 Good evening. Welcome everyone to the June 5th meeting of the Town of Arlington Redevelopment Board. My name is Rachel Zembery. I'm the chair of the Redevelopment Board and I'm calling this meeting to order. And first thing I'd like to do is for my fellow board members to introduce themselves. Steve Rubilak. Eugene Benson. Kiddler. And we have joining us also the player record from the Department of Planning and Community Development, the director, and let's launch right into our meeting this evening. So the first item on our agenda is, excuse me, in the back if you can't hear me please let me know. I know that the HVAC can be a little bit loud so can you speak up? Please don't hesitate to let us know. Or move up to the front. Or move up to the front. Either way. So the first item on our agenda is the public hearing for docket number 3752, College Peak 251 Summer Street. And I will hand it over to Claire as I understand that they have asked for a continuance of this hearing to our next meeting date which is June 26th. That is correct. Thank you Rachel. On Thursday I spoke with the proponent at 251 Summer Street and we came to mutual agreement the department and the applicant that this project would be better served by postponing it two weeks to allow for the department to you know more clearly I think with more details right the planning memo that is related to this project and for the applicant to have a little more time looking at the site with the current property owner so we will be postponing until the 26th at 7.30 in the same room. Great. So I will first run through the members of the board to see if there are any comments or questions starting with Steve. I do have a question. Yes. I have never done one of these hearings before so I was wondering if someone could clarify the select board's role and our role with respect to permitting the use and is it possible to obtain copies of the documents that the select board use when making their decision. Sure. I can clear if you wanted to start and then I can fill in. I was going to say why don't you please go ahead and answer that right. Okay I'll go ahead and start. So can I believe that you were a part of the commission that reviewed the original the last two the last two applications but the select board is responsible for permitting the host agreement so that is basically identifying the location and the ability for them to seek a permit for this project. So the redevelopment board's role is not to identify that this is the correct location with regard to meeting the requirements of the the marijuana business laws in terms of citing but to ensure that the actual project as proposed is appropriate in its design for the neighborhood. Okay. Anything to add to that Claire. No I think I just have one thing to add. This board does not adjudicate the use for a marijuana dispensary. This board only weighs in on the design of the facility and other planning issues related to the development itself. But the use is determined allowed permitted by the select board. If I could change a little more nuance view we still have to determine that it meets the special permit criteria and the environmental design review criteria plus the criteria in section 8.3 I think of the zoning by law which is about marijuana facilities. But the host community agreement is what is is what adjudicated by the select board. And that's how they figure out how much money they're going to get from the dispenser. Thank you for that. For those clarifications. Absolutely. Jean any questions or comments before we vote on the continuance. Can any questions or comments. No. Okay. So with that is there a motion to continue the public hearing for 251 summer street to the next redevelopment board meeting which will be on Monday June 26th at 7 30 p.m. So move. Second. Great. We'll take a vote starting with Steve. Yes. Jean. Yes. Ken. Yes. I am a yes as well. That is now continued to June 26th. With that we will move to our second agenda item. We'll have actually public comment at the end of our open forum will be agenda item number number five and then we are happy to take questions. Although I will note that we cannot comment on any specifics related to this to the first agenda item the public hearing because it has not been presented to us and we have not had I would bring that up during open forum. Please. The end will be in about 45 minutes. Thank you. And you were more than welcome to email any questions you have as well. Okay. Great. Thank you. Let's see. The second agenda item is MBTA communities update and I will turn it over to clear. Great. Thank you. So the MBTA communities working group has been very diligently meeting to review materials that have been provided by our consultant UTL as well as results of a survey that went out right after our last full public hearing on excuse me a full public meeting on March 9th. We got over a thousand responses to that survey. And then we gave some of the survey results or preliminary survey results to our consultant to be mapped and this board has seen in the working group has seen a few iterations of that map. We have seen initially mapping of three family homes residential projects across the swath of Arlington in two configurations. I received this afternoon a fourth draft of this map. The working group the last time we met discussed let's look at a map with some more with more density than just say the three families across Arlington. And so this is sort of hot off the presses. This is another stab at looking at three commercial areas East Arlington Arlington Center and the Heights and looking at what a zone would look like as we mapped say six families 12 families residential development with a with slightly more density than the maps that we had seen before. And like I said I got these about three o'clock this afternoon related to this. I also received the table. This sort of shows how utile came up with this latest zone again looking at developments with more density some larger scale developments and then trying to determine the size of the zone from there. Now these are again working documents that the working group will see tomorrow night at their meeting and discuss you know how to best and present this in our public meeting on Thursday the 8th. So Thursday the 8th at 7 30 in this room we will be having our second public meeting related to this project. You can see here some of the maps that you've seen before have shown you know bigger districts I think across more stretches of the town. This example avoids local historic districts which I think is still part of a discussion. You know do we want to include some historic districts as part of the MBTA community zone. And it extends really the full length of Mass Ave. This is the first time we've seen something that looks like this that isn't sort of discreetly you know related to these commercial centers. This is one I think that that is way more you know more of a corridor treatment than what we've seen in the past. But again every one of these maps is iterative. It is based on a specific question that was asked either by the working group or you know by this board could we model larger could we model smaller and then what would that look like on the map. So this is really again just sort of playing with density property staying out of commercial currently commercially zoned areas currently industrial zoned areas. And this would be like I said our latest iteration iteration of that map. Again tomorrow night we'll be having a working group meeting to go over I think more of the logistics of how we are going to handle that meeting. There will be a presentation by the working group. We'll talk a little bit more and more in depth about the survey results more of a qualitative kind of review and explanation. We'll have you till talk about you know the rules the state prescription for this zone. We'll do a charrette with some maps. We can have folks you know start to look at maps draw on maps determine you know is this really you know this is again just a suggestion just a starting place. Is this something that that that would work. What do people think are there other places we should be thinking of and that will be you know sort of a charrette exercise and then we'll do a report back. And then that will be the second public hearing. We will start to move from where the district goes to what's in the district you know talking more about building size unit size you know things things like that but really the biggest chunk of this work is looking at the district determining where it goes and then seeing you know what we can fit in there that makes sense in the context of Arlington. So that's the latest I have. The working group has not seen this drawing yet it's come to the board and the public first but I think you know that you know we'll be fine with that because these are just a series again of draft after draft after draft as we're as we're zeroing in on a zone that will work. I'll take questions from the board members and we'll start with Kim. I want to start off with just saying I had a meeting today with school school superintendent school superintendent sorry thank you yep um the building commissioner Mike Champa police chief uh Liz Julie Jury sorry Liz is that yes okay sorry yeah and uh a couple of uh a priest and uh associate for uh on the school board you were flying in and out I presented the previous iteration of this to them where it was not quite as pulled in as this it was more as a three family they did they did the layout based on the three family since that time we had made a comment of bringing it in to make it a four or five story or or six or six to twelve unit buildings it sucked it in a little bit more so it was as spread out as it was before um and they had some good questions some of the questions they asked was you know um why was it done you know not they thought it was all sort of cornered in one zone and they thought it was all going to East Arlington because it had to be close to the MBTA and explained to them this is not an uh not that because we don't meet the criteria where an adjacent town as opposed to a um serving town to the MBTA so it gives us the flexibility to locate anywhere within the town that was one of the uh questions uh the other question was uh density um you know is it going to be three floors or four floors and so forth and then the other question they had uh was um how soon was this going to happen and I said that's a that's a real tough guess um but I gave an estimate that zoning usually is for 25 to 50 years in advance from now so it's not really something maybe we can realize um in the near future it's it's the future of the of the town that we're looking at and then I had some questions for them and I said how does that fit into your what would you guys been helping with and I said this would help fall if um we looked at this would increase workforce housing one of their major criteria is for teachers getting new teachers retaining teachers is because cost of living so high here uh they can't afford to pay the teachers or I don't want to say teachers also the workers that work at the school uh enough wage to live here it's the same with uh with the police department you know um even though they have a 15 mile radius from where we are it's still difficult and the applicants for the police have always dropped almost half now so their their choice of selection is much lower now uh I asked the school uh if by increasing this density gradually will this be an issue for schools in the future and they said no we're uh coming to the bump right now which is the big class right now the you know like the top of the peak top of the peak is going to go through high school in the next couple years and then it'll be below the peak after that and they said that they have no problems with that right now uh because we're sort of spreading it out throughout the town that they can adjust the buffer zones to which schools goes or what and if you're comfortable uh the way we haven't laid out it you know if we did all on one side that doesn't help them but the way we have laid out there it does help them in uh because they just they'll just adjust the buffer zones so we're not putting any strain on any one school or any one side of town and that's what they also the police and said you know that's that you know it's not all concentrated in one area it's spread out so they like that they all see everybody seemed to like that the most you know and uh that was what happened this afternoon and uh we're looking at this I like this uh I think they're listening to us where we say to suck it in um we're trying to put the zones beyond the business zone so it still allows the business zones along Mass Ave and Broadway to grow uh or maintain themselves and they're spreading also spaces behind them are supporting that and I think that's a good balance growth for this town here I think by doing that it would be good we also talked to a couple locations one was the church site St. Camillus and no one knew where that was until I showed them where it was and they said uh that they weren't sure that it would be a good zone area um for that right now they didn't know enough about it and I said let's not get into the weeds I rather just stay uh you know the big topics for now as we get more development I'll be sending them more information and they're welcome to ask me anything they want or just join to one of our meetings I told them they're gonna welcome to come the 8th and uh we'll see thank you for taking those meetings that's very helpful um before we go on to Jean I just have a question because I I just can't see does this does this um does this new plan um show the district's one lot back from the businesses on Mass Ave or is this a budding Mass Ave the the sites and you may not know I know you just got this plan some are yeah one lot back and some are right on depends sort of where you are most of this new map Rachel is exactly how you describe it is um one to two parcels back from Mass Ave I mean specifically it's only running along Mass Ave I think in this drawing but yes it is um at least one to two removed um from that first uh band of parcels along right up adjacent great I'm certainly glad to hear that that's certainly one of my highest priorities is to make sure that um we are minimizing if not eliminating the number of parcels that actually touch Mass Ave I think we can prioritize the commercial growth in town we have been using interestingly a 40s a 1940s zoning map which did exactly you know what you're describing yep yeah and um it's interesting I think this one looks a lot a lot like that map you know so I think this uh you know like I said it's iterative um you know this this our final map may not look a lot like this um but I think we are you know getting closer and it'll be interesting to see what the public has to say great thank you very much and Gene any questions comments first is so Rachel and I are not on the committee can we attend the meeting on the eighth or does that violate the openness meetings law and if we attend the meeting can we participate or do we have to only be there as observers well this is what I need to know the answer I would have to check with uh Doug Hyme and see what we you know what each member would have to you know do if we do if it turns out to be a quorum if you all go you know what does that mean I if we post it tomorrow that we could then you could right so I think if we could check in with Doug in the morning that would be helpful great question so I would like to go that is a great question yeah if we just need to observe we'll observe right that would be great so much the better thank you we're talking about Thursday right yes not tomorrow no Thursday okay did I say tomorrow no no I didn't hear oh I said we would have to post tomorrow that we are having a quorum at the meeting on Thursday yeah if it were open meetings um thanks for that so which map or maps are going to be used on Thursday so I would say at this point this is the map that will be presented on Thursday okay um I think it doesn't hurt to offer the other iterations so people can see how we arrived here and you know kind of what the terms were I think it does make some sense to show the map that shows if we were to you know here is just if we did three families across the entire thing here's what it would look like and then we start playing you know so I I well I think any map could be there uh for a comment or to help sort of drive the discussion again no no map is a final draft at this point right right so I um because when we saw the two maps a couple of weeks ago two or three weeks ago I think we generally like the map that would have met the requirements not the one that would not the map that didn't have any of the area in a hundred-year flood plain so it sort of seems to me that map is a nice contrast to this map because I think it would give people at the meeting a feeling of what happens if you do this yeah what happens if you do the other one right what happens if you do some combination so right that yeah I think that would be an interesting way to do it right um one of the things I just found out recently and it sort of surprised me living in this town for more than 32 years is the round around the corner from my house is a national historic district and it's not on that map and then I went to and I went to the national register and there there's another national historic district in the center which I don't know if it's coterminous with the local historic districts and then there are individual properties on the register and so I think depending upon whether people think it's a good or bad idea to include the historic district in in this I won't say what I think but I think we need to find the national we need to designate well the national ones are also and I think some of the I don't remember but I was looking at it the other day some of the properties on mess of which are not in a historic district are on the national register so I think it would probably be helpful to designate that on the map um let me see what else did I have here you know it I thought it was interesting in thinking about what the next steps were is that I don't think we ever actually told the committee what product we wanted from the committee at the end of the day I think we said let's appoint a committee let's appoint the committee do a public process but we didn't really say I think what do we want back you know do we want this is the one thing we want or do we want here or two or three different options for the board to consider because when we get it we're going to have to have public hearings at least one public hearing and take public comments on whatever we're going to propose so we're going to have some independent obligation not to say that's what we got from the committee and we can't change it so although I would hope it comes in such good form that we don't have to do much of anything to it but I just wonder what we think the product is that we should be getting back from the committee I think the committee is reaching out right now to the public to see what their thoughts are okay they also are aware of what our concerns are too and they are incorporating that in and it's not going to be here's the product there's going to be ongoing meetings throughout the summer where we'll have our comments too that adds to it so it's not just here's the product all right there's going to be a dialogue between the two I rather not give the committee blinders and say here's what you want to look at I much rather have have them open to look at everybody's comments including town members see what they are they're going to digest it they can take our stuff that we have concerns about I thought they paid attention to about the commercial zones and everything else they they clearly understood that I said it a few times but they understood it and we're taking comments I think we're taking comments both ways and it's not going to stop here we're going to continue on this but it just won't be every week you guys be doing it we're meeting every week right and I don't know that that was your question per se it was more what is the product that will be delivered at the end of the day because ultimately we have to form this into a warrant article and if it's here is a proposed map with maybe one or two alternatives in certain areas for this board to hash out jean is that more what your well that's my question right but the process sounds like a great process that you just one of the things I've let's say it's one of the things I've been pushing for is massing studies so we have coming I'm not sure it's going to be here tomorrow or not or for Thursday is what does a 12 unit massing looks like what does a 24 unit massing looks like what does a three mass three unit massing looks like that's one approach based on massing the other approach is what do we get from a 5 000 square foot lot what do we get from a 10 000 square foot lot right and what do we get from a 15 I don't know the exact numbers okay so don't call me on the numbers right but we're looking at it but we're looking at it from both ways how does how does the lot size dictate the massing or density and what does the density look like on its own based on what we you know and then we then we're going to go next step and apply that to the massing study we already have a long mass af and put that in and see how that works so that's what I've been pushing for I'm not sure is it going to go through yet but I'm pushing and I'm hoping that that will be the process if you guys are supportive of that process I will say it's not only kin saying that it's the board saying that and if I get that backing it helps I think that's all good I think we'll save maybe a little bit later whether we end up with just one proposal from the committee or whether we get sort of two or three variations that we can do our own public process on yeah we haven't got a review yeah but we're far from that right now yeah but that's I think that will have to be decided some way between now and mid august or wherever we're going to need to get what we get so we can get it ready for full-time meeting yeah one of sorry I haven't speaking about that you're only giving to what what do you have to say about that well there's the effort or the sort of the side project I've been most involved with is going through survey results so as Claire said we had a thousand and thirty three responses there were 2300 and some odd comments some of which were completely different than the questions that were asked and outside of the scope of what we could do for within this the framework that section 38 offers us but there was also a lot of good ideas and I think things that we could sort of focus on so two of us went through the survey comments and basically coded all of them so the idea is to take the specific points ideas preferences that were expressed and then just you know do it mark them up in a way that could be aggregated so this will be part of our report which hopefully will be ready soon I know the materials have gone out to the board for review but you know there's also it also I think illustrates some things where we have where we need to do probably a little more education and also it calls out some of the areas where we'll have to make choices like for example the most out of all of the survey responses encouraging multifamily housing that meets that includes sustainability standards or sustainability yes sustainability practices was the one that got the most positive response no matter how you how you cut it up and look at it but in terms of a map there's only so much you can do with that you can try to reduce car dependency but a concrete thing that could come into play is well we just adopted a specialized stretch code and there are extra there are passive house standards if you have a multifamily home that's over 12,000 square with more than 12,000 square feet so do you want to allow that affordable housing was another one that came up quite a bit and you know as a sort of a decision point well affordable means that it will have to be at least a six flex and will you you know is this something that we want to allow by right so these are like where the first one was just kind of the first survey was kind of trying to get a sense of you know people's general preferences and to just help us draw lines on the map the next iteration is going to get I think more of okay so this is what we got out of the first iteration and now we have some more specific decision points to consider you know and I'm I'm looking forward to going through that in the next coming weeks yes I mean one of the things that I had mentioned some time ago and I think it would be nice to know the answer pretty soon it reminded me when Steve said you know if you have six plexes then at least one unit's affordable right now the affordability kicks in when a special permit is required well a special permit's not going to be required for this but if you look at 40a where it allows you to do inclusionary zoning it says when there's a special permit so I think it would be helpful to have a conversation with Doug sooner rather than later and I could do that too if you like just to make sure that we're comfortable that if we go with six unit or greater buildings with no special permits we won't lose the ability to have inclusionary zoning and what will we have to do if anything to our bylaw which right now says you have to have a special permit for inclusionary zoning so I'm I'm real interested in sorting that out sooner rather than later jean you bring up that point I always under the impression that inclusion inclusionary housing is only linked to the number of units if it's if you go over six one of them will have to be inclusionary it's not hope it's not connected to the special permit if six if six units were allowed by zoning then that's fine but then one of those you still have to be affordable not because it went through uh that's a good question you bring up I I was just interpreting it differently I you know you could be right and I could be wrong I I'm relying on my recollection of what's in the bylaw I mean I mean Cambridge figured out how to do it so well we Cambridge is a city so oh yeah that's true right so that's something that I have on our list that we'll need to verify yeah and um so are we going to verify that or you want the committee to no I'd like Doug to why don't we do this why doesn't gene brought brought this up and offered to to track that one down why don't we let gene track that down together with Claire and Doug and report back at our next that's fine I just want to make sure we're asking us to do at the committee so the so the zoning by law our zoning by law I just have it in front of me now the affordable housing requirements apply to all new residential development with six summer units subject to environmental design review so is the word subject to yes so therefore we're gonna have to do something with this and we can't just keep it the way it is um that's why I'd and like to have a conversation with Doug about that yeah good good point I just I just assumed the other way around yeah I've read that sometime in the distant past remember let me see if any other questions nope I think that's it thank you great thank you Steve any comments or questions nothing else great thank you Claire did you have anything else to add so it sounds like as a follow-up from this gene is going to follow up with Doug Hyme regarding the inclusionary zoning trigger with regard to environmental design review and you had mentioned that you would touch base with Doug yes tomorrow morning to find out if Gene and I are able to participate or if we need to be by standards at the Thursday evening correct great anything else can did you have anything else great all right so let's move to agenda item number three which is the ARB meeting schedule review and Claire I will hand it over to you great thank you there we go so I took the opportunity to basically go through roughly every two weeks from now to the end of the year skipping Monday holidays to put together a rough schedule that you know should get us through the end of the year should get us through potentially a a town meeting and also our board retreat so starting no it was not no this is just me okay so June 26 we we know will be Calix peak as well as additional discussion related to MBTA communities and answering at least you know the inclusionary zoning question and then potentially on on the 10th Calix peak may come back hopefully we could get their permit done in an evening but you know I'm I'm certainly thinking it might take more than that and then after that we're going basically every two weeks we skip Labor Day and I think that's the only holiday that we really run into we do need to schedule our board retreat and then identify where the public hearings would be for the fall town meeting I'm thinking if we can get there that August 21st might be a decent day to do the the public hearing or start public hearings for fall town meeting I'm sorry what date was that that would be August 21st I am not available that that is a date now that I'm seeing these dates I'm not available the 14th or the 21st okay so we have to do it on the 28th if we wanted to start in August Roger that okay make a note on that one don't typically we take August off we do but we have the fall town we have fall town meetings and I don't see how we're going to get to it if we don't okay what what is the fall town meeting do we have dates for when fall town meeting will be we don't have a date yet for fall town meeting I did speak very briefly with Julie Brazil about it when we may be able to schedule I think we were considering the third week of October okay we have a couple other dates that we probably need to take a look at too it looks like the 25th is Yom Kippur okay um that doesn't affect me but um if anyone else on the board has concerns about holding it on that date we're going to need to move that one then um and then the ninth um I believe is it is a um holiday it's indigenous people day okay so that may be a town hall again I'm happy to meet on that evening but it may be a town holiday okay I believe it typically is I'm just going through the rest of the town holiday on 10 9 okay and is there a reason why the retreat is in December no I'm sorry this was Auguste September e public hearing for a town meeting it's just columns I'm going through oh okay sorry I don't need to ease off these are no these are just placeholders because I know generally this time of year is when the retreat happens then obviously we have to you know lock in um our public hearing days for as they relate to uh the fall town meeting I would suggest maybe once the other board member is here we have their retreat not before well yes that would make sense right right okay Auguste is just going to be challenging okay okay because I don't have a weekend the only weekend day in August I can do it is the 27th and I'm not around on the 7th 27th no the 7th I'm not here on August 7th so that date's not going to work either so it looks like if we want a meeting in August the only date we could do it is the 28th the 28th unless Ken or Steve is that for the retreat or just a meeting just a meeting that's why I can't do the 14th or the 21st 28th is fine by me 28th is fine okay you too okay are you going to send something again yeah I was gonna so I will make these adjustments based on y'all okay everybody's notes tonight um and we can go through this again at some point Tetris it's Tetris scene but Tetris okay so then it sounds like we'll need to start public hearings either the 28th or in September we'll we'll need to be able to vote on the warrant articles that sounds like probably we need to work that schedule I think once we know when the fall time meeting will be we're going to need to work back to when the warrant articles need to be submitted because we'll need to identify either the 7th or July 24th probably either August 7th or July 24th is the date when we have the uh when we review the warrant articles to just to submit them and vote on those and then we'll need to start the hearings although I'm not here on the 7th I'm sorry you're right so the 24th of July or the 28th of August I'm feeling 28th of August will be too late if we're looking at the third week in October right I'm not sure we're going to be ready by the 24th of July but we'll see yeah I mean it's all going to start compressing I mean we have may have to do on the 28th and then pop in an extra meeting or two in September yep I think if we could work with Julie to see if the 28th is when we can review and vote on our the 28th of August is when we can review and vote on the warrant articles that we would like to submit otherwise it'll be a month before right and I can certainly follow up with Julie and the town manager about an exact date potentially for the fall town meeting obviously that's set by select board but if it's the first week of November then that's when it is I think we were leaning October because it had something to do with the fossil fuel pilot that we want to get involved in yeah I am not sure that timeline is still on the table I'll double check with Talia Fox okay it's really tight yeah I mean if it moves to November if that's off the table it would free up a little bit more breathing room yeah okay understood thank you thank you so I think we maybe even moved the retreat back further to like what we have in December just so it gives us more room to to September to December till after town meeting yes because we just we just need to spend time focusing on this on this I don't I don't want to I don't want to I would agree okay so December for the retreat you know the snow used to fall around Thanksgiving it hasn't done over years October we haven't had okay any other questions or comments on the schedule review I think we have more questions than anything but I think once we nail down fall town meeting dates or at least a better idea that will be a good shape all right overview again on the 26th yeah okay great thank you because I think we do need to vote correct on the in the past we voted on the schedule date so if we could maybe clean that up and then we'll we'll do that on the 26th got it that would be great thank you uh and let's jump right into agenda item number four which is the fall town meeting more an article discussion so thank you Claire for sharing the documents that we had prepared previously for spring town meeting and the morning articles which we had identified to push to fall town meeting and I will turn it over to you great thank you so when we first discussed late last winter which articles we wanted to attempt to advance the board wanted to advance to town meeting we looked at a series of business zoning changes to the business zoning that would be potentially more conducive to business and economic development and you know make things a little bit easier for those who are doing commercial development in Arlington and to get through this process so I just wanted to go through these with the board and this could be the beginning of a longer conversation I don't think we have to make necessarily decisions this evening because we do have MBTA community zoning going to a special town meeting do we still or does the board still intend to progress all of these articles at a fall town meeting or should these some or all of these be held for the spring town meeting which will be immediately we will start working on immediately after the fall town meeting I think these have are far enough along in terms of research and review that we could you know potentially have them on warrant in the fall if the board would like to spend some more time with these or thinks that you know maybe some are better served being pushed off into the spring we can do that as well but I just wanted to at least get started on this conversation great the conversation we need to have given the bandwidth both of the department as well as the board I thought about this a little bit I'm interested in everybody's thoughts my initial thoughts were that the first six articles I believe we are pretty far along with regard to documentation we've identified that these are significant challenges for us as we are trying to work together with businesses and developers who are trying to create feasible projects within the business districts and are are discreet enough from each other that with some massing studies I believe are digestible my initial thought was that we leave the industrial district so three of these we have already gone through in spring town meetings so the zoning zoning bylaw amendment related to the industrial district development standards the solar bylaw and industrial districts and the building inspector enforcement my initial thought was to hold the jurisdiction over the industrial district and as much as I would love to do it in the fall the Arlington Heights business district overlay I just don't see how we will have the bandwidth to give this one the attention that it needs in addition to pushing forward with MBTA communities and I think it's a very very important element that will set the tone for how we work with other business districts in the future so in my point of view focusing on some of these dimensional and site standards that we'd initially proposed would be what I would prefer to do but I'm of course open to any other thoughts and I'll go to Ken next for your thoughts I appreciate what you said there and I think I agree with you but we also made let's say I made a couple of statements that the board is looking at rezoning business districts because when we're talking about MBTA communities you know I said give us the corridors along Mass Ave because if we don't board is looking at those in the business districts so I don't want to be saying that we are and then some don't come back and do anything about that but I understand also on the other hand we just don't have the bandwidth to do it right I'm just a little uh I think the board can certainly make a commitment much like we did when we did not push these forward at the request of the town manager in spring town meeting that these would we would we would pursue as many of these as we could for fall town meeting I personally would want to make a commitment that if we don't push forward with the heights business district that we do so in the spring I'm on the fence but I completely agree I'm on the I would love to do this I would love to do this in the fall see what my other board member would say too okay I'll just leave it at that for now here Richard jean I'm on the same fence both of you are on about it I would love to do it this fall I don't know how we and the planning staff in their current configuration are going to be able to pull off MBTA communities the other things and the Arlington Heights business district which I think is a really really important project and we want to get it right I I will say now and I'll say it again in relation to some of these other things that our initial proposal for the Arlington Heights business district included rezoning quite a number of residential parcels to business and I'm just concerned that if that MBTA communities map is thinking that it's putting those residential parcels in six plex or 12 plex so whatever the numbers are units and then next spring we want to rezone them business something's wrong so I think that's why jean I was pushing so hard but let me say pull back yeah from us so I think at least my perception at this point is it's better to wait till spring but we want to make sure that what goes forward in MBTA communities is not going to conflict with what we want to do with the Arlington Heights business district which means I didn't count the number but there are a whole lot of residential parcels some are on park have but a few only a few are on mass have that we wanted to make sure they got rezoned business so not that many are on mass have just a few but I think that's one thing to be heard about so while I'm on the fence I'm falling on the side of what's wait till spring for those because also what's not on this list is some things that I think we will have to do along with um whatever MBTA communities does so for example the shade tree bylaw that we put into place last year only applies to things in the business district if we're going to allow and incentivize in one way or another larger apartment buildings on mass have or Broadway or whatever we want to amend I would suggest the shade tree bylaw so it also applies to those also I think wherever MBTA communities comes down we're going to have to do a deep dive into the bylaw to see if there are things like that solar roofs things like that that we want to apply to the larger residential buildings that may be coming so that's another reason why I think we might want to put off um Arlington Heights Business District till the spring because it's going to take a little time to go through here and say oh yeah shade trees oh yeah these other sorts of things like that yeah so great Steve so I I agree with the chair um with respect to keeping the first six skipping the three that we've already done and then leaving um the jurisdiction over the industrial district and the Arlington Heights Business District for the spring but make a commitment to take them up in the spring um again and for the similar reason that's I think this I think the Heights Business District is an important set of an important set of considerations that could set the tone for how we um you know go forward with treating other business districts I'm also kind of excited that Lexington's village overlay is right on the other side of the town line and part of me would like to really think about connect how to connect the two because right now there's a gap um but yeah so I'm you know conscious of you know board members time and capacity and staff time and capacity and I know we all want to really do a good job with this so I want to suggest one other thing that we have talked about it's not on the list but it's hidden in here and I think we should do it this fall is eliminate the yes for one and two family dwellings just found out of my notes too so I think we can and should do that right now right now one in one and two family residential buildings are allowed as of right in the business districts that has not made a lot of sense to the board for some time it's a artifact that started in the 1920s around the country where you could build residences everywhere so but it doesn't make any sense now to do it when we're looking for larger residential properties so I would suggest this is the time to add that to the list it's mentioned in a footnote somewhere in one of these two documents you gave us clear so I don't add that to the list right and we also at our May 1st meeting brought that up that that was one that we wanted to add to the list to remove single and duplex and two family homes by right in the business district there was also a footnote around removing a note for there being up to three borders for higher and all residential districts um that we should also strike from me so with I seem to remember and I don't remember if this is a 40 a or if it's case law but every zoning district has to have at least one economic use it's allowed by right um I vaguely remember but if assuming that we're true it's the United States Supreme case law okay okay all right I do with some sort of case law but um it's great to have an attorney on who who's taught land use on the on the board but um I've always it's always sort of struck me that single and two family homes sort of provided that economic use by right in a lot of districts and if we were if we remove that by right and I'm I do think that's a good idea it doesn't raise any it doesn't raise okay cool Rachel can we also then add in I'm not saying for the fall but it could be the spring we also had talked about um putting in a zoning for eliminating single story that's in here oh yep we have that one in here that's um okay now my height and story minimums in the business districts perfect okay I just want to make sure we but that's that is still in here we can have that all put in the spring if you guys no that's what we're saying we'll keep in the fall because those are discreet um and we have we have the um Department of Planning and Community Development has already done quite a bit of research on these in preparation so really what's left is the massing studies um which we had talked about ensuring that we had the budget and um consulted to be able to support and I believe Claire that you were working with the town manager's office to identify that opportunity yes I think the different I think we should go ahead with the two-story minimum in the business district what we didn't get to and it's going to be um interesting to write is what are the exceptions and how to make it work I think you mentioned that there but um I think that will be the more challenging piece of it to do but we'll have to be done any other comments or thoughts on the warrant articles that the board will be moving looking to move forward for well time meeting versus spring I do have one thing to add please and that is that I attended a meeting um the other night from the affordable housing trust board um they are looking to they have recently received some pro bono help to write an affordable housing overlay district that they intend to bring to this board for fall town meeting for review um so that may be coming I could also um talk to the board about maybe bringing that item uh up in a spring town meeting if we think evaluating that sort of overlay is might be too much to do in the fall but it is on the horizon and I can certainly um you know come back with some more information on that or have the chair um address the board at some point before they really get going I just wonder what the dynamic would be a town meeting when we're dealing with two different I would agree which have different purposes but are a little concerned that it might that would definitely push the old offense one way the other difficult you know so it it may be worth talking to the full housing trust fund about waiting to spring yeah I don't know I would agree because what do you think well um I had been approached by the uh trust funds chair to um collaborate with them on this uh we have I I think we're our first get together we're having a discussion on with with the pro bono council on Friday so I'll too early for me to have much of a sense of it but if that comes up I'm off I'm off the fence and we've got to push it till spring okay it's just too much it's just I think it's going to be confusing for for people because it's already confusing for people how affordable housing doesn't does not play into MBTA communities and then to add that back in I think um I mean zoning is is not something that most of the people at town meeting deal with every day and I and I want to be respectful of that and I think that if we looked at that as well as the Arlington Heights business district those are discreet and so those are to me you could take both of those up at the theme town meeting in a way that would be um much more palatable sounds good thank you you know another thing to think about for the zoning overlay is is what notice is required under our bylaws for that because our bylaws require some interesting notice for a change in zoning and I'm not sure whether this would be a change in zoning because we're not changing the base zoning but we're doing an overlay but it would be worth thinking about and maybe another thing to discuss with Doug a little bit which I'm happy to do when I talk to anything else for fall or spring at this point since we're building our spring time okay thank you all it's the first of exciting time it is look at all the good work that's getting done all right so at this point we'll move to agenda item number five which is open forum so anyone who's joined us this evening is welcome to um raise your hand if you'd like to speak you'll be given up to three minutes to address the board we will typically not respond to comments at this time but made a future meeting and um you would need to introduce yourself by first name last name and address do I skip one of the items that's mine was some new business oh that's right after this right after open forum thank you so um please and if I could ask you to sit over here and speak into the microphone please is this a good okay um Susan Stamps 39 Grafton street town meeting member and a member of the tree committee and I am still here for the tree committee I'll get to as many meetings as I can I think this is a good time to bring up something that we would be very excited about if you guys decided to do this which would be and especially might be very appropriate to go hand in hand with doing the MBTA zoning is to apply environmental design review to all projects in town that go before um you know one way or the other go before the redevelopment board now as I say this I realize the idea of the MBTA zoning is to not you're not like you know asking for a special permit or something and maybe these projects wouldn't even go before the board so um I guess I don't know how that would work but um these are conversations that many of us including some people here have had about that these environmental design guidelines they're it's a wonderful set of guidelines and it would be really great if we could figure out a way to um have everyone doing construction in town follow them and I don't know if that's possible if we have to make them actually I I know now they they seem to be kind of um aspirational they're not really requirements um but I I wonder if there is a way to make them requirements especially if we're talking about a lot more density and it's really important to build in all that you know the various kinds of green infrastructure and open space and um storm water management that see how things fit in with the neighborhoods and such so I would be interested and I know you're not going to respond but I would be interested in having some feedback at some point on that topic of is there any way to make environmental design review universally apply to all new construction in Arlington. Two things very quickly just to follow up I think that this is an excellent idea as a former member of the residential study group and the design review working group I think that aesthetics are critical to community acceptance they can go a long way towards greasing a lot of these projects that might otherwise not go down so well and I did notice that as you're developing the FAQs for the um MBTA group that there is a section devoted to aesthetics so I was very very happy to see that um my second comment this may be more for the MBTA group I feel like we're a little bit split tonight but of course I noticed that my street is one of the streets that is in uh one of the development zones and you know we're a dead end with no parking and several houses have no driveways or opportunity and it's already very dense and I'm wondering how much uh time will be spent by the community's working group and or members of the ARB to visit every block and street that may potentially be included in these overlay districts I think it's going to be very important to to see these on foot in person as you are making the decisions about where these will go so thank you thank you and I'll note two items um there were some questions about um when we continued the first item about environmental design review and what it does and doesn't cover so that might be something that we actually do as an overview before we get into our public hearing at our next meeting we can again talk about what and why we review certain things um and I think uh with the other item um I think that would be something we have two members of the um working group here and that is certainly something that um hopefully we can address at the public um at the public forum yeah in terms of of that that's not currently um under the the redevelopment boards purview until it comes back to us from the working group can I make a statement uh sure um I don't want to get too far into I'm not let's not be back and forth okay I'm just saying that I make them I made a commitment a while back and uh one summer pre-covid I walked up and down Mass Ave and visited every single business and marked it up stating it was two was it a two-story one business it was a business open what kind of business it was and it classified it all into a chart so there is a commitment on this board to actually see all the neighborhoods and see all that stuff Steve also took his bicycle right I haven't looked I've rode all over on the old maps but you wrote but you rode rode every street so I just want to state that we do make a conscious effort to do all the stuff and it's it's not taken lightly okay so look at what Claire's going to talk about on site plan review because that's something we can do for MBTA communities and the other thing that we can do as I talked about with the shade trees is change some of the zoning by-law so it applies to everything because under the guidance for MBTA communities if something applies equally to MBTA communities and other things it's going to be okay so look at what she's talking about or coming up to talk about for site plan review and for when now yeah I would just say that I hope but I don't know but I hope there's going to be an opportunity for every property owner who's in the overlay to be able to come in and say something I hope but I'm not on that committee everybody's invited to the public forum too on the 8th so I hope that you will come and participate and encourage your neighbors to do so as well it's not the last meeting it's just the beginning one of many public meetings yes okay um seeing no other members of the public joining us this evening I'll close open forum and move to item number six new business and Claire I'll hand it over to you great thank you so much so as promised or as threatened I thought I would come back to the board with a little more information about site plan review how it relates to MBTA communities um and what we're allowed to do um so MBTA communities does allow for site plan review of varying levels administrative site plan review means that the site plan review is done completely by the staff there are other iterations of site plan review throughout the commonwealth with different boards that are involved at different levels um a site plan review is not discretionary it is not a special permit it is not a regulation of use nor a pro or a prohibition this is an evaluation of a project that is allowed by right um with um you know reasonable conditions and reasonable comments that are able to be made on on various um topics um what we can't do um it's it's interesting it's it's pretty similar to uh you know the reviewing sort of a a cannabis facility or something like that we cannot determine whether or not the use is allowed um or make discretionary decisions requirements outside of of zoning or or put unreasonable binding conditions on a project so were we to look at a project that was project x and the board decided while project x is going to need you know 15 parking spaces and thus renders you know this is somehow outside of zoning and it renders the project unbuildable that is not something we are allowed to do um what we can do is look at project impacts um determine compliance with zoning and other applicable requirements such as edr um and determine the condition um of approval um we don't currently have technically a planning board in arlington although it does say in several instances of the the town manager act and in a few of the um ARB rules and regulations um that the um redevelopment board acts as as the planning board in the town of arlington um the town will ultimately decide the body uh that has site plan review authority this may be something that needs to be at town fall uh fall town meeting um that the town meeting would vote to give that authority to the ARB um but more often than not it's the planning board um if a project requires a um variance uh occasionally they will kick that to the zoning board of appeals which is the only body um that can issue uh an official variance um and like i said before it can be purely administrative which oftentimes is better for smaller projects um just because you know the town evaluates these projects um regularly um you know uh engineering office dpw police and fire dpcd we all get together to sort of look at these projects um even before they go in front of the redevelopment board unofficially um so uh this is just generally a list of things um that can be reviewed by the body um i think right now um if this were a project that was um going in in front of the ARB it would include um evaluation and comment on all of these items um but were we going were we to delegate um you know some of the uh the responsibility review to administrative departments it could look something like this the ARB would still weigh in on landscaping screening buffers signage uh those sorts of things but i think what we're really looking at is the architectural style and scale we can evaluate um projects or the um the site plan review body can evaluate projects um you know based on all of these different variables but also including architectural style and scale so long as there is a process and so long as we have um you know some uh some uh published or prescriptive um document that talks about what we're looking for we can't automatically say you're going to put in a 12 unit building we you know we it has to look like i don't even know what like you know some broyer fantasy yes or it has to be brick um the good news about that is we do have um our residential design guidelines um which we could you know potentially use as um uh you know just basically you know guidelines for review um they're already out there um in the public sphere um you know really lets uh a developer or a homeowner or somebody know what exactly it is uh we're looking for in terms of design um across all neighborhoods um so the ARB could certainly be a design review board um the historic uh districts board is a design review board they would maintain their ability to review design in historic districts should um some section or some chunk of the MBTA community zone extend over historic district there would still be design review um maybe at two levels at that point in the site plan with the ARB or planning board um and also with the historic districts um design review committee however they go about their process um gene is right these are all things that we are going to need to put in as the evaluation procedure for um you know projects that are built under MBTA communities and I think what we should start to hash out now and what I'd like to bring back to this board is a proposal um that you know for for a criteria for evaluation of projects in MBTA communities and I'm wondering I think you know some of the questions that we should consider are is there a project um or would there be a scale of project where this board or other boards or the public even would feel comfortable with administrative site plan review we do some right now with signage you know if signage meets certain conditions and does certain things we can um approve I can approve that administratively in the office um if there's you know questions or you know they want to do something different or outside of the dimensions that are related to signage then it should go in front of the ARB that's obviously not um you know a decision that can be made in-house with staff so you know under what conditions is this an internal review under what conditions is it an external review with the ARB you know who how just generally how does the community feel comfortable um looking at at these sorts of projects um is it a you know I have I'll throw this out there I have long wondered if it made sense um since our inclusionary zoning kicks in at six units if it made sense to have six units the ability to be built by right um maybe with some kind of expedited excuse me expedited design review either internally with staff click the board something like that um but again all of these you know like uh you know Susan was saying earlier I think all of these need to be um taken under consideration um you know this this I think really great opportunity that we have to do site plan review without saying no um which will get us projects that are you know more more contextual and better for the community um while still with the understanding that you know these folks do have the right to build um what it is that they're looking to build um so just uh really quickly I think just as a my sort of opening um you know address to the to the board and others um this is something that I would like to to bring back I think a little more definitively um with some recommendations and have the board discuss not on the 26th but maybe on July 10th so thank you any questions yeah um um so site planner you says that we cannot say no to the project but what gives you the uh the stick to enforce any of those things that's there can we delay it or how let's say we have a disagreement in landscaping and screening we want the landscaping to be there and screening to be able to act as a buffer for the park and they say no that's uh doesn't make sense for them I don't know what I'm just picking a bad example and they say no what's how do we mitigate that you know I would have to look at it I think more I think generally what happens with developers as they come in and want people to be happy about their project and want people to be supportive of their project um if what we want is landscaping screening and buffers then we need to draw that and we need to make sure that that is somewhere prior to coming into this board there is some sort of um you know dimensions prescriptive treatment um that uh that the proponent could aspire to so it can be capricious and new the requirement it has to be based in some sort of a that's correct an existing standard and we do let's say we do have that and let's say I think our zoning says a parking lot cannot shine cars can't shine into other people's property so that is that's right on our zoning so that's right and that condition would carry through um that would be just you know because someone is allowed to do something by right does not mean that they're not subject to zoning or to some of the other dimensional requirements or some of the other items that come up in the zoning bylaws so so enforcement then is put back on to ISD ISD is taken off of us and we're going to ISD now correct okay I just want to see where that was but by coming in front of this body we are highlighting to ISD what needs to be um what needs some extra attention and review as they finalize their plans yeah I have no problem with ISD taking this on I just didn't know where the stick was jean um I've been thinking about this and there's probably a size of the project I don't know if it's three family four family that probably doesn't need to come to the board but then I started thinking well if somebody thinks they can build a three or four and they don't do site plan review then they might do that rather than a six where they have to go through site plan review so how do we do something that doesn't provide an incentive to people to build smaller than we want them to build and I think one possible way to do it is to have staff administrative review of let's say you know three and fours and the board do everything bigger than that and like we do with signage if the staff says I'm not sure about this for the 304 I'm going to kick this over to the board to look at it we've then made some sort of division and yet haven't set up something that provides an incentive for people to build small because they escape any sort of review whatsoever and I actually like us doing the site plan review rather than the zba unless something requires a variance in which case it should probably be there so they don't have to go to both places I in terms of of these things I think that we could probably do all of them except stormwater management and water and wastewater systems and really all we would need is DPW to just sign off on them before it gets to us you know and says that they've looked at it and those are fine and then we can look at the rest that the other thing that I like about site plan review is the public can be there yes the public can say this is what works for us you know if you have two or three choices this is the choice that we like the best and I'm a believer in public process so I think having this and having it before the board has an advantage for that way too so that's what I'm thinking at the moment about this thing thank you jean steve as it happens over lunch I was reading lexington zoning bylaw to understand how they did site plan review they if I recall correctly they make a distinction between major site plan review and minor major is done by their planning board minor is done by staff and there's a threshold that delineates the two but you know for the most part there were a there was a list of factors that you know were fair game for consideration not unlike the list you showed earlier um it's I I think we couldn't it seems like it it seems like a useful tool in a sense of providing a way to give feedback to an applicant into set expectations but without you know without introducing excessive risk or delay so I you know I plan to look at more is more commute how other communities have been doing this and look forward to talking about how we can do it here thank you so um Claire is that something that we should it sounds like keep on our list for the fall as well and would that be potentially part of the suite of MBTA communities pieces or are you envisioning that as a standalone I think I was going to say as part of a suite and then I immediately second guess myself I think I would have to look at it a little more closely to see it we absolutely should do it at the same time okay whether they're separate articles or not I I don't know so site plan review process and standards yes great any other questions for Claire on this item any other new business I was going to give you all an update on hiring we are making an offer to a new economic development coordinator I I interviewed three finalists last week they were all spectacular in their own ways and it was it was it was it was there were some great interviews it was me Jim Feeney and Beth Locke who were looking at the candidates so we'll be making an offer to one of them um and you know if not them then the other two are are excellent as well I have posted the assistant director position just about everywhere I can find I encourage others you know if you are linked in with me or on the town website please share widely I think we all know we have some pretty big shoes to fill but I'm I'm really encouraged by the interest that I've seen so far in what I've posted so far so we're just at the beginning of the process I think the position's only been open less than a week but I do hope to hire the right person very soon and that's it that's the update on hiring fantastic any other new business all right uh is there a motion to adjourn so motion second second take a vote starting with Steve yes jean yes yes and I mean us as well right gavel uh we are adjourned thank you