographics housing trends market trends. And based upon what you're reading here, of course, there would be engagement, not just sharing of information, but engaging with the data and information, and also learning new things, perhaps people's reactions to that information. So that we can then develop the needs assessment, which is essentially a combination of understanding the needs but also starting to look at some of the projected demand for different types of housing. And another community would be held in the summer in August, where we would be perfect presenting the findings of that needs assessment and then starting to think about the goals for the plan. Not stated here but also as part of that process will be looking at some of the impediments to being able to, you know, sort of the current capacity or resources, but also any other impediments that may make it challenging to develop new housing in Arlington. So that'll also be embedded in this community meeting. We're going to do, we decided to wait on a survey just because there's been we've gotten some feedback that there's a little bit of survey fatigue in the community right now. We also have various surveys about housing topics from the past year that we can utilize. But later on we are planning on having an online implementation survey to get feedback on strategies and the findings will be reported out to help us to develop the draft implementation plan. And then there would be a third community meeting in October where we would be presenting that draft implementation plan, providing an overview of the public participation process. And at that point, really start to draft the housing production plan itself, which would then include a presentation to the redevelopment board, some right here projected by the end of October. And also to eventually the select board, because both boards adopt the plan, and then it is submitted to the Department of Housing and Community Development as to get approved. I'm going to pause there. Are there any questions. So we'll start with Kim. No. Jean. Yes, can you pull up I think it's about a page later the groups that are listed for outreach. This is a preliminary list by the way we've been. We've been adding quite a bit to this list. But if you have other suggestions I would ask that you perhaps send them to me directly I'm glad to take them this evening but in general if you think of other people. It would be helpful but please go ahead, Jean. Okay, yeah, I'll send them. I'll email you some suggestions for potential additions. I guess. Another piece I'm thinking about is how we get from the end of this plan in let's say October to potential changes to the zoning bylaw next spring. So, I mean, I know this is still a work in progress but if you feel comfortable about addressing that briefly I think that would be helpful. Absolutely. I'm glad to. That's, that's the part we've talked about before which is that we would have the strategy discussions happening at the end of the summer and into fall with the community. I think that we would be able to make sure that we're going in the right direction, and that we would then, you know, as part of the strategies, some of them may be regulatory others might be non regulatory. For those things that are regulatory in nature I think that we will have a, as part of this plan it's going to be a strategy it's not going to be a completely developed warrant article, let's just say, or a specific amendment to the zoning bylaw just like the current housing something like, you know, amend the inclusionary zoning bylaw or amend the zoning bylaw to increase housing affordability could be a number of different things but there'll be probably some broad statements and then some suggestions for how to act and follow up. And that would be utilized in the fall, which I think timing wise makes sense because we have a few months to develop a warrant article. And then the timing to file it is usually at the end of January for the following 10 meeting. And that could be, you know, again depending upon how the redevelopment board feels about any zoning articles. That might be an okay amount of time between when the plan is being vetted for strategies and when you can start at least carrying out the first year goals, because it is a five year plan. And I remind folks. So it's a five year plan and so if in year one you want to implement some of the zoning amendments or try to. That would be my suggestion. And there could be other regulatory issues as well that relate to the town bylaws. For example, protections for renters. If that was something that the town was interested in that would follow a similar process, but with the slide board. Yeah, with their ARB, you know, weighing in. Was that specific enough? Yes. Okay. So Melissa, I'd love to take your comments, but if I could just quickly, I piggyback on what Jenny and Jean were just speaking to, I wonder if I think it would be a good idea for us to just think a little bit more this this summer and plan for what the steps should there be any, whether they're zoning or town by law regulatory changes and identify what a process would would be, you know, for example, if this is being presented on October 29. To the select board and redevelopment board, would we then, would it be in our best interest to hold a joint meeting following that to identify what our priorities are. So that we calendar that out well, well in advance because we know how hard that is such that we the select board and the redevelopment board identified what what specific items we do want to pursue in year one versus future years. And then I think also give a heads up to the zoning bylaw working group and make sure that if there's some interface that we want to have with with that group leading up to the end of January for the spring 2022 town meeting one articles that we just identified with the process will be well in advance so that we're not trying to squeeze things in in what it also becomes a highly meeting intensive time of year. Alyssa, any questions or comments. No, I think one, I guess one thing to think about as strategies are being developed would be, you know, if it's, if it's helpful, it's helpful for I guess me and I think understanding which ones kind of work together sometimes some strategies and some implementations stand alone, and then some work better in a package. So if, you know, as these are being developed in the consultant can kind of be explicit about what needs to kind of be, you know, kind of work together best would be helpful as this goes on. Thank you. And thanks for both of those comments by the way, Rachel and Melissa. You know about that. I should mention that Kelly is in the absence of the assistant director Kelly is assisting with this process as well as other things. Until we hire a full time assistant director, and so she'll be one of the things that she was tasked with doing is to work on that contact list, and we are hoping to send emails out to those contacts so just to go back to that point. That's a great question raised by Jean. If you could send any comments about or additions to that list by Wednesday, Thursday, Kelly. Yeah, I think if we can get them by midweek that way I can turn them over to their planning group that would be helpful. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions. Jimmy and Kelly these are incredibly comprehensive proposals it's really exciting that both of these are going to be undertaken this summer and I think really speaks to a lot of the engagement that a lot of the public have been looking, looking for on on both of them. So I think it's a, I'm, I'm so happy to see that immediately following town meeting we're going to be having both of these kicking off, because I think there will be really meaningful to the town. Excellent. I'm glad to hear that, and I agree. I want to mention one other thing, which is the community conversation series that was hosted last summer. It's the fall. They're going to actually continue picking up next month. And then one of them will be about fair housing. And we'll be working with Jill Harvey and others in on her team to put together a fair housing panel. And I think that that will occur just as a, just so that you can make a note of this at some point in the middle of July. And it'll, it will be at this point in the same format I believe as last summer, but I will once I have a little bit more information about it. And of course many details I will share them with the board, but I feel that that dovetail dovetails very nicely with this project as well. Thanks. Absolutely. I think, you know, again, I think it's been our, our view that having a comprehensive discussion about all of these, these issues together is really important. So I agree that that does sound like it does really nicely. So let's see, let's go ahead and open this up to the public for any questions or comments. So if you could use the raise hand feature, I will call on you in the order that your hands are raised. Please note that any member of the public wishing to speak you will have to three minutes. And please identify yourselves by your first last name and address and the first speaker tonight will be Jennifer Seuss. Hi, Jennifer Seuss 45 teal street precinct three. So I'm excited this is happening. I think that the, it's important to have to start these community conversations. I worry about a couple of things. One thing is the worry about sort of the second meeting which seems pretty important being at the end of August. I have done a lot of community activism over the past few years and I know there's a summer brain that takes over and it's just very, and people on vacation is just very hard and I was wondering if there's any way that that conversation could happen after Labor Day there's just sort of a people just kick into a different kind of gear after Labor Day I found. They also wonder about the place of two kinds of sort of discussions conversations I think are really important and whether they're they should be here or they should be somewhere else and so one other place it could be. I'm blanking vision 2020 whatever the new name is the, you know, could also do this kind of conversations. One thing is, I don't think people are really understand how our zoning is not working for us. And I think there just has to be a lot of education around that, you know, here's our current problems, because I remember, you know, in my team when I went to a bunch of these community meetings. I remember walking out with people and the common theme was people saying, Why are we doing this what's the problem what are we trying to solve you know just sort of. And so I think there's just needs to be a full educational like an evening focus, a push on really trying to educate people about what is it isn't working for us. The other thing that I think we need to do is allow some sort of open ended conversation where people suggest ideas, and you know that you're going to get people suggesting that we should build nothing right, but you're also going to get people suggesting some really sort of more progressive or radical you know you're going to get the gambit right and and out of that you get a couple things. One is you get people feeling heard and listened to, which is really important to have in this early part of the process that people, even if they can't get what they want that they feel that somebody listen to them. The second thing is that sometimes you could get a good idea right and we know that some of our challenge some of the goals that we want to do can be done in many different ways so for example the 40 a, you know, adjustment that we're going to have to make, there's lots of different ways to satisfy it. So hearing from the community and serve a very open ended way to hear, you know, do we want to see more three families we want to see larger buildings you know that kind of thing like just, just sort of getting a feel for what people have what ideas are out there would be I think helpful, because as brilliant as playing department is and I think highly of people, it's good to sometimes have more heads, you know more thoughts on these type of issues. And also again, it's really good for community sort of feel goodness to have that process where people feel that they're not being too managed, and there's an opportunity for them to genuinely express their opinion. So that's, I'm interested in talking to people more about how those could happen again, either whether they're these discussions or maybe there are other discussions that are run by different people so just to have a conversation about that. Great. Thank you so much I think you raised a couple of really good points Jenny did you want to address a couple of those. Yeah, thank you. And thank you Jennifer, I appreciate those comments very much and we've talked about this before and I think it'll be great to have you being a part of all those discussions. The first comment about the second meeting is a very valid one. I was worried about that one too. I think it will probably still be in zoom land. I wonder if by September we will be able to meet in person with some good infrastructure around us I don't know the answer to that yet. I agree though that people could still be away or in summer brain in late August so I will, I will explore that with the consultant to see what I can do. What I'm ultimately trying to communicate is if we do move to that timeline I hope it can be in person, because I just think in general it'll be especially that that meeting and the following one will be important to be a little more human. The second comment about envision Arlington is a good one and they are very interested in this topic. And so is the Arlington Human Rights Commission. They have a housing subcommittee I want to say working group, forgetting what they're calling themselves. I apologize, I believe it's one of those that and that those two bodies are very interested and will be participating in these dialogues. They are aware of the process and the timeline. I think they have other forums also in mind that they're starting to sketch out. And I think that the one that you're suggesting about how our zoning is not working for us. Those are your words. I think that sort of educational meeting could be easily hosted by envision Arlington I can discuss that with co chairs, Scott and Greg, and see what their thoughts are the last point that you made I just want to mention, we actually started. When we thought we were moving in the direction of housing conversations last year, some of you might recall we actually started with a question campaign with exactly the intent of doing what you're talking about so maybe I can try to figure out how we might do something like that or integrate something like what you're talking about into this or also, I don't know if you saw the strategy or the method that we're going to use for the open space recreation plan where there's going to be like talking posts throughout town to basically give feedback at specific open space and park places across town. I think it's very interactive I suppose we could try to do something similar, but with housing I have to think about that one. But I think overall I get your point, and I, I'll try to talk with other folks about a way to kind of get it, not feel so structured as a conversation, I think is your overarching point right. I also think it's really important that people hear each other, because people live in their own sort of intellectual bubbles, and they think, oh the way I think is the way everyone thinks. So getting hearing other people's perspective can be really valuable in that kind of open meeting. Great. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much Jenny for the clarifications and Jennifer for your questions. The next speaker tonight will be Barbara Thornton. Thank you very much. I just wanted to raise the possibility. And I think I think probably Jenny has it in her head but just to say publicly. I've got article 81 pending out there for design competition and I am. I think this would be a terrific tool for expanding the project that you're doing and getting more people involved in thinking about Arlington and the design competition. It's based on building on the Broadway quarter study as well as the state's decision to do transit area districts planning and, and it's essentially to bring in some outside designers architecture firms in a competition to meet certain goals for that in the East Arlington area. And I'm delighted that some of the people that I'm hearing from because it's not a very well known concept. Or article seemed really pleased about it. So I'm hoping that we can figure out a way that we can work that in as part of the tool and the platform of spreading the word and getting more different as Jennifer said more different and, and people involved in thinking about actually what the town might look like. Great thank you Barbara I think that's a really creative way of looking at this, how we can extend the work that we're trying to do for both of these, these articles as well. And we are definitely thinking about a way to do that in the fall. Great. Thank you. And to Barbara's article 81 which she's talking about is about the Broadway corridor study. But it also blends into reopening a conversation when I would, I would hope by then we would have guidance from mass dot and the Department of Housing and Community Development regarding the MBTA communities requirement, and how, what that will mean for Arlington and what kind of planning activity we need to do around that. I'm not in a position to respond to how we want to blend the two together just yet, but I think in spirit. It is definitely something we should do and that timing would generally speaking work. I think it the more open ended it is for the architects just, I mean they may come in up with some real science fiction suggestions I don't know. But the more open it is to wild and crazy as well as practical within the rules of the state government. I think the more enticing it will be for conversation. Great thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other members of the public wishing to provide a comment or question on these two. These two plans that will be reviewed over the next several months. Okay, seeing none you will close public comments on article number or excuse me an agenda item number two. And I believe that brings us to the end of our agenda this evening. Jenny did you have anything else. Great. Any other discussion questions from the board members. Jean, Ken, Melissa. I will give you a little bit more time back in your evening. I will see some of you at eight o'clock for for town meeting. Is there a motion to adjourn to town meeting to town meeting. Thank you for ensuring that I added that monitor modifier. Is there a motion to adjourn to town meeting. So motion. For a second. I can't. We'll take a roll call vote. Can. Yes. Jean. Yes. Yep. And I'm a yes as well. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. Thank you.