 Please come to order Please come on in and take your seats You ready Sarah? Please take your seats a minute men again. Are you coming in? Whenever you're ready, sir, please join them in singing the national anthem Lieutenant Mr. Mar That in fact Arlington is part of the Cambridge court reducer of memory the environment what we do serve that clients in Arlington It's a very worthwhile endeavor among our programs is Our place which is our shelter homeless children bridging the gap, which is a program for at Rescue with work with the Cambridge District Court on May 23rd We will have a dedication of our newly renovated center on a mass app In Cambridge. We're all invited Please talk to me at the break of any time if you'd like more information about it It's my pleasure at this point to Introduce again Lieutenant Mike Harper one of the two commanding officers is having newly When in white with them Captain Arbita and I ask you to greet them Before we call this meeting this time meeting to order. Let's give God. Thanks, Robert We set the fine group of dedicated and enthusiastic public servants together tonight Please buy your heads with me and pray gracious heavenly father Help us as we give our individual and collective gifts to this community Regularly refurbish our intentions that we may give of ourselves in ways that truly make a difference to our families to our town to our nation World that has grown so small it can be explored by the click of a mouse Grant that we might keep our wits when we would otherwise be distracted Help us to maintain our focus with determination And with a sense of humor one of the knowledge that we are about the world of men and women Fuel our work with vigor stamina and a healthy spirit For all of this and for a few doses of good-lucky grace We make these requests And give our thanks to you monotony left face Mark, thank you to a lot of you minute minute the lieutenant hopper Harper good evening Welcome to Arlington's 2012 annual town meeting our 205th town meeting our first being in 1807 And this is our 85th representative town meeting the first in 1937 At first all want to Welcome our new selectman. Mr. Dunn not miss it done Mr. Currow and mr. Burn and our new town manager Adam chapter lane Here in town meeting we follow our town bylaws for the principles and rules and the principles set out in town meeting time for guidance If you would like a copy of town meeting time, please see me the $25 each give me a checkmate to the mass moderators Association or I can direct you to their website where you can buy one online Anyone wishing to speak at town meeting I ask them to be brief Out of consideration to other town meeting members so that everyone speaking has adequate time to speak In order to be fair to all members I ask that you not try and get on the list for a second time until it appears everyone else has had a time to speak You may be asked to answer a question that wouldn't count for your second time up And please heed heed the advice of mr. Doherty and over his town meeting Moderator until age of 90 Who said I don't have a formal time limit, but I did tell the meeting three minutes is about enough after five You put them to sleep after seven they'll vote against you even if they agree. I agree with this guy Pursuant to our new bylaws past last spring by the meeting on matters requiring a two-third vote the moderator can now Could declare that vote immediately upon the moderator can now declare a two-third spoken vote If that's the case I will do so by immediately declaring afterwards I declare a two-third vote by majority miss. Luccarelli. Do you certify 85 members are present in voting? This is the same procedure we use used to use for a Majority vote If again, it stays of five members do question the vote they can stand up and we'll have a counter vote Hopefully we won't have to do too many of those that was the purpose of changing the bylaw and Once again, we have an email distribution list for town meeting members So the new town meeting members were old ones if you're not on the list you can get on that list by Emailing well, it's too long to read out, but if you want to get on the list It's on the letter. I sent you that was in the selectments package or come up and see me at the break I'll give it to you It's for distribution of materials such as the stuff you found on your chairs so that we can all have it in advance for preparation of the meeting for the new town meeting members What we vote on and is not the warrant the warrant is the warning to the town's citizens what we are gonna vote on what we are voting on the recommended votes in these reports that you received the green ones the orange ones the ARB's and we'll get a few other reports where it says voted the word voted is what we actually vote on Those through the magic of technology and mr. Good are gonna appear on the screen So just the vote will be projected this year not the actual warrant articles or any of the comments because we don't vote on those comments And finally in regard to article 73 Article 73 is a non-binding resolution. I personally think that such Resolutions are counterproductive as they can breathe tension and even even animosity and could spill over into other important town business Another risk is that the discussion could be interminable since many folks may have strongly held convictions pro or con The practice of debating and voting upon non-binding resolutions can also to diminish the perception and reputation the town meeting and therefore its value and power Please don't understand non-binding resolution resolutions have much to recommend in that regard in article 73 I'm going to what I'm gonna try this year instead of allowing everybody to get up and speak I'm going to suggest and Try out that we're gonna allow two speakers one con and one pro With ten minutes each I Suggested all those who are in favor of the article at the break meet over on the left side near the Treasurer's office and all who are against the article meet over by the assessor's Office get together pick out who you get speakers going to be Put your best argument your best speaker forward and then on article 73 We'll have the cons at one mic the pros at the other they'll speak and then we'll debate again These are non-binding resolution so we will have a suggestion made But we don't have to debate it forever. This is something new that we're gonna try this year We're gonna see how it works on the non-binding I'm gonna remind you that the Arlington boys lacrosse has treats for us either before or during the break and If you'll go out and make them rich that would be wonderful That's it for my remarks now. We had a whole lot of people re-elected or newly elected this year So why don't we have all the town meetings who were newly elected or re-elected? Please stand up. You see up in the screen. We have a little bit of a revised Oath of office the town government reorganization committee came up with this revised oath of office and we're gonna Go forth with this. Please repeat after me putting your name in where the blank is I Pledge to attend all scheduled town meetings To participate fully and evaluate fairly all matters before town meeting. Hey, where's our language Dave? Oh Man technology broke down already Well, all right, just start again follow me I pledge To attend all scheduled town meetings To participate fully and evaluate fairly all matters before town meeting To vote in the best interest of the town with respect there, too I support free and open speech and will treat others with mutual respect in spite of conflicting opinions I pledge to conduct myself in a civil manner That is becoming of an elected town meeting member I Now it's the same do solemnly swear That I will faithfully and impartially Perform the duties incumbent upon me as a town meeting member of the town of Arlington in accordance with the bylaws town management Act And the general laws of the Commonwealth so help me God Congratulations. I recognize the chairman of the Board of Select Minister Greeley. Thank You mr. Moderator it is requested that the members of the board of selectmen Elected officials of the town town manager department heads of the town and staff Superintendent of schools and staff committees commissions and boards of the town Minutemen regional vocational technical school district committee and superintendent members of the general court representing Arlington and also any consultants who have been retained to work for the town relative to articles to be acted on by this meeting and Representative of representatives of the news media be permitted to take my picture to sit within the town meeting enclosure All in favor posed Consumables return madam clerk to have reason to believe that this meeting was appropriately called by the board of selectmen and that the Consulman made a return of service on the warrant in accordance with the laws She says yes, mr. Greeley mr. Moderator It is moved that if all of the business of the meeting is set forth in the warrant for the annual town meeting is not Disposed of this evening in case when this meeting adjourns may it adjourn please to Wednesday April 25th 2012 at 8 p.m All in favor So moved Mr. Greeley article 2 Thank You mr. Moderator article 2 is the state of the town and I am honored as Chairman of the board of selectmen to be allowed to present this state of the town I mean I may ask you first mr. Moderator what the time limit is on this 10 minutes By a voice vote could I request 95 additional minutes? Mr.. Greeley's moving for nine minutes all those in favor say aye All opposed What a surprise I'll do my best as I time this out today was just like maybe 30 seconds beyond 10 minutes Ladies and gentlemen state of the town First of all what I would like to do is always at the beginning of these town meetings We do say goodbye to some who were with us here before Whose efforts make a huge difference and have made a huge difference in the state of the town That's a few of them to be here tonight Hold your applause if you would please but I do think we owe them their thanks They're moving on to different ways that they're gonna help the state of the town of Arlington But they've retired from their primary positions if you will These individuals I think deserve a lot of the credit for the state that we are in today I know he didn't show up because I asked him to But please Ryan Sullivan Mary Ellen remit loud Clarissa row Where's Clarissa? Stand up any la Corte Mary Ellen right and run it loud stand up any la Corte and Robert Greeley Robert Greeley up in the balcony. I believe Please give them all a nice round of applause Whatever the state of our town were better because of all of them So also another role that I have to do up here is to introduce to you Your executive team if you will the abortive select man and the other very important member of our executive team If you will the CEO of the town our town manager But I'd like to do that in a little bit of a unique way I asked each one of them over the weekend to think about would you please give me one sentence? To describe the state of the town of Arlington So I'm going to give you the sentence and I don't want you screaming out loud, but see if you can guess who said this sentence We are financially more stable than we have been in decades Our commitment to education is core to our town's values Are we providing the best education that we can with the resources? We've dedicated in your own mind you may guess my honor to present to you mr. Dan Dunn Some of you were wrong. I know you were in terms of your guess who said this one with Arlington strong financial strength We can now focus on economic development and smart growth for our town's future Selectment for all of one hour and 26 minutes, please welcome us to Stephen Byrne Really longer than that he was sworn in on election night, I think Who said having put the recent financial crisis and other controversies in our rear-view mirror? Arlington is now poised to look toward the road ahead and engage in broad community planning and Visioning around where we would like our town to go in the future. I Believe I said silent. I'm not sure Ladies and gentlemen mr. Joe Cureau You can all scream this one out because I'm pretty sure you're gonna get it who said Thanks to the sacrifice of our town employees Who agreed to increase their health insurance costs by entering the GIC? The town has been able to extend its financial plan. Who said that? ladies and gentlemen And so there's one left on the executive team. I'm sure you can guess who said this one Arlington is a vibrant and dynamic Community that stands poised to be a leader among mass municipalities as being an exceedingly attractive place to call home our new town manager Adam chapter Lane So I asked a few others I Asked my brother Bobby Those of you who know him I Said Bob, how would you describe the state of the town of Arlington? He responded with a question Are you really gonna be chairman again? I? Answered proudly. Yes He said the state of the town of Arlington is hopeless Kind of sorry. I got him that applause before but But I don't want to stop there. I want to do one more thing I want to ask each one of you to think for a minute Want you to think about this sentence? the state of the town of Arlington is blank I Want you each for a moment to think of what one word would you use to fill in that statement? The state of the town of Arlington is blank Think about it for ten seconds And now tell your neighbor everybody around this hall you tell your neighbor what word you came up with up there Back here all the way around in front. Come on. Tell your neighbors what word you came up with. Tell them I'll call on you. I'll bring the microphone over to you. All right. Okay. Come on back to me Mine was handsome leadership, but I know that's two words and that doesn't really count But I would like to show hands now in terms of the one word that you chose To fill in that blank the town of Arlington is blank show of hands. How many of you would say your word was a positive word show of hands Thank you. Okay, put them down. How many of you would say your word was a neutral word show of hands Okay, and how many of you would say yours was a negative word show of hands Okay within this hall 260 270 what do we got 300 people with different views of the state of Arlington Outside this door. We've got 43,000 Who have a different opinion of the state of the town? The person who's just looking at the parking ticket they got because they were 20 minutes over the over the meter rate has a very different opinion and that's the point I believe is that there are many different opinions To me the one word I really would use is exciting I Honestly feel we're at a very exciting moment here in the town of Arlington for one hundred years People have gathered in this hall To talk about the state of the town as it exists and where we should go from here It's not just the hundredth anniversary of Fenway Park and by the way It's also the hundredth anniversary of when three thousand cherry blossoms were donated by the Japanese to Washington, D.C We're on the threshold of the next hundred years We've recently had a very hotly contested election. We have a new board of select men We have a stable financial plan that may go as many as six years We have renewal at Thompson and Stratton the Brigham's property the Sims properties We have thriving business and realist and real estate markets new town manager excellent management team Dedicated talented employees and each and every one of you who sit before us is what to me makes us a very exciting town It changes daily. It's changed through history. I always find it's so interesting when my father served on the board of Selectment in the early 50s When veterans when the native sons and daughters returned from the war This town gave them a plot of land and a job as a police a fireman or public works Because we wanted to keep them in this town Can you imagine if we today could be so land-rich or so fiscally rich that we could afford to do such a thing again? The state of the town changes what makes the difference is how we behave During the state of that town it is it's never going to be stagnant. It's always going to change. It's never going to be perfect We are not going to make every dog owner happy We're not going to make every non dog owner happy We're not going to solve every parking issue We're not going to stop speeding cars coming through Arlington as they race through our town and they don't even live within this community Once we finish the renewal at Thompson and Stratton. We have to start all over again The high school the middle school and back to the seven elementary schools The state will continue to change. It's how we will conduct ourselves during that change For me this past week was a very special week We had the election day and again I think it's just so wonderful how many did step up and run for office Mary Ellen remit louds Retirement celebration the largest Patriots Day parade we've had in quite some time Arousing welcome to Paul Revere by former chairman Clarissa Rowe and William Dawes And I mean that there was quite a crowd here thanks to that tourism committee and in partnership with Bose Realty For me and my family the highlight of this past week was the Yarrington Housing Authority naming the Brian R. Greeley Plaza that links the Cusick Terrace and our community safety building and when of course I talk about family I do get a little Minor right up there and they're the reason that I really care about the state of this town my wife Annie right above the Clock my daughter Katie who's a freshman at Lesley University and my son Sean Patrick who's Sean is the only one that stood up and waved if you're wondering what happened up there But it means a lot to me that they're here along with my brother Barbie On the plaque at that dedication there was a quote that was written by my brother Brian and the quote is As sure as I am that there is a place in history For those who did great things with their lives. I am equally sure There is a place in heaven for those who did great things with their hearts I Am excited because throughout our history Today with the team in place with each and every one of you I'm excited because I think Arlingtonians have done always great things with their lives and have always been guided by their hearts May I conclude by saying for each one of us whenever the end of our service comes Made be said that we used our lives and we used our hearts To make the state of this town a better place than it was on the day we arrived Thank You. God bless One announcement turn off your cell phones or put them on vibrate if they ring go outside and answer them Thank you. Then the other announcements are resolutions Mr. Smith Dick Smith precinct 17 I'm the main sponsor of article 73 Which the moderator is discussed at some length It'll be interesting to see how that procedure works out and if it works out. Well, that'd be a good Something good to use for any such resolutions in the future It also his plan also makes Okay It's even more my what I want to announce is even more important now an outside organization is planning a Comprehensive discussion of citizens united either on the 14th or 16th of May That's a those are both town meeting nights More information will be coming up about that a second meeting exclusively Primarily, but not exclusively for town meeting members will be on May 15th We've got the executive director of common cause and a couple state legislators that are going to be discussing The citizens united case if town meeting ends before the 15th will probably move that up a week earlier But in view of the procedure that the town moderator has set up is going to be limited time for discussion So I think it's a good idea for town meeting members to try to attend At least the session that we're setting up for primarily for town meeting members. Thank you. Thank you Any other announcements or resolutions? Harrington Name it Thank you Any other announcements or resolutions? Seeing none at this time Article 3 reports of committees Call for all reports that have Not already been received that will ready to be received. Mr. Tosti report wish to report on the town government reorganization committee I move that the final report of the town government be received All in favor just very briefly You can read through the report yourself We've gone through several areas where we've been meeting over three years just to highlight The town human resource functions. We were aiming towards a consolidated human resource department We didn't get all the way there for various reasons, but we did get made some important movements as far as Encouraging the schools to have a human resource department, which they have not had for seven or eight years It also the school committee voted to have a joint collective bargaining agent for both town and school and the human resource Functions in both the town and the school are now working together under a memorandum of understanding So it didn't go quite as far as we thought it might But I think it it's moved. It's had many substantial improvements Several people worked very hard in this including John billiford former treasurer and several other members of the staff I think most of the rest you could go through yourself When we just mentioned the public access financial report, which you got your first copy of last June That'll be going out every year. It's a four pager on the status of financial status of the town That's been worked very hard by treasurer Stephen Gilligan and the town manager at Adam chaplain and Look forward to seeing that every year to try to get this information out to the public The rest of the report I think you could read yourself and I'll make a few comments when we get to two articles That'll be coming up later in this town meeting. I'd like to thank all of the members for their hard work I'd especially like to thank Ted Paluso He took the minutes over three years of our work and his constant encouragement sometimes of Your nagging that we could do more and Pushed us to do more and we appreciate that even thought not quite all the time Thank you very much and appreciate your support Thank you, Mr. Tosti any other reports gentlemen in the back Also in the back of the room is the annual report you should all pick one up. There's a big box by miss Weaver These are our town report and we got them on the first night of town meeting. Thank you very much Mr. Chaplain and your department for getting that to us Mr. Daugherty Jim Daugherty precinct to Member of the zoning by-law review committee. I will not read the whole report to you However, there are copies in the back of the hall the one thing I would like to point out This committee calls for 10 members in total For the last two years which I have been on the committee. We have Floated between four and five members. We would like to see more Moderator appoints the members and if anyone is interested we welcome you to seek a position on this committee through the town moderator Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Daugherty. If you weren't interested, please see me at some point during the meeting Mr. Fitzsimmons. Oh Anyone second all in favor receiving the report of the zoning by-law review committee say aye Opposed so received mr. Fitzsimmons Thank you, mr. Moderator on behalf of the Arlington redevelopment board I'm requesting that the report of the board Bruce introduce yourself. Oh, I'm sorry Bruce Fitzsimmons chairman of the Arlington redevelopment board and on behalf of the board I am requesting that the chair receive the report of the Arlington redevelopment board to town meeting for 2012 all in favor receive the report of the redevelopment board. Please say yes Opposed so received mr. Tosti. I move that the report of the finance committee be received All in favor receiving the finance committee report say yes Ladies and gentlemen I'll be fairly brief. I think most of the finance committee report stands on its own I would like to emphasize a couple of things though Proposition two and a half override of last June The legislation that allowed us to Do a great deal in health insurance reform and some increases in local aid That we've gotten this year Now these things did not happen sort of miraculously or on their own They all required a substantial amount of work by a great many people and I think I'd like to thank them The first people that I'd like to thank is the people who participated in the groundbreaking Reform of the health insurance that allowed us to save substantial amounts of money this year I'd like to thank our legislators representative garbally representative Brownsburger representative Kate Kaufman and senator Donnelly and also governor Deval Patrick Who proposed the initial this was a huge effort last year? These were very difficult votes for many of these reps and yet they did it they made it and they made it happen We needed to have it happened and it's one of those things were never let a crisis good crisis go wasted Secondly, I'd like to thank the town manager and the board of select one They moved to make sure these reforms happen immediately the board of select ones meeting was called the day The governor signed the health insurance reform legislation Without that quick action, we would not have been able to move this quickly I'd like to thank the town unions and their leadership for buckling down Negotiating with this in good faith and getting the job done even though they were sacrificing places here They made the effort to get the job done I'd like to thank the human resource department led by Karen Malloy They did yeoman's work all last fall and implementing an entirely new health insurance plan Through another state agency. I'm sure they were up many nights to get this work done It all had to be done at least a month earlier than usual and they did great work on that I'd like to thank all these people for getting this job done Now I had to write a whole bunch of new stuff in here because of Mr. Greeley's report You know Dan Dunn used to be a good member of the finance committee He walked around with our cloud over your his head all finance committee people have these dark clouds over their head You can't see them, but if you use the right light, it's there Goes over to the select when immediately becomes optimistic. It's it's like we don't why we don't let them handle budgets The status of the town is pretty good There are a few things that I worry about that's why you paid me the big box to worry and I guess the federal government deficit is one of the things to worry about Because you know what happens when legislators try to solve budgetary problems. It all flows down hill There is a tremendous amount of federal money that goes to our state especially in the areas of Medicaid And if they start cutting substantially on that to balance the federal budget all those responsibilities go down to the state as the state starts balancing and helping to Fulfill their responsibilities to people problems go down to the local level So it's not like all problems have gone away And I would want to read One phrase or a couple sentences in the middle of my report The taxpayers step to the plate pardon my baseball terminology when we needed them last June It is now our responsibility to step to the plate by limiting town spending Carefully monitoring our reserves so as to live within the limits of proposition two and a half as far into the future as possible That will be the policy of the finance committee and hope that will be your policy as well so We still need to keep things tight. We still need to live within certain limits We need to monitor our reserves well Because things can happen I'd like to introduce the members of the finance committee Representing in precinct one is Paul bear he's here Representing in precinct two Steve DeCorsi Over here precinct three is myself Precinct four is Ryan Ferrera Back there precinct five is Mary Margaret Frank Lamont She's here today Precinct six is a reef peddara Brand new member of our committee precinct seven is Joe Connors Okay, precinct eight. It's Charlie Foskett up at the head table Precinct nine is Brian Beck One of our newer members And a former finance committee member in another town Precinct ten is Peter Howard Very well precinct 11 is Robert Bob Jenkins Jenkins Precinct 12 is Ken Simmons And the back there Precinct 13 is John Deist in the middle Precinct 14 Alan Jones at the front table Precinct 15 is Richard Fanning Also at the front precinct 16 another one of our new people Carolyn White Precinct 17 is Grant Grant Givian there Precinct 18 is Mary Ronan Mary Ronan is not here today. She's been very sick And between hospitals we all pray for her and hope that she'll be back joining us next year This I think it was last year at the age of 86 her family finally convinced her to stop downhill skiing and aspen Show you what a tough lady she is Precinct 19 is Chris Christine deser Over here precinct 20 is Dean Carmen and Precinct 21 one of our new members you've probably never heard of him before Dave McKenna Okay, I want to if you have questions on any of the finance committee work Please ask them or me and we'll get the answers back as soon as possible There's one more finance committee member that Is missing This winter we lost One of our members Erin Phelps She Was a fendant finance committee member through the 90s Then in the early 2000 she became a member of the minimum and school committee for many years and Then one of our other members had retired. She took over and came back to the finance committee Finally leaving in 2011 October during this entire 20 years of service. She fought breast cancer a Tooth and nail all the way down never gave up But finally you got to her so I wish to ask for a moment of silence, please Any other reports or committees? Seeing none. Mr. Greeley. Thank you. Mr. Moderator Kevin Greeley board of Selectman asked that the Report of the Board of Selectman, please be received All in favor receiving the board of Selectman Opposed so received Thank You mr. Moderator my job now to introduce you to the team that really does the work and runs the town You have so far met Most of the members up here at the head table But let me introduce to you the two women that really should be on my right because they're my right hand if you will But our town council Juliana Rice and also Juliana, please Juliana nice round And we all know the mayor of the town of Arlington Marie Crippelka Alan doesn't it kill you when she gets bigger applause than we do up here each and every time I don't do we have the traveling mics? Yes, yes. No. Yes. No. Yes, we have them, but I'm not sure we have runners, huh? Okay, then here's what I'm gonna do because they hate me for this They hate being introduced anyhow, but I'm gonna ask each member of the team I see Ed will start over here to come up and stand at this microphone and then in a nice loud voice I want to hear them introduce themselves The role that they play with the town of Arlington and how long they've been with us said you start it And then everybody come on up in the line afterwards. Let's go the rest of you come on up right after Come on. Let's go You can hold your applause Department workers compensation and litigation attorney been here 30 some odd years Thank you. Good evening everyone. I'm Ryan liver good. I'm the new library director I've been here for well, I've been the library director for about a week, but I've been here for about eight months now Thank you. I'm Christine Connolly. I'm the director of health and human services, and I've been in Arlington for 12 years Ruth Lewis, I'm control and I've been here 23 years Hi, I'm David good I'm the chief technology officer and I've lived in town for about 25 years And I've been a town meeting member for 10 years Michael Berne director of inspectional services. I've been with the town for 24 years. Do you know anybody special in this house? Joe Connolly and the director of recreation, and I've been here eight years Bobby Jefferson. I like to fight apartment been with the department for 29 years Frederick Ryan a proud graduate of Arlington high school 19 class in 1981 chief of police 13 years how many years were you in high school actually? Michael Rademacher director of public works. I've been with the town for five years. I'm Karen Malloy. I'm the personnel director I've been with the town 16 years Thank you, and now let's go over here. Come on. Let me have it. Let me have County here. Whoa. Whoa. Oh, excuse me Sorry, John Spidell. I've been here for eight months. I'm director of assessments. Sorry John. Excuse me I Understand things have greatly improved since you took over for my brother I Have is that true? Yeah Please Carol Who's the whole boy? I'm Carol Kowalski. I'm the director of planning and community development I've lived in Arlington for 26 years, and I've worked for the town for two and a half years I'm Bruce Fitzsimmons. I'm chairman of the Arlington redevelopment board. I've lived in town for 22 years I've been on the board for the past seven years Mike care member of the redevelopment board for a little over a year a member of town meeting for about seven years now Chris Sapensky a member of the Arlington redevelopment board. I've lived in Arlington for nine years and been on the board for one year Andy West I'm co-chair of the Arlington redevelopment board. I've lived here for my youngest daughter's age 18 and been on the board for nine years Members of the school committee come forward, please introduce yourself first our chair Here's the Allison Ampe chair. I've been on the school committee two years now Cindy Starks outgoing chair newly re-elected. I've been on the school committee three years Leba. Hi, I'm secretary. I've been on school committee four years in town meeting member for three Judges and Pierce Arlington school committee for two years vice chair Jeff Thielman. I've been on the school committee since 2003 Who am I missing? Yes. Yes Bill Hain a member of the school committee one year and the newest and oldest Bill your your podium was over here by the way You met earlier Jimmy Darity who is one of our elected members of the board of Assessors up here in the front We have mr. Kevin Feely who's also an elected member the board of Assessors is Mary here because Mary wind Stanley Mary was here. Okay. She was here earlier. How about do we have the members from the zoning board with us tonight? Okay Who hasn't been introduced yet? Well talk and introduce yourself to your neighbor. It's Luccarelli town clerk. Oh, sorry. Yes. Let's go up here. Thank you, Stephanie Mr. Gilligan town treasurer There are two others that I most certainly should introduce a former member of the board of select men and our current treasurer Mr. Steven Gilligan Steven excuse me and in the back corner our excellent senator. Mr. Ken Donnelly Ken nice to see you There's more but just pay attention. Thank you all it This brings up one another point if you have any questions of any of the department heads Board members or anybody else, please bring it up with them beforehand so they can have an answer few at the next night's town Meeting we don't want to ambush them with unfair questions But every question is a good one and they'll have an answer at the next night if we ask them beforehand Any other reports? Seeing none. Mr. Tosti Thank You, Mr. Greeley. I move that the recommended votes contained in the respective reports of the finance committee Board of select when redevelopment board and other committees be before the meeting without further motion All in favor Post All the recommended votes are now before the meeting. They don't need a second. Thank you Tosti move that article 3 will be laid upon the table all in favor Post article 3 is upon the table that brings up article 4 Pointment of measure is the wooden bark. This is a colonial error position. I call a mr. McCabe. Mr. moderator Harry McCabe precinct 21 an observation first My understanding is that chapter 39. I Don't remember the section The town council might help us is very clear And it says that the town meeting may not begin Until we have received the town report. Thank you Mr. Moderator article 4. I'd like to nominate Mrs. Elsie Fiori 51 year member of the town meeting for the appointment to the measure of wooden bark All in favor I Direct the clerk to appoint miss Fiori measure of wooden bark Yes, she has agreed to serve. I told to what a court of wood is Mr. Moderator yes the current measure of wooden bark mr. John Fitz Morris long-serving Servant of the town has Indicated that he wished to retire This is I understand it every tire from the position of measure of wooden bark My understanding is that the appointment becomes effective The appointment of mrs. Fiori becomes effective on July 1st At the termination of this town meeting. Thank you very much Thank you, mr. Fiori. So if you have any wood or bark discrepancies, you can't call Elsie until July 2nd Now mr. McCabe we do have the annual report of the town It's in the back of the hall there's a box of a few hundred back there for your information Okay, that closes article 4 now brings us to article 5 Election of assistant town meeting moderator If I have any nominations Michelle DeRosher precinct 19, I'd like to nominate Jim O'Connor for assistant moderator Seconded we have any other nominations Seeing none all in favor of mr. O'Connor's assistant town meeting moderator, please say yes opposed Congratulations, mr. O'Connor that closes article 5. We're now on article 6 Zoning by law amendment a men's signed definitions the ARB has reported on it. We have a recommended vote, sir Oh, go ahead. I do start when you're ready and I'll press the button. Thank you mr. Moderator Bruce Fitzsimmons chair of the Arlington redevelopment board In a second, I'm going to introduce Don Benjamin from the planning department who will make the majority of the presentation I just wanted to preface Don's remarks by Giving a little bit of background on this article. This may seem like a strange article Removing five words from the definition of sign That's in section 2.01 of the zoning bylaw The Genesis or origin of this article is from an attempt to put a mural on the boys and girls club Some of you may know there was a contest held at Arlington high school for students contributed many more than four but four were selected Their work was selected for display on the boys and girls club It turns out though that under article 2.01 the definition of a sign Particularly the words designed to attract the eye meant that these murals would be treated as signs and somewhat counterintuitively We tend to think of signs as being Either promotional or directional Lo and behold it also ensnared this bit of potential public art So that's the the background behind the article now with the permission of the moderator I would like to turn this over to Don Benjamin in our planning department Don has done a lot of work in Putting together a brief presentation and it's met with many different groups in town about this article and has a wealth of information on it Mr. Benjamin, thank you. Mr. Moderator Don Benjamin town planning staff I'm also here representing Arlington public art. Yeah, you have to speak right into the mic I'm also here representing Arlington public art. We are a creation of the Arlington Center for the Arts and vision 2020 and Our members are also members of these organizations you see listed here I'm Bruce did a very good job of outlining the issue I this is the text of article two zoning by law definition of a sign And the colored section is what we would like to ask town meeting to allow us to remove You can notice that there remains a large body of language That's very specific that continues to define a sign We wouldn't suggest any changes there Can't talk about art without showing some pictures and so I just want to Present these images to give you an idea of what we mean when we talk about public art The image on the top left is ought to be familiar to everyone We certainly think that's a wonderful example of public art on the right at at the top is an image from a little town in Missouri called Chilacoff And they claim to be the home of sliced bread who knew right? They have about 20 murals in their downtown and These murals are historic in nature and they essentially tell the history of the town in images We think that the sort of thing is a wonderful idea. I've talked to the director of this program crystal NAR She says in the dozen or so years that they've run this program. They have not had a problem with graffiti She also mentioned that nobody has attempted to drive down one of these false streets So if we do that sort of thing We wouldn't have that to worry about I think The image at the lower right is the one that Bruce is talking about This is a mock-up of what's called a scrim. It's a large piece of cloth onto which Images are projected and these images were their specific Photographs of the images students that were part of a student competition that was organized by Dave Ardita at the high school and These are the the winning entries We thought it would be a wonderful idea especially since it's a boys and girls club To display student artwork in this sort of way This would be the spy pond facing side that big blue wall that measures about a hundred feet wide and 25 feet tall and this other image on the lower left is One of those junction boxes you see all over every town you go in Only this one simply has a sort of a lovely image on it. They're doing this in Somerville They do this in Maynard all over the country really It's not clear whether the wording that we spoke of really ensnares 3d art, but it certainly is designed to attract the eye And these images on the left are from Somerville's landing in Newburyport. It's sort of an open-air gallery We think these are wonderful examples of the sculpture The sculpture in the town garden reminds us that You know what a how important art is in creating a special place for a town Also that we really have a heritage to build on here in Arlington And the the one on the lower right is sort of a whimsical image from Portland, Oregon Just there to indicate that you can have fun with art Infrastructure presents a lot of possibilities for art bike racks benches dance steps set into the The sidewalk it's the consensus of our group that you can never go wrong with dance steps set in the sidewalk And manhole covers believe it or not can be absolutely wonderful We've had a business owner already I've been giving a presentation like this all over town for the past year And we had a business owner come forward and say that they would love to do this sort of thing in town We think this can be a real good thing for Arlington and we hope that you'll let us remove just that little bit of language So we can go forward. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Berkowitz Thanks, just a matter editor Bill Berkowitz precinct eight I rise in favor of the recommended vote I think it's noteworthy that this particular article was backed not only by the ARB But also by property owners and vision 2020 as well as arts groups in town I think the special merit of this article goes beyond a small change in bylaw wording Which makes it easier to display public art in town But it also has potential economic value to us as a community We've talked about bringing outsiders into Arlington Through tourism or proposed monotony village or other means Art does that I work in Lowell Where there's been quite an astonishing quite an astonishing revival of the arts Which is boosted the economy and drawn many artists to town If you get a chance you can go visit Just for example Western Avenue studios on the first Saturday of the month just to see for yourself as a taste of that I think we have the opportunity to Encourage the same thing here that same visibility even if it's in a smaller way About 20 years ago here in town we relaxed liquor regulations bringing many more new restaurants into town waves of new visitors to Arlington here for nourishment of the body Now 20 years later. We have a similar opportunity Leading to more public art and bringing new waves of people here into Arlington for Nourishment of the spirit. I hope that we support this article. Thank you Mr. Judd First display On the screen had four images and I was told that the one in the upper left we'd easily recognize Sorry, I'm one of the people that didn't recognize it and I asked a few others if they did So I don't know if you can show that again or at least explain what it is I'm very disappointed that the uncle Sam statue was not included in the art display Do you look for an answer for something can you give him an answer to his question what the lower right image was That was the mural in the heights On the MBTA building Yes Okay, I'm glad you described it because I Have a little difficulty seeing that and I've recently had my vision corrected to 2015 The lights are a little bit high, but yeah Thank you very much and as I say the uncle Sam statue. I think needs a little bit of promotion, too We do have a lot of very fine Representations of good fine art whether it's Cyrus Dallon Theodore Barbarossa or any of the others our town hall Library and I think that it is very worthwhile to try to promote This image and some of these good things to the rest of The local population and maybe even further away. Thank you Miss Costa I Barbara Costa precinct 10. I rise in support of this article. I'll be very brief I have been working with the Arlington Public Art Committee I'm also on the board of the Arlington Center for the arts I've been paying attention to this all around and Cambridge and other areas other towns. It's uplifting It's whimsical. It could be memorial makes you smile makes you think and Makes people interact perhaps. I think it's a very exciting idea and I hope you will all support it Thank you sir Bill Kaplan precinct six. I I guess somebody should just end I guess I I'm actually I mean I art major in college. I've worked in the arts But I mean it should be pointed out that I Mean art is in the eye of the beholder. So I mean starry night is art. Pissed Christ is art It's both It's about it's based upon the display of public art, but it is about adding the removing the sign So it's designed to track the eye the basis of the article is art Thank you, but that wasn't a valid point of information. Oh so anyway I guess the I think the the intent behind the zoning regulation is that at once upon a time Arlington You know was a garish hodgepodge of ugly signs all screaming for attention and And somebody years ago decided that was ugly and it might look nicer if everything was a little bit neater And I would point out that I mean it's art. I mean again some people will like it and some people won't You can have two pieces of art that took clash horribly I mean it I Guess you know we're all in favor of art. I think I am like I said, I mean it's been part of my career But that doesn't necessarily mean that that we want to have art, you know on every flat surface in town Which I guess theoretically we could a few years ago We you know we passed a regulation to to get rid of graffiti and you know building owners are fine If they have graffiti on their walls There's not that big a difference between graffiti and art again. It's it's in the eye of the beholder so Just as we embrace art we should also remember that Willy-nilly art, you know can get kind of ugly and so perhaps We should remember what the original intent of the zoning by-law was which is to keep the city for the town from You know looking like a big hodgepodge of clashing whatever Anyway, thanks Point of information, mr. Fitzmore is this will still require a permit of some sort if you want to put art on something When I'm not just going to be able to paint my house with a big picture of our am I sure This will still require a permit correct mr. Benjamin We do not anticipate that this would require a permit from the town As a group working under the Arlington Center for the Arts and our vision 2020 We would collaborate on creating art. That's how we see this arrangement Art has not been regulated Permit yes or no No, they're not going to have to get a permit to put one of these you would certainly need permission from the Owner to be able to do that. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yes Schlickman Paul Schlickman precinct nine motion to terminate debate under all items under this article Okay, the motion to terminate debate under this article and all motions all in favor, please say yes Opposed say no My opinion is a two-third vote We have a force to recommend a vote redevelopment board all in favor, please say yes opposed My opinion is a two-third vote and I so declare a two-third majority mr. I look really do you certify that there are 85 members present in voting? Yes It's a positive vote We have now before it's article 7. All right. Mr. Tosti raised for one second before we take article 7 up Excuse me, but in all of my introducing I forgot to introduce a very important person our executive secretary Gloria Turkle at the end who does all our work Is a point of information for the new town meeting members I call the article the proponent gets to get up and give their 10-minute spiel and then you Sound meeting members get to speak if you want to speak Raise your hand When the article is called I keep a list I call the people as we see fit off the list Generally in the same order as we see the hands go up So if you want to talk get your hand up and if you want to you hear a Mr. Schlickman terminate debate if you want to terminate debate You have to get up and say just those words like he did I moved to terminate debate under the article and all motions Before it you can't say anything else So that's your five minutes two minutes of introduction article 7. Mr. Greeley Kevin Greeley bought a slackman. Mr. Moderator may ask you a question. This is the first time I've heard you say That you may or may not follow The names on the list in the order in which you receive them What other criteria do you use to determine who may speak on an article if someone raised the hand every single time? I'm one yes from someone else. Oh well then god bless Okay, article 7 Chris Thank You mr. Moderator. I'm Carol Kowalski director of planning and community development Tell meeting members I'd like to ask you to bear in mind five main points as you consider article 7 Right now in our zoning bylaw Land zoned for business can be converted to residential use by right if it's for a single-family home or a duplex or by special permit if it's Residential use of higher density The second point I'd like you to bear in mind is that mixed use the combination of residential and business use in the same building Currently exists in Arlington But it's almost impossible to do today a third point I'd like you to bear in mind is that Only about four percent of our tax base is business based right now the warrant article and the amendment that's proposed Would create incentives only for developments where Business and residential use are mixed in the same building these incentives would not be available to Business only and they would not be available to residential only Developments and the fifth point I'd like you to bear in mind is that these incentives would be subject to a special permit and The environmental design review standards currently in the zoning bylaw I'm gonna get the clicker. Excuse me There are many examples of mixed use in Arlington where upper floors have a residential use and lower floors have a business use You see it in Arlington Heights You see it in Arlington Center Here's wood and strings. These are all the b3 village business district zone and you see it in East Arlington It's very difficult to do mixed use under today's zoning regulations because the on-site parking Yard setbacks and other dimensional requirements for both the residential use Plus the business use must be met This map shows all of the business zoned land in Arlington today As I said Arlington's business tax base is about four percent Some of the land zone for business has been converted to apartments reducing the amount of available land for business use Business zoned land as I said can be converted to residential use by right and by special permit This site. I'm sure a lot of you recognize. I hope you do This is at the corner of Mill Street and Mass Ave. This is in the b2a Major business zoning district. It was converted by right to townhouses in the 1990s And this site is the former Brigham's ice cream headquarters also in the b2a Major business zoning district. It was converted to residential apartments by special permit in 2010 Well designed residential development is good But a trend toward less business zoned land Makes it harder to recruit new business to Arlington and harder for existing businesses to grow And continues the unbalanced burden on Arlington's residential taxpayers An example Is this map which shows all of the land in Arlington That's zoned for b2a major business district. That's one of our business districts It shows that district in red It's not a lot This map shows the impact of those two recent Residential developments On this business zoned district. We've effectively lost about 25 percent of the land in this particular Business district that could have been available to recruit new business to Arlington That land is likely to stay in residential use for decades Can we do mixed use today? It's questionable because you've got the parking requirements for both uses Combined with the setback requirements for both uses Plus the open space requirements for both the residential and the business uses And there's also some question about whether one would have to be a primary use and one might have to be an accessory use And how do you make that judgment call? It effectively renders this type of development, which I think you all recognize as being characteristic of our business districts effectively outlawed Mixed use the definition that's proposed for this bylaw amendment Is very careful not to exclude desirable businesses found in what you might consider light industry today Such as alternative energy startups or the innovation economy or even gourmet food makers An adjacent community After investing a lot of public funds in a facelift in one of their business districts had a couple Companies approached them saying we really want to be in this square And they realized to their disappointment that they had zoned out light industries. So a high end growing audio speaker company Couldn't locate in that square They had to bend over backwards to try to go around their own recent Zoning out of light industry. I don't think we want to do that this bylaw amendment would be Subject to a special permit and environmental design review Environmental design review has 12 standards that have to be met and reviewed by the arlington redevelopment board I bring your attention specifically to landscape preservation building and environment Open space and the third from the bottom heritage These all would be imposed as they Are already in the zoning bylaw For environmental design review special permits. These would be imposed on mixed use development proposals the redevelopment board Concluded that allowing mixed use does not need to come at the expense of any Current use allowed in the bylaw The proposed vote would not remove any rights currently available The proposed vote adds an option not readily available today The dimensional requirements do favor mixed use over conversion to a single use To create an incentive to keep business uses in business districts The mixed use dimensional requirements Would be the same as those that are currently imposed on business use For minimum lot size frontage requirements front and side yard setbacks And maximum lot coverage Do you have about a minute and a half left carol? Thank you The mixed use density does create a higher floor area ratio. That's Basically the ratio of the building volume To the land area on the lot But that additional Floor area ratio is controlled by the requirement to have onsite parking It's also controlled as I said by the environmental design review special permit And it's only available when business is paired with residential development The parking requirements would be one per dwelling unit, which is quite common today for Multifamily developments and would be one space per 750 square feet of business use To give you a frame of reference for how much that is 12 Medford street is about 750 square feet. That's the building Where there were the public art displays in the window over the winter Other parking lot requirements would apply The zoning bylaw currently says that for parking lots Of five spaces or more We have to have screening fencing and parking setbacks So to to wrap up I want to review the five points are that this is Intended to keep business uses in our business districts Mixed use already exists in Arlington as you can see here It would be subject to special permit and environmental design review standards It's these incentives are only for mixed use And I know that the redevelopment board appreciates your consideration. I'd be happy to address questions. Thank you Mr. Loretty Thank you. Mr. Maria crystal ready precinct seven. Uh, miss moderate I would like to ignore the advice of your mr. Dardy at an astound meeting for three additional minutes The speakers asked for three additional minutes making a 13 minutes all in favor. Please say yes Opposed I don't think they gave it to you chris. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Could you reset? I will reset your clock though. Thank you Thank you miss moderate article seven. I would submit is perhaps the most significant zoning bylaw change Um To the business district since the modern zoning bylaw came into effect in 1975 So I hope that time meeting gives it very careful consideration and understands very well exactly what it's voting on I want to begin by saying I support mixed use and I support the preservation of business uses But I don't believe article seven does that What it does is it promotes very high density residential development in a minimal amount of business use Mr. Good could you put up the first slide? Thank you I'm going to come back to this but I want to use this side as a backdrop for a few minutes as I speak This is a b2 district the changes. I'm going to talk about right now would apply in this district This is called the neighborhood business district The problem I have with this bylaw Is that it ignores the distinctions that have traditionally existed within our linkedin zoning bylaw The way our bylaw works is that the number of the district indicates the intensity of use So you go from r0 to r7 for the residential districts with r7 being the high density apartment district In the business district you go from b1 Uh, which is the neighborhood office district to b5 the central business district This bylaw change will apply to all of those business districts except b1 What it does is it applies the residential density standards for high density apartments To all of those business districts to which it applies That is something that has never occurred before and contrary to what miss Ms. Kowalski said and in fact it increases the density beyond what it what is allowed For commercial construction and many of those business districts It also confuses the distinction of uses among the various business business districts Right now the only place you can have light industry in our linkedin is in the industrial district and light industry includes things like machine shops includes things like auto body repair shops the way that Mixed use is defined and then you should look at the definition in the proposed vote Not the definition that was shown on the screen because they're very different It includes light industry uh With the uh with the other uses that are allowed in in the business zoning districts I think a lot of those uses are ones that people would feel are inappropriate and should not be allowed But I would like to show Um Exactly what the effect of this change would be using the example of the Brigham's development So mr. Good if you could switch to the other power point presentation And while he's doing that what what i'm going what's going to come up in a moment is a plan of the Brigham's development In the area that's shown in pink Is the area designated for open space at this development? I'd like to put myself in the position of the developer of this site and show you what i'm going to do Uh, if you pass the zoning bylaw, I think most of you have probably seen what the development looks like now Now i'm going to convert it to a mixed use and here's what i'm going to do to do that The gray building on the right hand side of this figure is indeed a commercial or business use And what i'm going to do is just put a few apartments above that and that is going to qualify me for mixed use Remember to qualify for mixed use all that you have to do is get most of the frontage of the building On the first floor used for business use and that's all you do not have to have the entire first floor occupied You only have to have most of the frontage of the first floor occupied So by doing that i've got a mixed use development And now that i have a mixed use development you have made things Terrific for me as a developer I no longer have to get a variance for this development because i meet the frontage requirements There used to be a hundred or it would be a hundred if under the existing bylaw now it's reduced to 50 So i want to thank you very much for Eliminating that requirement to get a variance because if any of the neighbors had appealed that variance I would have been in big trouble similarly I no longer have to get a variance for the height because this change to the zoning bylaw Allows the arb to ignore the dimensional requirements as part of the special permitting process That is an unprecedented power that right now is only reserved for churches and non-profit educational institutions Now i as i said i'm going to put my Retail or or some other business use on the first floor of that small building And while my original plan was to give you 3500 square feet You know i might only give you a thousand or 2000 square feet because heck you know I'm giving you the entire frontage as business use and i'll make that 50 feet Wide along the frontage and 20 feet deep or 30 feet deep and you've got you know You've got a thousand or you've got 1500 square feet and that's all of the business use i'm going to give you for this development now The next thing i'm going to do is There are zero requirements for open space under this proposed change So all that area in pink there i can use that for buildings i can use that for parking lots And and that's just great because that allows me to build far more apartments and are currently being built there and i can I can go from 135 000 square feet that i had been proposing to over 200 000 square feet Of of floor area and i can go from 116 116 units to 245 units because you have rezoned this parcel for the densest residential use allowed in arlington So i'm sorry if you thought you were getting more business use But i want to thank town meeting for passing this change Because i'll be thanking you all the way to the bank when i collect rent from over twice as many people Now mr. Good if we could quickly move back to the other slides I want to show you what can happen with this same change in In the neighborhood business district Okay, this is um as i said a typical b2 district i think it's kind of charming small scale I don't say that just because it's my neighborhood but If you look this is a typical district district it is the height of these buildings is one story with the proposed change That you are being asked to uh approve even in this district you could go up to five stories So let's look at the next slide Mr. Good if we could And the problem you have with this neighborhood business district We're not a problem, but by design these these districts are close to residential districts And here we have you know this the same that's the same block It's next to a two-family home, but if we go to the next i'm sorry Nope Well suffice it to say i'll continue talking um well mr. Good is trying to get the technology back But no next slide please Great, so this is what happens and i'm not even sure that's five stories you can go up 50 feet But i what another thing that's taken away by this bylaw change is something called a height buffer And what's been institutionalized in our zoning bylaw is that when you have a large commercial or business use next to an r1 Or r2 district the height maximum height is reduced But this change does away with that height buffer So if you happen to be the poor person like my neighbor who lives in that house you can forget about watching the sunrise To the east which is where that large uh Addition is being put on now if we go to the next slide i'll i'll just give you that in in uh An elevation to see what that looks like, but let's go to the next next slide and you know As miss kowalski said you know we have mixed use in arlington And and i think people are happy with it But look is none of the examples she gave you were for buildings that were five stories high at most they were three like this and You know i think you know really need to think about the The proper height and if we go to the next slide I mean i would call this mixed use development too, but it doesn't qualify under the zoning bylaw There's no there's no residential component and if we go to the next slide I would say this is how you do mixed use wrong this kind of ugly development is in north cambridge Frankly, i would not like to see another story added to this building and moved into arlington So finally let me conclude by saying you know a lot of public officials have been talking about the master planning process Given the magnitude of the of the changes that we're talking about this sort of change really be really should come as an outgrowth of that process It shouldn't be done on an ad hoc basis beforehand So i suggest that if if indeed that were the case that went through the master planning process We would see a a type of change the zoning bylaw that would support mixed use in a way that people like And that the community would be far more comfortable with so i'll ask you to vote no on this article and let the public process work. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Laredi We're going to take our 10 minute break Please go up and buy cookies and think some of the boys of the cross team Please come to order The manom has lost a little airing with this little I don't know if it's a real thingy in the bottom or not if this is somebody's Come up and get it after the meeting's over a little goal airing thingy. I don't know. Stephanie's going to know if it's real All right Is he yours? Yep, uh, miss baron has the floor Please take your seats Yes, oh you want it traveling mike. I don't know who's doing. I know mr. Judd standing around back there gripping the mike like it's a bottle of booze What are you standing there holding that mic for mr. Judd? Give great. Thank you. Miss miss baron needs it Thank you, mr. Judd They are i was going to speak to greg about it Sherry baron precinct seven Um, I just have a question for miss favor of this, but i'm wondering If this is coming to us as a result of demand I mean you mentioned that there was a uh business in summerville that I think you said summerville that didn't come in because Of of a zoning issue And my sense is that the the mixed use that's that's here now At the capital and the heights and the east Has probably been there for over a hundred years because years ago when you had a business on the first floor And you didn't have a car it made sense for you to live upstairs So i'm just wondering if this is being done as a result or you're you're offering this as a result to demand Say I want to do mixed use we there There have been a couple property owners who have contemplated it, but have decided no, I can't it's can't be done I'm not going to try We haven't had anyone Come to the redevelopment board and say I want to assemble parcels and no so the short answer is no I'm sorry carol kowalski director of planning community development Excuse me I forgot the second part of your your question Well, no it's just a comment that that the mixed use that exists not withstanding the two new projects And I don't know where else in town there would be enough space for a project like either of those Right, so for example the apartments over the capital I would assume they've been there for a hundred years. Yes, they predate our zoning zoning was created really the trend when zoning was initially Adopted across the country was to segregate uses The buildings I showed were probably all put up before arlington adopted zoning Okay, so so but to answer my question this is not being Brought forth as as a result to Someone coming knocking on the door as demand For business coming to arlington. No, it's it's intended to We hope I would hope that we could recruit business to arlington by allowing an innovative way to Create incentives to bring business So I would hope it would create new business opportunities in arlington, but it's not offered in response to a specific request. Thank you Thank you, miss barron. Thank you Into foster adam foster adam. Sorry adam Hostor it's first night. I can't remember everybody's name right off the bat precinct three And this is obviously a very complex piece of legislation But uh And I don't feel that I you know fully understand every detail, but I wanted to sort of generally say that This seems very much the the best way for arlington to grow And that I just sort of keeping eye on the big picture We should think about are there really any better Alternatives where would we want? stuff to go That would be better than you know along the main business corridors in town Density is always tricky, but in this case, you know if if we really want Those great stores The little cheese shop the stuff that people that I talked to fantasize about whenever there's a vacancy and people on the Arlington list say oh, I'd like to see this and that there's got to be more density to support it People in east arlington have been hearing a lot lately about vibrant streetscape and That whole sort of sexy idea and it's a very appealing idea Uh people who who have talked to me know that I don't think we will get it Uh just on the basis of redesigning a road there needs to be more density So the question is um how to do that and I think that Generally, this is a good way To do that and I'd like to support the approach that this is where our growth ought to happen at least for the medium and maybe the long term Thank you, sir Mr. Jamison, uh, thank excuse me. Thank you. Mr. Moderator Gordon Jamison precinct 12 um By way of introduction, uh, we heard several times in the in the introductory remarks by various people About growth There are some members of this body and I'm sure some residents out there That don't want any growth to happen in Arlington The problem is we have a we don't have a physically sustainable long-term Situation we have what's called the structural deficit. Many of us have heard of that I'm sure mr Toskey and his income members could elaborate on that greater a greater length for you So the the opposition the so you have growth on one side And we have the overrides on the other Okay, it's not just that a growth or no growth question It's a it's a question of a balance between those two And so I'm in favor of growth in town And I'm in favor of smart growth that I know, uh Ms. Rowe talked about a lot when she first joined the board And I hope that this type of Measure that I hope we will pass tonight Will drive demand along our business corridors so we can have growth and become Approach financial stability long term without having to do overrides So as I mentioned, I rise in favor and cutting to the chase In response to previous speakers Comments could I have the picture of the yellow building up please? With the extension uh To the zenith might take a second. Yeah, you want to keep going So um my question to the uh to whoever the moderator wishes to direct it probably someone over on his left is um The impression I got from the previous speaker's presentation was that You could build the yellow monstrosity on the right by right And uh just by passing this we would provide some with the ability to build that Um, is that the case that they could build that by right? Mr. Fitzsimmons Introduce us. Oh you go ahead Chair of the arb Short answer to mr. Jamison's question is no What's really important to remember about this article that in every instance mixed use can only be Allowed by special permit with edr environmental design review Previously carol koosky showed you a slide with the 12 criteria that we follow for edr And I won't read all of them, but the one that's most directly to mr. Jamison's point Is uh item number two relation of buildings to environment Which requires that the proposed development shall be related harmoniously to the terrain and to the youth scale An architecture of existing buildings in the vicinity that have functional or visual relationship to the proposed buildings I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that none of my colleagues would find that that yellow monstrosity Matches harmoniously to the building next door Mr. Mr. Monterey, if I may have a follow-up Yes, so you still have time. Okay. Um, and that beyond that uh aesthetic if I will if I may Uh parameter that the size of the building would also be driven by the Um, so let me back up one of the advantages that were presented About adopting this article is that we don't have to meet the parking for the residential and the parking for the business as a sum Okay, but if I understand correctly there there still will be parameters Upon which the parking will drive the the volume capacity of the building So if there were three spots behind this building, there's no way you could build the five-story monstrosity Well, that's correct because you would have um If you need one parking space for each 750 square feet of commercial development and one parking space per residential dwelling You wouldn't have enough parking on on site To make that uh build and qualify So so is it my conclusion that this uh representation Falsely represents what we're voting on tonight and I strongly urge passions of this measure. Thank you Thank you, sir Mr. Doherty James whole patchwork of different b1 different b districts And in those districts a lot of them are but To try to drive the development that I think we um, we all want which is which is good control development in the town The only way you're going to achieve that and I think the previous speaker was pointing out A lot of these fossils are too small to create any of this smart growth So you have to assemble fossils And um, I think what clearly must have thought some of that through when when they put this forward Well, what I would like to do is amend the article by simply striking the one sentence That excludes b1 and leaving that in there as well So for example, if someone wanted to buy my property either one of the gas stations on either side Or someone wanted to buy all three of those fossils and mine is not the only example There's numerous examples of this that are in these various districts They would be allowed to do this because theoretically going back to that previous slide On two sides of my property one could basically build not that monstrosity that I don't think anyone Could see being built or do I think a board would approve that But clearly it would inhibit the goal of this article Which would be to be able to assemble various properties so that you could come out with some type of decent development The only other comment that I want to make and I speak as myself, although I'm the chairman of the board of assessors um, I'm very well versed in taxation and income producing properties is The town should not be driven to zoning based on the idea that we are going to be able to create Enough commercial or industrial density in this community to have classification I will go out As the prior chairman mentioned uh his board, but I would suggest to you that it would be impossible For us if we rezoned a large majority of this community commercial industrial property To ever get a mix that will give us substantial base on commercial to have a classified tax rate in this town It just won't happen The other thing when we point out the old time Oldsmobile site, which is the site Uh that was shown across in the jason wrestle house a lot of us who were here back then a cbs Was going to go in there or our wall greens or something to that effect We actually rezoned all the large automotive sites because we didn't want to see any of those dealerships and in gas station or automotive uses That site over there was developed that way through a whole host of of of reasons why it came about Similarly at the corner of mill street and summer street. You have another residential development, which was the old stevens founder If you look at any of those in terms of what they were valued and what they contributed in tax dollars to this community As commercial properties as opposed to what they contribute now in property tax They're multiples what they contribute and what I would argue is that in both of those instances And I think there's many more the old texaco station in east allington, which was a very nice development that was done Not a lot of those units add to the overall cost of this community I don't believe I don't have the facts here, but I think people Could probably rationalize you do not have a lot of children living in any of those three complexes So although I like a lot of residential people would love to see a commercial tax rate Like in burlington or lexington or these other communities that along the 128 felt it's never going to happen here So I do support this but I support it simply from A gross standpoint in smart development versus as a goal to try to get revenue The fact of the matter is that residential on a price per square foot brings in more Revenue in this town the commercial space does it. Thank you Did you want to put a motion forward if so you have to do it in writing? Okay, I didn't know I'm sorry. Mr. Monterey. I thought for a simple change like that We could just we could just Well, if you just put it in writing, then we'll get it seconded. Okay. Thank you Mr. Court team I also have a question. Mr. Moderator through you to Ms. Kowalski Let's go ahead, ma'am And my question is Okay, I gotta We organize myself here because I'm Gordon already asked the first question that I had So I'm sorry. I'm blanking The question is about the other parcel that Chris talked about the the Brigham's development And whether or not It would be likely that we would ever allow someone to define as mixed use a parcel on which The majority of what they were building was residential and only a small part was commercial. How are you envisioning? Using this and then the follow-up question is about the relationship of this change to master planning Go ahead. Ms. Kowalski. I'll address that. I'm Carol Kowalski director planning community development I'll address the first part and I think the chairman is going to address the second part of your question One thing you have to bear in mind with the Brigham's parcel On the parking you would still have to have the parking setbacks the parking screening and the The there are landscaping requirements for parking lots of certain sizes. Those would all still have to apply To the Brigham site And I'll let the chairman address the second part of your question. Thank you. Mr. Fitzsimons Thank you, Bruce Fitzsimons chair of the ARV With respect to the master plan That's a significant undertaking It probably takes about two years to go through the process of putting a master plan together Involves community outreach involves bringing people together to talk about various things that are important to them It will inevitably result in some zoning articles Um, but we're probably not Looking at having action on those zoning articles before a town meeting for probably three years And in that time frame development pressures on these sites will continue to take place The clock's not going to stop ticking in the development community on these projects Well, we they wait for the master plan to come into place. So Yes, it would be great to have this as part of the master plan discussion But there's no reason why we couldn't have an incremental step and put this into place now And then come back and incorporate it into the master plan And given that there's no actual projects planned at the moment that would use mixed use What you're suggesting I think is that this would be a tool that we would have in our toolbox When we see what kind of development we want to encourage under the master plan So in other words, we would have control of this because of special permit and and edr That's correct. And you know, I think the fact that we're not seeing a lot of desire to Put up mixed use projects is because it's simply too hard to do so Under the current zoning code where you have to meet both the residential requirement and the business Or commercial requirement So another tool in the toolbox that can be used to help Developers to encourage developers to try mixed use. I think would be beneficial All right, so let me ask you another question then about special permit and edr The um CVS that was built next to the high school Tied into the article Yeah, it does tie to the article. Trust me So What we're saying is that special permit edr for mixed use development protects us from the kind of things that Mr. Loretty is saying would be a danger that we would risk My recollection when we did the CVS development was that There were things that we did not feel like we could require of that property develop Developer even though we were under special permit. Can you walk me back through that process and Reassure me that I'm recalling this correct incorrectly or something sure the CVS property Started up with a much different design than what you see now At one point The store was going to be significantly set back for mass av there was going to be a parking lot in the front yard We were going to have a large pylon sign that might be more appropriate for Shopping center along the freeway as opposed to On mass have so I know that there are critics of the CVS store But I think if you were to start with what was originally presented to the board you'll see that it was significantly scaled back We go through a pretty rigorous design review process We're very fortunate to have an architect and a landscape architect on the board We look at things like traffic circulation Drainage utilities to the site It's really a pretty thorough process and I think it's going to Take out the undesirable elements that You would see I think the The comments that were suggested about all the horrendous things that could happen with this article Gave the impression that developers would be able to do this has a right And that's not the case at all. It's all through the edr process Thank you So really briefly here I want to follow up on what jim d'arty was saying about tax base because I agree with him that we shouldn't be making this Change under the assumption that somehow we're going to get tax property classification But I do think that you should be considering this as a method for doing two things The first of all is To provide us with control of development along the mass have corridor on many parcels And on our other business corridors that would allow us to create pleasing development along the lines of the capital square building which I absolutely love Which we cannot do right now any construction that is new that you would assemble parcels for in those business districts right now Would have to be either completely residential or completely commercial and jim's right. We get a lot of more a lot more attacks Revenue thank you out of Residential use as opposed to commercial use the great thing about the ability to build Mixed use would be that we would get the advantage of a more lively streetscape Expansion of business property in town for all the other things that it brings us more of a sense that we have Community that isn't just a bedroom community More ability for us to buy the things we want to buy in town less having to travel outside of town And at the same time get the tax advantage and the business property owner gets the advantage of Multiple ways of earning income that would be provided by the residential uses that could be above The business properties. So I think if you concentrate on what the capital theater building looks like and those that store block as Something that we can't do in future development But this would allow us to do in future development with the understanding that special permit And edr gives us a lot of control We in other words don't have to allow someone who wants to build a mixed use development that we hate To actually build a mixed use development. There is that no as of right to do so That um, this is actually pretty smart Change. I know we tend to be a little bit conservative about zoning changes, but I think particularly Knowing how long it's going to take us to do a master plan If we don't have this tool in our toolbox now and we decide we want it later We don't know what development could happen in the meantime that we might not like or what opportunities we might miss So I'm in support of this and I strongly encourage you to be so as well Thank you Mr. Fitzsimmons you were next would you speak? Thank you, mr. Moderator bruce Fitzsimmons One very quick point. It's been brought to my attention that in section Seven under the proposed vote It says that amending section 5.04 by adding a new use number 1.14 mixed use And by adding sp for special permit under the columns b1 b2 b2 a b3 b4 b5 Is erroneous in that we we're not going to add it under The b1 district the table that you see that follows is correct Under the bylaw. I'm sorry under the warrant article, but the text in section 7 is incorrect By listing b1 Of course, mr. Doherty will now amend that to add it back in So if I may You want to administratively strike out b1. Is that what mr. Doherty's amendment is trying to do? No Puts it back in. Yeah, okay Okay Well, we'll deal with it when we vote Miss fiori I got you Ted. Mrs. Fiori When I first became a town meeting member these zoning articles never came up in the beginning Like they have over these past few years I think it's unfair to new town meeting members Never mind those of us who've been around for a while To have these all put before us So quickly, but nevertheless, they're here I'm Only not speaking to the article as much as the effects But one of the things I do because I live in east darrington I'm very close to the people in cambridge and I go to meetings of the north cambridge stabilization committee Which is fighting to preserve Some kind of decent life in north cambridge And the same developer has The same project manager is in charge of most of those developments that are now have covered What we had hoped over the years to have a nice open space for wildlife and so forth But besides that This makes me worry because all of the building that's gone down there was permitted eight years ago So what happens is that businesses come along? They get a permit, but then they don't build and then the person who may buy their property Does something entirely different you never know what's going to happen So i'm a little bit concerned about this permitting business ahead of time I personally don't think it's a good idea I might add that I was even offered a couple of plane tickets to go to california So I wouldn't have to listen to the pile driving on route two They forgot that what I really am concerned about and the same thing here is traffic. I haven't heard anything about traffic Not the soil conditions so much here, but I hear nothing about them over there So the citizens don't get their questions answered when the permitting is done years ahead of time. Thank you Thank you, miss fiori Andy O'Brien, thanks jim. Thank you. Andy O'Brien precinct 16 This This warrant Don't know a lot about but from what I've been I've been from what I've been hearing sounds like a pretty good thing I think it's important that we have a chance to work in the town that we live in And there are a few opportunities to do that But I guess my question is Is this a trojan horse to bring in more housing into arlington or is this indeed Something that will bring more business in Is that a rhetorical question or a real question? Oh, it's a real well, it's a real question. I'd like to hear what they have to Yes residential Is there's a lot of pressure in the market right now for residential development We're going to continue to see that pressure whether we Whether town meeting decides to approve this bylaw amendment or not. We'll continue to see that This way though, it's intended that we at least keep we have a way of trying to keep some business use When someone comes to the redevelopment board to convert business use to residential That's the short answer. Okay. Thank you. That's it. Okay. Mr. Stryfeld Mark mr. Jones Allen Allen Jones precinct 14 and in my Day job my wife and I run a very small high-tech very small high-tech company But I've been for a long time a real booster of any sort of Entrepreneurial and innovative efforts I'd love to see more of that in in arlington I'd love to see arlington be the home of the next hub spot or railrunner Or fizzy calc And and it seems to me that this article This change you recognize that the old-timers That that this sort of change might Allow development that'd be more attractive to smaller innovative fast-growing companies And miss kowalski did confirm that there weren't any particular developers Around waiting around the corner for this to happen So I have to think that the planning department probably does have some ideas for economic development activities That would work better if this change Takes place. So mr. Moderator, I'd like to find out if if there are any Plans or even thoughts about how we might take advantage of this change through economic development. Should we pass this? Miss kowalski. Can you address that question? Thank you, mr. Jones Thank you, mr. Moderator carol kowalski director of planning community development We are pretty close to Filling the economic development coordinator position that town meeting approved last year I'm very excited about that and we will be able to then move forward with The economic development component of the master plan. We will also Look forward to getting the final report from the economic development self assessment tool Which is being conducted by the dukkaka center For regional policy at northeastern They worked with us to survey business owners and business landlords in arlington To create a SWAT analysis our strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats for economic development So with that information We will then work with entrepreneurs in arlington Entrepreneurs and technology people in arlington to try to attract and create opportunities for arlington residents to work here to create business incubators here to try to attract the kind of Employment opportunities and business opportunities that this community are well matched with Thank you Okay, mr. Jones And and if I would ask, um, maybe it's not obvious But if if somebody from planning could connect the dots on how this change might promote that sort of uh, entrepreneurial activity Yeah, if we can from here on i'll keep our questions kind of narrowly focused towards the article as opposed to The wonderful things we're going to do in the future But as they relate to this article, yeah Carol kowalski director of planning and community development This type of mixed use Will the incentives are intended to promote to actually promote redevelopment of underutilized lots to create the kind of economic development opportunities and business opportunities that Look like arlington that looked like the kind of places where people with people in arlington with with the skills that this community has Can stay in arlington to create their uh new company or to Work together with peers on new enterprises So it's it's a way of trying to add just enough So that the market will respond to redeveloping underutilized sites so that we can work with Arlington people to get that those opportunities realized in the business component of of these mixed use developments Thank you. Is that all mr. Jones Mr. Rierig Brian Rierig precinct date I rise in support of the redevelopment board's motion on this article And I think we're coming to understand or I'm coming to understand in a way that The specter of the the very sort of obnoxious Hypothetical that that we saw earlier Is is really an impossibility Under this article given the parking requirements And the requirements of environmental design review Um, but I think I am Sensing some members being troubled by the idea that the the height requirement or the height limitation In this proposed zone would be 50 feet and while while I think it's clear that that how that Height availability would get used is the subject of environmental design review Nonetheless the fact that it's there and the fact that something could be 50 feet tall I think it's troubling to a lot of people. So I'm wondering Mr. Moderator if we could get some some input on why A 50 feet was established As a maximum height in this proposed revision How it compares to what's available to a developer Under the existing zoning and and why the proponents thought it was necessary to go to 50 feet As an incentive here 50 feet was chosen in part because Retail usually requires a greater height than residential So you need to provide that on the first floor if that's where the business use is going to go You also need to provide a certain amount of Density to make the project worth doing for a developer if you The information I have from Mixed-use developers in this area is that You need about Three stories above retail to just you know to start to make it to have the the numbers work So we we didn't want to make it so So tall we did not want to make it so short that it didn't get used I've seen mixed-use developments I've mixed-use amendments in other communities bylaws that are so restrictive that After all the trouble of approving them They've never been used and I I didn't want and I don't think the board wanted that to happen here It's your question, sir Okay, thank you Mr. Loretty for a second time You got five minutes this time, sir Just a few of the questions if we could put up that Sketch again that people seem to hate so much. Mr. Good. I'd appreciate it Because I said absolutely nothing about parking in relation to this figure What what I did say or what I should have said is that this bylaw amendment significantly reduces the amount of requirements Parking and since I didn't mention how many units were there or how many square feet of commercial space might be in that Building there's no way to determine whether there's sufficient parking or not Now in terms of of this being a special permit use indeed it is and if I said otherwise I was mistaken and I apologize However, if I were to put on my adult developers hat and go before the redevelopment board And they denied me a permit to build You know up to the limits specified in the dimensional requirements I can take them to court and I would suggest that if I'm not asking for anything special From the redevelopment board and I'm just building to the standards that you are passing at town meeting members I would have a very good chance of prevailing You know, I've sat on that the other side of that board And I am amazed at the power that town meeting ascribes to them. Believe me. It's not there Um The other thing uh, other a couple other things I would like to address is one I don't think mr. Lecourt got her a question answered and I'm not sure mr Um, I'm forgetting his name the person who asked about whether this is a trojan horse for more housing Oh, brian. Thank you. And indeed it is because there is no minimum amount of house of commercial required except that Most of the frontage on the first floor be Devoted to commercial use and that's all that is the only requirement That's not something the redevelopment board gets to determine That's written into the law that you are being asked to pass The other thing I'd like to address is the is the claim that we cannot build mixed use right now And I'd like to read to you from section one sentence from section 5.02 of the bylaw And what it says is and this applies to all of the business districts In the case of existing commercial uses the addition or expansion of residential use within the building footprint Shall not require adherence to setback regulations for residential uses Even if the residential use becomes the principal use of the property So I would question how much this change is really needed and I would question the claim that we can't build mixed use right now The other point I would like to make regards Regarding regarding mr. Dardi's comments He would like to expand this bylaw change of the b1 business district Just so you know if I didn't say it before b1 as you drive up and down the commercial districts in town Our houses they are structures that were built as one in two family homes They're typically used for offices. It might be doctor's offices dentures office, etc Um, so it would allow again in subject to special permit buildings two feet of five stories high and 50 feet high Replacing what had been One in two family homes and frankly that was something the redevelopment board took out after the public hearing On the article based on some comments I made now I see mr. Dardi wants to put it back again. Finally, I do agree with mr. Dardi's comment about the tax base and the Um Potential for the town to get more tax revenue from residential development than business development And again, that's really what this is about. That's why the proposed new use is listed as a residential use in the zoning bylaw Because that's what it is So again, I I appreciate the intent. I appreciate the good ideas people would like to see Foremixed use but I don't see this this article doing it and one of the last points I would like to make is the commercial rents charged in town and how they change when you get a new development Commercial rents vary tremendously from perhaps 10 dollars to 40 dollars per square foot If you put in a new building even if you use that first floor Uh for commercial space you are not going to be getting the quaint Local businesses in there you're going to tend to get the larger national chains Because they can afford the higher rents and a good example of that are the developments We've seen in our linkedin heights if you look at um trader joes for example starbucks or in the One across the street where we have um unleashed and those types of businesses That's what you're likely to find going into these mixed uses the other types of businesses in these startups I I think that's largely a pipe dream and frankly a lot of them. I don't care if we do get a high end Speaker manufacturer, you know, I don't want them replacing cabaret of bakery That is not the type of business that adds to the street life And and I think we really need to be very careful. I would ask you to vote no on mr. Daugherty's amendment and please vote no on this article. Thank you. Thank you, sir um Mr. Deist Motion to terminate the beta The article and all the issues there under all in favor of terminating the blade debate. Please say yes Yes Opposed say no My opinion is a two-third vote Okay, we have before us the recommended vote of the zoning Our elected redevelopment board They want us to make an administrative change to section per end seven Amending our section 5.4. Etc. Etc Near the end by adding sp under the columns b1 b2 B2 a b3 b4 and b5 Um, they tell us that b1 was inadvertently Insight sirted there and their table of dimensional uses Verifies that apparently is it so we will make that administrative change and strike out b1 now Mr. Daugherty has made a motion an amendment to this That says that the proposed vote of the only to redevelopment board be amended by in paragraph 7 adding d1 before b2 So he wants to go ahead and put back in what we just administratively changed. Do I have a second on mr. Daugherty's motion Okay So what we're going to vote on first is mr. Daugherty's proposed motion And depending on how that goes we're going to vote on the vote Is that clear to everybody? Yeah, mr. Judd The amendment requires a majority vote, correct? Correct, sir But the bylaw change requires two-thirds right and that's my job to keep direct to that stuff Yeah, that's well, and I think I do I just want the new town meeting members to be aware of that And hopefully they have a town meeting time And uh, well If I could afford the 25 dollars, but seriously Get to your point. This isn't a continued debate. No, I'm not trying to if this is defeated. It cannot come back for two years Or is it? That's correct. Correct. Mr. Fitzsimmons Miss rice If we vote this down, can they bring it back next year? Not that that has anything to do with the article Next year if the planning board meaning the redevelopment board were to vote positively on it again Okay, so it's not totally dead. Okay, so I'm going to review what we're Going to vote on we've administratively striking the words b2 from article print number seven b1 Excuse me b1 from article print seven Mr. Daugherty has a vote That would insert that back into the recommended vote Is that clear? Yes, all right all in favor of mr. Daugherty's amendment, please say yes Opposed say no That is defeated Now we have before us the recommended vote of the Arlington redevelopment board is printed in your reports with the b1 stricken all in favor. Please say yes Opposed say no In my opinion this is defeated That finishes article seven It brings us to article eight What? Yes, mr. McCabe Mr. Marrider with your indulgence when I was Up here under article four. I made a gross error and I would like to correct it Sure, go ahead John Fitz Morris has been the Measure of wooden bark for many many years. He's also been a member of this town meeting for more years Then most of us and he has served in many other capacities Uh in the town boards committees, etc. And I believe that John has done an excellent job and he's delivered An excellent service to the people of Arlington and I would like to suggest that the the town meeting Thank him by a rising vote of thanks and If you would please that would be my Correction of my error. I forgot to thank mr. Fitz Morris for his service Thank you, mr. McCabe. That's quite appropriate and we do thank mr. Fitz Morris and his Wife patricia before him for all of their service both of their to the town of Arlington That brings us to article number eight. It's quarter to 11. We have 15 more good minutes We have a force a recommended vote of the redevelopment board Oh accessory apartments Is the prerogative to present tonight and have us debate on wednesday? Or should we just do it all in one night? I think so too Yeah We go to number nine Nine's not ready for a vote Bander's on historical sites number 10 Accessory is going to be a lot of debate. Please give us we're just accessory apartments is going to take a lot of debate I don't want to start it if we're going to Adjourn, but I'm trying to think which one we could get rid of in 15 minutes. I'm looking at number 10 maybe Excuse me mr. Warden I'm saying that number eight is going to take a lot of debate and so is number nine's not ready So maybe we're going to table them till wednesday and I suggest we take up number 10 do you think 10's ready? Yes, let's Can I get a motion to table eight and nine? So moved all favor of tabling eight and nine. Please say yes All opposed Ha ha That brings us to article 10 amendment Bannas for historical sites Board of selectmen Oh the arb. I'm sorry arb's recommended vote. Thank you. Mr. Moderator. I'm andy west with the arlington redevelopment board um this article Adds to the text of the general regulations section 703a regarding signs It's a clarification to the bylaw the economic development and scenic Byways committees want to encourage tourism. That's one of that's the reason at town-owned historical sites this additional text Provides confirmation that this is the type of signage that that's allowed while not changing or expanding dimensional regulations So this is to clarify that these signs are allowed and I think As a follow-up Either juliana rice or mike burn may be able to answer Questions regarding some of the specific confusions that have come up that have that have uh Kind of required that this clarification be made I'm said it sir. I'm mr. McKinney article If you will notice one of the things that we are working for is to Have a sign board at the uncle sam park That would a be able to direct Tourists to various historic sites the schwan mill the jason russell house and so on and uh, if there were any prohibitions or limitations on our hope to do this I would hope that this amendment would remove them so that we can do that and place in that Central location a sign or signs that would help tourists and passers-by Know what was available in our town? So I rise in support of this motion and I hope you will pass it Thank you, sir Mr. Loretty Chris Loretty precinct seven sorry for talking so much tonight. I was at the warrant article hearing and when this article came up Um I asked what it what the change actually did Because almost all the words are identical to what's already in this section of the zoning by-law And the development board wasn't sure because the selectman hadn't told them Um, I'm trying to figure out and I'm wondering maybe mr. Moderator. You can direct this question to the zoning enforcement administrator What would be allowed if this by-law changed? That isn't already allowed. I mean because the language in the Article as it stands now talks about any directional or informational signage and this by-law change is going to allow any Directional or informational signage. I guess also promotional signage, but I and it doesn't say anything about banners But that's what the title of the article is so Could I I think there may be some background here that would be helpful to town meeting? like the you know public artwork that wasn't allowed on the On the boys and girls clubs. I'm wondering just what Couldn't be done that somebody wanted to do that they would now be able to do if this article passed Miss rice would that be you or miss kowalski? How does this change what we already have? Thank you, mr. Moderator, juliana rice town council um In my reading of the by-law, um, the only substantive change is that um This proposed change would add a promotional signage, which wasn't explicitly allowed under the existing by-law And it has been The opinion has been given in the past that uh the type of promotional signage That um the tourism committee wished to install for some of the town historic sites was not allowed as a zoning by-law That's not based on any opinion given by me Or by mr. Byrne So but given that confusion It seemed to make sense to clarify that that type of signage would be allowed There are also a couple of internal tensions with the zoning by-law That could provide the basis for a mistaken opinion That this type of promotional signage wasn't would not be allowed under the existing by-law And the way this change is drafted would put to rest any confusion about that point Thank you. Is that any answer to your question, mr. Loretty? Um, I'm so curious what these internal tensions are That's when you get like heartburn. You need a gasex Thank you, mr. Moderator juliana rice town council. Um, one possible internal Tension is with section 703 m which suggests restrictions on the placement of signs authorized for public purposes Which would be these signs otherwise authorized by section 703 a A second internal tension could be Um in section 704 b Which would prohibit banners to the extent they could be called wind actuated And I don't know the exact type of um banner that's being proposed But some types of banners might be viewed as wind actuated And under section 7.11 The first indented paragraph talks about restricting placement of signage on or near national register of historic places buildings And um that tension would also be resolved by the proposed amendment Then does this sign then essentially allow any type of signage that is Um promotional informational and or directional if it's put up by a government agency By a what kind of agency a governmental agency I mean are we giving cart blanch to any type of signage related to us in historical site by passing this article Um either miss rice or miss kowalski. Thank you, mr. Moderator juliana rice town council Um this proposed change would allow promotional informational and or directional signage placed by the town relative to historic sites within the town Um the bylaw currently allows traffic directional informational educational or identification signs owned and installed by a governmental agency This change would pertain only to promotional signage placed by the town When it says town historic sites with a capital t does that imply that the historic site has to be owned by the town of arlington? well, it's it's in But if it's not in the vote is it not outside the scope of the article The answer is questionable. I think about scope Thank you, mr. Moderator juliana rice town council. Um No, there is nothing in this vote that would require the town to own the historic sites The town would merely be placing the promotional signage if in fact The town through its board of selectmen advised by its tourism and economic development committee Determined that it was in the public interest to promote historical sites within the town Thank you, mr. I think it's within scope. I think the word town refers to the town of arlington as opposed to some other town Thank you, or the town word town in general Okay, thank you, mr. Moderator. I Not sure whether I'll support this or not. Again. I support the intention Um, you know, frankly, I think if you look at the signage that the selectmen have put out in front of this building It is not a model that I would like to see used anywhere in town for historic sites or elsewhere And I uh, I have some reservations about I think we are giving carte blanche to them I really would like to see some real proposals for the type of signs that would be used at these historic sites I'm also curious. I guess maybe we'll get into this when we get into the financing about the town paying for Sites for non-profit uses. Thank you Thank you, sir Mr. Leonard Thank you, mr. Moderator. John Leonard precinct 17 question if I could Once these signs are banners or whatever are placed Who is going to maintain them? As we know if you look around the town We have a lot of sun bleached signs of what used to say battle road Paul Revere's ride that you can't even read them anymore My question would be who is going to maintain them? And are they going to be under a time limit of how long it will take that they have to be fixed? Mr. Chapter lane, let's put them up for the first time Who's going to take care of these signs and fix all our other bleached signs? Adam chapter lane town manager There is a warrant article under the finance warrant articles later in town meeting that will be addressed in regards to a request for funding for such signage So presumably any any maintenance or costs associated associated with purchase Or eventual maintenance would have to be requested requested through a warrant article process such as that There's no town department that would currently be assigned or that I would immediately Suggest assessing maintenance of these signs So when these signs fade That that's basically it No, I know I the warrant article as it's posed would it would be a funding source that would have to both May provide for and then eventually maintain those signs I guess the the short answer would be The current proposal does not involve a town department being assigned to to manage the to manage the up to upkeep and maintenance It would have to be considered going forward So there is no set mechanism to replace our repair past signs or future signs Correct Then why are we bothered putting up these things if they're not going to be fixed if they get broken? I think what he's telling you is we'll address it when they fade More or less right mr. Chapter lane Could you say that again, please? I said you you're telling him that we'll address it when these new signs fade just as you're going to address the old faded signs this No, well, I mean I the tourism committee would make recommendations to the board in regards to When signs would need to be upgraded and but there's but there is no I can't say there's a financial plan before the body right now To maintain those signs, okay I think that's your answer mr. Leonard Sounds like we need some kind of a maintenance committee. Thank you, mr. Moderator Next year warrant article signed maintenance committee Mr. Harrington Thank you, mr. Moderator. I would like to make a motion to close debate Name it name a precinct. I need to get used to this. Sean Harrings in precinct 15 Mr. Moderator, I'd like to make a motion to close debate and move the question Do you want to say is I want to motion to terminate debate on the article and all issues before it Say those words what he said No, you're going to learn to do it. It's good today. All right Motion to terminate debate on the motion to terminate debate on the article on the article and all issues before it And all issues before it. This is my first time give me a break That's how you terminate debate a second Okay, we have motion to terminate debate and it's been second at all in favor of termination debate. Please say yes Yes All opposed Debate is terminated. We have No, we're going to vote We have before us article 10 the recommended vote of the arb To put up promotional signs all in favor. Please say yes Opposed say no I so declare by two third majority is a positive vote. Ms. Luccarelli Do you certify that there are 85 members present and voting in the positive? She says yes It's a positive vote You got a motion. What is your point of order now? We're not going to Go ahead I wish to note that all these aisles are far too narrow for safety That's a point of personal privilege. That's a I've already said I'll speak to gregan have him widen the aisles before the next Also, this door needs to be re-hung. Okay Motion motion to adjourn Second it any motions for reconsideration notice is a reconsideration Meeting is adjourned