All right, and welcome everyone to the January 8th meeting of the town of Arlington redevelopment board I'd like to call the meeting to order My name is Rachel Zembery. I'm the chair of the board and I'd like the other members to please introduce themselves Steve Rovellac. Good evening Eugene Benson Shayna Corman Houston Hello, and we also have Claire Ricker the director of the Department of Planning and Community Development joining us this evening Thank you. All right the first item on our agenda is the annual organizational meeting where we elect a chairperson and vice chairperson of the board So let's start with the vice chair. Are there any nominations? Want to do it again? Sure. I would nominate Ken Lyle Fantastic. Ken, would you accept the nomination? Yes. Are there any other nominations for vice chair? All right you could take a vote all those in favor of electing Ken Lyle to continue as vice chair of the board. Just take an aye versus nay Aye Opposed? None. Abstained. Okay and For the chairperson, are there any nominations for the chairperson of the board? I'd like to nominate Rachel I accept. Are there any other nominations? All right, all those in favor of myself continuing as chair of the board. Do I? Opposed? All right. Thank you very much. We will continue with myself as chair and Ken as vice chair of the redevelopment board Thank you all Let's move right into our next item, which is 882 to 892 Massachusetts Avenue. Claire, do we have anyone from the development team joining us this evening? We do. Mr. John Murphy is here from the development team. Great. Thank you, John. If you wouldn't mind coming forward in case we have any questions any of the front seats would be perfect just so that we can pick you up on the microphone Thank you very much. And so this is a discussion. We have not reopened the special permit yet, but we are identifying We identified several items that deviated from the approved special permit and the request was made for the development team to come in to speak about the mitigation of those items and I will turn it over to director Ricker who has been communicating with the with the owner and the development team to provide an update. Thank you. So As the board's request, I have spoken with the architect Which is market square architects, which is a different architect than who had started the project And I've also spoken with Mr. Murphy here who is the development consultant working with the owner on the project about the issues that the board had brought up in the previous meeting I think most significantly what we were looking at was the aluminum storefront at the windows we were looking at the white accent, which was not part of the original Rendering in the permitting phase of the project and I think we were also we were looking at the exterior penetration on the mass outside for the vents for the dryer vents that are currently white The developer has Assured me that the white accents will be painted to match the building as the board requested The aluminum storefront unfortunately is unable to be painted at this time And doesn't There were concerns about painting the aluminum storefront that wasn't installed and also Well, the developer is certainly willing to paint the dry events on the exterior Same color as the building There are some mitigating factors that went into the decision to do those penetrations Which are part of the construction drawings that have been included a memo from Sarah Swars the assistant director That went through the least the construction drawings and showed those penetrations As well as there's also a memo in the packet from Jim Feeney who has been working with with the developer and the owner on the regulatory agreement with EOHLC and answered some of those questions that we had about Location and size of affordable units Thank you. Thank you. So what I'd Do you have any John? Do you have anything else to add before I turned over to the board for any questions on what was presented? Well, the last one that wasn't mentioned was the signage. Yes, I don't The tenant in there is taking the wheel next to work on their signage You know about the sign by-laws Goes into that. So just assist them when they come to through the brush animals to make sure that that happens great Appreciate the update I Can't provide a rule just a quick Color or background about a couple of these things. Sure So the the white trim boards we did actually already start so Do it they've prepped a lot of the areas We're still trying to get back in touch with the side here to even find out Now obviously picked up on it Same with the storefront that is more sense of the temperature So the affordable and the beds kind of play Really ended up with under 700 square feet Building back off the property line between the new for building back remember those almost four years ago And we went to go build everything out wall thicknesses And then so the dryer event this was I mean to be completely upfront and honest to something that we never Planned on or didn't plan In front of you all is kind of just a rendering design We will do the full MEP sets and a couple of the things that kind of go into Into that design Every single unit's got to it's all electrical. So every single unit's got two heads two minutes It's all of our line sets we packed as much as humanly possible in all of our walls we also have Mitigation from an environmental issue with that we have that we don't certain vets the D.P. Permitted that sometimes you can do on the outside of the building we packed with our walls It's kind of an extra just mitigation factor just in case of those events actually go up through the units Can't see them from the street But that's one of the other factors that went in I guess when the professional Design this part of the building that was the only place that they thought they could relatively go And then we submitted our plans the building department, and you know that they go through all the departments again It wasn't something we were Trying to do or not do we just kind of assume we didn't didn't get any questions on anything So it wasn't something I mean to be honest when we saw the dry events we all are like You know Okay Appreciate the update and so let's take Comments from the board relative to the plans that have been presented starting with Ken Well, thank you for acknowledging the fact that the white I'm sure that's plastic You see we'll be painted her colors that one of the major concerns I have is in with the transition of the colors When you transition say from a Certain color to an accent color or a different color. I've always transitioned it on the inside corner I've never transitioned it on the outside corner. It's it's almost really hard to do It doesn't look it makes the bill paper thin when you transition Excuse me when you transition it from onto the outside corners. I mean into the inside corners It looks like blocks or modules, and that's what you should simply show this in your rendering Excuse me for my car from here so I acknowledge the fact that you're gonna paint the The white strips back to the original color and you will paint the Storefront To it's a darker color I was just you submit that into the to the planning board I still want regular paint All right, because they'll just peel off and speckle in a couple years special That's fine. I just want you guys to submit that in so we know we're using a high-quality paint That's appropriate for the store storefronts and Then with the panels sorry before you leave that first comment, so you're also requesting Maybe even if you wanted to turn your laptop around because I think that's really Lustrous you're looking at this area for them to paint to match. Yeah. Yeah, can you turn that around so John can see that? I know we don't have it up on the screen Okay, so on the real on the existing building You have it The color changing right at the outside corner of the building. Yeah, and you're rendering which which is correct Which we should be that way it turns that The face color turns and goes into the inside corner See so so it makes it look like a mass like a volume, okay as opposed to the slivers and That that does that makes a big difference how the building looks These were it That wasn't part of the package it Looked at the old rendering use the existing photo because it's more life-like that I'm rendering and redid the colors I just I'll remember I'll take a make a note to go back and look at that transition to see And I apologize I should have that drawing To see if he did work that is my point, but I see it was I mean if you see these volumes When the color turns the corner and dies on the inside it makes it look like a solid massing But when you do it the outside corner special that corner there Everybody sees going up and down mass app. It's it's a pretty predominant elevation and You know If you I mean that's a big thing for me, okay, I Mean what I would say is we have The boom but there as long as we need it and now is the time to No, but are these is that ethos or is it a notes, but it's under the It's a cement board. Yeah Okay, so you see using a high quality cementations paint that good. Okay, that's fine. That will work. Okay Now that would be If you can give me that That rendering yeah, the latest set of renderings or I have no problem marking it up Just so there's no any confusion is that okay, I think that's fine can all right So I don't mind marking up saying this is what it is and I'll pass it along To the rest of the boys, so they take a look at so it's not just me I'm just something that I've scored up that ice, you know, and then as far as The louvers That you have to the outside some of them are dry vents and some of them are bathroom vents, right So those that so there's two There are exhaust and there's is there one that's intake Definitely make a bear looking at the They stick out right now a little bit, okay, and I think by painting them may not be Satisfactory to the board just to have him paint it out How can I suggest that maybe you can bring some samples of different types of louvers? That that might be tanked it out their match and I would bring I would highly recommend bringing the sample of that Louverin so we actually see it and You know, I'm not trying to Pick everything here, but I'm just trying to find ways for you to get out of this situation here These are you know purely my recommendations right now. Okay, I haven't Talked to the board at all about this and I'm not sure what their feelings are But I'm saying that you know if you come up with something that looks nice her Okay, I've seen Intakes and exhausts where it's maybe round with those with cylindrical stuff in it or If it's a flat panel that comes off straight and they suck it from the side So it just looks like a recess or something that screws out this many ways Looking at this as a or even as a custom thing not leaving it the way it is right now Off the top of head, I can't fight I don't I can't think of one right now I was as I see him but I would go back and challenge your architect To look at exhausts movers that go on existing multi-family buildings I'm sure it is a handful of stuff that if you can find and Smith those cuts and whatever you guys decide upon As far as acceptable I would order one so we have it here and that's I'll have right now Thank you, Ken. So Um, thank you, Ken. That was very thorough. I appreciate it and and I appreciate your efforts already to To move forward on mitigating these factors that goes a long way coming in this evening We preparing this evening to talk about some of the affordability questions We're going to set that aside Now would be if there are any questions. I know that Claire you've spoken with Jim Feeney and obviously Provided the memo for us. So if we were going to speak about that tonight would be the time. Yep So so I was just hoping you could flesh out for me a little bit more What happened what? What happened? So So I understand that As I understand it there are some questions about the appropriateness of the size of units as Well as relates to the other units in the building as well as as well as location of units Could you talk about selection of units? Why you think those units are appropriate and And what happened from the original approvals that got us to this point where the questions are arising at all So I don't believe they were labeled on the original plans I Don't believe Can I please please do I believe that they were labeled But the sizes weren't indicated on the plan, but it almost doesn't matter because our decision said it has to meet the requirements of the bylaw for affordable housing and They have to be dispersed throughout the building so no matter where it was in the plan That didn't matter because that's not what the decision was And I think that was the point Sounds like no one including anyone Department at the time or the agency that is on some of the tasks list that we hired even knew about the seven square foot rule So in hindsight that specific I Mean they're differs to cross floors Right so the so They're across floors that I'm comfortable with that. I would be surprised if no one flagged the 700 square feet I understand that your units have shrunk I more tip I would More typically expect to see a range of unit sizes that reflected the range of unit sizes in the building as opposed to As opposed to one particular size I Don't know I Don't know if there's anything that you could do to mitigate the situation at this point or are there people in the units Yes, and I will say there's not only Deemed the smallest unit, but what not one is also the biggest unit They're all kind of in the middle across floors across locations And this was being kind of moved around One was actually requested by This is also why the states kind of been involved with it So we're kind of taking guidance It's not just the intelligence in the town we enjoyed this point which was kind of supposed to be the point of Being made to hire an agency the entire time because they're experts in this There's a reason why that those exist is what they do all day every day Okay Okay, but I think there are being deemed to be floating or something so That's that's that's what Jimmy's metal indicated. So that's helpful So So I will leave it there for now. I appreciate that they're deemed to be floating I do have concerns about about the process but But with people in the units, it's Wouldn't want to ask people to move out of units. They have already moved into Gene yeah, just following up on the affordable housing piece I should just remind you if you've forgotten I was the one person on the board who voted no issuing Unissuing the special permit for this project on the affordable units the The special permit says the owner shall work with the Department of Planning and Community Development to comply with all the requirements of the zoning by-law Affordable housing requirements, and I know when this started the staff was different planning community development. What was the interaction with DPCD during the process That would meet the requirements of the special permit Well, it's pretty simple. We reached out to them to get started and said where do you recommend we start we haven't dealt with this Simply this town before and they said you should hire one of these couple agencies We took the recommendation off that list higher them and They're told that they would also work for the town and guide us through that and that was it Because we're supposed to hire you know hire them to shuttle you through the process of the state Do you know if they had any more? interactions with Department of Planning and Community Development Yeah, I think it would be helpful to understand what that was But I don't know other questions Do you mind please? Do you do you recall what the agency was what the company you hired was? Thank you Steve. Yes. Um, so to I guess I've got two topics one is I was actually happy to see the In mr. Finney's memo the mention of floating units as I've read some of the deed restrictions for other Inclusionary units that is permitted By this board and they typically have something a section about compliance Which says that if you know a tenant no longer meets the income criteria than the property owner is Response has a response obligation to bring the unit back into conformance within a year, which to me Sounds like either the tenants got to make less money or the tenant has to move so the fact that you know There is flexibility in the units where you could just you know, if one falls out of compliance You could allocate another one that seems like a good thing. Um, I also agree with mr. Wow regarding the Venting movers. I know there are Models that are sit flush against the building and or have a smaller profile Something I think something like that might be less You know might blend it a little better That's all I have Thank You Steve Okay, thank you My comment I believe that my colleagues have already addressed all of the the items Just on the exterior penetrations If we can't find something that is much less objectionable than what is currently there Then I think we're going to need to Talk about Building a chase in in inside the interior of the unit for for those two to vent I again to what can and Steve have suggested if you can come back to us with something that is much less In keeping with what you would see, you know in the facade facing of the back alley Then what we would see on Mass Ave with regard to the shape and the The the distance that those those actually come off of the The vertical surface of the building I'm I'm open to seeing if you're able to come up with something that is Much less obtrusive Otherwise again, this this was not shown in the rendering it really to tracks from the Overall look of the building significantly And like I said, it looks like the side of a building that should be facing An alley with regard to Those those lever penetrations and it's just not acceptable for for Mass Ave. So again, I'm Open if we could set, you know, whether it's the next meeting or the meeting after that which you know You and your architect feel that you can come back with a proposal But it's painting them alone is not going to be sufficient in my point of view to others I Know that Steve and Ken and I have all expressed that that is our desire Shayna and Jean do you have? Any other thoughts on the louvers? I agree with what's been said, okay? Okay, so that if you're agreeable with that Please This They are a significant visual element on the facade and we approved a facade that did not show these Louvers that there is a significant deviation much like what we're calling out here, which are the paint colors and the Louvers which become a significant architectural element with the quantity that you have on this facade Then you are required to come back in front of the redevelopment board for a Review of any modifications that are made to the facade. So that's the step that didn't happen Okay Anything else it sounds like the follow-up that we have just to be clear We will circulate a copy of the The Rendering that was recently prepared by the current architect so that can can mark that up to ensure that the Paint transitions were more akin to what was shown in the approved rendering will also You know if you could let us know whether again, it's the next meeting or you know the first meeting in February I believe that those meeting dates are Let me give those to you January 22nd and February 5th 5th February 5th if you could let Claire know which of those two meetings We would like to come back and discuss alternate Vent and and Louver penetration options with us will have you back on the agenda for that item and those are the two and In the future we will see your Tenants signage applications, and I understand I appreciate and understand that you're working with them So Sure If I can't think of one I will include just returned marked up color Please add one more request please Can you ask your architect to give me a sketch a model, please? No, I want to make that in front of all new projects I just want to add it to our database Anything else If they use Please grab it they can export it to catch up. Okay, it's it's it's simple thing to do I don't know how to do it, but it's simple And if there's any question about it they can they can reach out to the department. Yeah, okay. Thank you very much for coming in to see me I appreciate it. Thank you Okay Absolutely, we're going to take a brief couple minute recess All right. Thank you for everyone for bearing with us. So we took a short recess. We'll now move to agenda item number three which Consists of these citizen warrant articles now. We'll turn it over to director Ricker to let us know who we will be hearing from today Sure, great. So tonight we're going to hear from the working group of the affordable Wellington affordable housing trust the affordable housing overlay working group We will also be hearing two suggestions from James Fleming Presentations related to his petition, but I think we should start with the affordable housing overlay presentation Tonight is I should also tell the board that I just emailed you all copies of these presentations Great, thank you so much and welcome Karen. We appreciate you coming this evening. Thank you very much for taking the time I am here as representative of this working group. I also chair the affordable housing trust fund This is actually a citizens working group. I'll tell you who's on it I have 13 slides the first 10 are about why we need it and I'm going to go real fast through them I'm glad to take your questions I'll suggest we hold them until the end because maybe they're getting answered and then there's three slides about what we're proposing for the Overlay Great, thank you This is the citizen working group which includes people who essentially have some technical expertise because we were looking to pull together It's pretty complex Problem to solve so we wanted to kind of get it quickly as you can see Mr. Rebelak is part of the working group Erica Schwartz who chairs the housing corporation of Arlington Myself, I'm an affordable housing professional as is Beth Elliott and Phil Tedasco who also is on the trust But is is actually representing the working group and not a member of it on a pro bono basis so that we could So that's the group another lawyer from his firm So why do we need this? There's some just basic facts about what kind of affordable housing we have in town that I wanted to share so that We can remind ourselves why we need to do this We have about 700 units that are public housing was were built between 1940 and 1983 along with 146 units of Public section 8 which is privately owned but has a similar Those are tentatively very low income people live in those properties There's been times when our conversation here is like we just need more of that Which was would be great, but the federal government does not subsidize the construction or long-term subsidy of projects like that anymore So that's not really an option. We have the housing corporation of Arlington, which has created 150 units over a period of about 20 to 25 years They have additional projects in development that are expected to add at least 44 more affordable units So they'll be increasing their contribution and they've stepped up their capacity There are many things that this would make it easier for them to do what they do as well as attract additional And then we've gotten about 142 units from Predominantly two tools which are inclusionary zoning law which requires 15% affordability when you develop market rate multi-family housing of six units or more and 40 B, which I know has been a complicated Topic in this town, but it is a way that we are increasing this number because 25% of all units in either 40 B projects are affordable We don't need to subsidize those. Those are cost subsidized by the developers from the profit on the market That's how we get those two tools are how we get developers to be for affordable housing We won't get enough that way, but it's an important tool The commonwealth passed a law in 1968 that requires every community to have 10% of their housing stock affordable This is 40 B. It's the number of the law It's what led to the permitting process that developers can use or that towns can proactively use to create affordable housing in their community Arlington is currently at six point three seven percent according to the published subsidized housing A chance today to check with Claire whether we have additional units coming in but sometimes there's a process to Units, but we're about 741 units shy of the 10% required Just helpful to see where we are We have a lot of tools in our toolbox and they're growing We have a local housing authority. We have those two laws They just talked about we have passed the community Preservation Act and invest at least 10% of those dollars in affordable housing each year It tends to be a little more but not a third At this point we do have a community development corporation in town and the housing Corporation of Arlington, which is a huge asset. We have now an affordable housing trust fund, which is new as you know We passed accessory dwelling units recently which creates one more option for lower cost housing not capital a affordable housing More modest pricing potentially We have passed a home rule petition to create a real estate transfer fee that would fund the affordable housing trust Which is critical to our long-term impact That requires the legislation There's a discussion at the state level about that there I hope that we have the opportunity to get that passed on a statewide basis this year or at least pass the whole Petitions that are put on the legislature, but they have not seen fit to do that yet and We are hoping to bring to town meeting in the spring and affordable housing So the affordable housing trust fund created a five-year action plan a year ago now and One of the primary strategies was to create more affordable housing because of the gaps in the acute crisis that Number one action under that strategy This is just the info graphic that shows the whole strategy is predictable permitting And so the next few slides come from some slides that the trust fund created about that strategy to help understand What it is why we need predictable permitting and how it contributes to attracting developers who can leverage substance Affordable housing is basically a math problem By definition affordable housing is housing that the market will never create because it costs too much to build and Operate that housing for low-income people to be To be supported by the rents that low-income people can afford to pay when we did the action plan for the trust We estimated 40 to 400 to $500,000 of subsidies necessary for every rental unit that seems extraordinarily high But this is the market There've been some glow particles in the last two weeks that I think are paying that number That may be the total cost to build but At any rate, we don't have a lot of subsidy as a town And so if we just subsidize affordable housing units ourselves, we will not get very far There are two ways to subsidize affordable housing One is to get developers to pay for it. I'm gonna talk about the one on the right first real quick That's those two laws. I just talked about it's 40 B and it's inclusionary zone We have not gotten a lot of affordable housing out of our inclusionary zone law because we have not been permitting Multifamily housing even at 60. That's not much. We've gotten one to two minutes a year over the first 20 or so years We've had that law MBTA communities is expected to advance that by allowing more multifamily housing in the districts where it is effective So we hope that that will unleash some of those smaller developments a unit here and unit there two units here two units there But there won't be too many parcels that are larger that will be opened up for a larger development So we need something else and here's why Before you go to that next slide before I'll just go back real quick. We want to leverage state and federal subsidies There are enormous amounts of subsidy Awarded every year to other communities. We have only three times in history obtained these Subsidies in our lives and those are the three pictures you saw at the beginning Because I'm gonna show you I didn't update this slide. I made it initially in 2022 in just the first eight months There was 435 million dollars awarded to 31 other communities We didn't even have a proposal in front of the state and many many many years We have not had a proposal for the state We do right now because the HCA has 10 Sunnyside going in in February and hopefully that would get funded If not this year then in the next round The their last project though Downing Square Broadway initiative I just want you to see the power of the state federal subsidies that project Have four percent of our cost of the cost paid for by the town 13% will be supported by Will be a mortgage loan that will be supported by the rents paid by tenants and the rest is state and federal subsidies So you can see how critical it is to get this kind of leverage if we want to have a meaningful impact But Let me follow my script We spoke to a dozen or two affordable housing developers Amongst your ranks, but I don't think we talked to Shayna at the time About what it would take for them to come to Arlington and build that kind of affordable housing using those resources There were four answers and it wasn't surprising at all They need sites that are big enough for the size of project that DHCD will Housing the little communities will fund that tends to be 35 40 units They really these deals are complex enough that the costs of doing them Do not not justifiable on smaller deals and the state just does not use these resources for smaller developments Funding that 4% is not necessarily representative. That's a very low contribution That was a very very good deal for the town We need to put something in we'll need to show that we're supportive of the project permits, which 40p is really the only tool a developer has So that permits is what we're trying to address with this And then of course alignment the town speaking with one voice saying this is important to us And this is what we want And so we're trying to at every turn and have all the bodies who really have In affordable housing development housing development online. So this is the background What is the proposal? What we're proposing the working group is proposing is an overlay that would apply throughout the town So it's not to apply it to one neighborhood or one district and not others But it would require a high percentage of de-restricted affordable housing And would allow some income mixing to promote housing diversity and inclusion That means is we're not Asking or suggesting that you have to have a hundred percent affordable housing to qualify But you have to have a high percentage. We'll talk about specifically what it is But the rest of the development can have moderate income housing Or it could have market rate housing, which would process that Decreate some Also create more inclusion by not Segregating low-income housing from all other What makes it work are those developments with enough units to attract state federal subsidies and therefore We need to have a transparent path to permitting buildings of that size We did some back and forth with what parcels are there. How big do they have to be? How many units could you fit on parcels of one size and sort of ballpark about a half an acre About 20,000 square feet as About the minimum size to create a development of like sort of smallest size that could get permitted And then sort of looked at where are those parcels throughout town? and there are Many in residential districts, but there are also many in commercial and industrial zones So we need to talk about how this applies in those zones as well How will we think about different zoning districts? Our principle here is that we want to kind of treat every District the same in that there's an additional height that you can achieve in every district But it's triggered off of the underlying district. Same would be true for setbacks. So I'll talk about that more specifically Let's go back to affordability There is some room to go a little higher a little lower here But what we thought the starting point would be to propose that at least 70 percent of the units Have to be deed restricted to be available to people earning at or below 60 percent of area Which is a relatively low income level But it is the income level that those subsidies I talked about required So it aligns nicely with our goal of getting 70 percent as I said could go a lot a little down No specific district Two stories more than whatever is allowed under the existing zone as well is proposed The minimum setbacks would be driven by the underlying setback or if there happens to be a lot of Non-conforming uses that are closer to this to the lot line then you could have The average of the the prevailing On parking parking takes up very valuable lot Um Square footage and so we wanted to try to be as aggressive as possible on parking We'd like to propose half a space per unit in residential districts With no parking minimum in commercial districts. We understand that conversation about this is going to be important These numbers are not coming from nowhere and actually the state is better at staying sort of the background on this But hda has data from their affordable housing projects that show that about half a space per unit is what's required in their developments We have data from market rate projects that are a little bit higher and there seems to be a lower parking utilization in low-income projects because of the lower car ownership rate and then finally We're very aware that our commercial and industrial districts have sort of Potentially on top potential That's very important to this board and to others to sort of leverage As much as possible And we don't have a perfect solution for that to be completely honest We know this conversation was having with respect to mbta communities In this case, obviously there's a higher top purpose here a much higher amount of affordable housing We think it's probably doable to include either may include or shall include one floor of commercial Or community space and we can talk about that The why i'm including community space I when I first talked about this with claire. She said hey, our b's gonna want two floors Okay, that's which I understand and would love to see But i'll ask you to turn to your colleague who's an affordable housing developer about whether that would be attractive or not whether it would undermine the purpose of attracting affordable housing developers because Financing that space is quite challenging And if i'm a developer I would point out Just come back and say where is the market show me the market And the town can decide this is really important But we might need to get creative with financial solutions as well that are taking some of that risk from a developer It's common that a developer an affordable housing developer doing commercial space will be passed by all their funders To to master lease that space and guarantee the rent Sometimes a third party does that Because it's important to them sometimes a city or a housing authority will do that So those are sort of the preliminary assumptions for discussion and feedback We would love to be able to get this to springtown meeting. We know that this is not a you know quick and easy and Conversation, you know, there's a lot of support for affordable housing But there's a reason it's not easy to create and it's you know, larger density can be a difficult conversation This is the timeline we Are proposing to try to meet which is we're here on january 8th speaking with you The warrant closes at the end of the month. We would put a public warrant article in We would have at least two public forums Over the next two months to talk with the public first about why we need this and second about What's proposed maybe bringing some developers to talk about whether they would or wouldn't how they would respond to this Whatever wherever the conversation takes us and then in february in march, obviously you're going to be doing what we do to prepare for town meeting That is what we have I think the last line just We have questions look forward to your feedback Great. Thank you so much and thank you for all of the work that's clearly gone into this. It's um Very thoughtfully laid out and I really appreciate it. It's very much a group effort. Thank you Ken, why don't we start with you for any Questions or comments you might have Well, thank you again The amount of work you've done of this in a time I'm going to ask you to do a little bit more Way back at the beginning of your presentation you're saying I would say 24 to 32 unit size building is the Minimum for it to get state and federal funding for okay With that 20 to say 24 to 32 size building What size footprint do you need? Have you guys figured that out yet did a little quick layout? You must have an architect on your board there, right? well But the person on the working group who did the most work on that I think is Steve Worked up the closest to looking at particular lots and what the building probably would lay out there Yeah, and the it came out to be 20,000 feet which is probably comfortable 15 could work occasionally, but it would be tight and the approach it's this was less of a architect's model, but more taking borrowing the approach from um ELHLC's compliance model for MBTA communities where you basically Look are looking at parcel dimensions you figure out a floor plate and you go up some number of stories with an assumption of Some assumptions of dwelling size So right off roughly about 20,000 square foot property lot properties with a four to six story building with a 0.5 car counter. Yes, so with that 20,000 square foot parcel Have you guys identified how many parcels there are in our city? Yeah, we have a map which I haven't I want to refine it a little bit Okay, I think that'd be I would I would love to uh, take a look at that and share that just so What what are we exactly looking at? We're talking about Six properties or we're talking about 30 properties or I think it's closer to 30 maybe 40 No, it's I think it's I think the number is quite a bit larger than that All right, I just want to get an understanding of that because You know, it's not you know, these five ten thousand square foot pieces of property all over the place that this that this won't happen Okay, so it's going to have to happen in in some of the major corridors. It's going to happen In parcels that are 25 maybe 30,000 square feet I don't see that many of them, but they are okay There's more than you might imagine true But at least we can understand where they are what what it is And what what what kind of neighborhoods we're going to form based off of this off this change Because this is a pretty big change and that's where you you're going to target your zoning toward We'll be able to show you a map that lays out those parcels by residential versus business districts That's that would be very important for us to to understand And I think I think that will be a lot of questions asked from the town Saying well, we you know and let's get it all documented so there's no confusion And and and the mayors don't say hey And I rather write information out there than have misleading information out there You're also aware that we are taking some of our Areas that have been zoned are one Like cemeteries playgrounds and rezoning those Okay potentially I don't think that's just we're looking at that. Okay I want you guys to weigh in on that. Okay Because that's going to affect a lot of things Okay, because that's going to affect your percentage of affordable units versus Markery units Because what do you kind of cemetery this that's r1 is that affordable or is it market rate? You know, I mean you have only so many affordable units and now if you get this whole cemetery Which is big? I'm just using that for an example. Okay. I'm not Yeah Does that does that change your percentage and it changes where you go for it? Or I don't know. I don't know what the answer is If I understand the question you're asking you're asking whether like the 10 percent of all of our units Whether changes when you rezone these parcels the open space the 10 10 10 percent is is um It's hard to achieve. Okay, but there's there's a clause. I believe 40 b calls to what say harbor Oh, the land land area max the land area. Okay. Yeah, I'm more addressing that. Yeah, okay. Yeah I understand now. Okay, and We should look in that. I don't want to be You know hit by cyber. I'm not trying to yeah, I totally agree with you guys Yeah, I look at points where we can say hey, what can we we should look at these things? Yeah now then much later where you can get I totally agree. Yeah I'm happy to figure that out. I'm not trying to know specifically what you're proposing for rezoning, but There's a map that was just And out which we can shoot over to you, which is again, I don't know whether this Board will be supportive of that moving forward this year the open space rezoning, um, but um We can show you what the group that from the department of planning community development has been looking at that is looking at for that You guys have had a consultant in the department that has done the calculations on the land area maximum And I'm probably gonna end up just going back to euclern saying you probably need to have those like there That's a very technical Yeah question that you're You don't want my answer because I'm sure it's very simple, but I don't know how to do it No, but I think we should know about it. Let's talk about it. Okay. I'm much rather talk about here in this format beginning to end the town hall and I'm always hesitant to bring up the 10% and say where we are Because we have a crisis. Yes, and I know people want to respond to it So wherever we are on the 10% whether they're required or not to develop more affordable housing I hope I think the community has been You know We hear such a Loud cry for affordable housing. I realize that's in the context of debates that are Heated and where we're not putting this forward Yes, but You know where I'm coming from now. We were where they're this could just They're real are you And then Your majority of the funding that you're trying to get is from the state in federal Which and the federal dollars come through the state. So it really all comes from the state, which I applaud you for But no, but I think that's a sound level. Let's that's a very realistic approach Okay, where instead of people say we need more affordable housing And they they don't know where it comes from, you know, I have a lot more Encouragement what people say well, we're going to get it this way in this way his way That's supposed to easily need more of it. And that's all we need I I really appreciate about that what you've done there saying, you know, and The fact is that you're not trying to pressurize the Private sector in doing all of it Because they can't and it won't and So that's all I have to say for now Do you have any thoughts on the parking? I support the parking I had actually at the mbta said let's go down to zero and You know, I was Smaller voice then But uh, you know, I won't my voice will stay Okay So I would I respect any minimum any reduction. Great. Thank you. Sheena Um, so I really appreciate your work on this. This is very exciting. It's a very important initiative I'm so glad to see it um I would first I would encourage you to keep uh Step back from commercial requirements requirements for commercial space as you alluded to as I'm sure, you know It is very difficult to finance. Um I generally think of Commercial space as You cannot assume any revenue coming from commercial space And it's just it is just Lost it's it's a waste of money If you're attempting to develop affordable housing I think the option having the option for commercial space in commercial districts is a great idea And and Thinking about robust community space Perhaps how making community space that a developer would want to put in their In their development any way available to the broader public. Um, that would that would be in An option I would be open to but a requirement for commercial spaces is something that makes me pretty uncomfortable Um, one thing I wanted to ask you about is Is sort of interplay or difference from 40 b and what makes what would make this More attractive to a developer than just going the 40 b Um Yeah, so I don't know if you have thought about that the concept is that this is as a right And I haven't included anything in the presentation, but we have talked about having some kind of design review like public meetings So that there is some conversation with the community that the work and the thought would be productive And yield a better result But that this is not Potentially an extensive process that 40 b can be it can also be I mean it is Designed to be a comprehensive permitting process that is meant to be faster The other process that would typically be required As we know when it is not Supported It can be a very very long arduous and costly unattractive process for developers So I think that is the predominant difference. It is the community saying We are trying to build affordable housing here. We want you to come here and build it And um, we are creating the pathway But we have thought about what it means we understand what we're asking you We're ready for it, but we do want you to turn to a conversation with us It makes sense. It does and and I think I think it would be Very useful to me To see sort of fleshed out The envisioned process the envisioned permitting process That would make it streamlined and and Maybe even some thoughts around additional requests like fee waivers or you know, uh creative approaches that are not You know what I see here is largely dimensional changes Which are which are incredibly useful, but But like what's what's the next step? How do you how do you go and use it? That would be really helpful for me to see Thank you Gene I would agree with my colleagues. Thank you for coming. Thank you for all the work That everyone did I have well, let me start with One simple question The parking you're proposing for residential Is I have space per unit but in the commercial business district zero why The difference between residential which might be one Lot of massive or roadway But not for commercial I think the thinking there is that it's transit accessible If it's in those districts and therefore, you know easier to rely on Sort of a transit-oriented development strategy, although If you say I forgotten what the T's exact Measurement is if you say a quarter mile From any t-stop bus stop It's going to expand quite a bit beyond simply the commercial districts so I think The demarcation I'm making between commercial and residential is not the right demarcation as far as that's concerned On the other hand, unlike my colleague, mr. Lau Until the town allows Overnight street parking. I won't be able to agree to no parking requirements I think maybe for affordable housing Half of space per unit might be workable But I think zero just goes against it, especially for ones that are going to have some percentage Market rate housing, so I think that needs to be looked at again We'll go to the select board and convince them that we can do a lot more With affordable housing if they allow overnight on the street parking So I think that's my They're the place to go. Um I'm not sure about whether it makes sense to have The overlay in the industrial district because we just have a couple small industrial districts and I'm not really sure that it makes sense to put them there as opposed to What we hope to do which is to encourage More of that sort of development and it's not a lot of space on the other hand I agree completely with mr. Lau. We need to see which parcels they are Because that may make a difference in how we think and how we think about this and what makes sense if any of them are Open space parcels that would raise another issue. I think that the Proposal we got from parts of dpcd On open space zoning Is great and other parts of it. I couldn't possibly agree with for reasons. We haven't had an opportunity to discuss yet. So You know, I think those things will have to come together at some point I'm also interested in Where the parcels are to understand How much of the b districts will lose because my general impression Is that a lot of the larger parcels are in the business districts? And so if we lose them What what are we losing and and how can we Figure out what we're losing and gaining from those sorts of things and do we Resone some other things business at the same time To make it back. So I think we need I think more discussion about that To understand because yes, we are more affordable housing. Yes, we own more housing But yes, we don't want to lose commercial development and commercial opportunities in town And we don't want to lose open space. So how do we Balance all of those things and you've made a great case of the affordable housing. You haven't made any case for the balance Right. So I think that's going to be important um I'm just wondering Well, we'll see what the parcels are whether just putting the overlay on all of the large parcels Instead of the entire town Because that has the advantage Of sort of not having this behind the curtain. This is really what's going to get developed And this is what is not But this is where we think these can be developed. So these are the places that we're going to put the overlay As compared to I think it's worth thinking about doing that I do think there needs to be some level of review. I think for comfort we've just started Thinking about how we're going to do site plan review For the nbta communities and it may be Unappropriate review to use for these also because it has a right review, but it still allows A look at certain things that are important. So I think that would Be helpful and I'm not sure two public meetings is enough to get this through a town meeting The nbta Humanities working group did a lot of work over a lot of months a lot of public meetings You're compressing the schedule a lot And I just don't know whether This will be more successful If you roll out a longer public process And bring it to 2025 town meeting rather than trying to just fit in Two things And then go to town meeting. I think it will be a much heavier lift Under your timeline Yeah, my only sort of pushback on that would be it's two specific tech meetings that are solely for Discussion of this but then followed by all of your public meetings and then you are It's still I understand and you know, I don't know if it's enough I wish we had three more six more months, but we have what we have this work started pretty much, you know, as soon as we kind of put the the dust settled on nbta communities and We aren't coming in point to this conversation Like we have been having this conversation about affordable housing about the nbta communities about selling the garden So it's it's a it's a warmed up audience if you go the other thing is in the flood zones in town Um, I think this either can't be in the flood zones or the overlay Will have to allow them to build up above the free board from a hundred year I'd suggest more than a hundred year storm event pick a year in 2050 so that They can actually build in a flood zone or else. Maybe there are no parcels In the flood zone, so you don't have to worry about it, but if there are parcels in the flood zone I think you have to think about You know how to do that I'm gonna take that back to the group Okay, I have five points written down and it's basically all of the response to what my colleagues had said Um, so regarding the the Glam the general land area measurement in 4db You know, we're not assuming that uh, cemeteries or parks are going to be redeveloped as affordable housing Yes, if some of those parcels were we didn't really, you know Changing how changing the you know, what's The sort of open space likes things that parcels that are You know in r1 districts Will change the 4db land calculation. That was not part of our calculus So it's it just never really entered the picture with regard to the relationship between 4db It's really I think we're envisioning an alternative It's it's a different permitting pathway Where you know, cambridge has an affordable housing overlay. They have a you know a process behind it The first year it was an existence They put something like they put over 300 units in the development pipeline. So it was it was successful But one of the things that say 4db would give you that this wouldn't is the ability to negotiate and request waivers So this, you know, it's the rules of the rules and you're not and you know, you Um aren't going to ask for they have the ability to ask for things to be waived Um regarding commercial, um, one of the interesting discussions we had was about You know, if there is a commercial space requirement, is that eligible for hud subs for subsidies and the answer is generally no unless it is a Community service organization. Did I get the name right? I'm not sure but basically there's there are some Um businesses that have a role in serving the community can be subsidized by this stuff. Otherwise You know, the builder's got to pay for that out of their own pocket Um, so, you know, if they're to the we were thinking commercial only a commercial requirement only in business districts where commercial is allowed But um, we would the one thing that we I think sort of settled on is You know wanting a definition that could include, you know organizations that would be Commercial uses that would be eligible for a hud subsity Not just to be clear Community uses not commercial uses Right, that's what you're trying to say, right? Steve that we wanted to leave room for community uses that could generate financing Because they're included on basis So so Arlington eats is an example It was one it was one that we agreed was it would be an it was an example of this where it's a food pantry it's you know It has a what looks like a little grocery store on the on the bottom floor of 117 Broadway, but it is a kind of organization that would be you know It is a kind of use that would be eligible for for hud funding flood zone I agree that we shouldn't be building a nor what what you said about free board is something we should do anyway Right, but we have Thorndike Place the the in that development all of the first four elevations were sort of Based on the 2070 Sea level rise storm surge 100 year event as cambridge modeled Um, which you know they they have elevations right in that right calculated right in that area. So it was convenient to use and um Yeah, and and finally uh regarding the regarding MBTA communities one of the things that did take aside from a lot of outreach that You know came from that process One of the things that I remember hearing was that all MBTA communities isn't an affordable housing proposal and it's and it's not but this is sort of trying to be responsive to that desire for You know something that would create more Great, thank you. Thank you. Um, I'll just provide a a couple more and then um, perhaps we can Just have a discussion around the board if if it's hopeful or a couple different things um, so I Like gene also feel that I I would not be able to support Bringing parking down to zero until the town Allows for overnight street parking and you and I discussed that a little bit and I think that that's something we've been talking about Wanting to put a joint ARB select board meeting together I think that that's a really important topic for us to discuss with the select board so that they understand How impactful that is for some of the work that we are collectively trying to do as a town So I can certainly Continue to try and move that that forward With regard to commercial use um on the first floor I think that is incredibly important if we include parcels in our business district specifically because we have such small Business districts and we have such a need in the community for well-developed commercial space So again understanding where the parcels are if If we are able to exclude them primarily in the commercial in the current business districts That is one thing but if there are again to gene's question around is this townwide or is this A overlay for specific parcels. I think that's something that really could use some more study um because I I would definitely be in favor of Either specifically and only a commercial use requirement for the first floor or a very tight definition of what community space Could be because I do think that there are great community space opportunities as long as they contribute to the activation of our Of our pedestrian Ways along those specifically a long mass up and Broadway I think there are two different objectives here and they can just need to find the intersection of them or really Draft it for what the town wants and let the developer Figure out if they can make that financeable Right. We just need to make sure that we don't impose things that make developers Take advantage of it. I understand right and again to I think Gene mentioned The word balance or sheina. Maybe that was you who mentioned balance I think I think that balance piece is is what's really important because again, I think we heard loud and clear from the Business community in addition, you know, we fully understand and support the need for more affordable housing But at the same time really need to support the business community in town as well um I also think that We really need to understand what the proposed permitting process is to your point as well gene I'm I'm very uncomfortable with an as of right without specifically Understanding what the review process would be and I think that's especially What we just looked at before understanding when when um things are developed With the mindset of being as economical as possible. Sometimes we end up with Features on And configurations of the building that are less than desirable And and I think that it's in all of our interest to make sure that these spaces are Um just as well well built and um fit in with the With the context of the town just just as any other building in town um And I you know also just you know ask the question around Do we have the time To to to look at all of these things really comprehensively Before spring town meeting. I know that even with the year that we stand on mbt8 communities We had a lot of pushback on should this take more time and we felt really strongly that we had a very well presented public process And I I I just want to make sure that we have the time to look at questions like Should this be you know for the entire town or should this be for specific parcels and um The question around Commercial use on the first floor versus community is the questions around parking I just want to make sure we have the time and the right forums for that There may be a pathway and I appreciate in one of your slides that you started to lay out what that is But that that's a question that I have as well. It's fair Couldn't possibly argue, but I think we should start the conversation And I really appreciate that as well Absolutely Great any other thoughts or questions from the board on your timeline If we don't get to see the main motion until Just before it has to be filed a town meeting It's going to be subject to What are we going to do with it if we don't like it, you know, so I think that timeline doesn't really I think give us enough time To look at what you're going to present as the main motion Which is basically how you Alter the zoning bylaw If we only have a very short period of time to deal with it. I think we need at least a month I think I mean It's obviously a trade-off of the public process. So right right We can plan to have it drafted while we're doing the public process. That's why we have the Bono Council on board I hear you we will try to Balance those objectives as best we can All right, can you add something else to say just I just want to reiterate coming up that map Sooner and later is the most critical and For us to get a real understanding of where you're thinking and what are the possibilities Everything else is spinable spin off of that. I think the sooner you get that to us I think the more comfortable we can with your time schedule. I mean, I forget all the arguments are really great But until we get that map and see what you're actually really thinking of It's you know, it's very hard to say Yeah, you can do it this year or no Because we still don't know You know, how big is it how how encompassing this whole thing is so We can get that to you pretty quickly That'd be great Yeah, and we can certainly make time on any of our Meetings, um, whenever, you know, you have something that you think would be worthwhile for us to meet together to review Great. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it All right. Um, so next up we have james plumbing who has two Two potential warrant articles to discuss with the board Welcome james. I'm also Vince. Fantastic. Welcome. All right Did you have anything specifically that you wanted to intro with regard to these two Articles? No, um, I Welcome to james. Um, Vince And I have your presentations here. I just like my only question is where do you want to come? All right home occupations it is so if you would like to present this and then we'll provide feedback from the board And then we'll go to the next one Okay, um, uh, very straightforwardly. It's a accessory use at your house. Um, do you run from home and there's restrictions on it? It's usually just you Next piece Um, I took a look if you go to the library There are a bunch of old copies cold was then called the Arlington directory Which is basically, you know, yellow pages and listed all the businesses and where the address was And who was the person who ran them? There's a lot of home-based businesses back then Uh Some that are familiar since a lot of contractors who run their business from home also a lot of sort of general life needs The kind of lists here as press makers quite a long list My favorite a dander of shampoo Manufacturer at home who would see you at her house, which seems a little bit maybe suspicious, but you know still there A bunch of miscellaneous home ventures and then things like professional services the position lawyers notaries, etc Um, so this seems like there's a lot of at least historical precedent for having businesses And Next please So the thing that got me interested in this is that There's Arlington has a list of commercial vacancies and they publish the rent and If you are starting a business, it is a very risky proposition Because you are signing a multi-year lease and paying on the order of thousands of dollars per month for business You may not know You may not know if you can get through that one lease Which is a lot of risk and you negotiate and This is a hurdle that not many people will want to clear The other problem that we have although Maybe it's not that much of a problem is that there's not a lot of commercial real estate And what is has to suit you in your business So if you can't find a space that works for you or the landlord doesn't negotiate or whatever Do you may not be able to find a match? So what I'm thinking the opportunity here is is that if you're at a stage of business where you're experimenting trying to figure it out You can do some of it in your own home to figure out the nuts and bolts we can work And then you can start looking for that next step up Next please I took a look at some other towns in here. This is Eight other nearby towns. I looked at it in a bunch of different dimensions Things like Arctis the town allowed Employees that don't live in the building How many square feet do you use for that? For the use what restrictions are there on use on any like Externalities on neighbors things like that. Um, can you sell things on the premises? Was the town put Uh, traffic limits on business things like that. And so what I looked at is there's some where a lot of towns have Things in common like use restrictions or on On externalities, but there's a lot more Arlington is sort of on the more restrictive side that I don't necessarily need to stick around Don't play the most Excuse me on this example. This is whether you have a sign So, um, bunch of other towns, Manchester Was the most surprising to me is that you can have one sign that's not eliminated and it's like some small amount of square footage A lot of these towns allow you to have that but Arlington does which I thought was a little strange Next slide So I I tried to think a little bit to say where are we today? And based on the other towns that are out there sort of like what is a more flexible version of this the click And so I came up with this proposed before and after comparison in a bunch of these different dimensions Um, very generally making things either more specific. So for things like, um Externalities on neighbors, um, this kind of is a little bit, you know, vague or nonspecific on some things Um, and so this was the changes are just taking language over the towns that figure out how to use to be more specific in those restrictions and apply it Or in some cases, it's allow a sign or allow you to sell things that you're making as part of your home as business Um, where we don't today Allow you to have more than one People for music if you're you're teaching at home in your music teacher Allow you to have it on Okay, um, actually this is this is perfect actually So signs, um Would be a two square foot non-eliminated sign which is sort of a bunch of other towns. They all have that exact same provision Um traffic is one of the ones where there's an opportunity to be more specific. Lexington has a definition that says Um deliveries have to look like residential deliveries. So things like a FedEx truck or an Amazon package or Whatever it is somebody comes up a sprinter man And a limit on the number of customer trips are delivered per day that 10 is arbitrary It's basically just there to say this isn't going to be something where cars are rotating through constantly Um, it's meant to put some sort of specificity on it. This is a thing we want to be aware of at least even if we don't know the exact right number Um, the next is the most obvious We were all breaking the law for the last three years by working from home because the town says that professionals cannot work from home So no no architects who work from home. No lawyers who work from home or nothing It's it's explicitly not allowed work from home use Um, I think we can get rid of that because it's the least of not just job to anyone outside the house um And then the last one that's um Interesting is whether you can sell something you make So ronlinton says no sale anyone the premises and a couple other towns said you could sell things you just can't Basically import thing You can't buy things and then you sell them like a store would you're basically making something and then Making a table of your furniture maker And then you bring someone in to look at it and then sell it. I think that's the kind of thing that um that it would change to um That one and the traffic one are a little bit probably more on the edgy side And that's one more area i'm looking for very specific feedback on do you think about those two provisions? Um, I think that's the last slide right? That's the last one great Any ideas thoughts? Thanks. So my name is Vincent. And I wanted to just add a couple of thoughts to what james has presented as professional who Sometimes works from home and whether or not i'm putting myself at legal exposure. Am I saying that? I'm not sure And especially thinking about the trend how a business is born or how how how a new business Might begin in the town of ronlinton. Obviously we've had home occupations Probably before any other type of occupation The pandemic has affected that and probably increasing the number of people working from home It's sort of accelerated to shift that was already taking place But going beyond someone just simply working on their laptop from home How would a business start a lawyer an architect a contractor or somebody making cupcakes in their kitchen? It's very difficult for someone to go from zero to 100 You know as an architect Can I go out and sign a three or a five year lease on a office base? My first client who seems like a risky thing to do so So a more measured way to be able to do that would be to start working from home I could perhaps hire one employee And once I've got some Revenue in my business is successful enough. I can go out and look for that office base I'll just add that And this is prior to the pandemic Approximately half of u.s. Businesses are home-market based And so I think anything that we can do is a town to increase the flexibility and allow people to be starting businesses here in ronlinton Is really something we should be shooting for Thank you. Thank you very much Um, let's start with seed this time for any comments or thoughts. Yeah, I I um I appreciate this and I agree that we You know, I think there is more room to be Flexible in what we allow as a home occupation To just give a simple example my wife four years did finance and grant administration for one of the major research universities in the area She also does the same thing for a non-profit It's volunteer work. It's volunteer on a volunteer basis, but it's still you know, and it's different grant agent different acronyms behind the granting agency but You know, that's something that at least by my reading of our definition of home occupation you know, it's You can't be doing it and it's also the kind of Thing where you know, this this definitely doesn't contemplate working at home or telecommuting and You know, it's also the kind of thing that's not it would be very difficult to enforce directly um, so I'm I'm in favor of a modernization I agree. Thank you gene Well, I guess I have a different Opinion of disowning by-law I don't think it prohibits somebody from working at home and going into the office Every once in a while Although I agree it could be rewritten to make it clearer than it is But I don't think that's the intention and I don't think that I know that's not how I read the by-law right now So when I used to teach planning and land use law, I used Arlington's Zoning by-law before it was rewritten as an example of how crazy Figuring out accessory uses are and I put up a picture of my dentist's office Which is an old house, right? And I said look it says you can't do this. How can my dentist Have an office here. It's the dentist. They're you know, the receptionist. There are two dental hygienists And about every other year one of the students got the answer, right? I bet it's in a business district And it is because what we've done with the business districts is we've allowed people To have occupations in the business districts to set up dental offices in the business districts To set up Doctor's offices in the business districts and all sorts of other things. So it's not as if we've completely Prohibited people from working out of homes. We've just said those homes have to be in the business districts in town I agree with steve. It would be nice to update this a little bit I don't know about selling things out of the house For me that is not updating. That's going backwards. Not that going backwards is wrong necessarily But i'm not sure that that makes a lot of sense. I don't know how you enforce the 10 cars per day You wouldn't and you couldn't and I always have trouble about having a law that can't possibly be regulated or enforced in any way and Um, and if you're very successful at selling you could have a constant turnover of people coming into your place. So I'm not sure about that So I think it can be updated to make it clearer about People being able to work out of their homes Maybe even have one other person who's not a resident Work there. I think that makes sense I don't know about most of the other things. I have to think it through a little more Thanks, jean jean I'm in agreement with my colleagues that I think the code as written could use some updating I Jean I think I disagree about the Sort of strength of the business district. What if you don't live in a business district, right? That's that's great for your dentist, but what about my husband? So So I do think we need to somehow address that but the sentiment of home businesses that happen to be in the business district I think is is the right one And And I think And traffic was was my other concern. I thought 10 cars certainly out. It's just arbitrary But I was thinking of things like home daycares here Can have more than 10 car trips just to begin with so home daycares are not a home business It says the rate of the definition Let's not go there and there you have it. We went there right here or two so In any event, I I think parking Driving car car trip regulations would be challenging To pin down an appropriate number Thank you kim I would I'm flustered that you just wrote down What the limitations are yes or no, but I think you got to really focus on the business And say is the business allowed or not allowed as part of this chart you create here Uh, maybe didn't use restriction No, the use allowance not restriction if you want to say home businesses are allowed yet. They're not this I mean if someone wants to be a mechanic and he turns his uh One car garage into an auto body shop that does repairs on cars and he's he's he works by himself Cars driving out one car at a time No, but he's working on It's a auto body shop in the residential area Do you want that or not? But is that that's not a you? That's not so let's own business language so the town does restrict things by the type of use so like you can't have like Personal care stuff like barbershops or salons. So the town already says none of that and that's going to be included in this That that's that's already in there. I don't know if it does this overwrite that Oh, no, no, no. So see that's the problem. I don't know right now. Okay, so let's let's say somebody awesome wants to I don't know I mean the business you you mentioned are fine you know architect engineer or someone does Economic stuff. Okay, which is great. Well, but not everybody's going to be doing that. Yeah, I'll say say someone wants to Also becomes a sign company.  I mean, do you want that? Sort of laying around your your neighbor's house and that kind of stuff I don't know. I mean, I think we should If there is limitations, let's include that. I'm confused with that. Okay, sure So, so right now there is nothing that says no auto mechanics. They're in the Great I didn't put it this is a long list But in the noxious things restricted it says things if you can't have anything that has Plumable chemicals explosives things that make noise that are beyond what the bylaw allows stuff like that So that it's sort of covered under that But the current pilot doesn't even say no auto everybody's divided this It's challenging because we don't have the section that you're looking to change in the citation So that's I think the challenge that we're having right now. Sure. Let's say someone wants, uh No, no start a school and uh I don't growing marijuana Okay, I'm just bringing that up to my head. Okay And you know, you're allowed. I don't three plants or six. I don't know regulations I don't care in that but I'm just saying there is some sort of regulation and they want to teach people that How to grow home stuff and then stop a little school of that I don't know. I'm just thinking out the way outside. I don't think okay, and I don't know I'm just thinking you could you got to get more specific when you do this because I see when you bring this up It's not clear enough right now for a limit and in broad strokes Would you are you more comfortable with things being restricted by the externality they create on the neighborhood or by being specifically the use So for example, I could say nothing with explosive Etc. Or I could say insert a list of automotive shop gas station, etc. All the list of uses So I'm going to rely on gene to words to affect us If I could just interrupt for a second So generally around the country Accessory uses are in bylaws are set up two ways one way is These uses are allowed and if they're not listed here You can't do it. The other way is these uses are not allowed And if they're not listed here you can do them. So it's partially Which way we want to go do we want to have a a short list of what's permitted and then nothing else He's permitted or do we want to have a long list of what's not permitted? And You know anything else is I I just have to say one of the other pictures that I would show my students is somebody Like washing a car In his garage and I said could he do this could he like say I'll do car detailing In my garage under this and they can Is that so I think I think the answer is we could rethink this it's going to take a lot of work To figure out how to do this. Do you just want to Expand it a little bit so two people can work in a place And do personal service work or are you looking at a universal? rewrite of this whole thing Gotcha, I wasn't planning any changes to the restrictions on uses except for saying architects and such are allowed So this could be just that's professional services just just like no no Whatever the by not touching that start part of the bylaw at all. No, no I'm saying so this could just be as a little as allowing services up to two people something simple like that And then I have a long list of you have a long list I just know no, but that list goes beyond that now we have producing goods and those sorts of things But on the use on the restriction on uses I wasn't planning on changing very much Right, but that's counter to gene's point around is this just professional services because here we have producing goods etc And I mean I think the other thing to keep in mind they make co-working spaces for a reason Which is I think again what this is also trying to solve. So Is there a call for this in town? It's not I don't know Claire. Do you get Calls from people who are interested in small businesses in their home and wanting to understand how that works with the zoning Bylaws pretty rarely. So again, I think is this a solution in search of a problem. Oh, no, there's no problem This is just an opportunity I don't know if it's variable tract. Well, right. So again, I just Just just step back. I think when we update the zoning bylaw, it's not a It's not a small thing, right there and we typically Try and do so when there's a meaningful purpose behind it Because you know it it goes through this full process that goes through the town meeting process and I think To make sure that it's meaningful to the town meeting members that we're bringing this to Do What's most important is that we demonstrate a need and so You know, sometimes that could be that the way that it's written. There's confusion that you know, the zoning board of repeals or the redevelopment board or the department of planning community development sees sometimes it's Because we are interpreting things differently. Sometimes it's a need just in how we're contemplating the the The way that we want our town to To function and what what we need is a town whether it's again affordable housing versus commercial and some of the other things so If there's a demonstrated need for this I I see a reason to to bring this in front of town meeting And so that that would be helpful is if if we were able to demonstrate a need Then I could certainly support us taking the time to go through and And and take a look at updating us. That's my personal May I thought gene put a nice bookend on the type of activities that we're looking at because On the one hand, there's the architect or the lawyer who's working through home and whether or not that's technically legal or illegal It's happening and nobody's going to stop it from happening. So that's kind of that's small potatoes in terms of what we're looking at I don't think changing To allow professional uses is the most interesting thing that that's truly a waste of time And I'm just doing it right on the other end of the scale talking about a business that's starting to sell enough You're getting 10 visits a day or more That's a business that's starting to become successful enough that it needs to go out and look for a commercial space to operate out of I think in between though, there's a lot of kind of home-based business It might not be the kind of white collar activity that I'm You know participating in but it's you know, it could be baking cupcakes. It could be making clothing or could be any number of things that are being excluded from the town and I think there's there's there's a lot of A lot of range of potential uses there that are either flying onto the radar because they don't They are not willing to operate openly or they just can't happen in Arlington. So people aren't doing them and I think we could have some Economic activity that's kind of you know, not present right now So what we're looking, you know, I think we'd like to come back to the board with is a proposal That's a little bit more detailed in terms of the actual changes to the by-law But all this feedback is really helpful as we kind of think about You know, do we regulate the use do we regulate the externality? Do we do we say we allow certain uses or we disallow certain others? We're not looking to really change the definition of a home occupation, but we're more looking to tweak Be more flexible about the scale of the home occupation And again, I would just say I would I would want to see a demonstrated need And this is where we have the fund the flu screen because if you know If you want the support and again, that's what you're you're talking about then you need to show a fundamental Even if if there is no need and this goes in nothing happens Is that so bad? Yes, because then we've taken the time of town meeting and the redevelopment board for something that Is not serving a need which is what the by-laws are intended to to do Please Um, well, I want to get to also taxes How does this affect or how do you guys think this will affect taxes? Is it it would be because now there's You got a business going there, but you're on a Residential tax rate Is it going to be is there going to be a break for that? I mean I know Insurance wise it makes a difference Unless you're registered to having a business there and if your business caused fire in your house, you're screwed Sorry to fill a language, but Okay, so Generally, if you do run a small business that you want to register with the town saying With the clerk saying I have a small business there. I'm I'm running professional service and then you get your Tax ID, whatever that that number is. Okay, and then Then you register your insurance company and then now you're you're insured There's a whole bunch of other things that I think I like to go Look into because I think just by that it's not enough for me to Support it right now. Okay.   Well, my assumption is it's nothing right? Essentially, we're not changing, you know, this is zoning change. So It does not change anything about the way the town or the state federal government tax Businesses or regulate businesses. So if the town wants to change the way that it treats businesses home occupations or otherwise For tax purposes, they would have to go through a different board than redevelopment Like if you're a home architect today, like my assumption is the town doesn't even know you exist And doesn't even know to tax you. You can You have to have a tax ID. Yeah, but not a tax to the town. Yeah, I think I think we're getting the weeds I think I think it's a really important question they can't ask And something that you shouldn't have an answer for if this is something that we're gonna I don't have the answer. Yeah, I have the question Yeah, anything else for James on this? I think I'd be in favor of thinking about tweaking the Definition of home occupation To make it clear what's allowed and maybe bring some things in that Um, may or may not be allowed now and then we would have to look at both the use table and That would be a part of that zoning bylaw to figure out how to measure them because we're gonna have to measure all three but There are a lot of things that you can't do in your home. For example, you can't do commercial baking in your home Because you have to have a commercial kitchen and meet health standards So, you know a lot of things that one of one of you mentioned cupcakes. You really can't I'm not sure where we go other than yeah, maybe somebody should be able to teach more than two music students at a time You know, I mean there are little things like that that I think might be worth looking at but I'm not sure that's where you go No, that is where we're at last. That is It's it's the number of students. It's the number of employees It's the sign. I think the sign is important Yeah, it's very generally there are other regulations around businesses for reasons that zoning doesn't really need to concern I know but that but you know getting back to what rachel said You know, there's no need to do it for somebody to set up the commercial kitchen in the house Because that's not going to happen things like that You sure it's not meant to be specific to that But it's meant to be more general and say as long as you don't fall into this category of conscious uses You're fine. Maybe other regulations at state state level or the health school level Those things might restrict you in other ways to the point where you can't run out of your home and that's okay It just may not work. Yeah, I think um, I'm just keeping an eye on time too. I think I think we're going to need to move on Okay, thank you. Um And your second This is a very fun category called the country single family homes The only difference between which we get and a side-by-side duplex is that the property line runs right in the center And you have a party wall agreement instead of That's pretty much it and and the lots are smaller and such we'll get into that Um The current state is that it's not actually allowed as a building type But there is an exception carved out in a couple and a couple of sections here for these five streets Where they already existed for the bylaw review in the 1970s And this proposal is basically to just say hey these building types are a lot by right So we can do great exceptions and make the bylaw a little bit clearer Thanks, please The main thing is if you are trying to Say in addition On this house your house does not even show up in the use table or is it on the district and your architect Is going to be like what the hell where is your house tied and it's going to be a mess for you It's going to be using can I even do this renovation? Is my house not as legitimate as the rest of those in town even though it looks very similar? um This second bullet is a little bit more um aspirational and maybe Steve can weigh in on this If you don't have a condominium agreement, it's much simpler in terms of legal ownership Because the property you lie divides the line half as well as the buildings So it's very obvious what's yours and what's your neighbors and all you have to worry about is this party wall agreement It says you know, I will maintain the side of the party wall and Puncture through it to your side, which condo is already sorted out I can agree for that but counters also have minutes and all these other things that you have to deal with I don't know whether we can really create them, but it's it's there next So the thinking is this currently only applies in r2 enough and it will remain only in r2 enough And the only thing you have to change is to put it in the use table and then make changes to the dimensional constraints for that use so for example the current by-law says Your minimum long-size in r2 is 6,000 square feet So that's for a side-by-side duplex if you want to put the property line center of it Obviously, you're going to have to have that and have to make it 3,000 square feet to make it happen But that would only apply for this single family attached So you couldn't then you couldn't go and build a duplex on a 3,000 square foot block because that wouldn't be allowed under this use table um And the other change that would have to happen is that if you have party wall that wall obviously has no setback It's your right on the property line and that again would apply only for a single family attached Next And we're done Okay Thank you kim Take your time Well, no, it's not really uh, I don't know what you're trying to do here I'm trying to get rid of an exception on the by-law that I think is stupid. It doesn't mean to be there I don't know why it's in there in the first place so You're saying we have a town home A two-family it's two families. It looks like a two-family house with one piece of property. Is that it? It looks like a two-family home on a single piece of property, but it's actually Two parcels two parcels With the houses right on the dividing line and the party wall is the property line And each parcel has its own driveway Each parcel has its own rear yard each run You have an alley behind your house that's shared, right? Do you have some book? In any case, sometimes yes Each house would have to satisfy the requirements for parking and setbacks and so forth So That one house on let's say the house on the left of him if we go for the house on the left of him So that parcel is also 6,000 square feet So they so both those houses are sharing the same lot then to make it no, they're two different lots legally Okay, so they're non conforming lots and the three thousand no the by-law says they are conforming in the exception statement The exception statement says if you are an attached single family home on one of those five streets You disregard this use table and you treat the lot That both of homes are as a building lot and that lot has to be the use table requirements So the lot that both houses are on combined has to be the 6,000 square feet 60 feet of frontage, etc But for your individual a lot your catheter that equation You just ignore the use table. It might be helpful to think of a 6,000 square foot lot If that lot happens to be on silk or marigan or any of these other streets You can build on that 6,000 square foot lot You can build a side-by-side duplex and keep it as one lot or you can split it Down the middle and make it attach single family anywhere else in town in an r2 You'd only have the option to make a duplex But you would have to keep it as one parcel and so therefore condo agreement and so forth And so it's a more complicated form of ownership And what was your what your change? What would that do? It would just take the exceptional language out of the bylaw, but in the use table that's an actual use that's allowed So say r2 and under r2 there would be a line for attached to single family Minimum lot area 3,000 square feet and it would become a allowed use in r2 and above Have you talked to my champa The building commissioner about this and say hey, is this an issue for them that when this Happens He throws his hands up so he might have all my confused. I don't know what to do here. I don't know what codes to fly here He must apply something there, right? presumably so I'm not thinking about my champa. I'm thinking if you were A homeowner you're trying to do something and you're looking at this file and you're saying what the heck is going on? I call Mike champa and say hey, what can I do? I mean, that's where you start any no, that's not where I started We did our mission. You don't start with building services. You start with an architect You start with building services Oh, no, that's not what we do. Okay. That's okay. That's fine. That's what you do But let's let's let everybody got us. Okay. I'm not gonna go to that point there. Okay, but I don't know I I'm a little still confused about what you should want to do here and I'm going to go back to what rachel says. I'm not sure what Why do we need this? uh If no one's complaining about this law That's confusing or not confusing Or this exception is causing havoc. It's someone else doing something If it hasn't been done it has not been an issue at all That's why I would ask my champa. Say, hey, look What do you do when this comes up?  Say, no, we can't do anything here Because this because you can't do anything because it doesn't apply anywhere or Here's what I do. So then I don't think this is required Or I should ask that question. So Gina I have nothing to add. Jean So my understanding is these are exceptions and you can find them in the zoning bylaw. So there's no question about Because they existed a long time ago and the zoning bylaw is written There's like what are we going to do with these and it basically says If the deeds were prior to august 28 1975 you can do this Now if you get rid of that and put This is an allowed use in the bylaw it will allow somebody right to buy a 6000 square foot lot House on it or not get rid of the house if it is split the lot into two 3000 and put these side by side houses on it. So this is not Simply to get rid of an exception for these houses. This is no need to do that if that's what all it's for It's very clear in the bylaw that there are exceptions in the lot It's to allow in the r2 and upper Zones instead of 6000 square feet and one house It's to allow 3000 square feet and two houses that are connected by a common wall. Is that your intention? You could do it. I don't know if anyone will actually do it, but it was that your intention Then we don't need it then because that's that's the only reason to do it to allow That type of building to start being constructed. It's possible that someone could do it. I don't know Your attention personally personally personally that's on my attention Seems like the Warren article not just me for you, but it seems like the Warren article is trying to make that something possible Well, that's my question if this would make it possible Yes, it would be a major change Throughout all the residents of districts, right? Well, of course instead of whatever size lot you have now You could split it in half and put these two houses I'm just pointing out Is that different than a duplex without the property line down the center? Sure it is From the street You get 6000 square feet It's a It's not so much a change in density. It's just a change in the type of ownership structure Sure, yeah, that seems fine. Yeah, right Steve so I happened to I'll you know disclosure. I happened to live in one of these I own one I actually like it as a it's worked out. Well as an ownership model Um In terms of there are some you know some things that span both dwellings like replacing the roof But I'm fortunate enough that you know the the person on the other half of the duplex Or with the adjoining single family attached home has been amenable to that Um, you know from the street sunny side avenue where I live Has a whole row of these with the exception of one building which was actually recombined to be a two family Or to be a duplex on a 6000 square foot lot. Now one of the one of the things that's sort of interesting is you know One one of the things that's interesting if you look at land value The 3000 so we have one property on the street where it's a 6000 square foot lot We have a lot of others where there are 3000 square foot lots the two threes Assess out at a much higher value than the single six Believe it. I don't know why I talked to the assessor and he had mentioned that they assess smaller lots at a higher value per square foot Something something about a fair evaluation which I don't understand but sure so the maybe a reason to do this is that There's a potential for higher property valuations in town, which means more tax base if you do this But yeah in terms of I mean I don't see this resulting in different types of buildings being built um, but You know like given a duplex and what would a single family attached on Still a duplex on six versus a pair of single family attached on a pair of threes I don't I think the you know the buildings would would look the same, but it is a different ownership model That's that's really the main difference Further no, okay. Thank you. Thank you very much Okay, um that closes The agenda item number three citizen warrant articles and we'll move now to the redevelopment board warrant articles Um Claire and I will turn it over to you. It looks like there is before I do it looks like there is Some additional reference material for the open space rezoning. There is The board had asked uh, David Morgan was the environmental planner for him map of Open spaces that he When he came and gave his presentation before the holiday To discuss the potential for Re-zoning open spaces in town that are currently Excuse me that are currently zoned residential And go into a comprehensive rezoning of These parcels that are not That are not zoned open space, but that are functionally open space And so this board asked him to please come back to the map and a list of the parcels Under consideration and he was happy to provide that Thank you Claire. Um I had just gone through my notes before the meeting tonight and and I believe that We'd identified that um There there were quite a few decision trees that still needed to be gone through for the open space article before it could come before Town meeting and we had identified that we should designate somebody from the board to work together with With david on bringing this forward. So did you say you would raise? I don't know that we identify the person Is anyone else interested or are we in support of gene reaching out to david to But I don't think we're gonna have it done for this use. No, I think we were pretty unanimous in that I would agree. I this was um provided as the board requested it and david wanted to make sure that Really appreciate it. Yes. Fantastic. Can I just say one of the things that I said when this came up I say it again is Some of these I think might be appropriate to be open space But some like cemeteries we should think about having a cemetery zoning instead and some of them that are Town properties, but aren't really open space Might be a user type of zoning called like public spacing You know, so I've looked a little bit and there are ways there are ways to do this that makes sense Some of them that we listed Have what's known as article 97 protection. I think those are the most likely To fall into the open space category, but I just want to say that's my thinking going in To the meeting with david And I think the other thing that we identified from the meeting too much like when we looked at things like mbta communities and other items across the town in terms of These are the parcels today so that we don't do the same thing we did in the 70s and just zone What's on the lot today? Are there other spaces that could or should be open space in the future? Are there some of these that perhaps Don't serve the community as well as open space You know today, you know Would we want to expand the opportunity? You know, I think that those are all things we'd like that I have one more Slide I wanted to bring up and this right here is a list of the likely ARB warrant articles for the spring We had talked about the for 2024 Excuse me, this says they know we're also tracking a few for 2025 now. So I just want to make sure that we Thank you the elimination of the inland wetland district which is supported by At least four town departments As well as the zba The revision of section five three dot one nine reduced height buffer From the zba the clarification the definitions of attached and detached Elimination or clarification of section five dot three dot ten to distinguish between vacant and non vacant properties Elimination of bullets in each point labeled with a letter or a number Um, we had talked about that potentially even going on a consent agenda Or recommendation for a consent agenda And then amending section five dot nine dot two dot be one both five Should be number five to clarify whether or not they may be used by being constructed within six feet property line with a special permit My question to the board is do you think I have Well, we have missed anything if there's something else the board wishes to progress to town meeting in 2024 I'm looking through here um, we had looked at Jean were you looking at this one the um residential provisions for tdm We had talked about it. We talked we didn't put it on the sort of track to get done Okay, so that might be a 2025 Yeah, I think we would need help from the Okay I'm just going through. I have a long list here. Just going through Steve no, that was um, that was that was it And I I had mentioned to rachel that um christian Klein and pad hamlin and my champion Last week and we have a follow-up on some of those on the list Which I can talk about Christian you want to help or you want to just sit there? So I'll I'll do my thing and you can I mean so on um The definition of attached and detached in the zoning bylaw we came to agreement about um changing the definition of attached and changing the definition of detached And I've done a draft This is only a draft Which I shared with the folks who are at the meeting Do you want to say anything more about that? um I mean for the for the media perspective out there. It was a very productive meeting that we had a lot of Good sit down with the Dirk Jampa Jean and myself As far as the attached and detached the the basic premise is that the terms sound like they ought to be in opposition But they're not because there's a gap in the way that they're defined and we worked out sort of a change in the language which um Jean is drafted here And essentially what it does is the the current definition of attached is it's attached if that has a wall in common and it's Detached nothing in connection so we're modifying it so that it's either a wall or a roof In combination would make it attached and that if it does not meet that then it is detached So that there is a clear delineation So sorry a wall and a roof in combination not an either or no either or either or yeah, okay a wall a roof or a wall Got it. That's one question on that. Yeah How much of a roof attachment? You know, I'm going. Oh, absolutely. I mean we've had a lot of questions about this. Um If if they come into contact with each other The the build, you know, basically the the genesis of this was the question about the house and the garage If you build a covered breezeway between the two are they attached? Correct by the current definition. They're not okay The building department does consider that attached I know that and so We wanted to make sure that we were capturing that um but if you have If you have your garage and your house and you have a sort of a You know a wall that runs between them and it just you know is contacts The just the thickness of the wall that would still be considered attached Are we going to put a number on this one? I'm thinking of is Close on I have a house a garage and I just put a little covered breezeway between uh all right, it's only maybe four foot wide, okay Now it's considered attached. Yes going to the building department. Yep. Okay Do you guys think it's called attached or decompatched? based on Your revisions there by the by the proposed definition that would absolutely be attached Okay, so all you need is any touch any touch meant any as long as it's a wall or a roof Like because the other question was if you had a deck that spanned between the two would the deck Cause them to be attached and we sort of hangled back and forth on that and decided in the end that that was not sufficient enough To justify considering it was attached Say you say you have a house. Yep. You have a garage And the corners touch Is that attached that's attached because a foot of it attaches because they Just it's attached today. It'll be attached tomorrow. Okay. I just want to yeah, absolutely so Any attachment so it's not based on square footage. It's not based on uh Percentage of attachment is just any attachment So if there's an existing roof across it Two feet wide three feet wide that you can walk under. Yeah, it's attached If the corners of the building are touching it's attached Okay, so now we're Go to that we're all clear okay So, um Section 5.3 0.10 according to this is the one about Vacant lot non vacant lot According to my chamber the way it's being interpreted is if The building is removed and the foundation is removed. It becomes a vacant lot And at that point you can take advantage if you want of the different setback The average on the street and after lots of discussion We felt like if that's the interpretation, that's fine. We don't need to change the zoning So that one comes out. Yeah, so that one comes out then Bullets to numbers Yeah, we will do the bullets to numbers and as long as we did the bullets to numbers on the copy I gave you Claire There's another provision in there that can be deleted Just there for the first year that I know it was in effect And that's more than that so change the bullets to numbers and then we will just put a little reference in 5.4.2 a To reference the other exception. Well, technically it's not needed because if you look at 5.9.2 b it says notwithstanding anything else. This is how it works So it's sort of a belt and suspenders to just add that so we ended up with just The the redefinitions of building attached and building detached We ended up just adding the other exception In 5.4.2 a and we ended up Um changing the bullets to letters and getting rid of the One section that's no longer needed because it was only for the first year The bylaw was in effect And by the way, if you look through the bylaw like I did you'll find there's no standard method to go from Big a to one to small a So I just chose the most nearby ones and use the same Same way How I'll send that around to everyone. I just got it done today, right? And then we had said that Again, all of the residential parking requirements in terms of that that would be in 2025 I'm gonna move that to my 2025 section now. Great. That's it Great. Thank you so much christian really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you gene for meeting with them All right We're good. Okay. So our next steps is our next agenda item, right? Is the schedule of moving forward towards first of all the submission I think we'll need to at our next meeting just review the language that will be submitted for the warrant articles um, and um, we should identify if there are one or two members of the board And I sort of you know like we did for Fall time meeting gene and I can certainly embrace our hands to support You know if you wanted to do the initial draft or if you want us to do I did the draft My my one um the reduced height buffer Do we have um draft language related to that? Gene you had suggested a separate language. I have to look and see. Okay Because we figured out which section we needed to update and it was incorrect before but we didn't update it So I'll look and see what I have. Thank you. Great. I don't remember I may not vote for it, but I can find it Come on gene Oh gene Fabulous um So just quickly in the spring 24 town meeting not 25 So on the 22nd, we will review our final warrant articles at least the ARB intends to forward Um, the the we'll finalize the language For the 26th we're going to wear more clothing The earliest we could start our public hearings for 4 town meeting is on the 4th of march because of our legal notification We also have a meeting on March 18th that we could potentially extend to but it seems to me like we are Only really looking at about seven amendments including citizen petition that may Be brought forward if the three that we heard tonight are eventually progressed Okay, I mean there may be other things that are on our radar too. So I think perhaps if we plan for this It might not be a bad idea to identify um A backup additional night just in case we need it and then we'll also need a night to for the vote and A night to Review and approve the report So our april meetings Right our april meetings. I know those moved a bit. So we had april first And the 8th so I Don't know the date that they need to receive the report by that's probably something that julie and um Greg Have identified or maybe perhaps not yet, but that's something that I think, you know in the past we've had to add You know a Quick wednesday or something like that just to review that. So I think if we can Work that out a little bit further In terms of this this is a great start, but I think we may need to just work it out a little bit further to get through all of the Require this so what our meeting on the 22nd all will propose um a schedule Like potentially like you've seen in the year in years past that go over the year Optional depending on again how many Thank you so much perfect and then the meeting starts at the 29th I think it's still February April tell meeting Okay I thought what the town moderator had said is that the that's right there's still trying to figure it out So it requires It start on that date But it's pass over but it's a holiday. So he may just open the meeting and then adjourn the meeting And have it officially start two days later at least 24 right at least that's the current thinking. Okay, fantastic great Thank you gene for your memory I knew we'd gotten an email about it. I couldn't remember what it was Okay, so that closes agenda item number five unless there are any other Discussion points around the warrant article hearing Gene this is this is Another hearing we're going to have to fit in. Yes. Um, if if we get approved By eohlc. Yes, we'll need to have a hearing. I'd say to amend our rules and regulations for site plan review And I also sent you Rachel and you Claire a draft on the change for When there's administrative review of signs So I think we can probably do those both But that does require a public hearing That will want to fit in somewhere and and the other news is I finished my first draft of What the site plan review? Great could look like so I'll give you a copy afterward, but it's so different than what you did that I think we're going to have to sit down and reconcile the two. All right. Looking forward to that. Yeah Great Are you sending that only to Claire? Well, I want to send it to Claire and have she and I sit down first and go over Go over the changes and why I did some things and why I sort of put some things in that she had But put them in a different place and when she and I I think have a meeting of the minds Then I think we'll send it out to Great anything else on the warrant article process or other hearings All right. Um, next we'll go to item number six, which is the Arlington Heights business district and Claire Great. Thank you. So at the board's request, I put together a rough timeline For outreach and adoption of the Arlington Heights business district I the thinking of this board and DPCD Is that we do need to re-engage with the public? Prior to bringing this to town meeting and you know for lack of a fall date This pushes this out to 2025. Um, I'm I'm okay with that. I think that we do have You know, it is it is a Quite a bit of time to re-engage with the public, but we already have at least a few dates on the calendar including next week at my ACMI update that I do About once a month It will include an explanation of the outreach process in this memo That I sent to the board in the timeline as well as a review of the recommendations in the Arlington Heights neighborhood action plan Which do include consolidation of the business districts into one neighborhood business district As well as a few others. I think it's a great idea It's another good reason for us to push this off the 2025 as we don't know if there may be other Foreign articles or other decisions that need to be made around this You know prior to us, you know, just bringing forward the business district there could be accessible Ancillary or accessory You know articles or things that come up that we may want to also progress at the same time So beginning on january 15th, I will be doing my community meeting media update I am meeting with the Arlington Heights business association on january 18 to let them know That we are re-engaging in this process and to review where we were in 2019 and see what changes have happened And since then or if there are other updates that people are looking for would like to see I have tentatively scheduled a community meeting from may 9th basically to Solicit the same feedback We will continue to update and form neighborhood stakeholders moving forward including any contemplation of changes or updates You know folks should probably know if we are considering You know anything different And then in early september when the board comes back into its regular schedule, we will do a report back With our with the outcome of our reach and then all to finalize that foreign article or any others that may Come out of that process To submit to town meeting this time next year Can I make a couple of requests to add to the schedule? Yes. First of all, thank you so much for putting this together I think this is a um a really great framework for us to to use for something that I think it's really important for us to take the time to do in terms of all of the community engagement Given how long ago the arlington heights neighborhood action plan was put together There's great information in there, but I think re-engaging the neighborhood is really important That's pretty covert, right? It was for 2019 So a couple of other Interest groups that I think I'd love to include as part of this process The chamber of commerce was very very interested in this and learning more and hopefully Engaging so that they could make sure that this you know that they could be supportive of of the The enhancements to future business growth in arlington heights The arlington heights community association the janitor ruden is so involved in I think They have tremendous community events. They've just grown and grown and grown in terms of the Number of residents that they get out for them. They have a spring event every year I think it would be great if we could do a table At that event It would be great since that's really when right around when we're going to be even a precursor to kicking off if we think we could be ready to again Introduce that to the community ahead of the working community meeting more just Interest and advocacy and then they did a fall event as well So that would be great and I think it was in october this past year to be able to you know Come back to the community after all of this engagement activity in terms of this is what we heard This is what we move forward. Let's talk about questions concerns, etc So I think bookending that with again the great community work that's already happening I know I appreciate that those are Those are excellent opportunities The other thank you the other Question I have is whether reengaging the arlington heights neighborhood action plant implementation committee the longest Name for a committee ever created in the town of arlington um Would would be a good idea those were really engaged citizens within the town and It would be great to reach out to all those folks and and make sure that we get them Thank you Nice had one more to add to that was the mbta Yes, we were going to talk to the mbta about that turnaround for the bus Yes, he did and it was alley I know how to reach out but but let's re-engage them. I want to reach out to them in a different way. Yeah Welcome to suggestions. We do talk to them periodically about I one we might go up there to thank the governor or that That uh root Yes, but you know what i'm saying. Yes, I understand that root is Is is a much better route to go I think uh, and then It's two things ones that turn around and then the bike path Is mbta property, but they make it so hard To make it inclusive of the town if they can free up Like a zone or area we can we can work together She paid a real entrance into arlington from Interaction between the bike path and the town.  There's no Oh, yeah, but Those are that stony and we might adding to the topic somewhere maybe Isn't there a greek festival there that happens in um Yes, yes, uh in girly the spring Can we get a table there? I can certainly Certainly look into it. Yeah I just because I know that everybody goes just for The beer and the gyros and everybody else. I'll say there's nothing to happen here, but There's a lot of people that go there from the neighborhood. It's a wonderful community. Yeah, I mean I love going there and if we have a table there for some stuff showing and Gets my people's opinions every great Thank you again Gina I think that I think the um Bike path and mbta connections are great. I do Yes, I I agree with all the suggestions. I have a suggestion in separately about how to engage with And on this schedule I think it would be helpful If there's one date between september 9 2024 and january 2025 where Um, the redevelopment borders are reviewing drafts Okay, because this is sort of like september a great report back But then the next thing is the thing is finalized in january I think we need a december check-in where we can see a draft I guess that also to your point on seeing a draft fix a question. Is this something that you envision The dpcd taking the lead on do we need to put together a sub committee of the three development board? Should this go back to the arlington heights neighborhood action plan implementation committee? I mean there there are a number of ways There's work that needs to be done. Yeah, and the question is What is the body that will dive into that work? I think at this point it's uh dpcd I would have to get out and re-engage with the committee to see Which level of interest if I can get the implementation committee back together and they're you know excited to help me or help Be the group that group was I was part of that group and they were really engaged at at the time Okay, that they were meeting so Great Steve see yeah, my I basically had one well two questions one was The chair just touched on but during the period of say june the september What role does the board play? And you know I want you know in terms of like is there a Subcommittee working on it. I would hope that You know we is a board to get periodic updates if there is a senate committee sort of like Periodic meetings with periodic meetings. We had with the FBTA community's working group. Sure The other thing I you know maybe suggest considering an outreach budget Um, yes, you know postcards turned out to be a useful tool But they're you know, they're not cheap But they are useful Thank you, Steve. Um any other items relative to the business district? Uh, sure. We're actually about to head into open forum. So But you can talk about this topic too. So let's just roll right into open forum And it's sorry if you could just identify name and address for the record, that would be great 56 silk street and so relative to the additional timeline and Mobilization that's going to be happening in terms of a public outreach process. I was curious For the board. What would be the pros and cons of folding other business districts such as capital square into the same process in the same timeline? Great question. So We have as a board discussed whether or not we wanted to look at this as Um Something that we engaged in each of the business districts at the same time or sequentially And so what the board had identified certainly engaged with those groups to keep them abreast of what's happening But the thought was to each of the business districts have such unique Challenges and opportunities was to address them one at a time So the thought was to start with Arlington Heights then move into to um, east Arlington Following the work that's that's been done in the Heights. Um, but absolutely. I think it's a great suggestion to you know, let the capital square and um, east Arlington business community know what is Going on as we Work through this this process with the heights because that would be the next Group that we'd move into for the following year Correct That's really less of a suggestion and more of a question of as to whether there would be Some advantages or some things that could be starting to happen at the same time Even if they're not on the exact same time. Sure Thank you. Any other thoughts What why don't you move up? I heard that the Microphone picks up better in the first couple of rows. Thank you Thank you very much. Susan stamps 39 grafting street or green streets Arlington And I'm following up on I was here year in December meeting with a proposal for changing the zoning on parking trees and parking lots and landscaping in parking lots Since then we've been working with gene vinson on scaling back our proposal our proposal was To have all parking lots constructed or reconstructed Contained 50 shade Mostly from trees, but solar panels would be okay And there was an objection And certainly in terms of the size that that would really Hinder construction of multifamily buildings and so on to have to make the parking lots bigger to accommodate The tree canopy cover And so in our consulting with gene we we changed it to it would be a amendment to section 11 point No, excuse me 6.1 6.11 611 6.1 There is no 611 one. Thank you. There is 6 6 11 Yes Prepare after sitting here for three hours, but anyway, uh imagine how we're feeling I my apologies 6.1 point 11 Uh, and I think that is section d 6 Yes, that's what it is and that talks about parking spaces providing excuse me parking areas providing more than 25 spaces Show include landscaped areas and at least 8 of the total paid portion of the parking area Our proposal would change that to 50 percent And it would be Trees but it could be solar panels or You know before the trees are big enough it could to create 50 shade They could be shade structures So that would be our proposals that would Take and count most of the larger parking areas in town and it would Leave along the smaller parking areas that are attached to to residential buildings So we do feel that We are in a climate emergency We need to be taking all the steps we can to medicate the effects of climate change and certainly heat in an urban area Like ours is huge. It's only going to get worse and if there's any measures we can take To protect our residents from extreme heat Which you have in parking lots that are unprotected from The sun and then they get hotter and then they heat up the whole area Which causes heat related illnesses and Of course it uses the causes higher air conditioning costs Which then is more greenhouse gases and there's a lot of a lot of other reasons, but so And we certainly have taken A lot of other steps in town to Medigate the effects of climate change. We just passed the specialized stretch code that requires Extreme energy efficiency in multi-family housing and and now we electric wired in all residential reconstruction and There are many others here that I know David Morgan could ask me to come with if you were here, but Anyway, this is consistent with where Arlington is going being a leader on rules that help with the effects of climate change and the idea of There was discussion of the and I so I would hope that you would help us develop this particular More article and would end up Supporting it and I do feel it's right in the house also Of what we do ask Developers to do on private property we ask them to We regulate the sizes of their sound the signs and the brightness of their lights and How many parking spaces they should or could have and they're turning ratios and we already require landscaping So we already have a lot of rules So I would hope that the board would consider this and I just wanted to tell you that that this is where we're going with this that we're with the 25 spaces and we would like to continue to work with Jean on hopefully putting something together and we'll bring it back to you Probably your next meeting Thank you very much for the update What's the threshold you guys trying to establish To make this happen. Okay, so let's say it is an existing parking lot I'll just pick an example of the Walgreens right on Mass Ave next to the gas station by now. Okay That's a pretty big parking lot. It's a pretty big eater. Okay. Yes. Now if I was the owner there and I said Parts of the parking lot is on the crumble. I need to patch it up Does this affect that then? Or if I'm just re-striping and recovering it with some Because it's it from regular maintenance Or is it when I mill it down and repave it then it counts. What's I You had it before did that change Before you had before you had to mill it down to put new pavement No, we weren't good. We weren't going to change anything except for the size of parking lots that would apply to so so if If they want to repair the Their parking lot it wouldn't it would not affect this this zoning change would not affect them I don't think so just to repair I think a complete repaving would be considered reconstruction of the lot I just want you to be when you state this to be clear about this sure So if it's yes because part of maintenance is every so often You retar you retop the whole lot and then we strike it just because It's asphalt the stuff is wears off Well, I think these are really good questions is something we have to look at I don't really know reconstruction versus repaving Jean I this was the same question. I asked them and they have to work on this They don't have to know it to file the one They have to know it to file the main motion Right. No, they have to know it for me to get them support. Well, right, which is which is the main motion Okay, which is the main motion. Okay, right. Yes. They will have to know it by late march Yeah, no, we'll do we're just going to go ahead and file the warrant article But we want to keep the communication with you because it would be so great to have your support for the main motion Okay, thank you. Thank you Appreciate it. Thanks again Any other um members of public wis