Good evening everybody, welcome to the Board of Selectments meeting for July 18th 2016 Unfortunately, neither Kevin nor Diane can be with us for because of summer travel So we're we're running with a board of three this evening First up on the agenda is a proclamation for the Arlington soapbox Derby Is there somebody here who is here to from the soapbox Derby? All right. I will I'll read the what we've got tonight Whereas the all-american soapbox Derby is the second oldest nonprofit organization in the country and Whereas the Massachusetts chapter of the all-american soapbox Derby is the only chapter in Massachusetts and Whereas the Arlington, Massachusetts soapbox Derby is in its eighth year of operation and whereas during the 2014 Arlington, Massachusetts local race on Eastern Avenue Campbell Conrad won the master's division race that advanced to the international race in Akron, Ohio and whereas during the race in Akron, Ohio Campbell Conrad representing car linked in mass was able to in single elimination eliminate 72 master class cars from around the country for the first time in the history of soapbox Derby a car from Massachusetts was able to take the first place trophy and during the 2015 last one was 14 during the 2015 Arlington, Massachusetts local race in the Eastern Avenue Bailey Martin won the master's division and advanced the international race in Akron, Ohio and during the race in Akron, Ohio Bailey Martin representing Arlington mass was able to in single elimination eliminate 73 master class cars from around the country And for the second time in the history of soapbox Derby a car from Massachusetts was able to take the first place trophy and Whereas Arlington, Massachusetts is now a soapbox Derby dynasty And we'll be traveling to Akron, Ohio again this July to defend the Arlington mass title as world champion masters soap class Master's class soapbox Derby now therefore be it resolved that we the members of the board of selectmen Congratulate the Arlington, Massachusetts soapbox Derby participants as they defend their world champion title signed by all of us so Congratulations to them and good luck. Yes and safe racing making us proud and great to hear that we're not the only ones Who care about the soapbox? Do I have a motion I move that we approve second Motion is by mr. Kuro. All those very please say aye. Thank you very much Consent agenda We have the minutes of Let's see. Let's see if I can face up in a good way right here No, I think I got her people. Thank you We have the minutes of their meat under consent agenda We've got the minutes of the meeting for June 20th 2016 We have reappointments to the Community Preservation Committee of Clarissa row term to expire June 30th 2018 We have the reappointment of our poet laureate Miriam Levine term to expire July 18th 2017 We've a request for a special one-day beer and wine license on August 7th 2016 for the Wittemore Robbins house for the summer Swarray at the which is by Paul McGaffigan is the applicant of the Cyrus Dallin Art Museum and for approval International of Arlington International Film Festival banners April rank Executive director is anyone from and with any of those items here to talk to us tonight Come on up. Is that Ms. Levine? Welcome I just want to thank you all for this appointment and just tell you just to briefly a few things that have gone on With the poet laureate position among them workshops at Arlington Catholic High School The Jermaine Lawrence school the senior center Robbins library and twice a week drop-in sessions at the library that are open to all Arlington Residents though, I think a few from Lexington have also snuck in so again I'm here to just to thank you and to say that I'm very much looking forward to the events of this year Thank you. Thank you very much for your service I saw another hand Come on up Hi Hi, April rank from the Arlington International Film Festival We are pleased to be back in Arlington this year with the festival October 27 through 30th at the Capitol Theater We just wanted to let you know how gracious the owner has been working with us In order for us to be able to bring the festival back to town We are ATED has agreed to sponsor us for our request of banners We have asked for four banners in the the regular three by sevens that we've been hanging previously in the center Arlington Center And I forgot to put in my proposal six of the square banners in Arlington East Arlington Um, we've checked with the east Arlington committee. In fact, they've actually requested that we put our some little banners up Um, we would like to be able to put them up after town day and leave them up through the festival date ending Let's see October 30th Um, so that's why I'm in front of you Thank you Um, Marie, I sent an email and I forgot to even see if you replied. I guess I was busy this afternoon I'm the same page On the event that town day it should rain, but it's not going to then it would be a week later because we leave hours out For the following week And we may have a little just with two of them down towards the east and with depending upon the Arlington Center But for the most part, it's fine Great, so we can coordinate if that's approved. Yes Thank you. I'm delighted to see Leah Fultler back in Arlington all the way. Thank you Thank you. And I just wanted to share one quick bit of Interesting news that we just received. We've been invited invited by the rose kennedy greenway to do a shorts program Um on the greenway and dewy square september the 15th They have invited us to hang our banners They have asked if they could do press releases for us And again, this is just another way of getting the word out about Arlington and who we are and what we do here So that's right by my office and they do really good events there. That's really very exciting Yes, they do. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else here for any of the consent item agendas? Any discussion all those in favor, please say aye Hi Okay, next up. We have an appointment for the open space open space committee brian kelder. Mr. Kelder. Are you here?  Okay, i'm brian kelder I So I moved to arlington about five years ago or four years ago I'm the i'm an ecologist. So I do river restoration work for a nonprofit on the north shore And I've just been interested in getting involved in the town that I now call home So I I saw the opening for the open space committee Contacted the town manager and spoke with anla royer And I've been attending the meetings as an observer for a few months and Feel like I can contribute And they seem willing to have me help contribute. Thank you very much Thank you so much for your service. All right All right second Volunteers like you or what make it work. So thank you very very much. Thank you any further discussion All those in favor, please say aye. Aye All right next up arlington preservation fund the arb doesn't need Um, jenna designating jennifer rate director of planning and community development is right Good evening. Good evening great How do we manage to get you on the agenda more than once tonight? I don't know Murray are you are you scheduling it all for us now? That's right Tell us about the board uh the work of the preservation fund. I attended the first meeting in may and Uh learned more about the work that they do Making loans and the work that they plan to do with updating the website a brochure another of Other materials to do some more outreach to people to let people know about the fund And i'm excited to join the committee cool All right Further questions new motion approval second. All right a motion for mr. Kero. Thank you very much. All those in favor Please say aye. Aye. Aye three zero Appointments zoning recodification working group. Um, I think I'll turn it over to mr. Chaplin. Thank you. Thank you chairman So a brief introduction As the board may recall at town meeting there was a vote taken To establish a committee to study a number of the residential zoning changes that had been discussed by town meeting But having no action taken on them Also part of the master plan was to move forward and begin a study And uh, eventually recommend a change to recodify all of the zoning bylaws So through working with the master plan implementation committee Myself and jenny rate put together a recommendation of forming a zoning recodification working group And then below that a residential study group the residential study group to study specifically the residential and neighborhood development issues The zoning recodification group to study the larger Recodification effort, which is probably a longer effort So over the past several weeks, jenny and I have been interviewing a number of interested candidates for both of these groups Tonight I have before you what would be my at-large recommendations for the zoning recodification group as well as at-large recommendations for the residential study group To go along with representatives of the real estate industry and the development slash construction industry There will be more citizen representation that jenny and I interviewed that will be recommending to the town moderator to appoint as town meeting members But as of the meeting tonight, I haven't connected with the moderator to make those official So I know some of these folks are here tonight to meet the board because we actually wrapped up some of these interviews today Uh, they couldn't all be here So I would hope the board would grant them an indulgence to come at a future meeting so that we can get the work of this committee started Uh, I do think I saw Nancy, uh, Flynn-barvic here So if it's up to you if you want to take people one at a time, uh, as they're here, um Everybody stack up or yeah Okay, because it's fine.  Come on up Sure. I'm Nancy. Hi. Thank you. Nancy Flynn-barvic and I can't hear very well back then So what did you want us to say? I hadn't told you yet. So yeah, you're all saying Uh, could you just introduce yourself a little bit about you're looking for to accomplish on the committee? What so anything like that? Well, my name is Nancy Flynn-barvic and I wanted to be on this committee partly because Uh, for some research that I was doing last year. I read through our zoning and had a difficult time It was cumbersome. Um going back and forth. I'm an attorney I've been doing contracts and things for about 15 years and even I found it a little cumbersome And so when I found out that they were doing a working group I thought that it was something that I could help with and um Something that I could serve the town doing so that's why I'd like to be on it. Great Thank you. Any questions from no, okay So I'm gonna I'm gonna do a vote on everybody all at the end. So thanks. Well, do we want to vote this one separately? This is a separate working groups. Um, sure Uh, do I hear a motion? Yeah, I'm second. Okay. And uh, just to double check all of these appointments are Town manager consent of selectman. Is that correct? Okay. All right. So I have a motion from uh, Steve seconded by Joe for uh, Nancy Flynn-barvic any further discussion all those favor, please say aye. Aye. All right One down Hi Winnell Evans, I'm for the residential study group Um, and my interest in this comes from being a long-term resident of Arlington almost 30 years now So nowhere near being a townie, but still Uh, and I see that Arlington has so many pressures on it from so many different directions right now So I'm very interested in getting involved in this and see what we can do to Maintain what it is about Arlington that draws people here and that we love I want to make sure that the master plan does not get lost in the in the furor Um, and to see what we can do to keep Arlington welcoming and affording Affordable, but also to preserve our neighborhoods, which I think people care deeply about. I know I do Thank you Welcome My name is Steve McKenna. I'm a resident of Arlington real estate agent in Arlington And I am pleased to say that I was asked and want to be on this board for the residential study Hoping to achieve an opportunity to have some balance construction quality construction And some look at affordable housing throughout the town that I think represents the the town in itself in its diverse ways That's it questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right any of our other nominees here I don't see anybody else here. Sorry So I've said in the past that I wanted to hold but and I've also said that when there are times when it makes sense to just do it and bring them in And given that the manager is on a schedule that he's really trying to get this work I'm totally fine approving this one without them. Okay So I'll I'll move to approve the Recommended appointments of the manager with the request that the other applicants come in at a future date Meet us I'll second in just a quick comment. I do appreciate how fast this was put together I think what we started town meeting was that there was a real need for this and I think that This will lead to a balanced approach moving forward for town meetings consideration And I look forward to seeing the work for the committee. So thank you And I think winnell you said a lot of things you wrapped up a lot of the challenges in your speech really well I think you talked about how we There parts of the town that we really really want to keep exactly the way they are But at the same time it's not possible and so therefore we have to figure out which parts We're going to change so so we can keep the parts that we want and that's that's a real challenge So thank you all of you for your for volunteering So I have a motion for mr. Carrow second and from second all those in favor, please say I Were you okay? Okay He looked at me like I was running a little bit too fast or something Okay, next up common victual or license for Nina Trattoria and pizzeria angelo carbini Welcome Good evening So we've got your application. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your restaurant and what you're looking to do? So I'm a been I've been a resident in arlington since 2005 And I've been in this business for about over 40 years Originally from sardinia italy It's a small region in italy, which is focused on nearly organic products And it's about 350 days a year of sunshine So the weather allows to grow fresh products and I've noticed that there is a movement in in massachusetts and in the country to To bring good nutrition in the restaurants as well in in the homes You're doing fine and the good news is you're talking about something you like Exactly, so I have passion for it and it's in my little nerve because it's my first venture and I'm not sure what the process is to get the permits or But so this is what I'm going to propose as my experience I was training in different departments. I went to a hotel school in italy. So I traveled Around the world about four times. I've been working on the cruise ships for Different cruise liners The cunard line close to cruise line and norwegian cruise line And I was also working in the Caribbean for about 10 years always focusing different departments So I'm not being boston working as a waiter for 10 years But I have experience as a cook. So I'll be cooking the food myself from scratch Like I said offering the best products that are available I'm offering price quality and So thank you. That's my Which means success We'll get there for sure. Definitely. Thank you. Mr. Brown. I'll move approval and I'm really happy that this is going to location as I think I hear pretty frequently that we need some You know some new restaurants or more restaurants and more options at the height So I think this is a very welcome addition. Thank you I just wanted to say I'm reading your proposed menu and it looks absolutely incredible. So As the as the grandson of italian immigrants myself, I really look forward to This tradition continuing in ellington. So thank you and I'd like to move approval All right. I think mr. Brown beat you too. But I'd like to second approval. All right. Okay Um Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye Three zero. Thank you for choosing ellington Thank you. Yep Next up we have a request for a food vendor license from the local fair to lake street carillon the huff stettler michelle wax and rita eng I apologize if I Hi everyone, um, so we are for the food vendor license to operate or open the local fair And we're going to bring in a whole bunch of boston area local products a lot of them from ellington All handmade to make it easy for people to support local and shop locally in the area So tell me if what do you say items like food like all food or mix or yeah, yeah So we individually have three Brands that we're coming together and we'll provide i-do cookies french macaroons and nut milks So we'll have all our products and then also bring in other local food products as well as like Soaps and things like that that just kind of are all made in the ellington area Mr carol, I am happy to move approval. What's up draw conditions set forth. We've had organic now. We've got local Sounding good tonight Another well conditioned, so thank you Thanks. Um, so all those in favor, please say aye. Hi. Thank you very much. Thank you Next up sidewalk cafe permit commune kitchen 203 a broadway Richard nid was nid wiki I apologize if I got that one wrong Hi, welcome. Tell us what you're you're looking to put a Seating out on the sidewalk. Yeah, just three or four tables and some chairs. Just you know, it's hot and So is the cafe, but It's gonna be nice to get you know somewhere for people to stay outside Okay Um, I'll move from but um, you know people are raving about commune. So Thank you very very kind. It seems uh, I haven't been there yet, but I promise I will but um, we're hearing a lot of good things So awesome Very much and I'll second with a question. Um, is there any alcohol involved in the cafe? Okay, I was only asking that question because we're taking up some possible changes to the to our regulation soon and Sure, I'll stick around No surprises and I just want to note that we've got a report from uh, both the The inspector and from the Committee on disability talking about the fact of the accessibility and the layout and all that stuff I just for Mentioning that we've got that in our packet Uh, any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Hi. Thank you All right next up. We have a sidewalk cafe policy update I think I give a bit. Yes. I'd like to move that we tabled us to um, our next meeting. I know that Some of the changes that we're discussing and the types of things that some of our colleagues are very passionate about so I think we should have a full bullet I did I was thinking about I I mean I'm going to agree with you But I was also thinking about I feel like I can see into the future And I know that there's one on one side and one on the other and it's going to be the three of us We're voting it anyway But you know, it'll be a robust discussion He is so well I will second that but I All those in favor, please say aye. I I'm kind of getting in trouble for that one um approval caterers license from Sorry like a Oh Mr. Mr. Hi. I'm your name's on this one Thank you, mr. Chairman. Um What you have in front of you are a suite of Kidder's license policies from the town of Arlington the abcc developed a new license for service of alcohol oriented towards caterers It's important to understand that this license is fundamentally different than all the other licenses that We currently we previously had to serve alcohol and essentially what these The suite of policies and requirements reflects is that in order to serve Um In order to serve alcohol particularly on town properties where there's a lot of catering done such as town hall and other things There's certain requirements that we're requiring There's certain requirements that we want to make sure are understood by all caterers who would be serving alcohol For any of these related events and there's a few other things But I think it's relatively straightforward. We're just trying to codify some good practices that we want to Uh Both maintain And update a little bit with respect to alcohol service for catered events Can you tell me how these would get used in practice like is it like they would get Like that you get them with the license or like how does that so let's see. There's a couple different signature spaces sure so the uh The caterers license itself. It's important to understand is rather than have caterers apply for unending series of one day licenses They're essentially get a license from the state and we don't exercise a lot of control over those licenses Unlike some of our other licenses What this essentially does is say that you have to read and accept certain certain Conditions if you want to serve alcohol on on on town properties. This is essentially what it is I I guess Maybe my question then is for is maybe for murray like murray like I'm trying to understand literally how do these How do these get into the hands of the caterer who collects them like all that stuff Patsy for renting the widow more robins of the town hall And then it would eventually come to us to get the approval for the alcohol license for that one day So you'd still be informed, but it this way it's a group that have already been Licensed by the state and what have you for that so it would make it easier for the caterer. Am I right? Yeah, basically whenever anybody wants to use a town hall space in order to do so They've got to agree to certain things that the mostly get funneled through patsy but But this is just adding an additional Layer that they need to make sure that they read and understand that for example If you want to serve alcohol on town property as a caterer You can't just serve cheese and crackers even though there's an abcc regulation About food service accompanying alcohol and there's some other town laws that speak to that This would be directly forwarded would be forwarded through the Whoever's hosting the event to the caterer and in order to serve alcohol on that On the day of the event They need to make sure that they return it and get it to the selectman's office in patsy before they can do so Okay, I may be being dead. So I'm going to ask another way So we've got three different documents here that each one of them says manager catering service So we're expecting three different signatures, right They're like our three says the same person assigned three different documents. Is that um, it's it's it is Possible one is a general Guideline and requirement that's existed for a long time. It doesn't speak specifically To alcohol it's it's but it includes reference to our alcohol documents The other one is the supplemental requirements for service on town property. That's the sort of most Detailed one that we want to make sure that that's that the manager of the catering service is reading um, and then finally There are some general guidelines that we just felt like was important to Provide to you so you could kind of have the full sense of what's going on A lot of these things have been have these were these previously informal policies I think with respect to the catering guidelines and things like that The caterer would have to be responsible and we'll have an event manager that would be responsible For the town hall just to make sure that they have the insurance and everything that could still come back to The select and in the police to assign off I think what you're asking me if I may if I may interrupt is is why are there three separate documents? I'm not even there yet.  It's like the it comes to us You know, we approve it and then a license is issued like I haven't figured out where in the workflow these But I know this is great Can I can I take a different place? Sure. So I I think I hear where you're getting at So I don't think there's a situation where a caterer is just applying to do work in town hall There's always an event sponsor whether it's a town sponsor like the aycc or someone who's just having a wedding That will hire a caterer and they'll always liaise with pats and creamer Yeah, when they're trying to book their event They then might hire a caterer and what we're saying is we want patsy to have these authorized policies to be able to say You're hiring a caterer. They need to adhere not only to their abcc Licensure, but also to these policies that the town has issued. So these are essentially would be then these are things Do you have to sign before you get to rent the building? Before you get to host your event. Okay. All right. Now we got to where I want to be I've got another question that might seem I am this has come up before when we've tried to put specific numbers into some of our policies and I see that we have a list of of You know types of furniture and and other equipment that we supply Is all specifically spelled out in the policy with quantities and such and I feel a little bit uncomfortable voting that in as part of a policy When you know, I have to guess that that could be subject to change You know that the the equipment and and And furniture inventory that we have and I'm wondering if we can't just have a sentence in there that's referencing An inventory list that will be provided by the The manager the town hall manager Could you just Sorry, please. Um, what if we put an asterisk just just said subject to change So people have an idea, but we're trying to think if I was hosting the event. I'd like to have an idea of Oh, sure. I think they should get a list. Yeah, I just I don't feel comfortable voting it as part of a policy here So are you speaking to the general catering guidelines and requirements, mr. Kuro? I am and down at the bottom there's For inside use and there's other equipment available. I think that that is I suppose what you're saying, mr. Kuro is that there may be other things available Available or that could change over time. There may be 399 chairs. Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, so fair enough I mean, I'd feel more comfortable if this policy that we're voting just said had a sentence that said You know an inventory of furniture and equipment that is available an updated inventory will be provided by the function coordinator And then it might be this exact same list to begin with but presumably, you know, we do upgrades down there fairly regularly so We can do that You guys comfortable? Yeah, that's that makes sense to me Okay Go I guess my only question I thought that you were going to ask this is Can we just consolidate this into one document so you only need one signature? So mr. Byrne not all caterers are necessarily going to serve alcohol So that's one reason The other reason is is that um, they're Slightly different There's slightly different things that we want to make sure that folks are aware of We thought it was important to highlight certain things about notifying the board of selection office in the police department As a separate document to sort of make sure it's very clear that their attention is drawn specifically to this provision especially given that there's a Timeline in which you're supposed to conduct that I suppose they could all be condensed but I think it was the experience that This is kind of the way that it had been set up and was functional for patsy and other folks to have Some things that are guidelines And then some things that are like these are the real requirements one for alcohol service and one for general I guess, you know Patsy is the one using it so it works for her. I'm happy to keep that as is So i'm happy to move approval. Um, would the suggested change that I put forward second Further discussion All in favor, please say aye. Aye All right Yes, could you just have citizens open forum a gentleman came in to sign up and we forgot to put it on the agenda Oh, really? This is the time that would be having it. So it was sounds good to me All right, we are going to do citizens open forum And I do not have the full language in front of me But roughly the nature of the citizens open forum is that we Want to hear what what people have to say But we can't act on things that happen in citizens open forum because they haven't been properly noticed So we can hear you and we might refer it to somebody for further investigation And but Typically people who speak under citizens open forum are restricted to for three minutes So that is the and I see Pam Hallett were you here for citizens open forum? Actually, you know I'm going to speak you're going to speak later great. Yes, and we got hearing him And I guess Robert Zeimer Zeimer. All right You're you are here for citizens open forum All right, so let's start with your name and address and then tell us what you think You don't want me to go that long Actually, I do my My name is Robert Zeimer. I live at 113 Irving street and I'm here because Across the street for me at 108 and we wrote a letter addressed to members of the the board and the town manager about concerns we have for about the development that's going on there and Thank you for your response the town manager responded and at this point I just want to make sure that the town keeps tabs on this project because it is There were many cosigners of the neighborhood to this letter And there are many others affected by this work and as a little background To those who haven't read the letter A developer bought the parcel and is doing psych work He's removed at least 15 feet or so of the ground. He started with back hose He had a rock hammer, which was Causing disturbances throughout the neighborhood For people who work at home people who stay at home waking up You know children napping and while we appreciate the board of health Monitoring and and taking decibel measurements Today another piece of equipment Was brought on site and I guess the hammer wasn't effective enough at breaking up all the rock I understand it's a drill. So I would ask for the town to keep tabs on this To make sure that they don't exceed the sound bylaw and To make sure that that our health and safety is protected Okay Thank you. I definitely did read a regular letter and I read the response and yeah, I know you got to the right person Yeah, well, I know that at this point they're the town um, you know, there's limited resources because You can play in your sandbox in the backyard or you can play with big trucks and and and it's it's all okay But uh, there is concern because of the scope of the project and I encourage you to to look at it The the other thing is it's it is a private way But there is a significant damage to the street with this heavy tracked equipment that we're going to have to deal with Okay, can I quickly just I um, I feel like it is worth saying so the board of health did let me know that the developer would be bringing in a drill With the sole aim of reducing sound it would extend by a few days But actually, you know lowering the abrasive jackhammering sound, okay Drill and break it up. No, I don't really understand how it works. You know drill break it up and then jack hammer At least the intent is actually Reduce reduce noise. So so if you could ask the board of health to monitor when the when the drill Is happening that would that would be great Jay, do I see you? Oh, sorry. I apologize. Nobody raised your hand No, I agree that it's um, it's important to um, you know monitor these situations It is also important to point out that with staffing in town and there's you know, quite a lot of projects Oh, sure. I know it's the building resources just to one project. So I think it's hard to keep that in mind But um, there's been a steady trickle of people coming up and saying what is that noise? You know, so I thought I I we needed to thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right Anybody else here for citizens open forum Okay, thank you, Marie Approval red maple tree removal 58 richfield road Uh, I read this and I've I have to double check the name. Who's here for this for the tree Cynthia johnston Yeah, I think my grad make it was here because of it, but I don't see It's a question Take the request. Yeah, move to table. It's a future meeting I will second that but I do think it's important to point out that perhaps it's something we should Look at how this process works because it seems like Um, any request is denied as long as there's one person who speaks out against it And I'm not, you know, I'd like it to consider the merits a bit more than just, you know One or two complaints, but I'm happy to table and discuss it Um Mr. Radamaker, did you actually do the did you have you actually seen the tree? Uh, sure. Mike Radamaker director public works. Uh, yes, this was the one tree hearing I held Between tree wards. Is that the tree? I want to see if I got the right one All right I don't believe so from that picture I didn't look When we bring this back on the agenda could we ask for a picture because I like I went over and I don't know Which tree we're talking about essentially if you're looking at the address The tree is just to the Right of the driveway pretty much in line with the front door of the home. Yeah, I definitely looked at the wrong tree All right, because I was Fandal this one. All right, we have a motion to table in a second. All those fair, please say I One parking space overnight parking 35 Addison street Yeah All right, without further ado then we will table that one Presentation and approval handicap parking space project Who's uh leading this one? Welcome We have a little power point for you as always Um, first of all, we want to thank you from our last meeting because from that we went to um town meeting And we got the vote of 183 to 4, which we were very proud of In favor of the warrant article and as always it took many dedicated people Number one shout out to mike who really we've we've I think driven him maybe a little bit crazy, but With all our data It's wider than them Yeah Anyway, we have lots of people to pay, but Marie The last time I think just she left also It must be something um, but uh Susan tennant michael lisa melena susan james and the volunteers and darcy is a Here I always think I have this big voice Um Darcy devney is our uh volunteer along with her husband and her brother and they really did The bulk of the work while I say I chaired it as part of the commission. They really did a huge amount of work We are very proud of what we've accomplished, which I think you have at all in writing But we hope you'll agree to give the go ahead to the dbw First off our commitment last march last already, right? We're here Was that we would Do ground level walk shops We did it We did all of mass av from trader joes all the way to the end Over all of our weekends in june Um, and we talked to over 200 businesses We shook hands I even got a few hugs People were wonderful to be honest with you. We I thought we would get a lot more resistance about the handicap parking We didn't People were very appreciative of the fact though that we were Coming to speak with them directly and to speak with the owners And sometimes we traveled with a little bit of negotiation like we would get each space And we would talk to the people directly in front of it to the right to the left and then go that way And sometimes people would decide amongst themselves that you'd go over one or go over two So that was actually um something that was unanticipated but very nice um Before we did These are the first original spaces that we did and then we added So we went through and looked at all the existing spaces And then we went back and we looked at all the um 27 spaces We were recommending and I have to tell you if you saw that chart Which you did i'm sure we had every single place that we spoke to And then we did the next slide is the um, yeah We looked at every curb cut crosswalk Driveway street bus stop everything and we wrote it down for you as to why we picked what we picked What ended up happening is there weren't that many choices once we did this Because you would end up um either bumping into something and i'll give you my 30 second spiel that I went to belmont Um To bring my 90 year old knock from pizza last week And I slid into the handicap space to let her out and she couldn't get out of the car There was a tree and there was a planter And so the business owner came out to help us and I it was kind of like right in that moment I I got it that we did as much as we did do because You don't get it until you've done it that this is it's a problem for many people to kind of negotiate space so anyway The only caveat to our recommendation is that While we think we got it perfect once the dpw comes on board and actually does the work They may see something that we didn't see so while we're telling you this is what we want to do We want to put a little disclaimer that we think we did a perfect job But we're not sure We did as I said spoke to about 200 businesses. It was um Really quite something And I think that's about it I I think I'm not going to list all the things and you can read it from my posts in the benches and all the things that we went through Um, the only thing I would tell you is that that was the only surprising thing for me Is that we had said that we would email everybody and we put it in the newspaper nobody Nobody really knew so until we actually had boots on the ground and we talked to people face to face They really didn't know what we were doing or what the impact might be on their business So I think you won't you shouldn't get any complaints about it. Let's put it that way. Okay So we were really doing two-way education here We were educating them about all that stuff about the criteria and what are the actual rules for handicap placards When can you use them? What are the medical conditions that kind of thing? But we're also getting a bunch of education back Some of which honestly isn't a disability commission, but they were so thrilled to have someone Who was kind of from the town saying tell us all about it Or the customer in the shop would start talking about something So one of the things that is kind of related but again not our is parking duration Whether things are 15 minutes two hours. That's a big issue in east garlington And I think someone else is going to be here The agenda item after ours there was a bunch of stuff about communication including praise for that e-newsletter that got sent out during the mass av project in east garlington and We desperately need public restrooms, which is not something I had thought about but you should see the signs in every Street so The big thing about this Education back and forth is We really want the arlington disability commission to have a seat at the table if there's anything being discussed about parking in the future Like there's a parking implementation and governance committee for east arlington center And we currently don't have anyone on it I think the idea was that mike ratamaker was on both of those things, but he isn't actually so we don't have any Representation we'd like it and you know the parking for arlington's parks. We've been talking to parks and recs About that we'd like to make sure that we have some official sort of Standing because as you can see it's complicated and you know people who aren't handicapped don't necessarily know about it so Our goal here adequate number of handicapped spaces in the optimal places We had 23 currently The disability commission of arlington advises adding 27 spots. That's 20 primary and 7 secondary That would take us up to 50 spots In town and that's just about 5 percent. So it's the minimum recommended in um by the massachusetts office of disability so Once we put in these spots, this is what a town that is welcoming to people with disabilities looks like And we hope that you will approve of our plan And we kept our promise we talked to everybody So do you have any questions? I am impressed with the outreach effort that you undertook on this I mean, I think that something we've run into before we have had proposals brought to us that haven't been as thoroughly vetted as we might like So i'm i'm quite, you know, i'm impressed with that Um I'm going to before we finish the discussion I'm going to want to hear from the director of public works and some of his Feedback on it obviously it sounds like you've been working closely With him On that you said that When you visited some of the businesses you did engage in conversations with some of the customers as well Yes Well, we wore the art shirts So people started asking us all kinds of questions and then we were going out and talking about spaces So inevitably people started to chat with us about it and Talk about their handicaps. We also got an air full about a lot of things We would be glad to share with you at some point We're going to hand it off to the town manager because all the comments we have about Four pages or six pages of comments. We just wrote them anyway. So people would feel heard We said we would pass it on Thank you I am yes, I am also impressed by the effort that was put into this. I think it is great and I guess I was unaware of the current efficiency Going into this and you clearly brought that to light. Um, you know, we heard a lot about, um, you know, the positive comments Were there any negative comments? Honestly, uh, the most positive people are hair salons Who often said oh my god, you're going to put one in that's great Put it right there right in front of mine. I have lots of Customers that could use that The most sort of pushback we got Was when we had to engage in an actual negotiation back and forth And that's where we educated them about for example Why it couldn't be in that other space that they thought was so good down the end of the block Can you go and put it in front of xyz business and We actually would go to xyz business sometimes and go back and forth and toggle with everybody There were a couple of places where we actually changed our minds after we heard and I think that was the intent I think when I spoke with you all in March, I said we don't know we don't know And we don't know what the impact is for folks So there were people that said, you know what we're a takeout business And we need people to just drive in and out in 15 minutes and there's no time limit on a handicap space And it would impact us tremendously Or we have a delivery that comes every 15 20 minutes or whatever So we we thought about those things and then we would address it and ask their neighbor or their other neighbor But I have to say We talked to a lot of people And I was shocked because I had really anticipated that we were going to get a lot of pushback I don't know if people were just in a good mood on saturday morning I have no idea but people were open to it But I think once you present it in a way that says this is It's for folks. It's for your elderly. It's for your handicap It's It it didn't we didn't get the negative that we thought we would and I also think it's because we asked Yes, I haven't done that Yeah, I think because they got and they also one of the gentlemen said to me I said listen, he he said, you know, I'm really I'm worried about putting it in front of my place Can we talk it through blah blah blah? And I said well, I want to show you that we're not going to go back and say to the select men This guy was a jerk or this one was an idiot, you know, where this is between us and he actually Thank me for that and said well that makes it easier for me to have this conversation about whether or not it's Good or bad for me So I think we tried to do it as sensitively as we could for folks so that they would feel like the town was Embracing this with them Thank you And they could have known things that we didn't know about that particular neighborhood or The dpw knew things that we didn't know about something going on in that area So in both cases there was education back and forth and we would say, uh, yep There are meters coming to Arlington center got that hand. We got that question a lot Actually, that was one of the big ones Thank you. Can you tell me the secondary space? What's the secondary? You gave a distinction there that I didn't know what it was Honestly because we weren't sure that you would say yes to them all We actually Prioritized them and we tried to I mean some of those secondary spaces were specifically asked for by the store They said could you please put one here then? Um, so they're secondary only in the sense of if you're only going to allow us 20 Which would put us way too far under the five percent From the massachusetts office of disability, but if we only got the 20 we would take that 21st There's another sort of primary and secondary that goes with Some of them are easier than others, which you know, Mike could speak to some of them are gonna Require a little more work or removing a bike rack and putting it, you know Two feet down that kind of thing But some of them are just a matter of some blue paint and a sign Okay, so thank you So I guess I'd like to hear Adam either from you or Mike about your thoughts on the process And the other thing is that I'm just not is the intent for tonight the so to actually vote approval of these spaces or is that the So I don't know if And whoever it is has to go to a microphone So my suggestion would be even Understanding the amazing outreach that you did That the board Allow us to do, you know an email blast Get it out to the media for for businesses and residents to look at the map that's been produced I'm not sure My concern is and I want to be very clear This is no criticism of the work at all that approving it tonight Would almost guarantee there will be people back here yelling at the board a month from now if not given a more Wide open opportunity to provide comment on it. That's my Advice to the board and I don't think it needs to be a major delay But maybe even providing just an two-week period for public feedback before the august meeting and then considering our Contemplating form election And that nothing more to say I do want to Commend these folks for the work they did when they first brought this item up at disability commission I thought We're going to be in serious trouble dpw putting signs up in front everyone's business and people coming out and harassing us and But to that credit they did quite a bit of legwork and And it should be commended. I think that I would suggest that if we move forward with this that We would start with just signage uh The paint on the street is not required for it to be a legal spot And it would be a quite a bit more work to put signage and paint So I would suggest if when we do Decide to move forward if we do that we would start with signage and then Potentially paint later or maybe not. It's a lot of maintenance and upkeep to paint the space and a and a sign alone warrants a handicapped spot Joe and presumably you know Sculpt a project of the Sculpt of the phased Rollout of it. So I think maybe you know if we're going to go out and solicit some public input Maybe when the board does take it up for for final approval, it might be helpful to understand what the rollout like that Would realistically look like No, no, I think we need that professional staff with the rollout would We did give each of those 200 plus places a map Of their neighborhood and what was going to happen. Yep a very clear map. So Oh, I'm talking about a timeline just a kind of a time right Yeah, that's everything you did the email blasts were done by dead fields in March Um, but I I totally agree if you want it, you know, I Could I hear a motion then to ask the town manager to follow up with the communication and further feedback on this plan so Second, is there any further discussion? I'm just asking a clarification. Sure. So you When you do the email blast is that for the residents? Is that what you're thinking? So I'm going to come on over to the mic just because no one can hear you. Uh, so we um in general the like It's just that uh, so The answer it's not for anyone specific group. It's for anyone like so it could be somebody It could be somebody who lives there could be a business who wasn't there at the particular time It could be a customer in In our process and the things that we do over communicating is by far more successful than what the than actually then like just doing The like essentially the minimum and so uh, I think that really basically what you're hearing I think from this group when I was talking to say we like it We but uh to make a more successful project more communication is warranted Wow. Okay. I wish we had known that ahead of time. We would have done it, you know Works with you, but that's okay, but there's some things that you that um You expect to he come from a very specific source. Yeah, you're you know, frankly not the source. So you'd like you're not the Steve I'm sorry No, I agree with you that I think coming from the town manager's office is appropriate for that outreach And I do And while I'm not trying to take away from the project all I would like, you know, you talked about maybe moving some You know, some of the engineering parts around and I think that it's important that we have Um dpw look into the lowest changes before any spots are made and he did Oh great, but I I mean I I don't see any of that So I would like to see um kind of those changes as well. And um, yeah, and I'm looking forward to moving Moving this long. Okay. Is there anyone else here who had come to talk about this particular issue? All right, I just yeah, please clarity question. Um, when you say you're going to do an email blast Where did you get those email addresses from? I didn't even so just we are the most of the we're making just to be clear Isn't send an email the motion we're making is hand it to the town manager and let him in his infinite wisdom do A whole bunch of of of outreach. So Adam, do you want to clarify it all? The town has an email that the town notices subscriber list that has over 5 000 subscribers That we would send it out to we may even send it to that mass av project subscriber list that you mentioned in your remarks Given that those are people interested at least in the east arlington portion of mass av I'd probably then send it to these newly formed support arlington center Group the support arlington heights group just to make sure that people that are active and engaged But probably today have no idea that we're even talking about this at least have an opportunity to feel like Hey, this looks great Or maybe there's a suggestion as opposed to having all this great work that you've done be welcomed Three weeks from now with criticisms and questions. So why didn't we hear about this? Okay, and do you want us to Do we come back next month? Is that what uh, whenever when so when Adam thinks that has gotten through the feedback cycle that he's happy with He will ask marie through the chair was diane to put it back on the agenda And then it'd be very appropriate for you to come when it comes back Which could be as early as our next meeting in august But you know if it turns out that there's something happens and it gets moved a little bit in september because we're still You know things like that are not unusual Uh, could you vote to approve the report that's just been given to you? We wouldn't vote to Except and refer to I mean that's our motion. So, um, I'll amend that motion by adding on we um We are static about the work that's been shown to us tonight and Um, we do accept the report and we will make changes subject to what we hear from the town manager I appreciate it. Yep. Okay. I'll second that as Worded further discussion. No all those favourites say aye. Aye. Okay. Thank you. Thank you You can turn that one off. Thank you Thank you. There you go. Thank you very much Bus stop relocation and pita burritos of the arlington diner Hello. Hi. Yeah, my name is actually nicholas burritos so Yeah, I said welcome go for it. Yeah, so, uh, I just want to start off by thanking you for the time that you've given me to present for my my family my father's in the back And uh, so the arlington diners located on 134 mass av I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but about last year there was a A movement of the bus stop which was located in front of the za restaurant and uh, this year It has been moved to a in front of our restaurant, which we previously had two Parking spots, which were both two hour spots And I just wanted you guys to keep in mind that a lot of our customers are elderly elderly customers and some of them are children as well and some are handicap And uh, those two spots were very It made it very accessible for the for those group of people to enter our store And uh, I'm not sure if you've been given the signatures that I've also gotten which are about three to four hundred signatures of citizens of arlington massachusetts so I mean What another thing that has uh, uh, Arisen from this problem was the fact that across the street. It's also 15 minute parking and uh, Right next to it. It's 30 minute parking Which leaves our customers left with not much of availability for them to get to our store with an easy access um So what I came here today was to ask not only for the bus stop to be moved further down the street For us to also gain back the two spots But for you guys to reconsider The timing limit on the spots across the street, which are 15 and 30 minutes because Uh, a lot of our customers don't you know running the the restaurant that fast to eat so It makes it a little bit difficult to accommodate our customers And we've gotten a lot of complaints. Uh, a lot of them Are curious on why it got moved in front of our uh, our restaurant, but Uh, I also wanted to state that I'm not only here Representing my father in the restaurant, but representing the customers that I've been, you know, loyal to us for many many years as I think I stated we've owned the restaurant for 13 years I've been involved since I was a kid so uh You know, it's a little bit it hurts a little bit to see, you know, the the Unhappiness of the customers from the spots being taken away. So I just wanted to bring that up Thank you I'm assuming there's a history About how the the history of this bus station is that yeah, so my My understanding was this is a well vetted well discussed portion of the mass av redesign and In my early time, I think back as deputy manager I even remember there being a meeting at the garlington diner looking In reviewing plans for the mass av corridor project I think the simple answer to the question That he asked of why was it moved Uh it in most design it is Safe or easier and better for traffic to have a bus go Across an intersection and pull in so it can fully get out of the roadway as opposed to Turn its way in and and still have its back end out and blocking traffic. So that's Sort of the engineering reason why a lot of time you see bus stops and that's moved from The front end of of across street to the back end of across street Uh aside from that, um, I don't know that there's much more of a backstory than that Do we know about the spots across the street other takeout? So there's I know there's a 15 one 15 minute spot in front of the liquor store I'm not immediately familiar with the 30 minute spots are Uh Yeah, so there's two right where the liquor store is I believe those are two 30 minute spots and right where the pharmacy used to be there's also two 15 minute spots Uh and previously I think those were also I think an hour or two hour spots Previous years back so uh Not only is my question, uh, why why the bus stop got moved like that, but you know, why are those spots not, you know Larger time frame, you know One option that we could have is that we could refer to our parking subcommittee Um, I don't know or just park or do I think, um I'd be comfortable referring it to quarry We're so, um, I think that in pass with because he could study up and down in square I don't know we changed when we looked at those hours for Is that center program? Yeah, and I think you know, so I was by on Saturday morning in anticipation of this and I It struck me immediately that the hours that the short time frame Would benefit the businesses adjacent to you or different things at the time So I think the consideration that quarry could maybe give us some recommendations for some varied timing So maybe it would be 15 minutes in the afternoons and evenings But two hours in the morning or whatever it would however it would be a common though that seems a little complicated It might be sort of a way to achieve at least that part Sure, and sorry. Yeah, sorry about that. But it also sounds like there's a Potential that there is a short timeline in front of a business based on a previous use If I'm not from not mistaken Yeah, is that in front of made of pharmacy? Uh, yes, it was the 15 minutes was in front of the pharmacy I don't think that's a regular retail pharmacy anymore if I'm not mistaken So I guess I'll make the motion that we'll send the parking issues to officer or tow for his commentary and we'll address it at a later date I'm not quite sure where I'm at with bus stop. I think there was you know, quite a lot of work that Went into the whole massive project and I think there were You know, this it was a calculated decision And looking at that part of massive. I don't know Where else it could move to You move it further down, but there's another You know, there's bus stop not that far off there. So I don't know if we're Going to eliminate anything yet. Um, would the With the planning department be an appropriate Team to kind of consider this a little bit further or of whether or not that being allowed. Yeah, I mean we certainly can Have to make that motion too. Okay Okay, I'll second it. All right So I It's definitely worth looking into I I will say that it won't be totally surprised the parking does seem more Something that's something that's more flexible, but the bus I will be surprised because it is one of those things that a lot of people look at We tried to do it And part as I said before when I ran for office, I knew a lot about what I was getting into But the thing that I didn't expect was what fraction of the time I was going to talk about parking Because it's just it's one of our very scarce resources exactly in particular the free public parking. Yeah, all right So the answer is you're not going to get an answer tonight But we're sending two parts of your question to two different groups to to look at all right And uh, will I get an email or a letter stating when the next time or the next meeting would be? Yeah, we will be in touch on that where you will do that. Okay. Okay. Good. Awesome. All right. So I've got a motion But um, mr. Barron second by mr. Currow. All those in favor, please say aye All right. Thank you. Thank you very much Our look to the housing production We're starting with Adam or Jenny We're going to Jenny Uh, how about you can introduce All right, I'll introduce you. No, oops All right, so I think it was actually sitting on the white cable, believe it or not. Yeah So good evening. I'm jennifer rate on the director of planning and community development. I'm just going to quickly Make some introductions and Tell you we're here tonight to talk about the arlington housing production plan It's actually the conclusion of a 10 month effort that started with My predecessor carol kwalski and laura weiner Our assistant planning director and director of housing to put out an rfp looking for a consultant to do the housing production plan And this was actually out of the master plan's number one recommendation in About housing was to create a plan for affordable housing. So we're acting upon that first recommendation of the of the master plan And creating essentially housing policy for the town For the next five years. That's the goal of the housing production plan So i'm i'm not going to talk in detail about the housing production plan That's what actually kareena milchman from metropolitan area planning council is going to do But i want to first thank the mapc kareena as well as others from mapc who helped with the plan And their work tonight is going to be explained and discussed. You'll have time to ask questions And also jam goldson. You can see the logo on the screen Jennifer goldson helped us with all of our community outreach portion of the plan and also helped kareena with the Sort of finalization of the work I also want to really thank laura weiner for all of her effort in within the my department putting pulling the whole thing together Also pulling together the housing plan advisory committee. We have This evening pam hallett and maybe she'll make some comments after kareena's presentation And i want to just list the people who served on the housing plan advisory committee really briefly So we had laury august from the council in aging pamela baldwin Who's a community resident? Andrew banell from the arb Kate cassa a community resident john griffin the executive director of the arlington housing authority Pam hallett from the housing corporation of arlington laura keisel who's also a resident dan mcqueen resident and wendy bar community resident So um that group actually met i think since november october november And has been in the process of meeting ever since helping us with plan development Helping to design the and review the work out of the community forums and ultimately help to Refine the product that you're going to see tonight So i'm happy to answer any other questions about the plan once kareena has done her presentation But i'd like to welcome kareena milchman from mapc Welcome Thank you. Thank you for having me Um, would it be possible to scooch this a little closer to that just to keep track where your cable is and All right, i think i think we're safe So hi everyone. Thank you for Taking the time to review the plan as i understand you've done in advance of tonight And i'm going to take you through the plan components really briefly with a focus on the goals and the strategies that Sort of rose to the top through our public planning process and which we further refined In the plan so I think i'm just going to take you through really briefly the planning process Which jenny mostly laid out, but i'll make sure to cover the bold points The plan components as i said the focus mostly will be on strategies tonight just to make sure everyone has a strong understanding Of the policy guidelines being proposed for the next five years for housing in arlington, and then i'll briefly cover next steps So this is um a little graphic of the project timeline Um, you can see we started in october actually The first advisory committee meeting The work i should mention was funded through mapc via direct local technical assistance and also path funding planning assistance towards housing From dhc day Um, as jenny mentioned the planning process was guided by a very active planning Advisory committee. We had two public forums both of which were quite well attended and i would Note that many people who turned out for the first one came again to the second one Which was great to have that kind of consistency throughout um, we also had a focus group which had local um developers participating in landowners and others who had a strong understanding of The real estate community Development community and landscape in arlington um So the plan includes a comprehensive housing needs and demand analysis, which has a lot of quantitative data Analysis in it. It also has an assessment of sort of Development constraints in arlington as well as capacity. So what kind of resources are there? What kind of development opportunities are there? And the plan includes a map that highlights some of the development opportunities that were discussed during the planning process And where there was some consensus around seeing housing production or redevelopment And then it has the housing goals and strategies and implementation plan So we're going to focus on The goals and strategies to next and these are the goals through the planning process A couple of key housing priorities rose to the top And that was to update arlington's housing stock to address need and meet demand to increase the housing inventory to address the low vacancy rate the growing number of households in arlington and The associated increased demand diversify the housing stock To meet the needs of an aging population a range of household types and shrinking household size in arlington And then to have housing at multiple price points for low-income households and cost burden households with a range of incomes One of the key findings was that There were cost burden households meaning they pay 30 percent or more of their annual household income on housing At all income levels so not just low income not just moderate but also middle income households in arlington So out of these um goals Just run through really quickly one is sort of general affordability to update the existing housing and produce more diverse housing for a range of incomes There are two goals that have to do with location where to focus on housing production and redevelopment One to encourage mixed income housing and mixed use development in the business districts And the other to integrate affordable units in a range of housing types in arlington's existing neighborhoods And that would be more through redevelopment of underutilized Properties and reuse of existing buildings so not so much changing the character of those neighborhoods But just the use within existing properties And then there's a goal that focuses on the senior population in arlington to foster an aging supportive community via housing Choices that enable older adults to thrive in town as they age There are several strategies to achieve the zoning goal Which is to ensure that the bylaw allows flexible approaches to achieve housing affordability and livability And then finally a capacity related goal to increase the capacity of the town to facilitate housing production By allocating funding staff and other resources to relevant activities And also by educating the community and making sure that they're kept Aware of the need and demand for housing in arlington and the activities that are going on to meet up So the strategies are really divided into three separate categories in the plan and the first is zoning And so these are this is sort of bold hot headlines for the zoning strategies there's a strategy to Allow zoning for a range of household types Including accessory dwelling units and cluster development as an example To amend the dimensional regulations to better facilitate multifamily and mixed use development To amend inclusionary zoning to possibly produce units at a wider range of income. So not just for low income And possibly to reconsider sort of the incentives density bonus and whatnot in your inclusionary provisions To consider an overlay district to allow residential development in select light industrial and commercial areas to create mixed Use and mixed income development To create an Affordable family housing through new construction or conversion of existing two to three bedroom market rate housing To follow through on the parking amendments that We're just approved at town meeting recently in spring And then to determine what type of supportive housing would be most useful in town And to take steps to facilitate its development through the zoning And then the other categories are both under local initiatives. So the first is a range of programs Programs to preserve the long-term affordability of existing units particularly at millbrook square, which Has a number of Affordable units that are at risk for expiring in the near future To expand and promote existing housing assistance programs in town that support income eligible home owners specifically And to maximize resources and services that enable seniors to continue living in the community And to coordinate with other non housing services in arlington to support aging in the community And then finally to explore mechanisms to facilitate creation of affordable home ownership like a community land trust was one of the Ideas to consider under the action items And then lastly strategies regarding resources and capacities in town and Those range from working with the community preservation committee to encourage continued Allergation of greater than the state mandated minimum 10 percent of annual cpa funds towards housing initiatives To establish a municipal affordable housing trust fund to utilize local housing funds swiftly as opportunities arise To form a housing production plan implementation committee And to raise community awareness about affordable housing needs sort of building on the knowledge Process we started an education process as part of this housing production plan So those are the strategies in the plan as a nutshell and I just want to run through the next steps really quickly The arlington redevelopment board has already adopted the plan. So now we bring it to you for adoption Um After you adopt it we'll be submitting it MAPC will be submitting it to DHCD on behalf of arlington And it'll go through a 30 day completeness review After that they're they have 90 days to let us know if it's approved or not Sometimes they're very small edits or tweaks that DHCD will suggest sometimes they're on it And then you'll have an active policy guide for the next five years So are there questions comments that I can address? Thank you for the the the presentation you know, I'm struck by a number of Observations and that the background material that that that you provide I mean I I think where you talk about the need for different types of housing I think it's something we have to really remember here In town. I mean, I think we can see it anecdotally as we walk around Walk around town that the character of different neighborhoods But also I think the character of our of our community we have a lot of You know young professionals here or maybe just starting out And you can see in some of your breakdowns the the breakdown between non household and non family and family households I think it skewed slightly towards the the family households But it wasn't it wasn't radically So which kind of Calls out the need for that diversity. Also it jumped out here the We're going to have an aging population here and obviously as folks age they they have a different housing need than Than younger folks at the same time that we know that we're struggling with the need for family housing as well Um, it seems like it's there. We have a bit of a mismatch going on and we have a big demand to live in this this this community um I like what you have here is a strategy. Obviously town meeting has has acted actually already on some of this and we've discussed a lot of this ad nauseam and I don't say ad nauseam, but in the master planning It didn't make me sick In the in the um at great length, let's say in the master planning Uh process, uh, we we we um we talked a lot about the need for this and that's why for example town meeting took action on on the mixed use Housing to both to spur commercial development, which is a of great, you know, great discussion that we have going on right now and to spur the ability to to um Meet some of our our housing to need a need. I mean, I think we forget that Arlington was such a larger Town, you know up until about 1970 or so We were significantly larger at the well over 50,000. I think we might have even been pushing up against the 60,000 In our population So, uh You know things change as we go as we go on and I think it's important for us to to take a look at some of these strategies like overlay districts that that you have Um in the plan the other thing I would also know that just it really jumped out at me Is it over half of our housing stock was built before 1939? And I know that as we talk about our public facilities and the need to keep them up and and Have energy efficient facilities that that that's something that would raise eyebrows with us I think with a lot of our facilities and and you think about housing and the cost Of of keeping that up. Um, that's also something so I those are just a few things that I pulled out This is a huge report and a huge amount of work and I was glad to be able to attend your first your first session Um, I know that we did get some feedback and uh, you know one of the pieces of feedback that I think we got had to do with um Our safe haven provisions in uh, 40 b. Um, when you talk about a strategy um To try to hit the safe haven based on the rate of growth of Of affordable units within the town. It seems like an ambitious goal So I was wondering if you could tell you could talk about how realistic that is. Yeah, I think that the Production of housing units at either 0.5 percent or 1 percent of your total overall stock Annually is certainly aspirational and ambitious. Um, I think it's a good goal to set and I know that DHCD likes to see that Requires that in order to approve the plan. Um, but you are certainly not beholden to produce 100 or so units a year Um, just because it's in that plan. It is an ambition and an aspiration. Sure. Sure And as I think everyone knows, we've been asserting safe haven through other other means as well to try to protect the rights of Of the town and the other question that I have is um, you've identified within the plan. Um, You know a number of potential, um Parcels that that might be right for for um residential development. Um You know, could you speak a little bit in most of them are commercial sites right now Could you speak a little bit about how how um, we pursue those and I think we we did Go with the mixed use Zoning as one approach a town meeting this year because you talk about a little bit about how they were chosen and how we pursue those While also Maintaining the town's commercial base. Sure. Well discussion of um development opportunities began with the town and with the advisory committee And we had actually a much larger list of sites to consider that we brought to the first I believe the first public forum Um for initial feedback and at the second public forum We did further refining with the public and we narrowed it down to the I think 12 sites that are now um Now noted in the plan um We did site visits. Um, and we spoke in some cases with property owners Current property owners. Um, I think some there has been discussion of some of the commercial sites about Relocating the business within the site if if there were to be mixed use development, for example So not not to have to displace any businesses um So I think that's that's sort of how the sites were identified and Almost all of the sites are in the master plan They were identified in the master planning process the only exception of the sites on broadway, which is sort of the low One story commercial and broadway was identified But those specific properties were not and and those are sort of meant to be examples because there are a lot of properties like that but um Most of the major sites were identified in the master planning process That that's some of my some of my questions. I might have some more So when I'm very happy to move approval of this document, um, thank you very much for all your work on it Um, it was a really impressive team of volunteers who were, you know, quite dedicated. This was an extensive project and I think it's a Really important document moving forward as we set strategies for You know what the future of our community is going to look like Um, it's important to note. I think in some of the correspondence. Joe mentioned that We heard that this actually Was not aligned with the master plan, but it was directly aligned with it and it came out of it And I think like we heard earlier, um from one of the speakers that We can't lose sight of the master plan and this is, you know, actually putting our feet to the ground and Making sure all of that good work is being followed through it on So, yeah, I think it's great and I'm looking forward to continue working on it. So thank you Thank you Okay, so one more thing And I we did hear that, um, this project was funded via DL district local technical assistance The governor actually vetoed all district local technical assistance for the next fiscal year So, um, I think it's important that we contact representatives and ask them to override that veto Thank you I had not heard that Um I definitely so I I like the plan. Um, I'll say that one of the things that I So the parts that I really like our thank talking about The fact that I think that we need to revisit some of the zoning changes particularly around Like so like the progress we made on mixed use is great. I still ended some of the opponents Uh, you know have sent us correspondence about this have said things like but you're you're you're gonna talk about accessory apartments again And I'm like, yes, we are going to talk about accessory apartments again And I look forward to the discussion and I look forward to persuading down meeting that uh, it is that there is a path With accessory apartments that make sense for earlington uh So, you know, they're parts of the like I think that um Some of the opposition I've heard about this is um wishful thinking It's you know, it's wishing that if we you know, we if we do nothing Or if we like never let another building happen in earlington that everything will be fine And uh, I do not believe that that is I think that it's completely um You know, it is it is wishful, but it is it doesn't have anything to do with reality Um There are parts of it that I'm a little bit. I wish we could the aspirational parts I wish that the language was a little bit more aspirational um, but uh You know, I'm voting uh, I want to take it as a whole and I I'm ready to support it So I've got a motion. I don't think I had yeah, so I apologize Is there anyone else who's here to talk about this particular Item who's how Hi, I'm Pam Hallett executive director of the housing corporation of Arlington Um, I just want to say that we fully support this plan. We think it's a great model something to sort of pay attention to over time and Direct our work Um, along with the planning department and all the volunteers that took place to that worked on this to actually Get some of this accomplished. I think it's a great tool. Um, and we're looking forward to Seeing some of these come to fruition That's all thank you Hello Steve revelak 11 Sunday side avenue. Uh, I also like this plan a lot Particular particularly In the way that it focuses on provide on it's concerned about providing housing that's affordable to different levels of income While we were discussing zoning ad nauseam during town meeting One of the one issue that came up several times was uh housing around Arlington is getting more expensive Dare I say the g word gentrification, but I think there's a lot of things in this plan that will help You know keep the housing stock diverse and affordable to a larger number of people I'm also glad to see it mentioned accessory dwellings, and I hope to see a tiny house in Arlington at some point in the future Thank you. Thanks Joe I just want to make one other point To this too for anyone who might be joining in on this conversation for the first time And this is a plan. It's it's an analysis and a snapshot of our community and some educated guesses about where we're going Um, and it's aspirations its goals and its strategies But it's not a magic wand that the the government the local government is going to be able to make all of this This happen overnight we we can help try to guide some of the forces to an extent We're going to be at the you know great extent. We're going to be at the sway of The demand that just that's just out there demographic changes and economic demands for for people Forehousing here in our community and we're going to rely have to rely on Not have to rely on would happily rely on our partnerships with the nonprofit sector and and hca who fill Important gaps. I think it's important that we kind of set all of this and and accept this within that That that framework and that context as we go forward for anyone who might be tuning in to the first time Any further discussion All right, seeing none. All those in favor, please say aye. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much Yes I move that the plan is adopted All right, second. Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Hi. Yep. Thank you All right We are next uh, do we make it to correspondence? No, we're uh, community I lost my um, yeah, thank you cca Oh, yeah, I missed two items cca Yeah, Adam, are you up with this one? I am so I'm sorry. No, it's not your I'm I managed to Move my agenda off my screen, which is not Which is not the best move I've never made Thank you, mr. Chairman. So under this article tonight Uh, the board will be asked to formally approve the actual aggregation plan for the community choice aggregation Uh, that was approved to go forward a town meeting So at the board's blue was the board's last meeting the board voted to open up a public comment period Which ran for three weeks and actually closed last Wednesday Uh, we and during that three-week comment period. We held a public information forum Um to give residents an opportunity to learn a little bit more about the aggregation and provide feedback As well as making the town manager email address available for people to send in written comment I've provided the written comment that was received by By july 12th as part of this agenda item. There were four Different residents who did email those who asked questions. I tried to respond to those who made more observations Thank them for providing their observations We also have tonight from good energy the aggregator We have a fill of car here to answer any questions that you might have about the plan or maybe about The emails or feedback that was provided Otherwise, I think the biggest question that I will address before turning it over to the Um, the board for questions is the question of whether or not we actually wanted to waive the quarterly Disclosure provision So that was raised by I believe selectman cure with the last meeting As well as being raised in an email from from from one of the residents who wrote in And discussions with philip as well as his attorney from good energy It's my understanding that that provision has actually been waived in every every aggregation that has been done to date And and it's really just that the expense of a quarterly mailing To disclose information that could otherwise be made available in the town website Is a cumbersome and potentially unnecessary requirement and that dpu would actually be surprised if the waiver wasn't being requested Given that there is a mailing that goes out in terms of the opt-out period They give people and you know sort of a paper notice of what's happening in their ability to opt out I certainly feel comfortable that Duplicating or having on an ongoing basis a quarterly disclosure Wouldn't be necessary, but certainly that's up to the board if they want to recommend making a change to the plan Uh, outside of that. There's no other particular matters. I I wanted to point out Um, but again if the board has any questions, uh, be happy to answer them Joe um, yeah, I mean I I did raise that I mean I would You know leave to your good offices to find effective ways to communicate. I think I had suggested potentially I noticed in the in the water bills assuming that everybody who has water has electricity as well Um, but I I understand that that's that's valuable real estate too So I'd leave it to your good offices. I I understand that if it has been the practice to waive it I don't think we want to the goal of this was not to drive up costs for sure I I did want to ask one of the residents who wrote in did have some questions about um an exit fee And I wonder so I I had been in error that there would be an opt-out fee after The end of the opt-out period But the aggregation plan is clear that there is never an opt-out fee and actually confirm that with Philip today that there is Whether you're in the opt-out period or you're two days away from the end of the aggregation There's no opt-out fee And I I let that resident know that it's okay. Thank you Um, yeah, I enjoy you I guess my my question would be with the actual comments now We they're sent along with the package. Are they Then taken into like are they taken into any further accounts or you know, will there be any action for him? I'm gonna ask Philip to answer that if you don't think the board doesn't mind All right, good evening everybody. Hey, Phil. Um, sorry, what was your question again? Um, so what's the we had the you know, three week comment period What type of action if any will be taken on these comments as we continue to move through the process Could you also introduce yourself again? Sorry. Yes, uh, Philip Carr. Um, new england regional manager for good energy Thank you. Thank you. Um, so a good question Uh, the We will try to address Any questions that come up directly Because as part of our outreach program, we want everybody With um, given sensible questions to have have a response. So the prime goal is to address the questions So people are satisfied And secondarily to demonstrate to the department of public utilities that we've Had a comprehensive and thorough review period. So so these comments are important whether positive or negative Um, to show that it wasn't just like window dressing is actually was a real live process Yeah, and that real discussion is had which is important. So Thank you I'm good Is there anyone who's here to talk about this one? Is there a motion? I move to approve second Is there any other language that we're looking for right? Is there a formal vote or a motion to approve the aggregation? Yes, you have a motion to approve. Yes, sir. Okay Any further discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. All right Three zero. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, sir. Thank you All right, homeless study commission Is this one Doug? It is. Thank you, mr. Dunn So as the board will recall, uh In the 2016 town meeting cycle, there was a proposal that was forwarded by the town to address overnight camping in arlington received a tremendous amount of very insightful and valuable feedback about why we might not have the information necessary to make the types of proposals that we were making and this board voted ultimately to support a no action on the proposal that was before it and to establish a task force to study the issue of with a special focus on the unsheltered or Otherwise referred to as homeless in arlington and how we might better understand the resources that are available to them The challenges that are facing them and as well as of course the challenges that are facing the community to try to develop some proposals or ideas that would balance some public health community safety concerns along with the Interests that this town has always had in helping and supporting its homeless population So we've had a lot of conversations with the police department with the planning department town manager's office You'll recall that members of the human rights commission were Instrumental in providing some initial feedback on this and now we're just coming back to the select men to create the actual task Of course with the recommendation that it be nine members with some of those members being appointed by the Relative relevant town departments and commissions and two of those members being appointed directly by the board One of those should be a representative of precinct one Which is I think disproportionately impacted by some of the issues that have been discussed both at previous meetings in here Thank you Is up first Yeah, so I will um, so I'll move to form the committee is that from the task force from the task force Um, and when I'm happy that this is back in front of us, um, you know, I think that When we first had this discussion There there was a concern that there would be a lack of compassion in in you know Dealing with this issue and um, I think that this committee or this task force will be Important in ensuring that you know everyone is treated respectfully And with dignity and we um and we'll reach an outcome that Will be in the best interest of everyone's safety and I think that's important. So thank you So I I support the proposal as it's placed before us I think the only the mechanical thing that I that I would ask is um, I'm not sure we can answer this without the Chair being present as I note that you know Two of the members would be appointed by the board and it Seems like whenever we have direct board appointees we kind of are reinventing the process each time we go And uh, was there a thought that that it was best vested directly with the board as opposed to a time manager appointment with with our assent I don't know if the time manager has a perspective on that. I think that Obviously, this was born out of a warrant article Discussion that may have been part of what? Formatted the idea, but I don't know that there's any structural reason why we can't have them be Town manager appointees with the approval of the board. We also could do Like the chair does interviews and then it makes recommendations to the full board Which is what we do with the zoning Review committee Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm indifferent. I'm not I'm I'm not sure where to go on that with I maybe we should just adopt it as is And the chair Yeah, the chair can either do it or designate someone to they'll have that leeway to ask Adam to step in I think that's important too One mechanical thing I often when we create these things I like having a sunset in them Did you think about that at all or no? So we did think about the idea that the ideal timeline would be for folks to make recommendations I'll have to admit that this got back to in front of the board a little more slowly than I would have ideally liked so having a sunset say that you essentially will have to Complete your work in time for making town warrant recommendations for the 2017 town meeting might be too short a window So there was some thought given to it I wouldn't be adverse to I think some language about you know sunsetting after Next year town meeting 2018 town meeting. Yeah I know there's some folks here who had Who had spoken about this when it first came up and I know that we got a lot of valuable Inside an input from the planning director if anybody has any other perspectives. I think Some of the folks who are still here may have been waiting to speak about this. Okay So just as a straw man when we get up to a motion I would be interested in hearing something like to committee to Task force to be dissolved upon the completion of the 2017 Regular town meeting Extended by this board. So it's like obviously we can extend we can choose to extend it, but I like putting ends Otherwise they last forever Tell me so that yeah, so that means they exit like Trying to think about when I was actually trying to think of when the that town meeting is. Yeah, so hypothetically Yeah, I'm happy with that. Someone here. Oh, sorry, jude. Well, it's just one other piece. So we're gonna have to designate Who's gonna convene this? Oh, thank you. Yeah, you're absolutely right We should Do you have a Did you have a preference but going into it who your chair who the chair would be or did you want them to choose a chair? Um, I think that it's probably I don't know if the planning director has specific Perspective on this, but I think it's important that the this commission work effectively with the somerville homeless Somerville Homeless coalition. So if the planning director has some perspective on Which town and a town body representative might be best suited to do that? Okay, so Jennifer rate director of planning and community development First of all, I'm just really supportive of this committee forming. I was very enthusiastic. I provided feedback to Doug and adam As it was being drafted. I'm you know, I think it's a great composition of people Prior to recommending the creation of four other new committees. I was very enthusiastic about sharing this committee However, I would be glad to provide support and or If needed to chair and facilitate the meeting. So I'm I am happy to do that. I think it's a very important issue I do think it should live with my department because of our connection to the somerville homeless coalition Which is actually through laura wiener So I don't know if laura you wanted to speak to that at all just that connection and what we do with them Because i'm not sure that that's uh very visible work. All right So that along this line while laura gets to no, please You sure you're welcome to speak Yeah, but I would say just on the chair issue then I would recommend that what we do is we say to be chaired by the planning department Or designee Laura so for a number of years We have had a relationship with the somerville homeless coalition Which is a group of service providers mostly based in somerville a couple of them are based in Cambridge and we have access to all of their services and we have used them And I would have to give a house incorporation of rilington They have their homelessness prevention program They do refer people to the somerville homeless coalition. It's a it's a hud mandated relationship. We um For years we would get back feedback from hud that What were we doing for homeless people and we would say oh well, we don't have any homeless people But we do they just don't stay here because we have no services. So we um have this very successful relationship with somerville now and We have some permanent housing here that some of the somerville homeless coalition Fundals people too and we get money together from hud to fund those services So, I mean we have I think that the infrastructure is there to Do what can be done to help people in rilington who are homeless Okay, sarin else who wishes to speak on this issue come on up Steve revelak 111 sunny side avenue I think I said this back in February or march, but I really appreciate the board deciding to form a task force to study this issue It's a sensitive issue in a lot of ways and um, I'd like to You know, I'd like to really make I'm glad that I'm glad that we're really making an effort to do the right thing So, thank you. Do you want to be on it? Sure Yes, thank you. Thank you for your interest All right, any No, so I'll amend the motion with the changes that we discussed. So we're so we're making it. We're putting a sunset event of 2017 We're saying chaired by the planning department designee designee and we are Leaving some leeway open to allowing the chair to work with the town manager to appoint decisions All right, so I've got a motion bring you okay. I've got it Second yeah any further discussion All those in favor, please say aye. All right. All right Now we're at correspondence received I figured out what happened by the way that I lost my agenda I also managed to crash safari. So I'm doing pretty good tonight So we have corresponding parking on actin street from christine hag We have request for naming of the ated visitor center for roley chapet from angel olsuski We have municipal elections to the metron planning organization And we have a request for action on three traffic issues from paul schlickman Looks like some of these have different homes. Yes. Yeah, so I'd like to move that we refer the Memorial naming request to the public memorials committee Oh second. Yeah, that makes sense. I completely agree all those those in favor, please say aye. All right done We haven't named anything else. No one's we haven't had a naming in But you're so yeah, we did one of the spring for in time for the spring for bobby mac. Yes, that's the last one. I Yep Uh, and I will say this is a very appropriate. Yes choice We're feeling his absence this year I can make some suggestions for a few of them if the board Please so like so for the missable elections to the boston mpo if you refer that to me That's the process we went through to get arlington seat For another year last year where we got either mayors managers or boards of select committee to nominate us and then run for election So arlington has a seat right now. This really is we're in a waiting mode to see if other communities would ask For for us to nominate them for a seat So if you want to refer it to me and then I can let the board know if someone is asking for a nomination That was perfect And then for the request for action on three traffic issues Engineering has already made some initial recommendations to me. So if you want to also refer that to me We can get a recommendation back to the board for action Excellent Also, so moved The first one I suppose we could refer to apd if if the board so chooses I wonder if So I definitely feel like we should refer to apd, but I read that one and I also say this is a classic I don't know if there's some things classic, but it's like it's a neighborhood Distress issue that is often resolved through direct communication You know, and so I wonder if they or even if it's not resolved can be mitigated because you know, clearly we have At least we have residents who feel like they're being put upon and they They don't feel like they're getting good Communication I wonder is if we have a good way to help facilitate that Or if people think that there's a different path I'm definitely open to it Yeah, because I mean enforcement is one thing that is but you know, but they won't solve the problem. Exactly. Yeah I know the director up there. Yeah Do you Could have a conversation and formal conversations first before we take official action. Okay, so let's refer to apd And we'll see what we can do on the back on the other side of it. Yeah, and see what other Yeah, see what other things we can come up with that as you said earlier It's a lack of resources or parking. So yeah, yeah, but even if it was I mean even if you just had someone like, you know Like you just stationed someone on that street. You just have to Those things to do. Yeah. Hey, look, we're talking about parking All right, so You want to also make the motion to refer to apd So two to two to add them one to apd moved Second All those in favor, please say aye. Hi New business very the only thing I want to say is that I'm going to attend a meeting in Minuteman to discuss the voting for september 20th It's at 11 30 and I will report back as to what we have to say, but my understanding I think I might agree with me that I heard today that Um They would allow us to have it at our 10 locations But we'll talk about cost and they're going to pick up from what I could see today I think they're going to pick up most of the cost For the actual printing the ballots the printing the warrant and what happy, but I'll pay the cost of You know Work is that's the way I interpreted that is that did you get that I thought they paid for everything So we we can dig into that They're paying they should be the state law says they pay for it all I mean we all it still comes out of our bill It's just a matter of which bill it comes out of anything else worry That's it Two quick things uh one we've had an unusually Busy and successful run on several litigation matters in the legal department I want to thank my paralegal peter buckley and attorney ed marlinga for their assistance in Um dismissing and resolving a number of disputes Second, uh, I'd also like to note that it's also been an unusually active and interesting summer with respect to a number of Legal reforms including the well publicized public records loss changes, which will go into effect in january As well as a few important court decisions, which um, I'll be preparing memo in forwarding to members of the board as well as Relevant departments Thank you That's exciting That's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Oh very exciting stuff Um be riveted. I spent the day with a room with a compliance officer. So I've had like lots of I'm worried out today Um, I have two pieces of new business One is to thank the board for the time on saturday morning I think we had a very very good goal setting session I think we covered a lot of ground in a very efficient time period and you know It's difficult for any of us to give up a saturday morning So I really appreciate that and look forward to us Coming back with the revised goals and then having the board adopt them for another another year of uh trying to achieve our goals The other piece of new business I wanted to let the board know is um Donald Boudreau long time a town employee ceo a van driver passed away You may remember he recently retired from the town So I'll I'll be distributing details about its services But uh got that news earlier today very very sad to lucid very very good man dedicated employee of the town of arlington It's sad That's all I have um when I Echo uh adam sentiment on our meeting saturday, I I think it's one of them I really enjoy that meeting every year and I look forward to it and I think it's very productive um To I would like to um commend the police department and arlington human rights commission for their response to um The vandalism upon mystic street. I I think that they um in their response they showed that arlington is You know committed to diversity. We're a welcoming community and that does not That is that does not represent who we are and we are better than that and We will continue to be better than that and we will come together as a community too. So so thank you Thank you Thank you. Well, Steve kind of actually said part of what I wanted to say um I think we all acknowledged that the last few weeks have been really difficult for law enforcement across the country It's also been a time of great tension I think in a lot of uh jurisdictions between police departments and civilians particularly communities of um Of color and I think the way that our department Has stepped up to really engage the community in a frank discussion of these issues, especially when we face Hate incidents such as what did happen My mystic street is is a credit to them. I also wanted to share this week. Um I was able to to go down and visit The training session that the police department had sheriff Katushin had um arranges for a um a mobile training unit. It's in a in a tractor trailer truck, which is aimed at deescalation. Um, and um department's invitation I was able to go and um You know take a look at this it trains officers. It uses actually adaptive learning technology It's very high tech with a video screen Trains officers in very difficult situations using video from their own point of view Uh training them on how to use either verbal commands or um other you know mild Forms of force up to and including lethal force if if necessary But it's really important. Um as we've heard all of the the um You know the the strife in the country. I actually heard a day or two later I heard a story about how so many jurisdictions don't have the benefit of this type of training and it really um number one teaches quick Uh response in very stressful situations to keep our officers safe, but also to ensure that mistakes aren't made In in in very difficult situations and um I got to witness, you know At least one of our officers directly in this and you could see that they were very engaged In in this training and I think that all of our officers get to rotate Through all the units there for for a week and and the sheriff brings it back Each each year and it costs us what like a tank of gas or something to have it there So it's it's such a resource and at a time when other departments are are struggling with with You know unfortunate incidents and tragedies I think it's it's uh, it's a credit to us that we have that kind of training And that we have the kind of engagement with the community that Steve mentioned Thank you, uh, I don't have anything We set our next meeting for august 22nd. Is that correct? Yes, and in the event that I really need something we'll have a shot meeting on the 8th with just the four of you Okay, but right now it's the 22nd. All right. So that's a change in schedule for those of you who put it on your calendar Uh, is there a motion to adjourn? All those in favor, we're adjourned