 Good evening. This evening, we're going to be company and hit that This evening, we have the art met monotony minute man gentlemen Please rise whenever you're ready this evening. We have giving the invocation Reverend Diane Wong of St. John's Episcopal Church Reverend. Hello everyone So during the time of invocation you may close your eyes You may bow your heads. You may take deep breaths You know Mike's not working too good Something that you do to help you focus and centered Reverend that Mike's not working good. Can you move to one of the others? Yeah, thank you So as I said earlier during the time of invocation you may close your eyes You may bow your heads. You may take deep breaths Whatever you you know something that you do to help you to focus and to be centered God of wisdom and love We thank you for the many blessings of our lives our friends families and homes We thank you also for giving us opportunities to serve and to better the lives of others To keep our time and days meaningful and purposeful So we thank you for gathering us here tonight When we can serve this town and its residents and make Arlington a better community for all As we deliberate and vote tonight, we ask that you will give our leaders Inquiring minds and discerning hearts wisdom and love So they will be responsible and carrying stewards of the resources you have given this town and Will and will use them especially in the area of education In ways that benefit not only this generation, but the many generations to come And whether old or young they will feel that we have that best interest at heart We ask that the decisions of our leaders will help make Arlington a pleasant and vibrant place in which to live to raise families and to do businesses and That will we will become known for our respect for everyone here and wherever we go What you ask us to decide on tonight may be challenging So I ask that you will assure all of us especially our leaders of your presence and guidance and that our decisions Will reflect your love for all people Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Good evening Welcome to the 2016 annual town meeting of Arlington. It's our 209th our first being held in 1807 and this is our 79th as a representative town meeting the first in 1937 For procedural guidance, we're going to follow town meeting time and our bylaws If you're on a copy of town meeting time, please see me at the break will arrange for that Please remember to abide by the 48 hour rule all substitute motions and substantial amendments to those motions Must be submitted in writing as you see in your chairs By placing a signed copy on the chairs and providing two originals to the moderator no later than 48 hours before we're going to speak about it We also have an town member email distribution list, which if you're on it You'll see in a whole bunch of stuff in the last Day and a half if you want to join that list go to the town meeting members town meeting web page Halfway down. There's a spot to sign up Out of consideration to your fellow members and to allow full debate Please keep your remarks as concise and brief as possible so that all members have a fair opportunity to speak Please hold the sage advice of mr. Dory the end over his former moderator who said about three minutes is enough After five minutes you put them to sleep and after seven minutes they're going to vote against you even if they agree with you Seven minutes is our time limit. I hope we don't have to fall asleep too often You have the right to request additional time if you think you need it But you have to do it before you start to speak and then it's up to the meeting to grant you that time. Don't bet on it It's not always given We all appreciate the level of civility of the focus thoughtful and well those livered debates of the last few years Let's keep it up this year You've all been issued a uniquely coded and numbered handset your clicker It's supposed to have a screen running up there. I don't know where it went We use only three keys on the clickers number one is yes Two is no and three is abstain Don't ever turn your clicker off don't ever be touching that bottom left-hand button if you do It takes a few minutes for the clicker to get turned back on and to talk to the system You might miss a vote so always make sure your click has turned off Always wait for the voting. We have a new cool light this year So the little light is going to be green way to the green light goes off before you put it away We've had instances where people vote and then stick it in their pocket And it's so doing have changed their vote inadvertently wait to the little light goes off wait to the timers done Do not give your clicker to anyone to vote for you If you see someone with two clickers or more, let me know right away There's no provision in our bylaws or state law for absentee or proxy voting at town meeting one clicker per Per member at the end of the night return your handsets. There's little bins around the edge We don't don't take them home if you if you do I'll call you tomorrow We know whose clickers are missing at that by the end of the night the kids back there will figure it out They'll tell me you're gonna get a call if you lose it for good at 75 bucks so far We've only lost one There's also around the edge blue recycling bins Pick up your stuff at the end of the night put it in the bin pick up the stuff in the chairs next to you put it In the bin otherwise our janitors here late picking up all the extra junk on the chairs So if we all kind of contribute and get it into the recycling bins, it makes his job a lot easier You can go home earlier after each debate. I'll confirm that the system is ready I'll speak to mr. Rino I'm the only one who gets to speak to him besides our new voting administrator Eric is retired. We now have Liz Delano. Liz is over here If you have any problem with your clicker or have any questions see Liz. She's gonna take care of it for you I'll the clear voting is open And there'll be a 20 cent 20 second voting period during that time press one of your keys Each night We are going to take a test vote If the quorum call to make sure we have enough and to make sure your clicker is working so tonight Let's give it a try mr. Rino. Do we are you ready? It's supposed to show up. So the test vote tonight is oh It's really high. Did you guys see that? Okay, I thought the screens blocking it how many empty storefronts or stores for rent are there from An only consent to between the Unitarian Church on Pleasant Street and the fire station Plus one if you think it's four Two if you think it's eight press three if you think it's 12 That was supposed to show up. So one is four Two is eight three is 12. This is just the test of votes ready Michael. Okay, so vote See the green light After you vote your machine should say received that means the vote that you put in is received Okay, we've got 199 people vote Okay, got a tally All right, four people think it's 69 69 people think it's four 85 people think it's eight and 35 think at 12 35 of you are right. There's 12 Call all these landlords down to lower their rents In most instances I will announce the results that have vote in the usual way and the tally will be displayed under some circumstances under the bylaws or I or when I feel it should be done or five individual members arise we will show all the various Instances of all you how vote can you show? So right here is what you'll see if we have to show it. It's going to show you It's three precincts at a time everybody in the precinct and how you voted So get used to looking where your name is we don't show this all the time I intend to use the clickers on almost all votes this year all the Not all the procedural votes, but all the votes for the articles the Just so we have a nice record at the end of the year I realized last year afterwards that we didn't have a record of all the votes that it just didn't It was be better off if we haven't so we're going to use them as much if not on every vote this year If you have a question about voting just as you would have done previously raise and ask for a point of order or see Miss Delano If anyone has a disability that makes it difficult to use this see me right away We have a procedure somewhere to help you do that. Yes, ma'am What's that oh Michael didn't all seven screens go run it through Yep Finally this year we're going to try something new This you're going to try a consent agenda On your chairs you'll find a handout that I prepared that has all the articles that are going to be on that consent agenda They're either they are either recommended votes of no action Articles that I anticipate will have no debate or our annual housekeeping articles that we pass each year by unanimous vote all of the articles Require a simple majority vote. There's no supermajority votes Just as we do with the budgets. I'll read through all of the articles If you wish to have a particular article Removed from the consent agenda yell hold I'll take it off the agenda and it will go back into its place in the warrant and we'll pick it up where it would Be picked up anyways So if you want it off yell hold Otherwise after I've gone through the whole consent agenda We'll take one vote on all the articles and the votes will be the votes will be recorded as an individual vote For each of the articles on this on this so however you vote in the consent agenda You'll have that vote reflected on all of these Finally, we have a bake sale going on by the tennis club go out and buy cookies and things from the kids. Thank you Let's see We're gonna swear in newt all the town meeting members who have just been elected for the first time. Please rise Okay, we have a little cluster of them there Okay, all the other town meeting members who are reelected The old town meeting members who got reelected. Please rise as well And all of you raise your right hand and repeat after me. I Will participate fully and fairly Evaluate all matters before the town meeting and vote in the best interests of the town I Support free speech and will treat others with mutual respect And conduct myself in a civil manner that is becoming of an elected town meeting member. I do solemnly swear But I'll faithfully and impartially Form the duties incumbent upon me as a town meeting member of the town of Arlington in accordance with the bylaws Town Manager Act and the general laws of the Commonwealth so help me God. I recognize the chairman of the Board of Select and Miss Mahan Thank You mr. Moderator It is requested that the members of the Board of Selectment and elected officials of the town town manager department heads of the town and staff Superintendent of schools and staff committee's commissions and boards of the town Minutemen regional vocational technical school district committee and superintendent members of the electronic voting committee and staff members of the general court Representing Arlington and also any consultants have been retained to work for the town relative to articles to be acted on by this meeting And representatives of the news media be permitted to sit within the town meeting enclosure Second all in favor please Okay, so what that means if you are not a town meeting member you cannot be within these four walls You have to go upstairs to the balcony. So anyone who's not a town meeting member Please reside to the balcony. Thank you Constable's return madam clerk Do you have reason to believe that the meeting was appropriately called by the board of selectmen and that the constable made return of the service of The warrant in accordance with the laws She wrecked she responds. Yes. She does this behind Thank You mr. Moderator has moved that if all the business of the meeting is set forth in the warrant for the annual town meeting Is not disposed of at this session when the meeting adjourns it adjourns to Wednesday April 27th 2016 at 8 p.m All in favor, please say yes Okay, we don't finish tonight. We're coming back Wednesday Madame aham Thank You mr. Moderator on behalf of myself and the board of selectmen I'd like to welcome all of you to the first night of the annual 2016 annual town meeting It is an honor for me to pair before you tonight as the chairman of the board of selectmen It is an even greater honor for me to pair before you as an elected member of town meeting Which has been referred to as one of the oldest expressions of democracy. We have I am pleased to say that the state of the town of Valentin is vibrant and strong This past year has been one of many accomplishments This past year has also been a year in which the town has faced several challenges I'd like to cite a few of the accomplishments that we as a community can point to with pride The renovation of the central fire station on time and under budget while also earning lead gold Certification under the leadership of the fire chief in his department the completion of the East Arlington Mass Avery Bill project that has already Demonstrated its benefits to the neighborhoods of East Arlington and the safety of all of our residents The glorious return of the Patriots Day Parade so many businesses and residents in Arlington Didn't realize how much this event was an integral part of our Patriots Day weekend until when there was no parade Between the crowds all along the route the impressive display of the participants floats bands, etc The Patriots Day committee certainly delivered and so many of our Arlington families expressed their thanks and wishes for this tradition to continue Also the retention of both our police chief and our town manager who are considering considering leaving for opportunities elsewhere Lastly the adoption of the master plan which will guide not only certain parts of our discussions here at town meeting this year But also a town meetings for years to come These are only few of the accomplishments we as a community have made over the last year But at every step of the way together we have worked with diligence to improve the quality of life for all of our residents We also face significant challenges Oak tree development has filed an application to build a 40 B apartment complex on the new guy property in East Arlington The board of selectmen in the town have been unified in their opposition to this proposal that would damage the fabric of the neighborhood and exacerbate already significant flooding concerns Another important issue we need to address is the challenge of increased school enrollment The board of selectmen the school committee the finance committee and the permanent town building committee have come together to form The school enrollment task force to analyze study and recommend solutions to meet this challenge These recommendations have led the board of selectmen to vote just this evening to place a dead exclusion on the ballot on June 14th 2016 to fund building projects that will start with addressing elementary enrollment issues at the Thompson The middle school enrollment issues a feasibility study for the Arlington High School and a rebuild the Minuteman High School Our response to this challenge has given us given us the opportunity to build Arlington's future As a community, we're facing the challenge of the opiate epidemic that is running rampant across the state We have met this head-on with innovative programming being led by the police department in health and human services Though there is more work to do we have been leaders in addressing this issue with compassion and collaboration Overall, I firmly believe that these accomplishments and challenges highlight the strong state of Allenton Though we certainly have much work to do going forward. We are clearly starting from a deep solid foundation So let's all get to work Thank you, and she kept it under four minutes according to the bylaw. Good job Announcements and resolutions We're celebrating our 32nd year of our sister city relationship with Nagayoku Q and a group of In the group in the balcony is our 12th annual student exchange 21 middle schoolers and high school students We have 21 middle and high school students and five chaperones They have performed at the pier school and on the Boston Common already and will also visit and perform at the Audison in Arlington High School Please give up. We already did that And now and now a representative from Nagayoku Q's Board of Education would like to say a few words All again the producer Our good evening fellow members of Arlington's town meeting our citizen legislature can each you are It's my honor to present to you my colleague on the board of education for the city of Nagayoku Q Yomiko Iwasaki Good evening I Am Yomiko Iwasaki I am here with 26 students and the five teachers We are we are free from your sister city Nagayoku In Kyoto so on behalf of Nagayoku Q City. Thank you for your warm welcome We are very happy to be here Thank you again for hosting our students We are really appreciate it Thank you so much. Thank you. We have any other announcements or resolutions Seeing none reports of committees Madam, mr. Moderator moved at the board of selectments report be received. It's been seconded at all favor the so received any other reports Tosti I Move that the report of the finance committee be received all in favor of receiving the port of finance committee. Please say yes Go ahead ladies and gentlemen. I just wanted to introduce the members of the finance committee to you if Precinct one is represented by John Deist over here Precinct two by Steve DeCorsi Myself and precinct three Jean-Anne Russell from new member from precinct four the back Okay, Mary Margaret Frankelmont precinct five Precinct six is Carolyn white Seem to be grouped in the back there Jonathan Wallach from precinct seven Not here Charlie faucet from precinct eight precinct nine Brian Beck I Know he was here Peter Howard from precinct ten over in this here Tom cock of era from precinct 11 in the back precinct 12 Darrell Harmer Okay, precinct 13 is Paul bear Precinct 14 Alan Jones wasn't able to beat here tonight precinct 15 Richard Channing Fanny a precinct 16 Bill Keller the back precinct 17 Grant Gibbian Precinct 18 Rohit Devade Devade precinct 19 Kristen Desker over here and precinct 20 Dean Carmen and Finally precinct 21 Dave McKenna Okay I'm not going to give a full report I'm not going to give a full report now I decided I'll wait until we get to article 34 Which is the first real finance article and then give a short oral report I'd urge you to read the chairman's report in the finance committee I think it summarizes a lot of the big financial issues that we've had to face Especially as far as impact on enrollment School enrollment on the operating and capital budgets Also, please read appendix D way in the back. That is our five-year plan It's sort of the heart and soul of our finances and how How we try to manage them looking ahead Now there's two issues that are still undecided The first is our local school capital needs The enrollment task force has been meeting since December. They presented before you at the January special town meeting Right now the focus has been on the middle school and to let you know on this Thursday April 28th at 7 o'clock in this town hall auditorium The consultants that were hired will make a report on the two options for the middle school All are welcome. I'd urge you to attend if at all possible The second issue That will is is yet to be finally decided is the Minuteman building project To let you know the budget for Minuteman and the Minuteman building project will be discussed Or I will move to discuss them on Monday May 9th So that the superintendent and his staff will be able to be here and will combine both issues at the same time Recommendations will be submitted to you from the finance committee by next Monday. So you'll have them a full week This will be a particularly difficult issue With with long-term ramifications If you have any questions on any of these, please see the members of the finance committee or myself You know at at any time we're available. Thank you very much Mr. Tosti, thank you for making the numbers large enough for me to read this year in the back of the report. I Haven't been able to read it in the past this year. I can it's good job. Any other reports of committees? Good evening. Thank you, mr. Moderator Andrew Bonnell chair of the Arlington redevelopment board Mr. Moderator I respectfully request that the report of the Arlington redevelopment board be received by the meeting in relation To articles 6 and 7 only and that only those recommend votes be before the meeting and that in relation to articles 8 9 and 10 The Arlington redevelopment board is recommending a vote of no action Okay a second All in favor Okay, so what he just did The votes when we receive them the votes in these packets are automatically in front of us We don't have to reread them. We don't have to Introduce them. They are the votes. We're gonna vote on that are in the packages. So the ARB Has met and they've decided that they don't want to have all of the votes in their report before us They only want the votes for For six and seven to be before us and they are because the other ones Eight nine and ten hadn't been received yet. They're subs. They're not even substituting They're just making votes recommended votes of no action on those articles well 11 through 17 as well. Those are citizen articles on which the Arlington redevelopment board moved for no action, correct But we'll we get to those as we go. So they're articles. It's just six and seven the recommended votes are in front of us I'll go over it again when we get there You had a report thank you, mr. Moderator and lawyer precinct 17 and a member of the master plan Implementation committee. So I'd like to submit the report from the committee. There were copies on the back table So I'd urge you to pick them up and find out what we're been doing. Thank you All if they've received the report of the master plan implementation committee, please say yes post So received Someone in the back of the center have a report they wanted to introduce. No, okay any other reports of To introduce at this time Seeing none Miss Mahan Thank you, mr. Moderator. What I'd first like to do is introduce my colleagues on the board of select men Pardon me. Oh It's a for the moderate. No, go ahead and introduce everyone. What do you say? He said it's table three Table three No, it's not there yet We have a nice little script. I'll say Gordon Am I good to go? Thank you, sir Not that he's ever done that before Sorry, sorry. Hey, I made it under four minutes. So I'd like to introduce my colleagues on the board of select men I'm Diane Mahan as you already know unfortunately for some our vice chair this year's mr. Dan Dunn Next to mr. Dunn is mr. Joe Joseph Curell Next to mr. Curell is mr. Stephen Byrne and last But not least mr. Kevin Gurley and Then with your permission mr. Moderator what I'd like to do especially for the new town meeting members I'd like to introduce the department heads that the board of select men directly hires Supervisors and overseas so first what I'd like to do and also ask each of these department heads to stand up is Introduce our comptroller mr. Rich Viscay and if you're torn between Coming to me or coming to someone who knows everything and then some our board administrator for the board of select men Mrs. Marie Kruppelga and now with your permission. I'd like to call on the town manager to introduce his department heads Just chapter lane Good evening. I'm Adam chapter lane town manager Department heads are spread behind me trying to confuse me of who's here, but directly behind me. We have sandy pooler the deputy town manager And actually we have Doug Heim town council also behind me So on this side we have Christine Bargiano director of health and human services We have Paul Tierney director of assessments We have Ruthie Bennett the director of facilities. We have Andrea Nicolai director of libraries We have Ed Marlenga workers compensation and benefit attorney. We have Michael burn director of inspectional services We have David good director of information technology On the other side of the room. We have Karen Malloy director of human resources Next to her we have Michael Rademacher director of public works We have Jenny rate director of planning in community development and then right in front of me We have the fire chief Robert Jefferson Not here yet, but joining us later is a police chief Fred Ryan and director of recreation Joseph Connelly And also we have from Jenny's team at planning and community development. We have assistant director Laura Wiener and economic development planner Ted Fields And I also want to mention that we have even our goal list the management analyst in my office here tonight But we have her here tonight and tomorrow night to help us with our audiovisual needs And then we're losing her to a great opportunity at the Harvard Kennedy School So we have we have her for two more nights before before she goes Did I miss anybody? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you got them all mr. Tosti I move that the recommended votes contain in the respective reports of the finance committee Board of select and redevelopment board and other committees be before the meeting without further action Seconded all in favor, please say yes Post those reports and votes are now before us mr. Tosti move that article 3 be laid upon the table Second all favorably in article 3 upon the table, please say yes Thank you. It is so late upon the table that brings us to article 4 Article 4 The appointment of the measure of wooden bark This is a colonial error position for someone who if you have a problem with your court of wood or a Yard of bark you have to call the measure of wooden bark I call for one vote to be entered from this LC Fiori All in favor miss Fiori being our measure of wooden bark. Please say yes opposed Miss Fiori or one more year of that measure of wooden bark I don't know if she wants a job. She's it in number five election of the assistant moderator I'm going to call for nominations for assistant moderator mr. Belkis Conner is in Contention are there any other nominations for assistant moderator Seeing none. I direct the clerk to enter one vote from mr. O'Connor as assistant moderator all in favor, please say yes Opposed Congratulations, mr. Conner He's actually going to get to do something this year. I'm going to have to step down on one of the articles Okay, now we are going to take up that consent agenda. So get your clickers ready So I'm going to call through all of the articles on this agenda If you want any of those articles removed, please yell hold we'll strike it from the consent agenda It'll go back into its place in the warrant and be addressed at the appropriate time If not, we will then take one vote at the end for all of these articles Article 11 Hold Article 11 is off article 12 article 13 Article 17 Article 19 hold 19 is off Article 20 article 21 24 Article 25 Article 27 article 30 39 Someone yell hold on that Now all of these ones that have no action. We should be getting substitute motions for already We've known about this warrants since January article 44 article 45 article 46 article 47 article 48 article 49 Article 52 article 54 article 55 article 58 Okay, so we've stricken Articles 11 19 20 27 30 39 47 and 55 All the others mr. Renau when you're ready the ones that are stricken or that are on We have stricken number 11 19 20 27 30 39 47 and 55 Nope. Yes Yes is yes. You want all of these to pass. No, you don't want them to pass So just like a regular vote if you're in favor of the articles vote. Yes, if you're opposed vote. No One one is yes It will then say yes received Two is no. It'll say no received Okay, so the consent agenda passes by vote of a hundred and sixty-six in the affirmative and No is 12 So all of those articles have now been disposed of thank you very much mr. Tosti doesn't all the finance articles mr. Tosti has moved Reconsideration of article 44 45 46 48 49 52 and 54 He does that in case we change some of the other budgets And he has to change these in the future That brings us to article 6 Mr.. Bernal Good evening Andrew Bernal chair of the Arlington redevelopment board Before I begin my presentation It's been pointed out to me that there are two clerical errors in our report and recommended vote that need to be amended Regarding article 6 for amending section 4.0 for the section title reads mixed use and multiple business uses The intention is for it to be multiple business uses on page 8 of The recommended vote to town meeting the last two entries for any other permitted uses in the b1 district should match the zoning By-law as it exists in its current form. We are not intending to amend that At all so Do you have that in writing for us up here? I can get it to you. Mm-hmm. I'll get it to you, please Three years ago. We began the process of a master plan for the town of Arlington Last year town meeting approved that. Thank you beginning over the summer a Committee was put in place the master plan implementation committee and we began to take it began to take the first steps toward implementing Those recommendations found within the master plan No time sorry Article 6 this evening moves toward One of those goals one of the charges within the master plan was to promote and encourage Development in Arlington's main commercial districts when you think of main commercial districts in Arlington You think of a mass app Broadway To an extent you think of Summer Street But we also like to include things like the bike path where applicable and getting toward the Millbrook Carter as we Continue to explore these things Article 6 in its current form encourages mixed-use development in these districts and other Business districts, but what we've also tried to do is put in new commercial uses to the town to help Arlington adapt to the changing economy You will find that this will bring new Opportunities to expand the tax base new opportunities for job growth in Arlington And new opportunities to areas that are currently underutilized or not properly utilized Article 6 retains special permit review for the Arlington redevelopment board to ensure that the needs and wants of Arlington residents are preserved While offering developers clear guidelines as to the town's Expectations in the map on the screen above you can see how some of these districts will change and the intent is to amend definitions table of use Regulations the table of dimensional and density to regulations An environmental design review to allow mixed-use development along commercial carters. So what does mixed-use development mean? exactly It's two or more uses in a given building In Arlington Heights mixed use already exists. You see it Especially as you get toward Lexington where you have the first floor of commercial uses above you have residential and office uses You see it here in Arlington Center where again you have retail and commercial uses on the ground floor and Either residential uses commercial uses office uses up on the second third floor What we're proposing is that this become the norm in Arlington so long as there's appropriate special permit filed and comes before us We are adding uses specifically we're adding artisanal fabrication And artistic creative production uses. This is an intent to capture what we've seen in other communities where small businesses sole business solo practitioners to an extent have been using industrial spaces revitalizing those to Harness their own means of production and begin to open their own businesses and take advantage of what Arlington has to offer If you look around town you can we can all point to different areas that aren't necessarily being used to their best and highest use and the mixed-use Amendment here article 6 is intended to fix that and open up some of these properties that are not currently Again being used to their best and highest Use such as the moderator hoped fun at us with his initial question this evening about the open storefronts Some of the new uses will be encouraged to move into those storefronts when we talk about artisanal fabrication when we talk about creative uses We're talking about things traditionally thought of as artists lost We're talking about Small brewers distillers Bakers other food producers these aren't new restaurants. These aren't new tasting rooms bars seating areas But these are places where people can go And open up their own business and and realize their dream of being a small business owner I don't think there's any question that Arlington has a diverse and talented workforce part of what article 6 gets at is Using that workforce and keeping it here in town again to expand that commercial base Another intent of this bylaw is to prevent commercial space and commercial uses from creeping into residential neighborhoods We've seen in other communities Different uses creep in what are traditional residential businesses. We want to keep those in the commercial corridors This will allow expanded uses of Existing space as well as new space Another intent of this bylaw proposal is to open up the streetscapes in town one of the important provisions we saw in the master plan throughout the process is that people look for vibrant commercial centers Where you'd see out in in Arlington Center where people are out there walking there Finding what they need here in Arlington as opposed to going to neighboring communities to service their needs. We believe that this Amendment will allow for those different uses especially if we see some new construction on Some existing spaces that aren't properly utilized One of the side benefits of this as well and another important goal of the master plan is that if Utilized properly this will push toward alleviating some of the housing concerns in town mixed use projects traditionally will include residential spaces Those could offer up alternatives to what currently exists offer up different housing solutions for People who may be looking to downsize from their current single-family home, but really want to stay in Arlington overall We believe that this article will take advantage of what exists in town, but will add to what exists one of One of the proposals in this is that we are going to be increasing height Decreasing height restriction increasing what's allowable in commercial districts and only in commercial districts and what you can see on the board now On the screen now is a sample mixed-use development in a B4 zone on a 10,000 square foot lot This is the kind of lot that appears throughout the town It's it's in the center. It's in East Arlington. It's in Arlington Heights And if you look at your proposal you can see how this works So the maximum building height from mixed-use in zones B3 and B4 will increase to 60 feet or five stories Whichever is less now to alleviate some of your street pressure from these heights We're also proposing that any building in excess of three stories in height has a step back of seven feet six inches Above the third story above all elevations with street frontage So in a commercial building you can come right up to the sidewalk you can build up that 60 feet But as you get above three stories, you'll have to push back each additional story what this does is it reduces the massing impact on People utilizing the street people utilizing the sidewalk it makes buildings feel smaller than they actually are What it does is it gives developers the right to build up as high as they might want to build But it gives the people who live here in town security that what's going to be built isn't going to be some Monolithic monstrosity that I'll encroach on these other buildings along Mass Ave We're also going to be allowing certain zones to have additional square footage as far as a lot that they're on And the first 3,000 square feet of non-residential space will be exempt from parking requirements Yeah, I think your time's up All right, we didn't get a buzz first night jitters Yeah, it didn't bite being off Yeah, mr. Ruderman Thank You mr. Moderator Michael Ruderman precinct nine I wish to offer an amendment to article 6 which is before you and before the members on their chairs And I wish to bring up mr. Christopher Loretty of Adams Street who's the author of the amendment to explain it further We have a second on these amendments Okay Thank You mr. Moderator Chris Loretty 56 Adams Street and it's mr. Good if you could bring up my presentation, please I'd appreciate it Always good to be back at town meeting those of you who are in town meeting in 2012 This article may seem like deja vu all over again for you and that's because largely it is This article is very similar to one that was put forth that year And if you're new to town meeting you should know it failed overwhelmingly It failed so much that the town moderator didn't even bother to count the vote And I mentioned that particularly for the new people so that you understand You do not have to vote with the flow and with the recommended votes. You should vote your hearts You should vote what you understand. You should vote what you want This article isn't exactly the same in a number of ways it's an improvement But there are not still a number of shortcomings and I'm putting forth this amendment to try and address some of them and the first one That I have put forth here relates to the definition of mixed use The previous speaker spoke about having You know a vital first floor There is nothing in the definition that prevents the first floor from being entirely parking or entirely residential And that's why I've made one change The second change is that mixed uses divide define very broadly just to be any two uses And what that means is a developer could try to sneak in uses in a particular district that aren't allowed For example, you cannot build a gas station in a b1 district, which is the neighborhood office district right now but the way this is written you could put a house a apartment unit on top of a Gas station and try to get a permit for a b1 district that that shouldn't be that shouldn't happen And that's what the second change is for so the next slide please the ARB is changing section 4.04 and The key change is in the first Lines they're about make Exempting the section from mixed use which they need to do so that all the setbacks are consistent for a mixed use structure That's fine, but what they've also done is changed it to Eliminate other types of mixed uses and for example at the sim site that is not mixed use But you have different residential uses you have business and residential uses and you need this part of the by-law To apply to those so I'm afraid the ARB has thrown out the baby with the bath water I've thrown out the bath water, but kept the baby and that's the essence of this change if we go on to the next slide But before we actually focus on that I'd ask you to focus on the Amendment as I distributed it and look at the second page and I'll explain some of these numbers under b1 the first line Or the first difference in the first line is the figure of five thousand What the ARB has proposed in b1 is that there is no minimum lot size? And what that means is someone could try to build a house on a 2,500 square foot lot remember the b1 district is one in two family homes that have come in converted to business use or not and Even though it has to be mixed use because their definition is so loose Someone might try to stick an ATM machine on the front of their house and claimed oh, that's a mix That's mixed use. I'm going to build it on a 2,500 square foot lot That's a thing we want to avoid the other Changes that I've made or let me just also add that on the other consistent change I've made on these is to put some Open space on in the districts and the figures that are shown here are the in each of the last Two columns are the figures that are currently required for any other permitted use and for the lower three rows They are the uses required on larger lots by the ARB. I'm making them consistent throughout But the other thing I wanted to focus on this you to focus on on this Sheet is if you look on b2 through b4 You'll see this figure of 1.5 in the second column a third column What that indicates is the ratio of the floor area of the structure to the floor area of the lot And what I want to emphasize is that I am not proposing to change that in fact I'm increasing it for larger lots because for some reason the ARB thinks you should have less space on On bigger lots, and I disagree with that. So next slide I'm sorry back one slide Let's look at the figures on this slide and look at what a large increase in the building height is that the ARB is proposing from 40 feet to 60 feet or from 35 to 50 in the in the b2 district also look at what the zoning limitation is in Davis Square four stories 50 feet You know this is a a really tremendous change They are increasing the height by 50% in these in those two districts and so nuts. Let's have the next slide, please And this is a typical b2 district near my house. I used to live in summer summer bill 25 years ago not too far from Davis Square, I didn't expect the buildings to be following me here when I moved to Arlington. So next slide minute and a half Chris Thanks next and This just illustrates You know how overwhelming these structures are to a typical house, you know almost double the height and even though there are Provisions for height buffers only drop those figures by 10 feet, and I don't think that's sufficient next slide, please next slide What I'm showing here is the b2a district and showing you that those districts are not in the village centers You know those open the storefronts you want to get filled What what the ARB is proposing is to put this large development outside of the district and compete with those open storefronts I put those circles there because those are the three areas that the economic development study for Arlington said should be the focus of Their rezoning efforts and if you go to the next slide, it's the same thing with the dark red colored blotches They're not in the central business district. These are areas You know well outside the district and these are the areas where the ARB is proposing buildings bigger than Davis Square next slide This is Davis Square count the stories. There's not five next slide next slide and I Don't think what the ARB is proposing is what the master plan indicated These are the results of the surveys in what in what is showing is most people don't want to five story building next slide Same thing and next slide But they're very comfortable with three stories And I think if you look at some of the other ones and some of the slides the previous speakers showed four stories is okay as well That's your time. So that's the reason I'm proposing this I would ask you to support this amendment before voting on the main motion. Thank you Thank you This woman in the middle. Yep, you got your hand up Excuse me Okay, I'll make that I'll make that point. No, no You don't get to go back up yet Robert. Yes, this is the actionable Mike for tonight. My name is Barbara Thornton I'm from pre-sign 16 and I rise to support article 6 And article 7 but primarily I want to focus on article 6 as submitted by the redevelopment board When I was born There were 1.2 billion people on this planet. I Stand before you tonight We're sitting on a planet that now has 7.4 billion people Arlington is Going to be forced to adapt to this growth in population and Arlington needs the flexible tools that Article 6 will give us in order to keep this the livable Wonderful town that we have now They can do that with more flexible zoning tools that has been suggested They cannot continue to keep Arlington the way it is as a livable town Using an effect a sledgehammer, which is the old-fashioned zoning that they're now tied tied down with I Want to live in a town and I want this town to be preserved as a town that welcomes a wide range of people that welcomes artists teachers social workers The occasional head hedge fund manager and private equity partner and grandmothers So I I hope that you will support Article 6 tonight. Thank you. Thank you next is This gentleman he was over a week ago You sir, do you have the hand up? Yep? Bill Kaplan precinct six I stand in opposition to this this proposal I Believe that Arlington is already I think we're the densest town in the state. Is that true second densest? As fun reveals a city Arlington's a town Yeah, I think we're what like the fifth or sixth densest community, but we're the densest town I don't think the solution is to put more high-rises in Arlington and five stories is a high rise by Arlington standards I I know when this came up a few years ago We were told that The reason there was five stories and not four or three was because developers There wasn't enough money in it for them if we if we limited them to three stories So they wouldn't build these things unless it was five stories and then later We were told oh, they're not going to build the five stories So I think that if we do approve this I we're going to see five-story buildings going up all along Mass Ave. Where wherever it's will be zoned And I think many of you are aware that we Were becoming a very crowded town our schools are bursting at the seams Adding a bunch of housing units with more students Before we do anything to address the schools isn't going to improve the situation And I think we're still a few years away from doing anything to improve the schools I We're not gonna I mean that this growth isn't going to bring in enough revenue to pay for that Where I think I think it's been shown that residential growth is is almost never the way to to fix the town's finances that Almost always that the new residents cost more than they bring in in tax dollars. So so what we're really looking at is is in Turning of the town of Arlington into the city of Arlington with five-story buildings I up and down Mass Ave. And wherever else they can be crammed We'll see a much more crowded town the streets that are already, you know bursting at the seams Lake Street I live off of Prospect at rush hour. I mean these are already traffic jams and putting in another, you know 500 a thousand two thousand units of housing Isn't going to fix it and and those are units of housing that are on the bus line and the bike line But they're not on the MBTA Redline and and so I think we want to limit the parking spaces, but people will find a way to get the cars in Guaranteed that if we build these things, there will be a lot more cars in Arlington So so for all these reasons, I'm opposed to this I don't think that's the type of growth that Arlington needs at least not now Maybe someday we should become a city, but I think we can hold it off as long as we can So I hope I hope you join me in voting against this proposal Oh, I guess the final thing is we talk about you know the the affordable housing This is going to bring all those teachers and artists who are going to be able to move into these new units I think if you've seen all the new housing projects that have gone up in Arlington in the last few years They're they're very expensive. There aren't teachers moving into the $3,000 a month one-bedroom apartments And these these brand new units in these desirable new buildings. They're not gonna. I mean, there'll be some I guess mandated Affordable housing, but most of these are going to be very expensive units. They're not we'll have the hedge fund managers We're not gonna have a lot of teachers moving in once again. I I'm voting against this and I hope you will as well Thank you, sir. Mr. O'Brien. Do you have a hand up? Andy O'Brien precinct 16 When it comes to zoning laws, I go I always think about Well, this is really real estate and in this day and age when you know Stock market doesn't meant as many wealthy folks that might have in the past and other forms of investment it really comes down our wealth is pretty much tied up in real estate and And the zoning issues that have been coming up for this town meaning The way I look at it as it some of them take away wealth and some increase wealth and in this case a Number of people that probably own one little one-story store Have an opportunity to probably become millionaires. I don't really have a problem with that but It really hasn't been explained to us You know what type of housing units and that's I think what it really comes down to for most people I mean if we're gonna have like a Biotech building or or you know an artist Association or something like that. I think there would be a lot more support behind this But are we going to have a couple of thousand units going from Cambridge to Lexington in this? This this hasn't really been answered and I guess the other thing that they're just talking to people in my district. I haven't had a lot of people call me on these ones It just seems to me that Arlington the Palo Alto Isation of Arlington is occurring that a Little modest three-bedroom ranch now goes for seven hundred thousand dollars You can keep that there, but it's gonna still be out of the reach of many many people Will this will this I mean if someone said to me, you know We can make affordable units and there will there'll be lots of them Maybe I'll support this but it hasn't been explained to me well enough. So I think I'll be voting against this. Thank you Thank you Mr. Fisher Andrew Fisher a precinct six I Live on Lombard Terrace. I suppose three blocks too long blocks from Mass af I'll be voting against this I believe I'd like to say a few things when I think it's dreadful that were presented with all these changes as one article Some I would vote for some I would vote against I attended at least one of the Meetings about this approximately a week and a half or two weeks ago I I find all This difficult to absorb and it is too multifaceted for me to Swallow one vote and that's part of the reason why I would vote no I would recommend the ARB Postponed the vote to give people another vote at least to give us time to want to vote. Yes But as it is tonight, I would vote no What what is a neighborhood business district there's a paragraph in this thing about a neighborhood business district, and I'm wondering I read it, but Mr.. Bernal one of the other Business district introduce yourself Andrew Bernal tear the redevelopment board if you could bring up my slides again I could point out where that is on the map if you look It's a little unclear on the map, but the second Line on our key here is B2 neighborhood business district and these are interspersed throughout town They are traditionally small businesses Districts with smaller businesses you won't see major Developments going in in this kind of in this kind of a district any use that comes into a neighborhood has to Has to comply with what's already permitted in that district And it also has to to be within the character of the neighborhood And part of the reason that the ARB has decided to keep special permit review over this is so that it can be ensured That we're protecting neighborhoods from being overrun And seeing that Palo Alto effect that the other speaker talked about it is important To us that there is some review over these projects from the beginning so that we're not seeing Monstrosities come into town and seeing the kind of things that people don't want It is an open process a special permit is a collaborative open process where people do have the opportunity to come in state their case And and advise the ARB on how we should be voting and what projects we should be looking at What projects we should say maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board and come back with something a little More appropriate for the neighborhood and for the use that you're requesting Well, I thought I read that the 50 and 60 foot buildings with setbacks would be along allowed all along mass out. Am I wrong and Depends on the district It depends on the district so if you look at our report that'll tell you where those are exactly allowed So it's and so there are parts of mass out and parts of Broadway. They won't be allowed in every district No, and again that the use has to fit the neighborhood has to fit what's already allowed under the zoning and it will be the ARB whether it's the current crop or any future crop will be committed to the special permit review the environmental design review We look at all impacts not just An architect's rendering, but we welcome and support Input from the community so that they can come in and say I don't think that this this project necessarily fits My neighborhood, I don't think it's appropriate and we can we can Tell that to the developers, you know, that's that's your opportunity to come in and speak your mind. It's a long process Okay, I Object I believe in one of the in the previous meeting it was asked if these things can be only residential That's outside of scope of this article, sir And the answer was yes So I definitely that's actually not not true mixed use is any use that would be more than one use It can't be solely residential wait again It has to fit within the permitted use a parking garage won't be permitted in there before parking garages and permitted Residential on top of a gas station won't be permitted if that use is not already permitted It has to fit what's already allowed under zoning and it has to fit within the character of the neighborhood being considered Hmm at any rate I would support mr. Letty Loretty's amendment For the reason I just said As to the other reason I'm going to vote no is that I can't find anybody that wants higher density in the town not in my precinct anyway when I talk with people and the theory that we're obligated to go higher and higher density because of The world and greenness. I don't buy it. I I happen to think we're at optimal down density right now I think we've already done more than our job There Equally valid reasons to say high density is not healthy. So that's that's my feeling I I would repeat everything the previous speaker also said. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Warden. Thank you, mr. Moderator John Warden a precinct 8 we had a The redevelopment board had a so-called forum on their articles a couple weeks ago and I asked three questions about this mixed-use proposal and one of them and I'll tell you what they said and then and I think The first question was isn't this basically the same as was brought before this meeting three or four years ago and was decisively turned down and Is it not true that there is no requirement in the law that any portion of the building be Non-residential and he says well if it's mixed use you have to make something in Okay, and I was and the answer was that well that the present members of the redevelopment board are all willing to assure you that they will never vote for anything. It doesn't have a good a bunch of commercial or Uses in that building and well, they're all honorable men and I'm sure they intend to do that but you know Like all of us they won't be on the scene forever and what if the redevelopment board is some time populated by dishonorable men and they say well, let's mix a use will put a five stories of apartments and We'll put a tattoo parlor in the corner here. There'll be a mixed-use right? I mean, I don't know if you can do tattoo parlors, but some something that Everybody needs one right I See an awful lot more than I used to Now The next question is Well, don't we have an awful lot of empty storefronts already and we're gonna build More of them and the moderator was good enough to get that statistic or to go counting them I guess 12 just between the church at the corner and the fire station I mean you can walk that in five minutes There's 12 empty storefronts there and I know some of those storefronts. I used to go to a restaurant that was in one of them and and and They've been empty for a long time. So now we're gonna build high-rise buildings with more with Theoretically the honorable men will require that some shop or something be in the ground floor and But that new building is gonna cost a lot more than that little that old 1921 story building that's there and what kind of rents are they gonna charge and is not the problem that we have empty storefronts That the guys who own these buildings Demand so much rent that a lot of small businesses just can't Deal with that and I've known small businesses who've been driven out of Arlington because the landlord The goose is up the ramp and they just you know, they're marginally can't afford it and and the third the third question I asked was about well What about the the people the businesses that are there that have served us that that are doing things? Providing us services or goods that we want to get any kind of hard to get very many particularly in the center here What's gonna happen to them if somebody comes along buys that one story building and throws them all out and puts up But one of these 60 foot high rises and says okay now you can you can come back I don't know where you've been in the meantime And but of course you rent it's gonna be three times what it was before and I don't think that's a good solution either and and Is the previous fear mr. Fisher said, you know, we've already We've done our part for population density. We are the second densest town in the Commonwealth We're a very small town. I don't think we need Really more people here So I would encourage you to if you like the mixed-juice idea, which isn't it isn't a totally bad one to to support mr. Loretta's amendment which deals with some of the issues I've raised But otherwise to Vote it down as you did four years ago. Thank you Thank you, sir. Mr. Jamison Talk into it. Well Thank you, mr. Moderator Gordon Jamison PC 12 First I want to thank the ARB for their hard work And I want to apologize them for the fear and certainly doubt that's been thrown at them by many of the speakers that preceded me The fear and certainly in doubt presented by many of the speakers So I have a few questions and I'm going to speak positively to the article at the end What I've heard so far is that all of these reviews will be by special permit. Is that correct? Mr. Bennell That's correct and And at the very beginning when you presented the article you said there was some part that was not going to be changed Can you quickly tell me that yes, we're still already actually pointed to that In the in the actual table on page eight of our report There was a scrivener scrivener's error if you look at article six be one mixed use where it's bolded There should be five thousand in there where there's nothing. Yes right now So we will be we won't be changing that that will remain as it is under the current code Which is has the five thousand in there. Yes. Okay. Thank you Next and you don't go away Next that's my job, but I know Several speakers said three thousand to five thousand units of housing can you comment on that? I can't I can't put a number on the housing I can't put a number on the kinds of housing I can't read the minds of any developers that may want to consider building in town We have twenty thousand households in this town now what you're saying is someone thinks That spoke or it's people that spoke earlier that three to five thousand households could be built as apartments on Mass Ave and Broadway I doubt that Next question in East Arlington Where I go to get my haircut. It's a one of those low-rise single floor buildings by right now Can someone tear all of those down and build the string of condos by right by right? Yes, yes, so so what we what here's here's one of the big questions you have to think about folks Is if you vote this down, what do you get on the other end? Okay, so those are valuable pieces of property on Mass Ave. Do you want East Arlington to turn into a string of condos? Mr. Warden very eloquently spoke against the lot that were built across kitty corner from the town hall here Would you want to have all of East Arlington look like that with no stores? And no services. I think not I Gonna finish up quickly. I urge strongly that we vote against mr. Loretty's amendment This is exactly what we need in Arlington and to echo miss Thornton's comments The diversity and richness of Arlington can only prosper and grow with this type of mixed-use development This is smart growth Some of I remember when miss row used to talk about this when it was she was a select person About smart growth. This is growth along our transportation corridors. It's not in the housing corridors It's along our transportation corridors And article seven will complement this so that we get people out of their cars And there's another article. I think it's going to come up somewhere about promoting transportation So this is exactly what we need and We do need growth. I mean if you go down a mass app There's lots of properties that are underutilized land that has a little shack on it That is not being used to its full and utmost commercial value If we don't provide these opportunities to developers Those little shacks are going to stay there And and those don't give you a nice Corridor and yes, they won't all be six these feet tall It won't be a tunnel because the redevelopment board and I do trust them because these people spend the whole year doing this To bring this to us and I think it's a disservice to the redevelopment board matter What your thoughts are to just kick them to the curb like this like they did four years ago Thank you. Oh, I strongly recommend a vote for the article and against mr. Loretty's amendment, thank you. Thank you, sir Okay, it's close enough to 9 30. Let's take a seven minute break When we were introducing everybody we neglected to introduce two most important people mr Gilligan our treasure and miss lucarelli our town clerk. Let's give them around All right next on the list is mr. Rarig Thank you, mr. Moderator Brian Rarig precinct date. I rise in support of the redevelopment board's motion and Frankly, I'd like to understand more About mr. Ruderman. I think it's technically mr. Ruderman's amendment I'd first I have a comment and then a couple of questions my comment is that They taught me in economics class That if you want to lower the price of something you should create more of it We have a limited supply of retail space And commercial space in this community We also have a strange situation Where a landlord controls a large chunk of the retail space, especially in the center of town and For reasons that pass understanding is willing to let them sit vacant So when one of the previous speakers Said that the landlord is collecting outrageous rents. In fact, he's collecting no rents on most of those spaces because She doesn't recognize the market She in a sense is setting the market Because we have too little retail space So i'm very much in favor of the concept of mixed use Partly because it's a mechanism That will create more retail and small scale commercial space the kind that the redevelopment board has described But also because it affords the opportunity to get the kind of housing development That is appropriate to Arlington, which is generally smaller scale units Not attractive to palo Alto Entrepreneurs, but attractive to singles to to young couples Generally two person household one or two person households So i have a couple of questions That mr. Moderator, I hope you'll direct to the redevelopment board Um, I think one of the things that's gotten lost in the in the conversation Well, two things one is I want to just make a comment about one of the earlier speakers who said That this proposal had too many pieces to be understood. Well, unfortunately, that's the way zoning works You can't just Change one element of something But the changes have to be integrated and we need to take the time to understand them And however long that takes is how it how long it takes and I hope the meeting will have the patients to understand them before voting on it um, I I think I at least could use some help understanding the differences In treatment of the neighborhood business districts, especially b1 and b2 Under this proposal versus the more intensive Business uses mr. Moderator mr. Brenda want to take the center mike You can stay brian I can point out what each of these do That's it's difficult to see again, and I apologize that it's difficult to see on the key So i'm just going to go one by one of the moderator will allow me to and explain What each business district in arlington does and what can be done there? So the first on the list is b1 neighborhood office Uh, you see that in the heights you see it in parts of braddle square You see it in the areas in between the major business districts in town Typical use in there is a dentist's office a real estate office We add we're adding in The option for mixed use development here. We're not we're not proposing any height change There B2 is the neighborhood business Yes, sir Ah, yes, b1 is light pink b2 is more of a fuchsia B2 neighborhood business In this district think leader bank the new leader bank near appleton street blue ribbon barbeque Our proposal here is for four stories or 50 feet with a height buffer Anything over three Stories to 40 feet b2a is the major business district here. It's a darker fuchsia Think trader joe stop and shop Brigham square Both wall green sites and the homewood suites There we have Five stories or 60 feet with a height buffer anything over four 50 feet b3 is the village business district That's kind of a maroon village business You can see down here Broadway plaza and capital square are your your village business district examples There we're talking about five stories 60 feet The height buffer of four stories at 50 feet b4 is a vehicular oriented business Light purple here vehicular oriented business is what it says. Uh, your minikey muffler in east darrington Uh, things across from the high school also leader plaza and brookline bank are in that zoning district there again We're giving the option for mixed use development Five stories 60 feet buffers after the fourth floor And then you have the central business district in arlington center, which is Hot pink. We'll call it over here down here. Everyone knows where arlington center is We're giving again the option for development of mixed use potential There with that would be the five story 60 foot limit It's important to note that anywhere where we're offering this option. It's still an option. It's not a guarantee and it's not by right We are intentionally keeping this under special permit Control so that we can ensure that any project that comes in is to be reviewed by the arlington redevelopment board We will work with the developers and we'll work with residents Any interested parties from from town who want to have input Out of public hearing. This isn't a by right process and it's not an automatic process There are things we want to see There are things we know that people in this town want to see And we really want again to to try to unlock some of the potential that exists in arlington That's just simply not being used right now Thank you, mr. Moderator Yes, sir Carl wagener precinct 11. Mr. Moderator. What's the point where you talk about if the room is too hot or something like that? So point of personal privilege, I just want to say well, it's great. We have a laser pointer In regards for your concern and your colleagues, please be careful of your eyes when someone is using a laser pointer Near the area where you're sitting Thank you. And it is a little hot in here Mr. Schlickman Maybe there's money for an air conditioner No, no money this year. I get the nod Paul Schlickman precinct nine and I do live in our arlington center On the eighth floor, which I don't think is a particularly bad thing We yet we've had some conversations here about the how dense our linkedin is And yeah density is a measure of how many people reside within a square mile And we have about 8 000 people per square mile. We're a town of about 44 000. We were over 50 000 in the 70s So we're not as dense as we used to be But let me tell you what the critical issue is here Is that the real estate market for housing Is so hot the pressure is to take any other property you can and turn it into housing There are condos on mass av used to be a gas station Now it's housing used to be a car dealership now it's housing used to be another car dealership now it's housing And I would tell you that if you go take a look at the nice row houses That are that are down towards mill street They're pretty nice, but it's not right for mass av because you do not have any commercial space there Part of the walkability and viability of a business district in the business street is to have businesses on the street We have a problem in this town that we are like 90 Gizillion percent residential. We do not have a commercial or industrial tax base And the present bylaw puts us in a position Where the development pressures is to remove retail to remove Office and to replace it with residential And it's not good for a walkable business district. It's not good for the amenities we want in this town Mixed use is a way to do this If we had a viable mixed use option We would probably have businesses on the first floor Over on mill street if that was a more attractive option And that is what this zoning article is attempting to do is to craft a bylaw that would provide incentive for a developer to come in and say, you know We're going to put Commercial or office or something non residential on the first floor To maintain the viability of the neighborhood And to provide the amenities of people moving into arlington one and trust me. This is a popular community This is a wonderful community. This is a great place to live every year. It becomes an even greater place to live Trust me. I'm on a school committee. We're wrestling with that issue Baby carriages all over the place because this is a wonderful place to live. I live in a 47 unit condo building Mostly one and two bedroom units never had a lot of kids. We're tripping over baby carriages It's the case all over east arlington. That's what's going on here and the pressure is for more housing And the pressure is more expensive housing because of the shortage If we want to maintain arlington as a viable community There's nothing more instead of nothing more than the condo development We need to do mixed use This zoning Bylaw change is really an essential part of the process and let me just say one other thing very quickly Growth is essential Under proposition two and a half. We have a couple of ways. We have three options. We either grow our tax base Or we pass over rides Or we cut services Because you cannot maintain the current level of services under a two and a half without any resident any New growth in the town That's the reality. This will give us the kind of new growth that will make arlington an even better place And a more wonderful place to live. Thank you Thank you, sir. Mr. Sayer Hi my care Precinct 12 and member of the redevelopment board First thing I want to do really quickly is just to clarify one point on the correction on page eight Just to make sure everyone is understands exactly what we've done here There was a mistake on the first bolded line that you see on page eight of our report where it says mixed use And then there's a dash and then there's a 50 And then a 0.75 That dash should have been like the Line below it that said five thousand There was there wasn't any intent to change that So we're instead of the dash the scrivener's error that we've corrected now with the town clerk and provided To the clerk and the moderator is to change that dash to a five thousand So hopefully that's clear if you'll all make that change administratively to your report We'll just go with it as we proceed go ahead. Mr. Sayer. Thank you. So I want to start by saying zoning is hard It's hard and we do it first Which frankly I think is a disservice to both zoning and for helping the town move some of these things forward But be that as it may that's what we're doing and we're here tonight to talk about Articles six and seven. Hopefully Eventually So The first thing I want to talk about is correct a couple of things that were talked about earlier. Um, there was A statement made that said that any Commercial use can be snuck in to the mix the definition that's been put forth before you in a mixed use development So, you know, you can put a meat processing plant at the first floor If you so choose and if the Those rascals on the redevelopment board approve it Then you're going to have a Meatpacking plant on the first floor. That's not correct. We've worked with both the inspectional services The head of inspectional services as well as town council on the wording. That's before you and only the uses that are permitted in a particular District are the ones that can happen in a mixed use in that district. So just to clarify on that point The second point I want to bring up is with respect to height I think we've clarified a few things with respect to height But I want to clarify two others number one is is you've heard some people talk about a four-story buffer Okay, what that is is what we're really talking about there is if Proposed mixed use is next to residential then instead of being five stories You can only build to four. That's a buffer zone. Okay, you cannot go all the way up And what's already in there stays in there. Okay, it's only in the more commercial Spine where you've got other big buildings around you that you'll be able to go to the maximum height Now the important thing on this though is that what this does is it actually From the streetscape limits the height of the buildings even further down Because what you've also heard is about Step backs. Okay, and a step back Means that as you go up to that fifth floor or as you go above three You have to move those next floors back seven and a half feet So that from the streetscape now you're only going to see three stories So all of those different places along that are now currently four stories allowed Can go up to the four stories with no step back The only way you get up to five in mixed use or do mixed use under this Is that at three stories after three stories, you've got to move that building back So the whole massing on the street So one of the previous speakers put up a slide that had this big box right next to little house Okay problem with that is twofold number one is you're not going to be able to go up to the full 50 feet If you're right next door residents, that's the buffer zone You can only go up to four The other part of that is is they was showing a big monolithic box It has to have a step back at the third floor And then move those next two stories back seven and a half feet This is really important and like I said zoning is difficult and all of these things kind of mesh together It's hard to see them all in here, but they're in here. Okay So that step back that's um, uh, that's permitted use the next thing I want to talk about is special permit Let's not kid ourselves. The special permit process is a difficult process in the arb We require what's called an environmental design review. There are 12 criteria that every Every project that comes before us has to go through We look through hundreds of pages on a on a project. This is not just some hey, what do we got on the agenda tonight? No, this is a big package of material with 12 different criteria on transportation flow on environmental and everything else. Oh my goodness time goes quick So it is not about the people on the board. It is not about, you know, that we're good bad or indifferent It's the process there are it is it is stated by law that this is what we have to go through Okay on the environmental design review process 12 criteria. I can walk you through them outside of this One and a half minutes. I've got left here, but this is not an easy process for Developers and they hate it just to be clear so The next thing I want to talk about very quickly is Remember the master plan was about unlocking the development potential of the commercial corridor And that's what this is about the previous speaker said it exactly right Someone right now can wipe out all of those one-story Retail units right along mass app and put four-story condos that come right out to the street all the way up to four stories And just be residential and they don't have to think about anything other than Building residences. It is very difficult. It's impossible to do Mixed use under current by-laws. Okay, this is what we're trying to do We're trying to avoid the brygms of the world and everything else where there was no choice, but to allow them to do Just a residential only over there And then I'm just going down here Um So I I think the other last thing as I've got all 27 seconds left is You know The fact that we don't need more people here Um, that's that's somewhat disturbing to me as both the resident and everything else You know It's great that this town is so vibrant that people want to come here and Growing up in a dying industrial town or a city This is uh, I've been here for over 20 years now and it's uh, it's great that people want to come here And uh, we just need to do it smartly. Thank you. Hello, Steve revelak precinct one I'm glad we started talking a bit about special permits because this is one area where I had some questions Both in relation to this article and since special permits also play a bit of a role in some of the other Zoning articles So I've um, I have I have this little sheet that the um, inspectional that inspectional services gave me gave me it's a Little information about a about filing a special permit And it says that the permit process involves a review by different town departments and legal notification by mail in the Arlington advocate The filing filing review hearing process and writing of the decision which is followed by an appeal period Takes five months to complete So one of the questions, um, mr. Moderator if someone can answer it is which uh, town departments are involved and um, If can someone just give a brief overview of the steps of uh, say a typical Uh special permit First department is they go to mr. Burnford permit. He turns them down sends them to the arb And then they make you go through the application process And then you're off to the races miss wiener. Can you lose? Well, first of all, there are some laura wiener assistant The name name Laura wiener assistant director of planning. Thank you um Some special permits and variances go to the zoning board of appeals where they have four criteria You have to meet larger projects projects that are located on mass av Broadway the bike path pleasant street um Go to the arb for environmental design review where there are 12 criteria and is it generally much more extensive review And the the staff will write a report for them So it's the staff and the arb together And just for my own frame of reference, is it more thorough or less thorough than say filing a notice of intent with the conservation commission? I guess it depends It depends on your project. Well, it's different It's different. Okay. I've I've had to go through an NOI. So I know at least that's a relatively thorough and for me It's a benchmark That's all that's all I have in terms of questions and for the folks doing the projectors If you have a file, I know I gave this in relation to article nine, but since We're not talking about going to talk about article nine. There's still something in there I'd like to use if you have it handy Specifically the last slide Sorry for the curve ball Yeah, that's it. So, um This is a little graph of some census data and I was just curious about you know, Arlington and population growth and Like some of the things that have been going on with the school enrollment task force and Just some other things, but I picked off Arlington in three cities, so Boston Cambridge in Somerville The idea that you know, Boston's sort of the big city and you know with cities they tend to grow You know, I always thought of them as growing outward The one thing that's kind of interesting about this is Boston Cambridge in Somerville They have their population peaks around 1930 to 1950 And then there's this period of about 30 years where it just drops off And then starting around 1980 people start coming back It's like one generation wanted to get out of dodge and the other generation got sick of sitting on 128 But Arlington, um, although it looks different from, uh, you know, initially it's actually a very similar curve It's just shifted over 20 years later. So we hit our peak population at about, uh, 1970 Uh, and then people have started moving back in 2000 or so so From what I as I would You know, I would surmise that The you know cities are city people are I think rediscovering cities. Um, I think this growth is going to Continue and I would hope that we can find ways to accommodate it gracefully and I think, um I think bringing mixed use into Arlington is a good way to gracefully handle A little bit a little bit more growth So, uh, I do support this. Thank you Thank you, sir Mr. Burn Thank you. Mr. Moderator, uh, Steve Burn, member of the board of selection, and I live down in precinct three Um, so I rise to support the ARB's warrant article For several reasons, um, and I agree very much with, uh, mr. Ray Erick's comments So I won't go too deep into what he already said First, so we heard earlier that the solution is not uh to become more dense Then what is the solution? Is it economic development? Is it revitalization? You know, those all sound like pretty good things to me and what comes when um with all these new apartments It is more people and more foot traffic To then go into these shops that you know as we heard earlier, you know might be vacant currently So I think that that could be a very good place to start with these vacancies is To allow more people to come in and to create housing that you know Who wants to move into them empty nesters? And I think quite a few of my friends who grew up in Arlington moved out and are now looking to come back Um And the only other point I want to make is that I I really don't like the argument that we shouldn't You know want more people to move into Arlington We are far better and more accepting than that. So thank you Thank you, sir Miss memon Hi, is arena memon uh precinct 21 I initially was really excited about this saying a mixed use is great. You know, we have residential as well as uh businesses Arlington needs businesses, but it sounds like these are going to be smaller businesses I don't think we have any vision here. Unfortunately like lexington where they have a business area It's great for a tax base. We don't see that here. I think we're just hitting or missing I know when I was with the the indian Tied I forgot the indus Entrepreneurs, they're looking at space and they actually found space in cambridge at the kindle square The problem is I asked them about the Lowell street. So that's uh, there's a place that's being sold And they said well, there's no real good parking and it's not really good with public transportation and I think people that are looking to settle into bigger spaces want some of these qualities Which I haven't really heard about so I feel that we have really, uh poor planning on on on no visions and um, also I heard an argument yesterday when I went to our precinct meeting that we are not really looking at the visions very Clearly like there's a problem with planning for schools We've misused money and I don't want us to be in a repeat situation where we just start Throwing darts at different things. I think we should have a little bit better clear idea what we're doing Other than just having this open Um, also, I have I find this 11 pages really difficult to read I I I know you keep showing that little map, but I wish I had that copy with me I know we've gone through these discussions about the four fours and five floors and people are saying that maybe if we had it Oh, well, you're saying that after the third floor, it'll be a setback I still have a problem with the wind and other uh, congestion as well as Transportation issues if this is being proposed in broadway. There's only one bus service that goes through there. That's 86 I don't see any transportation Attack on this. Um, so I really have a hard time supporting this Also, uh, the master plan supports more canopies and trees I haven't heard anything about vegetation and all this. So I'm having a hard time supporting this I will be supporting the amendment, but not the article. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Uh, helmeth Mr. Wagner Carl Wagner precinct 11. I move that we terminate debate on the question and all associated matters We have a motion to terminate debate on the question and all that is enforced. We have a second Okay, so let's take your vote on that. We'll use our clickers because it's a two-third vote So the new members to terminate debate. We have to vote by two-thirds Determinate and that means if we do terminate, we're not going to discuss it anymore. We're going to go right to voting So now we're going to vote whether or not you want to continue to hear Debate on the issue or not. So Soon as he's ready, we'll take a vote one is to terminate debate two is no So go ahead and vote one yes to terminate two no Continue to talk Okay, it's a vote of 168 to 51 The bait is terminated okay, so The bait's terminated. We're not going to take a vote We have before us the recommended vote of the arb and we have before us mr. Loretty by mr. Ruderman The amendment so first we're going to vote on the amendment If you like mr. Ruderman's amendment, we're going to vote yes on that if you don't like it vote no Then we will vote on the main motion Whether it's amended or not. Is that clear mr. Fisher Ruderman is the town meeting member. He is the actual proponent of it But he put it up there on behalf of chris loretty So it's one in the same that I have to use ruderman because mike was the actual movement Yep No, no the amendment is regular and then the The article will be a two-thirds vote because it's zoning and zoning requires a two-thirds vote All right, everybody clear we're going to vote on the amendment first if you want mr. Ruderman's amendment fees vote. Yes, if you don't vote no and Go ahead and vote One yes, you want it to know you do not Okay, it is defeated 152 in the negative 65 in the affirmative. It does not carry We now have a force the recommended vote of the arb as printed in their report All in favor of the report of the vote, please vote one for yes two for no And Go ahead and vote one. Yes, you want to add mixed use two. No, you do not Big zero There it is lights out 185 in the affirmative 35 in the negative it passes Very much That's an affirmative vote on article six that closes article six this vote and I so to clear it that brings us to article seven article seven Zoning amendment parking and business industry of multifamily residential zones Mr. Bernal do you want to address this? Thank you, mr. Moderator and thank you town meeting for that vote. Andrew Bernal chair of the mat Andrew Bernal chair of the arlington redevelopment board Article seven is very important. It goes hand in hand with what you just voted in in article six and many of the things that we want to see Through article six will will come to fruition. I believe with article seven What this does is it amends off-street parking and loading regulations to establish parking ratios That reflect parking need along commercial corridors And it's an important to note that this is this is only along those commercial corridors that we discussed as part of article six Uh, it'll infect industrial areas in multifamily zones, but it isn't going to affect residential parking in any R1 r2 district There was a there was a residential parking analysis Done by the metropolitan area planning council on behalf of the town last year That showed and recommended that really one parking space per unit is sufficient commercial areas near transit including bus transit Now that means residential Units in commercial areas This amendment allows for reduced parking requirement by special permit In commercial and multifamily residential properties, and there are incentives To own fewer cars again what we've seen from the Sorry From that report is is that we actually have enough parking in town Counterintuitive is that may seem to most of you might myself included in some cases Um, but what this does is it offers incentives for developers and property owners to encourage the use of alternative Transportation in exchange for a reduction in parking requirements What one of the things we're expecting and hoping to see as part of mixed use is more Appropriate use bigger use better use of some of these properties in town One of the things that we want to look at and see developed Are some of those office spaces that I believe miss mem and spoke about In the last article so that we can make Arlington a more attractive destination for Businesses along those lines We talked a lot about commercial use, but what we also want to encourage is is business use commercial use not just retail But but also develop some of the industrial zones in town that are a little bit underutilized And we believe that this warrant article gets toward that One of the things we do is we encourage the use of alternative transportation Part of this bylaw amendment includes something called transportation demand management And developers will have to come in with a plan to say to us. This is what we intend to do In exchange for a reduction in parking requirements that can be things like Incentivizing their employees to use the bus routes in town to use public transit to use things like Taxi services uber lift Rider bike walk Where the case may be so that we can reduce some of these needs What we found as part of the master plan process Was that Arlington's parking requirements in commercial districts actually hold back the development potential of some of these commercial lots Parking requirements are are very hard to meet on some of the small lots that make up our commercial areas Where access to public transit is strong Access to the bike path is strong bike lanes that have been going in are strong people are using these alternative methods More and more and again this study Shows that people are using fewer cars. They're actually getting out there and taking the bus. They're getting on their bikes. They're walking What we're proposing is a reduction to 25 of the existing Parking requirement in exchange for this transportation demand management plan. Now again, this is another use Another request another option Covered under special permit So it's part of a development and it's part of any proposal developer will have to tell us how they intend to reduce the use of cars Reduce the use of people using their automobiles to get to work every day Not only in in these Industrial districts, but in retail districts as well We've seen that from this M. A. C. M. A. P. C. Plan that this is what works This is what people want to see. This is going to help us to utilize article six. You just voted in and begin to Develop Arlington and really unlock these commercial corridors in town in an appropriate and responsible way This will not affect Handicap spaces in any way Businesses will still be required to provide some parking and there are metrics by which handicap spaces Are required I think it's one per every 25 spaces So that's not an issue that that is to be concerned about there will be plenty of handicap spacing plenty of Handicap access what this does is it gives the town flexibility in its parking requirements to allow for that reduction Again by special permit to make some of these smaller lots that we have in Arlington More attractive to developers and more attractive to be used In some of these new and innovative and really exciting ways I think what you'll see as part of this is some of these empty storefronts might be replaced That's my hope Some of the buildings along mass av that that need to be updated Will be done. I think they'll become more attractive to developers If they see that that they don't have to use a large spot on this lot for a parking lot And then you run into to all these other problems and there really are plenty of parking options in town Though I really urge you to vote for this. It supports article six Very well It will again help to unlock the development potential in town It's going to make Arlington much more attractive as a commercial destination And again, I hope you'll support this article. Thank you Thank you, sir It's a gentleman running the back in the center. Oh, yeah, mr. Trembly Hey trembly precinct 19. I know it was some amusement that the Redevelopment board said that Reducing the parking requirements would make Arlington a magnet for People from elsewhere coming here to Arlington to shop Well Since the bus lines all go into Boston That means if they're coming from somewhere else, I'd have to go into Boston first and then come out Um, there's not that many bus lines that go around So I think most of the people that would be coming here if they're going to be coming from elsewhere Would be driving um I also am aware that in Boston That that long ago decided that they didn't need so many parking spaces for the commercial Spaces is now got a really serious problem of parking because there is no place um I think that we're not Going to be doing ourselves much of a favor. You know, I'm not really walking 10 minutes to get the mass they have to take a bus down to east Arlington to buy a plate or some little thing out of a shop I'm probably going to drive and You know, I wouldn't be surprised if some of these uh Some of these empty storefronts it might have something to do with a lack of parking So I would urge you to vote against this I think oh, this is another Thing that occurred to me here All these numbers that they cited about how we only need one space parking space per commu commercial unit That came from the metropolitan planning council well I don't know fading if you remember when the when the when we were debating the mass have project here The metro point there was a guy here from the metropolitan planning council who stood up here and told us that by 2020 We were all going to be riding bicycles um I really don't I don't know who died and made the Metropolitan planning council the arbiter of all things traffic and and highway design But I highly disagree with them You know the the Metropolitan planning council doesn't vote for it doesn't allow any project that doesn't screw up traffic So I would urge you to vote this down because I don't trust the people who came up with some of these numbers Thank you. Mr. Trumbulli Mr. Smith Scott spiff precinct 5 Rise in favor of this article and just reflect how transportation options have changed in this town over the past eight years Thank you eight nine years ago You know zip cars if you wanted to drive somewhere You're running a car somewhere or buying a car now. I can walk to a zip car in five minutes from my house Uh 10 years ago you go out there. Maybe see two bicycles parked out front. Well now those racks are full Uh, and it's just uh, you know reflecting 10 years ago. You didn't have uber Uh, so I think this change simply reflects The changing transportation options that exist now Now some people will still want to drive. That's fine Uh, but many in my neighborhood are zero one car And uh, they have different options now and let's uh Let's change our zoning to reflect that and also the previous speaker's comment about Cars and households. I also looked at the mapc study. I also looked directly at the us census figures Uh, roughly half the households in arlington are zero in one car now I'd urge you to support this. Thank you Thank you This gentleman here in the blue purple shirt. Yep. Thank you. Mr. Moderator filled off precinct seven Um, I don't want to get too warm and squishy right off the bat, but I just want to say in that The debate was probably in the previous Warrant article is probably the most thoughtful and interesting I've ever experienced in my four years of town meeting Here so for everyone who came up both opponents and supporters just wanted to commend you really good stuff But I do want to rise in support Of this article seven I think the arb has done a great job with this as I think they did a good job with Article six as well I think the fact that that the reduction that they're referring to here only 25 is quite modest And of course we'll go through a special permit Um, I think that makes it, you know, generally a slam dunk in terms of its effectiveness. I think that As written now And what you see in a lot of development projects is generally just too much parking I think too much parking really impacts the sense of place And the walkability of mass av and I think other districts In town it leaves gaping holes in the urban fabric, which of course Impacts the walkability and the success of Contiguous business districts I think that you know people generally Respond to the economic signals that they are getting in terms of their transportation choices if they're moving into a new building Perhaps it's a mixed-use building And the owner of that property is giving free transit passes Um, or if they have to I know one of the TDM measures here is Requires those who are actually Living or working in the building to actually pay for parking. That's one of the TDM options to be Incorporated. I think people will respond to those economic signals and they will use transit more frequently. They'll ride And the walk Take the bus more frequently I think that to me one of the most successful examples of a TDM projects that are effect TDM projects work and I think a great example really is In our neighboring city in Cambridge in Kendall Square And I work generally in the Kendall Square area not in the heart of it But in the edges and I suspect a handful of you here Work in the Kendall Square area Kendall Square in the last I don't know six seven years eight years has seen five six seven million Square feet of new development They have an extremely strong TDM program That requires employers to do some of the same measures that we're trying to do here for this very modest reduction of 25 Parking you have a lot of The property owners the biotech companies and others giving their employees transit passes Making parking more expensive the city. Cambridge is of course providing a lot of bike facilities Indoor bike parking is required showers are required For all new development projects. Those have been very effective if if you Spend any time down there, especially if you've been commuting to that area as I have for seven or eight years or longer Traffic levels on Broadway on on binny street on main street In that area generally hasn't changed at all the the fabric of Auto traffic on those streets generally feels the same for the most part as it did 10 years ago But there's five million new square feet of development And that is because these TDM programs work a lot more people are taking the t and getting off with the kendall Kendall square mbta station a lot more people are riding their bikes more people are walking Um, it's a good idea to bring this To bring the TDM concept to Arlington reduce some of the Pressure on the needs for developers to provide parking which of course is very expensive So I think it makes sense in terms of efficient land use And for lower cost development. So I urge you to support this measure. Thank you Mr. Leonard Thank you, mr. Moderator john lended precinct 17 mr. Moderator As mentioned earlier with this TDM program Developers are going to have to meet at least three Of the TDM methods which is described on page 17 of the arlington redevelopment report My question is mr. Moderator On accountability for lack of a better word Who is going to monitor? If that is the correct word that the developers are sticking to Any one of the three categories that are mentioned With a shortage as we know of personnel in certain departments in the town Where are the where's the people going to make sure that the the honor system is being used that You're sticking to what you actually agreed to as the developer I don't think it's honor system. Mr. Bernal's gonna tell us Andrew Bernal chair of the arlington redevelopment board It's uh, it's not an honor system. Arlington has a parking enforcement officer that will be uh, tasked to Periodically check in to make sure that all of the transportation demand management plan Items are being Obeyed and followed And it's important to note that all neighboring communities all arlington's neighboring communities use TDM With some success. Thank you Could you elaborate a little bit more of what what how often pvr periodically is I'm sorry. How often periodically is I mean you're talking about one person Doing all this monitoring there would be we would have to work with Public safety parking enforcement to set up an appropriate enforcement protocol But that's not part of the zoning warrant. That would be, um, Mr. Chapter lane Do you have an idea of how often your guy would go Belger people Adam chapter lane town manager I'd be happy to work with the redevelopment board to determine exactly how frequently these inspections need to take place But I think it bears saying that I can't imagine developers uninstalling showers removing covered bike parking or Otherwise removing some of these investments they would make as part of the special permit process What I'm mentioning, mr. Chapter lane is How do we make sure that a stipend is being paid to workers That charges are being done for parking on site That some of these characteristics are being carried out as agreed to by the developers Do you have an answer mr. Chapter lane Is there a paper trail? Let's put it that way Adam chapter lane town manager on the on the paper trail matters I defer it to the redevelopment board's protocols for for verifying Compliance with the special permit The redevelopment board The planning department and any other appropriate office would work together to set up an appropriate enforcement plan So that there were regular check-ins with any developer or property owner to ensure that these stipends are still being paid that Transit pass subsidies for example are still being paid out We would we would ask them to Update us periodically that these things are being done and if any of these things are not being done They can be brought before the redevelopment board at the risk of their special permit being revoked Thank you Thank you, sir Mr. Deist John dice precinct 13 I'm curious about the on on page 16 The 25 limit that is to say industrial zones May be reduced to 25 of that required in the table of street parking regulations It seems to me that a developer Would try to anticipate what Makes sense in the business or in the creation of a building or some kind of development and if if the business How shall I say this if the The business plan is such that it's a good idea to go down to zero Why wouldn't you want to allow the person to do that in the sense that it's the it's the business part of this that determines The reduction in parking that might they might want to Have happened. So I'm just wondering why not Go down to zero. What was your rationale about not going to zero Mr. Bernal. Thank you. Andrew Bernal chair of the Arlington redevelopment board. Uh, we did discuss going down to zero It seemed like a bridge too far. Maybe more than the town was ready to support. We felt that going down to 25 Was appropriate given conditions in town. Okay. Well, I All right. I strongly support this whole plan. It seems like good sense very good sense to me Mr. Jamison Thank you. Mr. Moderator Gordon Jamison precinct 12. I moved the matter at all. I moved the article in all matters before us. Thank you We have a motion to terminate debate in the matter in all articles before there is no amendments So we have all in favor of terminating debate. We're going to use our clickers I'm supposed to call them handheld voting units. I like clickers That's a two third vote if you want to terminate debate, please press one And no green light We got a timer there we go If you do not want to terminate debate press two one for yes two for no It is terminated 180 90 the affirmative 23 and a negative debate is terminated We have a force a recommended vote of the arb for Transportation demand management plan All in favor of the plan of the recommended vote of article seven, please press one for yes two for no As soon as we get oh, there's a green light One for yes two for no It's an affirmative vote of 180 in the affirmative 2034 in the negative It is a vote and I so declare it and that ends Article seven and brings us to article eight We now have the recommended vote Of the arb of no action Mr. Morden Thank you, mr. Moderator john john warden precinct eight I uh I moved to postpone the consideration of May I do eight nine and ten in one? Um one at a time. Why don't we just do it one at a time? All right. I moved that we postpone the consideration of article eight until May 4th that's A week from Wednesday, I think Thank you Now the reason I do that is that Looking at the master plan remember this big thing that we with the recommendation of the redevelopment board which had approved that we voted to endorse it and These three articles eight. Well, I'm only supposed to talk about eight Article eight is one of the articles done now. Here's what the master plan Said and the presumably the redeveloped board committed themselves to do study and consider amending setbacks for area ratio. Sorry Setbacks for area ratios um dimensional requirements um Sorry my my uh, I've not only gone grown gray in your service, but my eyesight has really gone. Um and and um Needed that that could address concern for neighbor Neighbor impacts of new larger homes constructed Uh in existing established residential neighborhoods and that is one of the implementation Steps and the timing of these these all have different sort of Timing aspects and this one is near Near term Now for the past 11 months since this plan was approved The redevelopment board has had to work on this and their staff Actually produced three articles Produced article eight, uh, which revises in a small way some of the Uh definitions in in the zoning bylaw The citizens group of which i'm a member has produced has submitted some amendments to article eight to Take care of some issues that came up during the hearing process and so on and um We think that the reason I moved that this fee postponed is that having having you know These articles finally having been produced This article finally having been produced after 11 months And then having hearings and having a forum at the forum Took place in this hall Uh, it was asked are you going to make any changes to your recommendations? And they said no nothing will be changed before town meeting But I guess they should have said nothing will be changed until one hour before town meeting In which case they met at seven o'clock and said no We're gonna we're gonna jettison these three articles that that we have recommended And that you that I believe you have a right to to to discuss and have a vote on So I hope you will vote to postpone article eight until may 4th. Thank you Yes, sir It is is a motion to postpone the article. So it is before it's Yes No, no article eight. I called article eight. It's before us Yeah, and mr. Warden has gotten up under article eight and we're going to motion to postpone Which is debatable mr. O'Brien had us end up first Mike Did you want to speak on the postponement mr. O'Brien? No, mr. Sear. Did you want to speak on the postponement? Mike care precinct 12 member of the redevelopment board. I guess i'm just a little bit confused Is it going to be postponed because there's going to be a substitute motion put forth That's my understanding Mr. Warden Yes, um Okay, uh, I'm not sure what else to what else to say You know, I think that the one thing I will say in response to mr. Warden is uh, the master plan Is a long-term process. Well, we're we're strictly talking about postponement right now Okay, anyone else wanted to be put the postponement Whether or not we should postpone Otherwise there's nothing before us Okay, so we have a motion to postpone that I have a second on that motion Okay, the motion to postpone is a majority vote so Mr. Renau ready one yes to postpone to no Yes, sir They got to know good If it's not working right go over and see the list. You'll get your new clicker Okay, the motion to postpone Under 27 in the affirmative 63 and a negative it is postponed to may 4th that closes that Post phones article 8 brings us to article 9 Um, mr. Warden you're going to make the same motion and the same appeal on article 9 Thank you, mr. Moderator john warden precinct 8 Well for same reasons, um that I submitted with with respect to article 8 I I would like to move to postpone article 9 until May 4th And as the gentleman said the master plan is a long process, but There are some of these processes that we cannot Yeah, john would arguing about postponement We're just talking about postponing right right, okay Well, I think we should postpone it because this is an important piece of the redevelopment board's own agenda Which which would change the dimensions in the residential zone very slightly But it's it's it's a movement in the right direction And so I think we should have an opportunity to discuss this. Thank you And and and yes, we will we will we will type up Your recommended vote and submitted as a substitute motion Mr. O'Brien, do you wish to speak to postponement on this matter? We're only going to postpone it or not if we don't postpone it. We're going to move no action Okay, all in favor of postponing to May 4th. Who's got a question? Who? Him. Oh, yeah Yes, sir May 4th We're postponing to May 4th Mr. Foskett Charles Foskett precinct 8. I have a question for mr. Warden Is Was it a joke or humor that you would be typing up the ARB's Own document and making it a substitute motion or is there actually going to be a substitute motion with a difference? Do we do a question? Thank you for that question. Mr. Foskett I'm not literally going to type but I have a computer now I also have a typewriter, but I don't use it very often I Know the the substitute motion that that we would I mean I have to talk to my committee about it But the substitute motion that we will propose I think is going to pretty much track what the What the redevelopment board proposed Is that I answer your question? No, sorry Well We're going to do we're going to do something different than take no action We're going to I'm going to ask you if we do if the meeting votes to postpone this and we come back on May 4th We we will bring in a substitute motion which will As far as I know track The language of the recommended vote the previously recommended but now abandoned vote of the redevelopment board Does that that make it clear? Thank you Mr. Quinn on the issue of postponement Yeah, Michael Quinn precinct 10. I'm Here to discuss the postponement We're all told to come in 48 hours beforehand with anything that we're going to bring that's going to be a substitute an amendment or something like that Essentially what's happened tonight with articles 8 9 and 10 is the redevelopment board has come in with zero minutes notice And changed the votes left a bunch of people scrambling who thought they were going to be something was going to be before us I would encourage everybody to take that in mind When we're voting whether or not to postpone this I was really surprised to see how many people didn't want to postpone 8 I encourage you In the name of fairness to postpone these. Thank you We're not the english parliament that lady way in the back on the right Yep Hi, linda hanson precinct 7. I'm not sure if this is Appropriate or not, but I I guess I just wonder if we could have an explanation for why they're changing it to no action for 8 9 and 10 To help us understand it better That's not part of the postponement well Okay, to me it's it would be but that's your decision. Yeah, it's Because they wanted to I don't know could have gone through here. I know So no one else wants to speak to the postponement. All right, mr. Renau when you're ready One yes to postpone to know One yes to postpone to know It's affirmative vote 164 to 44. It is postponed to may 4th. That brings us to article 10 164 to 44 We have a recommended vote of no action mr. Warden Imagine he's going to make the same motion to postpone to may 4th And they're going to come up with a substitute Thank you, mr. Moderator john warden precinct 8 and yes, I would like to move to postpone article 10 until may 4th an article 10 is Is a change to The parking regulations and it will require a 15 degree slope and This is this is very very well explained in the redeveloped boards report and once again I think you should have an opportunity to discuss it we to To anticipate if I may mr. Foskets question We I think our come our our little citizens group will will will Ask me to present a substitute motion which will exactly track the language of the redevelopment boards Now abandoned recommendation. I just want to say one thing about this 10 It's important was pointed out during the course of some of the precinct meetings that these very steep driveways You're back out of them. That's getting to the argument to the issue. Mr. Warden. Sorry. Okay. I won't Mention the danger to pedestrians then. Thank you second Anybody want to talk about postpone or do we all understand? Okay. Mr. Renault when you're ready One yes to postpone to know and go one yes to postpone to know Mr. Dunn is your clicker working properly good 167 infirmative 34 and a negative it is postponed 37 and negative that brings us to article 11 All right, motion to adjourn Any notices to reconsideration mr. Tosti has served notices notices to reconsideration on several articles anybody else wants to serve them We have a motion to adjourn all in favor. Please say yes No We're so adjourned till wednesday whoever said hold on number 11 be ready first thing wednesday