 Monday, December 19th meeting of the Arlington Redevelopment Board, recorded by ACMI. First up on our agenda this evening is public hearing for EDR Special Permit Docket Number 3523 by Jacqueline Marr for Upbeat Cycling, LLC, and Viola Realty Trust. I apologize if I put you to anyone's names. Regarding change of use to a 3,000-square-foot portion of the building at Sixth Shuler Court, so if the proponent and representatives could come forward, have a seat, introduce yourselves, please. Welcome. Thank you. It's nice to be here. My name is John Marr, and I'm an attorney representing Jackie Marr, the proposed operator of the Upbeat Cycling. With us also tonight is Joss Benelosa, of the firm Brown Benelosa, who will speak to the architectural aspects. I would like to address the beginning, if I may, and also I should add that Mike and Eric Feola, Mike being the trustee of Vale Realty Trust, who owns the property and will be renting subject to the board's approval, of course, of a special permit under environmental design review. Eric, Mike's son is here. He is the operator of Mystic Wide Shop, just around the corner from school court. Jackie, it's my pleasure and privilege to represent her. She intends to bring a vibrant new business to a very much underutilized, actually fairly unattractive, and, but vacant, largely vacant, but prominent part of the major district, major business district, B2A, at the corner of school court at Mass App. We here are seeking relief under, as you know, under environmental design review, potential relief under article eight, zone of parking requirements, as well as the variance for a small tasteful style to add visibility for the business from Mass App. It's important, I think, at first, and I'll be as brief as possible, we're at best the second most important thing on your agenda. We see you have a holiday celebration. We don't need to infringe on that in any way. You all are welcome to come. Thank you. But I think it's important first for the board to understand that what the prior use of the property was, because that impacts your inquiries into what I'm sure is going to be your concerns about traffic management and parking. Prior, until fairly recently, the property was operated as Arlington lithograph owned by the Fale of Family. I met with Michael Byrne, the Zoning Enforcement Officer as you know, Director of Inspectorial Services. We had some considerable discussions about what the parking requirements would have been. There are no parking spots on the site, none are planned, and I want to talk a little bit about that. If you consider what the prior use was, which was light industry printing, the calculations under Article 8 would have yielded a requirement for 17 or 18 parking spots on site, be that you do the calculation either by 75% of the combined employee shift totals, which would have been 25 to 35, even taking a lower number, you would have required 17 spots. If you do it by calculating the square footage, 600 square feet, one spot for every 600 square feet, given that it's over 10,000 square feet, you would have yielded, again, 17 or 18 required spots. Obviously, that did not occur. Based upon my discussion with Mr. Byrne, he had a conversation with your planning personnel. Before I forget, by the way, I really need, on behalf of my client, to thank the planning staff who have been really very, very helpful at every turn in this application, both Jenny and Laura, and my thanks on behalf of my client and myself, I'll go to them. So based upon the discussion, Mr. Byrne determined that it was a pre-existing, non-conforming parking situation. That's reflected in the planning department's written report to the board. And even if you chose not to adopt that determination, we think we have complied with your consideration. We think that we've made every effort to accommodate parking. As you know, this board sponsored at a recent town meeting a warrant article to reduce potentially up to 75% of the required parking spots in a business district. Under Article 4, I'll strike that article, Section 4.1 of the Table of Use Health Club, it would require, given that there were 3,000 square feet, it would require one parking spot for every 300 square feet. If you were to, again, not adopt the building commissioner's determination on pre-existing, non-conforming, you would have the option of reducing it from 10 spots to two and a half or essentially three. We have secured licenses from adjoining businesses for in front of Mystic Wine Shop for the morning classes and from RCN, a scant 0.2 miles away, three or four minute walk to the site, four spaces for the evening and weekend classes. It's important to understand that Jackie's business model is for early morning classes and late afternoon classes. For a large part of the day, as reflected in one of the exhibits showing the projected class schedule, the classes will begin in the morning about 5.30 or so and end about 8.30. And like fashion, they will begin again around 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock and end around 8 or 9. For a large part of the day, there will be no parking associated with the site other than perhaps an employer too, because the facility will be closed. The staggering of these classes was meant not only to accommodate people going to work and getting their workout before work or getting their workout after work, but to accommodate what we certainly understand is sensitivity to the operation of Allington High School across the street. The drop-off time for students is in the morning from about a quarter of eight to quarter past eight. The last class in the morning will end after that drop-off period. And again, in the afternoon, classes, evening classes will be well after the pickup time for students, which is approximately from 2 to 2.45. With regard to, by the way, we did take an opportunity to meet with the school superintendent, Dr. Bode, a couple of weeks ago. We did explain what was intended by Jackie's enterprise and we hopefully addressed her concerns about parking and traffic and how it might impact the high school operations. The sixth school of court is right on Mass Ave, obviously, on Buttson, and you see the 77 and 79 bus routes. There's, in fact, a bus stop at the corner of school of court and Mass Ave. The Jackie will speak in a moment with Board's permission about how she will have incentives for people who are clients who utilize Mass Ave, the bus routes, who walk or take advantage of the Minuteman Bikeway, which has access short distance away on Mill Street. The Jackie intends to, again, provide incentives. She'll speak to that. I particularly commend to your consideration the exhibit one, which is our traffic and parking management plan, which goes into considerable detail as to how those incentives will work. Jackie's business intends to be a good neighbor to the surrounding businesses, particularly to Arlington High School. We think there will be a symbiotic relationship between the enterprise and the high school. There will be employment opportunities for students who wish to become cycling instructors or, and there will be discounts for students utilizing the facility. There will be substantial financial investments, both made by Jackie. We'll talk to that in a moment, as well as the fail of family. We have been working with the building inspector to update the fire suppression systems, the heating systems, and handicap access. I think after, hopefully after you've heard our presentation, you will consider favorably our request for granting of a special permit under environmental design review, as well as for a sign variance. You'll see the sign, proposed sign in one of the final exhibits. And with that, and the board's chairman's permission, I would ask Jackie to tell you about upbeat cycling. Thank you. Thanks, John. So I was John's head. My name is Jackie Mallor. And don't worry, everyone gets my last name wrong. No one ever says it right. So say it however you like. I am a long-term Arlington resident having lived here pretty much my entire adult life with my partner, Lori, who was in the back. We have worked here almost 30 years, been homeowners for over 20 years here. I'm from the Pleasant Street side of the pond. So I'm very committed to Arlington. I am myself an avid cyclist, use the Minuteman Bikeway all the time and the environs around here and an active spinning instructor. I'll tell you more about spinning in a minute. In this business, not only will bring a business that is owned by a local and myself a neighbor, so I'm very concerned about the town. I'll bring diversity to the town as the business will be an LGBT woman-owned business. So I know there's goals around diversity in the town for that as well. Let me tell you a little bit about spinning. I heard Ken speaking about spinning and something out of a cleat of chew or something before we started. Spinning is the name of a, it's actually a trademark term for a very specific kind of indoor cycling. But this is indoor group cycling classes on stationary bicycles taught by certified instructors that are set to music. So spinning itself has been around for about 25 years. To be a spinning studio, you have to do certain things to meet their requirements, certification by their bikes, all kinds of different things. I am opening an indoor cycling studio, not specifically spinning. And specifically I am opening what is called a boutique indoor cycling studio. So boutique has some very specific meanings. So you can go spin in most of your big box gyms anywhere in the country. Boutique is a new and very popular genre of indoor cycling. It kind of is what it sounds like, which is it's a little more upscale, in some cases a lot more upscale. It is, the emphasis is first and foremost put on customer service when people walk through your door. Who has ever gone to a gym and been completely ignored when you've walked through the door. They don't even notice you getting there. So the emphasis on service, creating, what I would call almost a spa-like environment. So instead of having that herbal environment when you get there where you're like, oh my God, I hate going because it stinks and it's intimidating because there's hard-bodied people there. Boutique cycling is about getting people into a pleasant, enjoyable environment that's focused on client service, social engagement with people, other people going to the studio. You have a very high-end sophisticated riding theater. Most spin studios in your gym, you basically have to pull your own bikes over. You have to clean them afterwards. They don't maintain the bikes. It's, you fall out of your pedals because they're not attached correctly. So the real emphasis is creating a sensory experience from beginning to end. It's really enjoyable and my motto is making fitness fun. And basic philosophy is that people don't work out, not because they don't have time, they don't work out, because it's about up there in funness with cleaning your toilets, right? So you don't go because it sucks, you know, excuse my language. So people will come here because it's really, really fun. It's set to music. The classes are always different. The instructors are spectacular. They're trained. They're giving you lots of different classes. So it's really a nice setup. It's the kind of place when you walk in, you're like, wow, I don't wanna hang out here. It's not like going to the gym. It's more like walking into your local coffee shop where you could see yourself spending a little bit of time. So that's kind of what upbeat cycling is about. It's called upbeat cycling because it's all about the fun, having an upbeat positive attitude, making you cheerful, changing your mood. After that lousy week at work, you go in and you ride it off. So this is a very fast growing genre of indoor cycling and fitness. They're popping up all over Boston. Most of you may have probably heard of SoulCycle, which is really the innovator in this space. They started in 06 in New York City and they have just like grown like hotcakes. There's a lot of independent studios that have also opened up in Boston like me. This will be the first and very unique to the Northwest suburbs. The closest one like it is in Harvard Square. There's also one opening up in Burlington out in that adjacent mall to the mall. Not mine, somebody else's. So it's very high end. It's premium. It tends to attract, I would say about 80% women, 20% men. Everybody's welcome, but it's just the genre tends to attract more women. What's great about this is they're very influential shoppers and purchases for their households. So they will bring dollars into the community adjacent businesses like nail salons, hair salons, wine and liquor stores. All these types of shops, restaurants tend to do very well in seeing uptick in their business when indoor cycling studios come around. I can say from personal experience, I used to teach over in Belmont in Cushing Square. And I never used to go over there when I started teaching over there when I go into Boston Body Pilates and where I also taught. We started using the Spirit of Gourmet over there. We got nails done over there. We went to the restaurants over there. All of a sudden it's become a center for activity and that's what I would expect would happen in this case. I'm also going to be, this is going to be a values driven business. The model for a lot of these businesses is to give back to the community. So you attract people in but you also, you have this studio that isn't being used a lot of the times and you just make it available to people for charity rides, if someone's doing the PMC and they want to have some people come in and pay to go and raise their money to do the PMC, use it for various fundraising efforts. So like I said, I have a very strong commitment to Arlington as a resident here. I think this is an ideal place. There's not a lot of people doing this in this immediate vicinity. I've literally been searching for a space to open this studio in this town for almost two years. There is not a lot of space that's the right space for this type of activity. And I believe I found a wonderful space in sixth school or court. So I'm very hopeful that I'll be able to open the studio there. As John referenced, I will be making a very significant investment in that building as well as the family to fit out the space to be this top-end cycling studio and deliver this type of experience to my guests. So it's going to be very unique, very popular, and there's nothing like it in any of the immediate vicinity, I would say in about a four, five mile radius. So as John said, I'm going to talk a little bit about the transportation demand management plan in the third tab. He talked a little bit about it, but I will say that because my open times are when people have the time before after work to come. So it's very much a counter-sickle of business. When everybody else is open in this environment, out there, the banks and the high school, I'm pretty much closed during those times. I'm going to be doing things when it's pretty empty over there. And believe me, I've sat there for about four hours on mornings in the TV bank parking lot, taking pictures and watching people come and go and looking at what the traffic pattern is and looking at it in the afternoon. So it's very counter-sickle to the other activity in the area. We've also made the parking arrangements with RCN and with Mr. Gwine Shop for some additional off-street parking. Excellently located for the buses and other buses that come to town. Obviously, other buses come down into the center and the 67 coming up from All-Life and down from Turkey Hill. So it's very well located. I'm going to be doing a lot of incentives, things like subsidizing T-passes for my staff, trying to encourage them to take the bus. If they're not gonna take the bus, I'm gonna give them a cash incentive to ride their bike to the studio. So anything we can do to take that off, I live pretty nearby. I'm gonna get that bike into a commuter mode myself. We're gonna be adding some covered, secured bike parking both in front. Josh will talk more about that in front and on the side so that people can safely park their bikes. And I'll have incentive programs, little challenges, things that kind of get into people's idea of being more local and green and thinking about health and fitness. So if you live 10 minutes away, I'm gonna be giving people rewards points just like most rewards points you get at Starbucks or something when you buy something. The more times you can show to me that you rode your bike or you walked or you took the bus or your car pulled to something, you're gonna earn points and you can win free classes for building up points, reward points for using alternative means for coming to the studio. So hopefully people will get their teeth into that and look at it as a fun challenge and take some of the weight off of the parking. The other thing is there's an awful lot of people who live right, you know, five minute walks. If you look at the density of Arlington, I don't need to tell you. I mean, five, seven minute walk, there's a lot of people that live in that radius around this location. When you look at the map, this is a really nice central location for the town. It's pretty accessible to almost everybody who lives in town. So, and so I think, you know, we've done our best. I mean, obviously Arlington has its parking issues and its traffic issues, but I think we've taken a lot of really, you know, strong efforts to try to mitigate the effect of that. And because we will be, you know, people aren't coming and parking for three hours. They're coming and parking for their class and maybe a little before time and after time. So there it's gonna be a constant turnover when I'm open, people aren't coming and parking for three hours, they're coming for class, they're coming and they're going. So hopefully that will mitigate some of that as well. So with that, I will hand over to... Josh, thanks so much. Josh Funalosa with Brown Funalosa Architects. I'm gonna orient you to the building a little bit. This, many of you know this corner. There's actually two properties. There is six-schuler court, schuler court, which wraps into the Mystic Wine building and wraps around this gas station up front. That is not part of this property. That's a separate property altogether. So what we're talking about here is this building. It has this gabled kind of Swiss chalet structure on the back and that's attached to a one-story industrial building. There's built in the 40s and that heads back. The first floor is about 6,300 square feet and the basement is about 4,700 square feet. Jackie is proposing to take over about 3,000 square feet on the first floor. As part of this proposal, we're also putting in a new handicapped entrance that's gonna run to the right of this area here, the loading dock and up this side of the building. There's going to be, it's all gonna be covered and there's gonna be covered bike parking in the back here as well as some open bike parking up here. So there'll be six spots in the back and four up here. We're also proposing some signage that you'll see in the elevations for this location right here. It's a free-standing sign. What's the parking for? Sorry. Bike parking. Oh, six spots in the back. Six in the back which is covered and four up. Got it. Yeah, sorry. Six bikes or six racks? Six bikes. I can walk you through. So this is the front of the building. This is a tenant that is unknown at this point. This would be Jackie's Tendency back here. The ramp comes up the side to the bike parking. There's a lobby area, stairs to the basement and the entrance to Upbeat Cycling here. The bike parking is enclosed. The bike parking is not enclosed but it's up on a deck and it's covered. So you access it by? Going up the ramp. You have to go up the ramp to be it. But there is also bike parking here. There are four spots here. Gotcha. So it's be on. You can go to the park, you can go to the covered area. Otherwise you can park up here. So other than the ramp, there's no addition to the building. It's just a ramp to get into the door there. That's right. Do you lose the tree because of the ramp? No. Where is the tree referenced to the? I see pictures. I don't have it on plan. It's presumably to the right of the bank rack. Yeah, it's on the neighboring property. So this picture, these pictures might be more helpful to see larger. The ramp's coming up here. That's right. So it's right to the right of it. And the bikes are beyond the door. The door's right, kind of looks like not quite two thirds of the way up. That's right. You've got the bike parking after the door. So the door is going into the second bay here. Okay. So that's at the end. Sixth schooler court is a two-way street, but it's effectively a dead end. There's some administration, school administration parking back here, but it's not a through street all the way around. This is the exit only from the high school that comes up here. It comes into Mass Ave. There are three residences here. If you go down to Schuller Court, do you, the public could go around, circle around? You can't actually. You get stopped. There's a gate. So wait in that little turn around there where you're going to. Yeah, I think it's right here, but it may be right there. You can actually go all the way around. That's not in the back. There's like one part that pathway is blocked. No vehicles can go in that. I'm sorry. You can actually go all the way around. You can go around the building, but not in that part that where your pencil is. If someone drops off, do they just turn around? Yeah. Where? Up there. Now you're usually going down by the high field up there. There's a little turn around right there by that upper field. Right there. Right there. Yep. That's what I thought. You can go down there and turn around. Yeah, there's a lot. Well, I mean, not on a game day, but it's usually okay. The proposed elevations, you have a signage, some signage info in the back of the packet as well, I believe. In tab five. This shows the signage in elevation. Here. That's what was here. The signage itself, yes, is in tab four. Is there elimination for the signage? There is, yeah. What is the terminology? It's residential-style landscape lighting from below. So it's grown up? It's grown up? Yep. This is the covered access, handicapped access up to the ramp that comes up and the bike parking beyond where the can be over it. That's how much it is. These are the... So where's the sign exactly? So the sign is right here. We're at fun of that. Okay. Okay, and this shows it as kind of in front of the... That's right. It's a freestanding sign. Yeah. Yep. Is there concern about this kind of wayfaring confusion there? Well, actually, that's... Given that it's in the back and this kind of... I know if I saw that sign, I'd head right to that door right there, right? That would be the... The goal is to actually bring people past that door. So to get people past, and then this is going to be tumbled concrete favors, so walking up this way. The problem is that the driveway, or it's not necessarily a problem, but the driveway here, we didn't want to pinch down this zone. And it's actually a pretty narrow driveway next door. Yeah, I'm just wondering whether you need just an arrow or something there. We'd probably have some arrows and also something like back there on the awning or something we haven't worked on exactly. Oh, you're going to have an awning back there? There's going to be an awning and... Well, that's the canopy. Oh, there's going to be a canopy the whole way on the ramp. Yeah. Okay. My understanding of the bylaws, you can do directional-type signs. So we'd probably figure out what kind of direction I'll just sign to give people of this way type of thing. We might even do something like, if it's permitted, just even a little stencil painting on the sidewalk that says kind of this way. What about lighting? Do you have any wall packs or some sort of light up that move? I see there's a nice advantage of having a little courtyard there that you sort of have set up in front of that loading dock there. So this area, yeah, this area, I actually, frankly, I'm not quite sure about lighting up here. We haven't sort of come to terms with that yet, but we are lighting the sidewall back along the ramp. Can we talk about, maybe encourage you guys to put some sort of lighting there? Just I think having sort of a little courtyard kind of atmosphere that could be very nice there, that would be a nice way of inviting people around the corner and down. And it's part of the, you know, that's the style of your experience. Absolutely. I'd very much like to see some nice like pathway lighting. They could be little solar lights, like to put in the yard that, you know, get some sun and depending if those would work or just some low level LED lighting that lights the pathway. The pathway because you don't want the neighbors that live there don't want to see the bright lights. Yeah, I would do something low that's like pathway lighting, you know, when the lights go out on an airplane. I think you need something though, especially since your classes are going to be early in the morning or later in the day, which at certain times of the year, either way it'll be dark. Yeah, absolutely. So, I noticed you don't have any showers. I don't mean to cut you off. Definitely. Okay. It's pretty common for studios that are located outside of, you will find like in Boston studios having showers, but they still won't have a big locker room set up. They'll have like three single restrooms and there'll be a shower in them for people who really, really have to. This is more along the model that you would see in yoga studios and Pilates studios and smaller dedicated type of fitness spaces where they would typically outside of downtown Boston not have showers. I will be doing some nice amenities. There will be some individual packet wiped down, you know, nice smelling wipes that you can use to kind of wipe things down. Some hairdryers are just drying off powders, nice soaps and hand lotions in the bathroom. So things that people can do to clean up a little bit. Typically what is going on though with the studio in a location like this is that people are coming before work. So they're throwing on sweats, they're coming down to the studio, they're going to class, they're heading back home, showering, getting ready for work, going to work, or they're coming on their way home and they come, they go to a class, they go home and have dinner, shower, whatever, afterwards. So. I belong to two gyms, one in Arlington, one down near my capel. And when I have a workout, I'm gonna wear a shower afterwards, but it amazes me how few people shower now after their workouts. It sounds counterintuitive, but people taking showers after workouts are the exception, it never used to be that way. But if you belong to a gym, you'll notice that in fact, it's the custom now. People prefer to go home and clean them, okay? Mike? I don't have much. Just, so the garage door for now is gonna stay the same, the loading dock is not gonna change. Pretty much the front, other than taking this, looks like this little piece of the iron fronts down, putting the sign, and then I think you set a bike rack over there as well. That's right. So the sign is up front and then the bike rack behind it, or something? It's, and plan, it's sort of adjacent that the sign actually creates, fills in, so this is the bike parking right there. Oh, got it, okay. So we take out this front piece of iron fence and three or four feet back, or four feet back, and put the sign post in. Okay, and the lighting on the sign again is up lights? It's ground up lights, yes. Up lights, okay, ground up lights. And yeah, so, because there's no tenant as of yet for the front of the building, a lot of that is reserved for that tenant to make those decisions. That's for me in the right hand. I just restate what I said before earlier, and I would encourage to maybe accelerate that little loading dock courtyard a little bit more. I realize the left half of, in the back half of it is for tenant in front of it. But along that side there where you have the brick paveway and the shrubs, maybe some sort of lighting, or some sort of thing that you sort of, as soon as you come around that corner, but you see something going on, it sort of draws you down. Sounds great. I think it's an opportunity to do something that could draw you down that way a little bit more. It's my strong desire to make it a very attractive entryway that's quite obvious, depending on the space, maybe some a planter or something. I've also talked with the fails about, at least until there is another tenant to attract some attention and make it kind of noticeable and festive to use some of that left hand part of the front courtyard. We put some outdoor tables and colorful umbrellas just so when people get out of class in the warmer weather times to be able to go out and congregate and be outside in the fresh air. I'm not serving any food or anything, I'm not asking for a permit for that, but people do like to just kind of after class have a little chance to stand around and talk a little bit and that would be attractive. It's certainly from that intersection would signal to people, wow, there's something fun going on there. Nothing's been going on there for a long time or something going on there now. And it is also, we've also discussed painting the building, just to differentiate it from the decrepit gas station on the corner. Everybody thinks it's the same building and it's not and so it would very much distinguish sixth school or court from that property on the corner. And then my last question is how do you manage your trash? Is it through the back way or through the front or a storage somewhere or I'm not assuming you have much trash. Yeah, there's not gonna be a lot of trash. We'll have recycling containers so if people have containers that they need to recycle. I am selling no bottled water on premises. I will be using filtered refrigerated water and encouraging people to bring water bottles or buy water bottles to refill and not create waste. So I won't be having, unless they bring them with them, they will not have that waste. So I'll have some cleaning supplies and things like that. And I saw on the proposal that all laundry will be done on site so you won't have a linen truck coming back and forth every week. Yeah, it really works out and you have reception staff and while people are in class you toss towels in the laundry and take it out and fold it and it's all just. Where would you store the trash cans in? I'm still like. Where would I, that's the loading dock. The shared loading dock right here, I think you might. So you put it up front? Yes, yeah. It's not in view, it's inside right here, right? It would be inside. It's in that separate space. Blue area there, that's right here. So that's a communal space then, you said? Yes, it's a serving space. For both tenants. Right. And the trash cart, it would just come to the loading dock, open the door and take the trash and close it back around. Well, apparently when, I like to look at the wrappers in business, we would just put our trash barrels on the street. On the sidewalk in the town with this whole, you know, because they would do the pickup on Wednesday and they would just put the trash in that way. We never had a truck pull up through the loading dock. So the town always just picked it up in the street. Does the town pick up business trash? Yeah. You have to buy commercial stickers. Okay. All right, no problem. From the town, and they're like $1.50, and you guys slap the order sticker onto the bag and just put your tax. So you just, so you just push it out to the front of street for pickup then. Exactly. And you're home to get your house. Okay. Good. I just didn't see any. Yeah. No, it's a good question. Yeah. I'm all set. You asked my question. Okay. It looks good. I just had some questions about the transportation domain management plan and parking. And first of all, I think you're doing a lot of interesting and positive things trying to get people out of their cars. So thank you for doing that. The struggle, isn't it? I guess I'm not as, I'm not that concerned about, well, I'm not concerned at all about the lack of on-site parking, both because of the agreements you've reached with the two nearby businesses to share their parking, but given kind of the timing of your classes, there is a significant amount of on-street public parking available within a couple of blocks. So that doesn't really, I'm not concerned about that. One thing, you do have, if I was counting correctly on the plan, you could have more than 30 people in a class. Yeah, 30, 32 people. And if your TDM plan is really successful, you only have space for 10 bicycles. So what happens if more people ride their bikes? Well, we would make efforts to accommodate that in some other ways. If it looked like we were starting to have an issue with the shortage of bike parking, then honestly, what I would do is I would talk to the fails and say, what can we do to create some more bike parking? I will be taking some storage space in the basement for things, just like cleaning materials and things like that and spare bikes. And it's possible we could create a little bit of space down there. There is a freight elevator. It could potentially let people park some bikes down in that. Is there also available bike parking at the line shop? Behind it, so in the building and in the Lone Dock area, that's a fairly large space. And there is enough room to store several bikes in there as well. And also in the front of the building where on the other side where there's a lot of iron fences. We have no problem opening that up where Jackie was asking about putting in tables. We have no problem adding bike parking in there as well along the side of the building. And then there's also, on the backside of my store, there's a, there was a greenhouse, there's plenty of space for us if we had a bike rack that people could put a bike rack so we could have the support Jackie's business. Okay, great. I mean, I'm glad you're thinking about it because I want you to be very successful with what you're trying to do here. I would love it if we had a problem that's why I'm not more than 10 bikes up there. I would be so thrilled. So about that, I'm a cyclist, but I don't do spinning. So is it common for people to bike to their spin class? People do what's convenient for them, just like any other type of workout. So I go to evolve fitness down behind the Whole Foods and there's always three or four bikes parked there. So it depends where you live and what your habit is and where you're coming from and where you're going to. But, you know, people follow the path of least resistance. So what I'm trying to do with incentives and raising their awareness about being green or like kind of trying to hook into that sense of, yeah, I just drove like five minutes and then created, you know, I had to put a parking side here. Why didn't I just ride a bike down here? Why didn't I just walk? So I'd like to do some fitness tracker, you know, challenges, counting the steps you do to get to the class. And once it becomes a habit, you're like, well, it's not really that big a deal, walking seven minutes from my house to go to the, you know, but people do what they're used to doing. So that's what the incentives are about, is trying to get them dislodged from their everyday habits of taking the car everywhere and thinking about it. I notice there's a lot of relying on some people taking selfies to prove what they did. So I'll be curious to see how that, how that works. Yeah, and I'm gonna be working on it. I mean, honestly, it's a, you know, trying to be creative about incentives. And so I'm going to be trying things out and seeing what works and trying to provide not only incentives, but a sense that there's accountability. Because obviously if they just say, well, I drove there and I told them I walked. I mean, that's not good for me. That's not good for the town. It's not good for any of this. So last thing was on the employee incentives. And so you thought about a transit incentive by game walking incentive and then sort of another incentive of people have to take taxis or something like that. Right, so if someone might say, well, I don't have a bus where I am. I'm gonna hop an Uber to get over there. I'm gonna give them a cash incentive for taking other. So it's like, well, getting money, getting a subsidy on my T-pass doesn't help me. Then I'm like, well, I'll give you just another incentive. But it's one or the other. I'm not gonna pay for part of your T-pass and give you a cash incentive to help cover some of your other transportation. So you might wanna think about that a little bit because that actually kinda mirrors a weakness in the federal government's methodology for tax incentives for businesses that provide either transit or bicycle commuter expenses. Right now you can't combine them. So if someone were gonna do a multimodal commute, like if you had an employee who lived in Boston somewhere and took the red line to Alweyfe with their bike and then rode their bike to your studio, they have to pick one or the other. And it can vastly, giving people an incentive to do a multimodal commute can vastly extend the reach of the distance that people can choose to commute in order to get to your business. So if you wanna be really cutting edge in your TDM plan, you might wanna think about how to allow people to combine both transit and biking. Okay. That's a great suggestion. One great thing about being a small business is people are gonna know when they're working for me that they can always just come say, gee, what about X? So if I see somebody who is having that kind of commute, I'm gonna, that's something that's gonna be very easily be a conversation. I love that suggestion. Thank you. All right, thank you. I think you deserve to be commended for the TDM plan. I think David's suggestions are good, but this is, I like the innovation of it. I like the creativity behind it. I like the project on the whole. I like the use of kind of an interesting building in town and repurposing something that's been emptied for some time. So it's all to be commended. Questions from the public, if any? All right, turn it back to the board. I'll move to approve the application for special permit EDR docket number 35236 Schuller. I've been pronouncing as Schuller this whole time. I'm going to go to the board with the general and special conditions that's set forth in the director's report, including the TDM and drawings set forth in the application for special permit dated November 22nd, 2016, as amended by additional plans provided the night here. I second that. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Did you need to vote on the sign? Since I think it is a variance from the bylaw, but that's over there. That is one little area. So in your presentation, you said that there would be a sproom on the sign for the second tenant, but in the exhibit, I wasn't sure where that was going to go. But there would be one more tenant or two. I just saw a space in the plan for one additional tenant. Who's the first in the answer? Yeah, I think actually the... I don't think that's known, but going on there's... Well, I don't think that's known. Who happened to have only one of those tenants? I don't see what really happened. What really happened is that you may have three tenants a second standing sign. I'm more like, just the one I think is... So in the bylaw, you can just one free standing sign in that district. So you'd need to think about, in your presentation, you said there would be a room for the other tenant or tenants, I suppose, to be able to list their business on that sign. But the drawing, I suppose, I wasn't really clear about it. I just wasn't clear if there was something... Yeah, there wouldn't be room for another tenant's information on that sign. My understanding based on the bylaw in reviewing that is that I believe this board has the ability in this zoning district to issue special permit on number as well as size and positioning of signs. But under the bylaw, it seems that there's one free standing sign and should you choose a free standing sign, then you can also have a sign on the building but of a certain size. So if you see the front of the building, there is an existing sign on the front that says Arlington lithographic. Yeah, the other tenant could have that. Yeah, they could have that. I do not intend to use that space. They could use that space. They could potentially also have awning sign. And you could also have the direction of sign still on the building as well in that area. And they could also have some sort of stenciling on their door to the glass door. So because I think we approved all the plans including the signing plan, I think you're fine. All right, fine. I also want to second what Andrew said. I think this is a great application. And the whole shared parking, transportation is well thought out, something that we really ought to take as an example here. And so, I mean, you're really preaching to the choir here on things like making arrangements with some of the other businesses. I know that might have been a little easy because of the daily connection, but nonetheless, that's exactly where we're going on a lot of the things that we've been talking about in the town and the master plan is creative ways to really, really reduce parking that are real actionable items. So I really commend you on that. And I think it's a great application. Looking forward to it. I have no idea how hard it is to find appropriate space in this town for everything's a bit like 15 or 17 feet wide. So it was an incredible find. To the failings. What do you expect to put in the other tendencies? No, in the last three or four years we've happened, probably 40, 50 people come walking through our doors picking cars, arranging everything from the cafe to some sort of education incubator space. So who knows? This may trigger something. I mean, it'd be nice if they spurred it along. There's definitely businesses that would be complimentary, including other fitness businesses, especially, like I could see some yoga or Pilates or something like that in the rest of the space, where they wouldn't be competing with each other. What would you expect to open? I probably have a good three months minimum of build-out that would be required. So at this point, I'm looking at some time in the spring. I wish the best of luck to you. Thank you very much, members of the board, and planning staff. Have a nice party tonight, and season's screening, and happy holidays. Thank you. David, you have a great party. Are you allowed to bring bikes in the red line? It depends on the hours. Not during rush hour, right? But early in the morning, it could work or later. So it can work with the schedule, as far as employees getting to and from. Or you can bring folding bikes anytime. But you could also have someone who could permanently park a bike in the secure bike parking at Ale Life and just leave it there, and go back and forth on the tee to their home. Yeah. Well, they can put it on the bus in front of the bus Yeah, they could do that, too. There's lots of options. Yeah. But frankly, once you're at Ale Life, hop on the bike back and just ride right up here. That's what I would do. That's what I would do, too. Yeah, no, no. No stops, just go. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm getting. We'll be seeing you in the play. Well, great. Thank you so much, really. Is SoulCycle also a boutique, or is that a different animal? They are. They are. They're in that two-teeth genre. I mean, they were kind of the innovator in this, and they've done just a magnificent job. I'm hoping they don't come here, or at least don't come within four miles. But I think it would be hard for them, too, considering how long I've looked for space. It would be really difficult for them to find something unless they use their power to find something. But I could see them coming to Harvard Square or something like that. I mean, they're out in Chestnut Hill. They opened their spot down by MGH, and they're opening in the seaport. But I think they have a lot of different communities to, I think the communities they go after are, I would think, just Arlington wouldn't necessarily hit their radar screen at this point. I mean, they're going a bit, I can see them in Wellesley. They're in Chestnut Hill. They go for the lifestyle type malls and kind of pre-existing commercial spaces. So I think it would be hard for them here. But they're great for demand because they raise demand and awareness of the genre. And then people are like, I want to do that, but I don't want to pay 35 bucks a ride to do that. Right. All right, well, good luck. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Will. Thank you. Congratulations. Good luck. Thank you. Happy holidays. So with that, I will close public here at EDR Special Permit Talk at 3523 and move on to Arlington Center for the Arts Fundraising Update, remembering and understanding of the ARB. We have Linda Shoemaker here, who's the Executive Director of the Arlington Center for the Arts. And we've been having conversations monthly, as you know. So she's here to provide you with a quarterly update. All right, welcome, Linda. Nice to see you again. Thank you. Nice to see everybody. And hello, David. I think this is our first time meeting. Nice to see you. I have something for everybody with our update. And a lot of things to see. I underplanned by two. So, yes, Jenny saw this earlier. Probably the biggest news and the proudest news of the moment today is that, to this point, ACA has raised over $150 in cash and pledges towards our capital campaign. And this puts us ahead of schedule, surpassing the benchmarks that we had projected for January. Still a lot of end of year money coming in. There was $6,000 in the mail today. So this is really, we've really built some momentum. And we're really looking forward to reporting what the real number is when we get to January 31st. So that's going along really well. The other big piece of work that we're in the middle of right now is ACA is submitting an application for this major grant from the Mass Cultural Council, the Cultural Facilities Fund. We're going to be asking them for $300,000, which we think is going to be half of the cost of the project. We filed a letter of intent in November and moving forward with the final application, which is due in mid-January. Definitely don't want to count this chicken before it's hatched, but we think we will present a really compelling case. They know we're applying. They understand what's happening with the Arlington Center for the Arts. They're actively considering Arlington's application for cultural district status, which is another program of the Mass Cultural Council. And I think they're thinking about both those things together. I think they really want to see this happen. So we feel optimistic about that grant. We won't know the results. They'll make their decision. We'll hear in June. And as you know, we're out of the Gibbs in June, at the end of June. So the timing is not ideal, but if we get it, it's perfect because we think that we'll be ready to meet the match by then. So other upcoming things, I thought we'd love to have you join us, if you can, for ACA's next fundraising event, which is Gala Fundraiser in January, January 28th. You've got a little Save the Date card in your packet. And we are excited about that. That's the first time we'll be holding a Gala event at Town Hall, which might be a little preview of how we'll do things going forward now that we won't have the theater over at the Gibbs space. That'll be good event space for us. And we're excited to try that out in January. The project planning is moving along. We are just about to release RFP for architect and design services after the turn of the year. And the last thing you've got in the packet is our little annual report on a page, which kind of summarizes the notable events of the year and some of the facts and figures about the year at ACA. I think we all feel really proud of the fact that we've come out of what was really a challenging and difficult year for the art center with actually one of our best years ever in terms of participation and revenue and fundraising and programming. So trying times sometimes raise us up. And I think that that's what happened for ACA this year. We're excited about the next six months and meeting our fundraising goals before we move out of the Gibbs in June. So any questions for me? Anything more I can tell you? So the grant is all or nothing? It's all or nothing. And it's a match. So you've got to raise it to get it. Right. If we get 300, we need to raise the 300 before any of that is released. OK. Yep. So one of the requirements of the grant application that Linda and I had discussed is the need for some. You have to show or demonstrate that you have a leasing arrangement. And so the deadline is when again in January? 13th. January 13th. Technically, the MOU says by January 31st to meet that fundraising goal. So the question is, if acceptable for the board, if we could maybe accelerate a conversation about a lease or something else because they've met that goal and if there's any way to reconvene that subcommittee, for example, although timing, I know, is everything. But it would be that the subcommittee was myself and Adam, town manager, and Mike. And we could discuss, again, if there's anything else that we need to address before moving forward and committing because the requirements of the MOU have now been achieved. So that was part of the intention of having Linda explain to you where she's at with her fundraising goals today. I'd suggest that that subcommittee meet you if it's via conference call. Just go over the particulars and put that on our next agenda. OK. Yeah. OK. Great. Not to add any more content. You and Adam might. No, it's us. We could do public information. Great. Good. I'm glad to hear it's been so successful. Congratulations. Thank you. And thank you for coming to the ribbon cut. That was fun. You're welcome. You're welcome. Great. OK. Thanks, everybody. OK. Yes. We have these downstairs. Yeah. OK. Thanks. Jenny, 2017 meeting schedule. Oh, OK. So in your board, I think there's just one small change that we flagged, which was in the last schedule that you have approved or reviewed and approved. Labor Day was on here. And we've moved that meeting date in September. Correct? That was the only thing. So September 11th was around the meeting date. All the Monday holidays tend to wreak havoc with the schedule. Yeah, even there's some time when you've had two weeks in a row and if we don't need two weeks in a row. And we adjusted the February and April vacation to accommodate those two vacations. We didn't get the Labor Day one. That's the only change. All right. So the February and April ones were already good. Yeah. I think previously I was not sure about that. I may have said we didn't adjust for it was Labor Day. And your report? OK. And my report. So very briefly, we have identified somebody to become the next conservation administrator, as you know from previous reports. Cory Beckwith will be ending for tenure with the town actually December 30th. And we're still working on sort of to be announced the conservation administrator who will hopefully be starting the week of January 3rd. So I'm just letting you know about that. That's to be announced, still no names yet. You already heard about the update on the application to that we're working on with Linda. And Linda actually, ACA would be the lead applicant, not the town. But I'm providing support to her to make sure that she has all the appropriate materials to be filed. I've reported previously on two CPA applications. Both of them have moved forward and are of course awaiting review. I'm going to be for Whittemore Park and then for the historic resources inventory. Those were the two applications filed by our department in concert with other groups. And then the Mass Preservation Projects Fund is something that we're going to go back to again, either for central school building, for all the work that we've talked about doing for the senior center, or for the interior, some of the issues that we wanted to address on the interior of the Jefferson Cutter House. I'll be coming back in January to talk with you about that. Just wanted to flag that for you. And then a number of things just related to January that I wanted to flag. One is the residential study group has created a survey that we're pretty much in the process of finalizing at this time. That would go to homeowners and builders or contractors in areas where there are known tear downs that have occurred or new homes have been constructed. And the idea of the survey is to understand the different, potentially differing perspectives of owners versus builders around potential neighborhood impacts and the things that need to be addressed as part of, we've been talking about this good neighbor bylaw, that again, will come back later in January to you. So the residential study group has the survey. I'll share with you the final survey once I have it has yet to be completely finalized yet. So that was something I wanted to share. I guess just with Mike departing from the board, we've been getting resumes from people. The deadline for that is January 1st. And then we are hoping to interview people quickly thereafter. And then there will be another appointment. So you hopefully will not be short a member just to let you know. And then I didn't know if you wanted to report on any other news around other changes that might occur with the board or? Not at this time. Not at this time. Get it. So the housing production plan we talked about last time, the implementation committee. We're going to come back in January also with a plan for how that implementation committee might look, who might serve on it, and ask for your feedback on turning the Housing Plan Advisory Committee into an implementation committee. That was sort of the next step in that housing production plan to get it implemented. And then last thing is just in January, I think I've postponed this for a while and I think Ken, you flagged it, maybe the last meeting, which is we'll have a conversation about all of the capital planning, the ARB properties, and then the various budgets for FY 18. Not the January 9th meeting is my intention. So at the moment, I think that's where we stand for the January timeline. So do you have? And the warrant articles. And the warrant articles. Yes. Then I do have one question on the warrant articles. Yeah, sure. You brought up some changes based on your feedback on changing some FAR to encourage more multi-family housing in certain areas. And when is that going to come around? Because the town meeting is in April, right? So we don't want to be rushed because we want to get enough feedback. Those will come back in January. The warrant closes at the end of January. So we'll have to decide whether to insert any article by the end of January 28th. 23rd, I think, is yours. So we'll have a discussion about that before then. We don't have to discuss the panel language until after that, we just have to determine whether we want to put the placeholder in to get to that point, heading into town meeting. And then we'll have a public hearing in March. That's right. I do have one thing I do want to add to it, maybe. OK. I just want to bring it up to the board to think about is, I notice there's a lot of non-conforming sites. These are single-family houses that are non-conforming in Arlington. Lot size, you mean? Yeah. And no, not necessarily a lot size. But let's say it's a non-conforming site based on either lot size, or frontage, or various reasons. And I just wanted to, I would like to maybe talk about entertaining something where we allow something for it to be, if the house is so far gone that we at least can rebuild the house on the exact same footprint, square footage, and set it back to everything else. But you get a newer building instead of one that's sort of falling apart because you can't renovate it properly because of it being non-conforming. Something I just want to bring up. I'm not sure is it here to bring up, or a subcommittee, or with Jenny? Yeah, we can follow up the discussion. Do anybody have a question about that? OK. Just some preliminary feedback for you on the two redevelopment board projects, or the two projects from the CPA. I think the Wedmore Park one is challenged with the committee. And I think the historical inventory is viewed from my gauging of the initial reaction was viewed favorably. So just to kind of, I think there's some landscape architects on the committee. There's a lot of historic preservationists. So with respect to the, when they see a plan for a historical park, they have thoughts right away. And so I think that one might be a little bit more challenged, just so you know. OK. And can I ask about the Melbroke, the Mystic River Worship? I think people thought that was really, really well. You mean the Linear Park pilot? Yeah, I guess you can call it that. I think that's what they were calling it. It's the Mystic River Worship Association. They called it a pilot linear park. Pilot linear park? OK. And it was, based, it's the wrong word, but focused on Wellington Park back there. And I think it was received very well. I think it was a really nice application and really well put together. Once again, first impressions, we just kind of all read them and kind of gave impressions. And that was my sense for it. What is that? Is that trying to close a Mystic River Worship? Trying to open it, I think. It's an area that is owned by the town, but the river is practically invisible there. You can't even see it. And then there's an area even farther back, where there's like a bridge back there. It's like a wooden bridge. You can't really see it or get to it easily. So it's to make it more usable. But it's not connecting an existing path. Well, it's hard because there's private property to the west. I was curious, because I know the Mystic River Watershed Association has been working with Louisville Street's Alliance on their Green Links idea, just trying to identify and find ways to bridge existing gaps in the path network. So I think this is part of that. But think of it as there's this much of a gap. And this is going to do this much right in the middle, just to try to, at least that's the way it's written. It's a process. It's a process. So this is the first of the, I think, is to test it out. And you'd like it. You should take a look at the application. It's online. You'd like it a lot. Yeah, I know. I've kind of been involved with that. Have you? Good. OK. And there is an area that is owned by this condo association. Yes. I think that they're going to try to test. They've gotten good permissions from them. Yeah. I mean, they've obviously been in contact with them, too. So I mean, you probably know more than I do on this. So let's encourage it. Anything else? No, any questions for me? Any other comments? One last one on the ACA lease, I guess, would be the only thing is, I forget, we never got to the, they never commented on a lease. Did they? They provided it in their proposal. Did they? They had comments on the lease, and we accepted. Or we acknowledged many of the things that they had asked for. OK. So we have to actually put together the lease. Absolutely, but we did do some legwork. OK. And getting old, I forget exactly what happened, so. I understand. You said I understand a little too quickly. Well, I do. What just one last thing back to the CPE, the Community Preservation Act Committee. I am meeting with Clarissa and Eric, actually, this week, to talk about the planning and community development department's involvement in reviewing any applications providing feedback. They're really looking for that, so yeah. That's something that we will be doing just a minute. Great. Minutes from our last meeting. I didn't see anything. I'll move to approve the minutes. I'll second. December 5, 2016. All in favor? Aye. So the agenda says adjourn and reconvene, but we should actually recess and reconvene. I'll move to recess and reconvene. I'll second that.