Hello everybody, E here. Welcome to my favorite books of 2020. In 2020 I read 107 books which is the most I have read since 2016 when I read 110. 110. So what I'm going to do is I didn't pull out all of these books. This is the second time I'm shooting this video and I already put up all the books. There was a corruption, not a corruption issue. Let me stop lying. I deleted it when I wanted to do the isn't nasty because there wasn't enough space.  I thought I had already saved it and backed it up on my computer and I had not. But anyways, so this is the second time we're doing this. All the books are put up. I don't have the time to actually pull them all down. So you're going to get pictures up here, up here, all over the place. Just pictures. Just a plethora. That's a funny word, isn't it? Plethora. Plethora. I like that one. Plethora. All right. So we're going to start off with my favorite publishers of the year. Both. Well, one is not new at all. One is brand new and the other one is new to me. I've just started collecting their books, which is Grindhouse Press. Amazing. They're run by CV Hunt and Anderson Prunty. Terrific quality books, at least the newer stuff. I haven't gone too far back to the beginning. I'm still collecting their stuff and then I plan on binge reading all of them. They're all super short. I think they're all less than 200 pages. Could be wrong about that. But my new favorite publisher is Off Limits Press. Two of their books are on. In fact, both of the books that they, I think both of the books, yeah, both of the books they released this year are on this list for my top books of 2020. Both of these publishers are doing fantastic work. If you go to their websites, I will link them down there in the doobly-doo. That's Off Limits and Grindhouse. Check out their stuff. Absolutely fantastic quality. The covers are to die for. Real quick, before we jump into this list, I want to announce my new favorite author of the year or favorite new author for 2020. I believe that she has other books that released before, but she's new to me. So that's what we're going off of. Hailey Piper is an absolutely fantastic, fantastic author. The word choice, the just of writing, man, absolutely amazing. And while a lot of these books on this list are going to be big pub, it should be known that Hailey Piper is, you know, small press. Most recent thing that she published was The Warm and His Kings. And it should be on bookstore shelves. It should be out in the world. It should be everywhere.  But I see nothing but amazing things happening for this author. If you have not checked out Hailey Piper, I plan on reading the rest of her work this year. If you have not checked her out, please, please go check her out. Finally, on to the list. So this list is not in any order whatsoever. I do have a favorite book of the year, but we will talk about that at the end, of course. So the first book I want to talk about, and we're going to be very, very short here. I will link to all my reviews. I've done video reviews for all of these down. I'll link them all down there in the doobly-doo. The first one I want to talk about is actually two books. I guess one came out this year and the other one's not able to mention because I just read it this year. But The Luminous Dead, which came out, I think last year, the year before, maybe even longer back, I'm not quite sure. And A Yellow Jezemine by Caitlyn Starling. Both these books are absolutely fantastic. If I were to choose one, I think I would choose Yellow Jezemine for my favorite of the two. But I think that's only because it's such a perfect succinct experience. Not that The Luminous Dead went on too long, which some people have claimed that to be the case. I think The Luminous Dead was a perfect length. But as far as a quick succinct experience and a far better take on this subgenre than another popular book that came out this year. Ooh, shots fired. Far, far better experience around the same concept. Yellow Jezemine is the winner for me. Next up we have The Need by Helen Phillips. This book has stayed with me, man. I've read this early, early in the year. I will post a link to my Twitter thread, to all the books that I read. You can go through if you don't want to go over to my Goodreads, whatever. It doesn't matter. The Need shocked me. It came out of nowhere for me. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did. I thought it was just going to be another typical domestic thriller kind of thing. Because I don't read too many descriptions, especially if I can't figure out the cover. If the cover is explicitly like urban fantasy, then I'll read the description to find out whether or not I'm looking at angels and demons and vampires and werewolves and stuff like that. That's when I'll read. But if the cover is ambiguous, I go in with the same mindset because I don't want to be led by what might be on the cover. Because a lot of abstract covers have absolutely nothing to do with the story themselves. But The Need, I need to read more of Helen Phillips. It's an absolutely fantastic book. A terrific audiobook also. In fact, I suggest I would recommend the audiobook over the actual text just because of the performance. The performance is great also. But the book is phenomenal by itself. Next up is the, I think it's the owner, I think she's the owner-operator of Off Limits Press. I'm pretty, it's sole owner-operate. If I'm wrong, please, Samantha Colznick. If you watch this, please let me know down there in the doobly-doo or the comments section. If you're not familiar with the channel, doobly-doo is the comments section. But her, her novel True Crime from Grindhouse. So Samantha started Off Limits Press, but she published first with Grindhouse and I mentioned both of these publishers before.  And it's, it, it fired on all cylinders for me because I love each and every one of those things. As far as my rule of three, it has to have the characters, the pacing and the dread, it has all of that. And then toward the middle of the book, that opening chapter is just phenomenal. The entire book's good. But toward the middle of it, it went in a different direction than I expected. I don't know if you want to call it, it is, no, that's a spoiler. I'm gonna leave that alone. But it kind of, it changes. I thought it was going to be this one type of story all the way through throughout. And it wasn't. And I absolutely loved it. Next up is a book that I actually started in 2019 and finished in 2020. And that's Ohio by Stephen and Markley. I don't know what to say about this book.  This book that I've used to be sitting around doing absolutely nothing that has to do with this book and it will pop into my head. Because the characters are so well-defined, the happenstance, the things that happen in the book, they feel so real. This almost reads like non-fiction in novel form, kind of like almost like a, what, not true crime, I already talked about that, cold blood, that kind of thing. But it's not really murder mystery. In fact, much of the plot is hidden throughout the book.  And it's a chunk of a book over 500 pages. About halfway through it becomes clear that there's a little bit more here than just a mosaic novel with character pieces and whatnot. It is one cohesive story. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, I can't find any other fiction by Stephen and Markley. And I know he wrote the, you know, by this book or whatever it's called, how I got this book published, so on and so forth. I'm not interested in it. As an author myself, I know, I've been doing this long enough, I know how to sell books.  But I don't know, it just doesn't interest me. If you want to try to talk me into it, feel free to do so down there in the doobly-doo. But Ohio was exceptional. Next up we have Uzumaki by Junji Ito. I'm so, so angry at myself that I started with Uzumaki and I waited so long to start it.  I really wish I would have started with Tomi, because I didn't care too much for that one. I gave about three stars. It's fine. None wrong with it. Inconsistent throughout though. I think that's why I don't like it. There's no consistency to it. And it's just kind of repetitive after a certain point. It's so, so long, like 700 pages of repetition. Same thing over and over and over again. And then you have, what is it, Gyu? Gyu, I like that one a lot more than I like Tomi, four stars. But Uzumaki is a masterpiece. I could find absolutely nothing wrong with it. It has horror, humor, characters, everything I look for. It had in there and the apps and the artwork is consistent and utterly phenomenal. Here's another book that I started in 2020 and I didn't, no, sorry, 2019 and didn't end up finishing until 2020. And that is Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha, uh, yeah, Samantha Hunt. Sorry, I was talking about CV Hunt earlier and I got to get these hunts right. All right, so this book haunted me. I'd read it a little bit at a time. The writing is absolutely perfect. There's this, there's the dread throughout the whole thing. But you're also not 100% sure what all is. I don't want to say real, but if if certain things are actually happening, and I really, I really dig that by the end of it, you notice more of what, you know, what is going on in the narrative. But there are a lot of people that miss it. I've read some reviews from people who absolutely hated it. In fact, the person, my friend Susan, who sent me this book, hated it, didn't understand the point of it. And I think that's what she said. But it, I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I don't know. I don't maybe, maybe this hit more home for me because I've written something like this before. So I was able to pick up on the breadcrumbs that the author was laying down. I don't know, man, who knows why some people catch things and other people don't. I don't think it has anything to do with intelligence. I don't even really think it has anything to do with paying attention, all that much either. I think it has more to do with life experience. You know, you, you have more experience with something.  And maybe if you haven't experienced these things, or you haven't done these things, maybe those things alter, you know, the perception of the book. I don't know. Discuss down there in the doobly-doo, whatever. Moving on. Devil's Creek by Todd Kiesling. If you have been following me on Twitter, if you have been a fan of this channel, you know, I've been talking about this book for ages.  But I stand and by that it is still the best strictly horror novel that I read from 2010 to 2020. That it's, it is that book for me because I had not read anything like it in so, so long. That was any good whatsoever. It is a small town horror experience on par with Salem's Lot. It is a chunk of a book. I've watched one review where it was like, oh my God, there's so many words. Dude, we're readers. If you don't like words, why are you here? Right? I mean, anyways, it's just, it's just funny. Also in that review, the dude went on to say, what did he say? That anyone who liked this was a shill for the author? I'll admit. I am a friend of Todd Kiesling's, but the last reconciliation, I only gave three stars. So, I mean, I loved Devil's Creek. And I know plenty of people that I trust that love Devil's Creek also. Going back to what I was saying before, it's, it's, you know, independent experience, individual experience. Just because you didn't like something doesn't mean it's bad for everybody. Just because you love something doesn't mean it's going to be great for everybody. And I love that about the community. But when you start taking shots at people going, I don't know, that's where I take a step back. Have I done in the past? Sure. But I've had a little more to back up than, oh, this person liked it. They must be lying. Next up, we have Brother Robert by Anya Anderson and Preston Lodderbach. Lodderbach. That's, that's one of those names that I made a disgusted noise, but I was always, I always tend to get it wrong. And the only reason I got Anya's name right is because it's literally the pronunciation is in the book. But Brother Robert is about Robert Johnson. It is written by his half sister, I believe, Anya Anderson. She, she told the story to Lodderbach and Lodderbach wrote it down. You can feel the voice, you can feel her voice here. And I think that's the most important. It's nonfiction, easily my favorite nonfiction of the year. I'm a huge Robert Johnson fan, huge fan of the blues, especially the Delta Blues. And you can feel her voice, you can feel, you know, the sorrow, the nostalgia, the wistfulness, you can feel all these things through her.  He's tragically struck down in the prime of his career. But there's a lot of stuff in there that's controversial.  There's a part, in fact, if you want to talk down, I don't want to get heated down there, but if you want to talk about this down there in the doobly doo, there's a part where Anya Anderson says the worst thing to happen to black folks ever is religion, as far as oppression and all that stuff. And that struck me. I don't know, I'm not black, I don't have that experience, but I would love to hear from anyone who has an opinion on that line of the book or the book in general. I'd love to hear from you down there in the doobly doo. Go on. Thank you. The boatman's daughter. Andy, is it Andy or is it Andrew? Let's see here. Andy Davidson. I've been thinking about Andrew Piper and Andrew Cole and all these different Andes and Andrews, so I wasn't quite sure I had to double check. The boatman's daughter, you will hear this a lot this video, but the writing is phenomenal. I mean, phenomenal. I'd never read anything by Davidson. The prose, it's stripped down, but it's deep. It's that, what's it called, when it's deceptively simple, I guess is the best way to put it. The characters are hella quirky, not in a funny way, but I mean, you have a dwarf. You have, there was that, not shuttlefish. I can't remember what the boy's name is, Little Fish, something like that. All these characters, they all have their quirks in their own personalities, and it was amazing going through it. And this book is absolutely brutal. I love the brutality if the author gives me a reason to care about the characters, which Davidson did. Next up, we have Song, Birds and Stray Dogs by Megan Lucas. Not only is Megan Lucas a fantastic human being, she sent me a bunch of stuff. Like, I think I bought the book, I got, no, she just sent me a book for the book review, sorry, and put in like a placard and a bookmark. And we've been in contact since I read the book, absolutely phenomenal person, but, but that means nothing as far as the writing is concerned. The writing is, man, there's a there's a Jack Ketchum quality to it. There's a, and I should say that about true crime also, because it's, yeah, there's some Ketchum in there. There's some Ketchum, but oddly enough, I have a feeling like is Megan Lucas has been possessed by Kent Haruff, if you or how are you pronounced his name, H-A-R-U-F, the author of Plain Song, what's some other ones? I don't know, I might have, I might have already packed up his stuff. We're moving new sets. We're getting a new set, a new set. Anyways, but I'm moving a lot of stuff, so things are hollowing out around here. Things are changing. I'm sure you'll notice in this video that things have changed, but with this one, man, this, there's a very down to earth storytelling here that is magical in so many things, even like a David Joy kind of way. There is a magical Southern feel to this book. So if you like Southern literature, I would definitely say read this one. But the characters, man, Chuck, just the characters alone, and I thought for sure I knew where this book was going. I thought for sure we were headed in one direction, and it's not that it's really a twist ending, it's just that so many of these stories end the same way, and this one just came out of nowhere and slapped me in the face. So Megan Lucas, fantastic job. Now we're going to get a little intellectual. No, I'm just kidding. The only reason why is it was it better than food or better than I can't remember the name of the channel. I think it's better than food. He read this book and he's like, there's a certain aesthetic to him. You know, there's the intellectual quality of it. He's also really funny. It's got a great personality, but there's definitely an intellectualism there. But it's, I'm going to have to read this one. No one 100,000 by Luigi Perendello. This book changed the way I looked at a lot of things. And there's a lot of things that it validated for me, how we are completely different people to everyone, even ourselves. Well, we are completely different to every single person that we meet, along with that person that we are inside that we think we are is not the person we are to any of those other people. That's why it's one, no one, and 100,000 because you know, you both exist and you don't exist in other people's minds. You even exist and don't exist in your own mind. And there's just so many quotes. I can sit here and go through the book. In fact, in the other video, I brought out some quotes. I wasn't going to dig out all these books again. So I apologize. I'll do better next time, I promise. But this book, I think it should be required reading in school. There's a lot of stuff in there that I think would help young adults with maybe not caring so much about how other people see them because that's not reality. But neither is the way you see yourself, really. We change and we morph and we become different people. We're a different person tomorrow than we were yesterday, that kind of thing. And I love that I love that message that, you know, we're not the same person from moment to moment as we are from person to person. And just because one person hates you for absolutely no reason, there's another person who might love you for absolutely no reason. And I love that concept. It brings me a lot of joy. Next up, Orem Shadow by Priya Sharma. Priya was so nice after I reviewed her book. She got in touch with me.  She didn't even care if I read it or reviewed it. She just wanted me to have it because as a thank you for reading her other book. It's a very kind thing that she did. And if you watch this, Priya, thank you so much. I appreciate you. The Orem Shadow did a lot for me. I'm not huge in the fantasy genre. Either it is too epic or not epic enough. The middle ground in there is very, very hard to find a realistic magic. I love magical realism. So this book really, really hit me. And I really thought that it was going to be like a more, okay, it was a literary experience. Don't get me wrong. Beautiful writing. But I usually when you read a book like this, the ending doesn't land. Usually it's an ambiguous ending. Like was it or was it not? But in this one, Priya Sharma goes all in. She, she, what it not completes commits. She commits to the ending of this book. And anytime an author goes that big, because it's a very small story up until that point, anytime an author goes that big for an ending, man, I just got to throw respect their way. This one is damn near everybody in the community's Reddit. I'm not telling you anything new here. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. I've seen everything from one star reviews because Indians is in the title when Jones himself is a Native American, but that person is some kind of special. But anyways, at least look into the author, I don't know, but to five star reviews saying this, the best horror novel they've ever read. This book does everything right. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this book. I would, I would go, I would fight to not fight, but I would debate tooth and nail with someone who claims that there is something unneeded or unnecessary or wrong in this book. Because there is so much, it is, it's so good, man. It's one of those books where when someone tells me that they didn't enjoy it, I kind of looked at them like, hmm, and I don't tend to do that. You know, so it's a rare experience for me to, it's like Stephen King's Elevation. If you liked that one, I'm like, hmm, you, you're, you're sus. You know, and if people don't like The Only Good Indians, you're, you're sus too.    No, nothing like that. It's like, why? I don't, I don't get it.  If you don't like that book, how? Why? I don't understand. But those are the people that I want to talk to. Those are the people that I want to have a conversation with, or those people who have their own subjective opinion and realize that it's subjective and would like to talk about it, you know, respectfully. Why don't you, why don't you like this book? Because, not because everybody loves this book, but because I can't find any fault in it. So I'd love to hear why you found, what you found. But this, this, Jones hasn't written a bad book. He's written a lot. He's very prolific. He's not written a bad book. The more I think about it, he's like, you know, kind of like a sneaky, a ninja favorite of mine, because I rarely think about him, but I love everything he does. I don't know, man. Do you have anybody like that? If you do, let me know down there in the doobly-doo. But it's one of those things where nobody should be this good. I'm kidding, of course, but it's like, you look at this and you're like, well, me, okay, let me talk from my own personal experience. I've written some bad books, published some bad books, objectively bad books in my time, because we, you know, we all got to learn, unfortunately, I learned publicly. And I'm talking about like, filled with errors or formatting issues or anything like that. I'm talking about the content of the story should never have seen the light of day. But I look at something like that and you're like, how do you do it? How does Jones keep the quality so high all the time? And I'd love to sit down and pick his brain one day about the house of what he does. And I'm pretty sure all it's going to be is, I don't know, dude, I just sit down and write. Then I'll just be like, Imperfect Women by Araminta Hall. This book, man, there's a, there's two themes that there's a theme that I read multiple times this year. Imperfect Women and Lisa. What was that name? Lisa Jackson's The Invisible Girl. I think that's it.  But the Araminta Hall's book, it covered basically the same premise. I think I liked it more because I lean more toward Hall's writing because it's a deeper experience. Don't get me wrong. The other book was great. Fantastic. I loved it. But there was something even deeper than that here. And by the end of it, it was far less climactic, but it was a better all around feeling for me. Which I feel great about because I absolutely loved our kind of cruelty. It was a favorite the year that came out also. So if you have not read Araminta Hall and you like authors like Jillian Flynn or Caroline Kepnes or Amina Akhtar, if you like any of those authors, definitely check out Araminta Hall because she, I think, or Elizabeth McNeil also. I can't remember the name of her book right now, The Butterfly House or something like that. I can't remember. But absolutely fantastic, fantastic story. But the character work in Hall's Imperfect Women is off the charts. Every single person has a different personality and you feel like you know these people. Next up, our first book from one of the, well not the first one from the the first book I'm going to mention from Off Limits Press and that is Crossroads by Laurel Hightower. I need to say this up front. I now consider Laurel a friend of mine. We talk on Twitter all the time. She will be reading and blurbing one of my books also. I need to let you know that. But before any of that, before I got to know Laurel, whatsoever. And she's also going to be writing the forward for another book with a collab project that I did with Darren Kopoff. I hope I said your name right, man. Do you even watch these videos? I don't know if you do or not. Some friend, you are. Kidding, anyways. But she'll be writing a forward for that. So it should be known that we are friends. But this, I read both Whispers in the Dark and Crossroads before we were as talkative as we are now. Not like we hang out all the time online. But we do talk and we joke around online. We're on Twitter together. But anyway, the book deals with grief exceptionally well. The one thing that stood out for me is the subtlety of the character development for the son. Every single thing that this mother thinks about what she does, she compares it to something having to do with her son. And that hit me really, really hard because we got no character development for this 25 year old man who passed away in the book. And we got no character development whatsoever for him. But I felt like I knew him because throughout the whole book, the main character is going, my son used to do this. My son used to say this. This reminded me of my son. So many times this is done that you catch on to the theme. And I even spoken to Laurel. She said, I'm one of the only people who caught on to it, which is, I don't, I don't know how I don't know why not everybody is getting this. But it's there and it happens so often. But, but it's also kind of sneaky. So I guess I do understand where, you know, if people are missing it, it is sneaky because instead of saying, okay, this reminds me of that, this reminds me of everything has to do with her son. I thought that was absolutely brilliant. Next up is a double feature, The Grace of Kings and the Wall of Storms by Ken Liu, the first ever series fantasy series, epic fantasy series that I have absolutely loved. I gave both, both books five stars. They are fantastic reads. One of them is like 600 pages. The other one's 800 pages. I blew through them. I read them with T'lani, Tea Time Reads here on YouTube. I read them with T'lani and we, we, we just completely devoured these books. They're easily, easily hands down my favorite epic fantasy. I don't, I don't want to say a whole lot too much about it because I could literally sit here and make an entire video just based on these two books together. I could probably sit here and talk about it for an hour if, you know, because there's so much content to talk about it. But I am so excited for the Veiled Throne or whatever the third book's gonna be called. Right now on Goodreads it says the Veiled Throne. But yeah, I'm super hyped to finish up this trilogy. If it's a trilogy, if it's not, I'm hyped to just continue reading this man's writing because it is fabulous. Next up, we have a book that I, I suspected to like. I'm a, I'm a music lover. I'm a musician. I absolutely love movies like Almost Famous or Rockstar, that kind of thing. But which one's, which one is the, there was a Marky Mark one and there was a Tom Cruise one. It was Rockstar and then the other one was called Something Else. Y'all tell me which movie, who was in which movie? I can't remember who it was, but I like the Marky Mark one. I didn't like the Tom Cruise one. Anyways, I love stories like Almost Famous and stories about bands and whatnot. And this is one of those stories. It is written in an interview format, which I thought I was going to absolutely hate because I hate that.  I can't remember. People always, people always get me with that one. Hey, it's actually pronounced this way. I apologize. I mispronounce things all the time. I just put letters in that don't don't even exist in the word. But this one, every single character rang true. And a lot of this, you guys know me. I look for three things, character pacing and dread. And it with the I look more along the lines like dialogue for for something like this because there's no dread. But there was there was some dread because you knew something was going to go wrong. Todd Kiesling's final the final reconciliation. It had the same themes and everything. But I felt less of a love for those characters. And I felt for I felt like I understood those characters a lot less than Daisy Jones and the six. Had I read Kiesling's book before this one? It's what I'm talking about. It your own personal experience completely all I feel it completely alters your perception. You live, you learn. And you know, that's a saying for a reason. I think I would have loved Kiesling's book a lot more had I not read Daisy Jones and the and the six, you know, just a couple months beforehand. But Daisy Jones and the six is one of those books where I went in thinking I was going to hate it because I saw the way I opened up after I bought it. Actually, I got it through book the month club. I opened it up and I saw the interview format and I was like, Oh, crap. Okay, we're going to struggle. So I put it off and put it off and put it off. I ended up loving it. Who knew? Next up is a recent favorite. Black Top Wasteland by SA Cosby. My God Cosby.  This is I'm not a huge crime reader. I have read probably 30 crime novels in my day and most of those by Lawrence Block. This is easily the best of them. I can't I'm completely flow mixed. Every scene that the book is propulsive. It has rocket jets on its back. It just flies. The last time I read a book, this insanely readable was John was John Connolly's the killing kind that that boat just it just disappeared. Like I was I was reading it and then it was over. It's the same way with this one. I was reading it and it was over. There's so much good stuff in here. And this is one of those books where I will find I I've been fighting with this for a while because a lot of like romance and crime fiction, that kind of thing that all the same thing because you're focusing on like one thing you're focusing on the romance or you're focusing on the crime and that that draws me out of it. I want you know flesh and blood characters. I want deep deep storytelling and I usually don't get it with those so I don't read those genres. I'm not saying there's no deep nothing deep to be had. It's just not for me. That's all I'm saying. This one I put off for a little while too because I was like I don't know. Then I listen I started listening to the audio book and then I started bouncing back and forth between the hardcover and the audio book. The audio book is amazing. From what Cosby says the interview with him at the end of the audio book is only on the audio book. So I suggest listening to the audio book just for that interview experience because after you get done reading it listening to that interview his passion is it's palpable man. It's tangible. You can feel it. You can feel the passion and the history everything that he drew from to write this book and I cannot wait for the next book that he has coming razor blade tears. If you don't know about it I suggest you run out and pre-order it or whatever you can do about it right now. Okay so now we're going to talk about The Worm and His Kings by Haley Piper. I've already mentioned Haley at the beginning of this video but I want to talk a little bit. I just want to throw this in there. This is easily top five this year. If I had to number any of these it'd be top five. Piper is one of those authors. She makes me jealous if I'm completely honest. Absolutely jealousy just dripping off of me. The writing here is oh man it's like Clive Barker but get rid of all the stuff you don't need. You know like I know that's funny but it's short form Clive Barker is Haley Piper. That's what you're dealing with here and when you start reading The Worm and His Kings you will understand real quick what I mean by that.  I know from from personal experience you know handwriting you know writing your stuff out beforehand and then having to type it up later you get a you get a better product at the end. I always have everybody who says wow this book so much so much better than this other book of years usually it's one of the books that I hand wrote because you have to take your time you got to slow down you got to think and if you're like me you hate wasting paper so every single word counts.  Next up is a book I still have out because I'm actually rereading it which is Ring Shout by P. Jelly Clark right yeah got it right okay scratch your throat scratch your throat okay the book's amazing it's a lot of fun that I usually don't like urban fantasy but this is like urban historical fantasy alternate history kind of thing where the Ku Klux Klan members are actual demons so I think the only people that I would be like hey don't read this book is it you know if you're a racist slime ball that'd be the only person because you know your buddies are the bad guys but the KKK actual demons the Ku Klux is what the demons are called the ending here man it's kind of like Orm Shadow in this regard you're dealing with an absolutely fantastic fantastic ending it's just just crazy insane imagery but it's not surreal you know everything that's going on there's a battle there's oh there's a villain you just want to sit there and absolutely hate because he's vile but he's also very nice he's almost like handsome jack if you play Borderlands too he's also like handsome jack you know he's absolutely vile but he also has that charm about him um and people are gonna like wasting where'd you find that charm it's just the way it's like the southern hospitality kind of thing oh hey darling how you doing kind of thing but that it's just dripping with menace you know I love it I love that kind of villain I love to see them get their comeuppance and it's just this book is fantastic if you haven't read it you need to go out there but I think everybody in the community has either read it or is going to read it so I'm not pushing any y'all in either direction now we have a brand new author to me my friend Amina Akhtar who I mentioned earlier um that she wrote the book Fashion Victim uh introduced me to this author uh and said you absolutely have to read this book so I I can't remember the back and forth but the publisher ended up sending me a review copy and I adored it man I loved it there's a lot of stuff in the book the writing is top-notch Lions has a knack for character development in a very short time frame you have a lot of characters here I think it's six or seven and every single one of those characters were developed within the first two chapters that is insane it takes you know other authors entire books to get how much character development that lions got in those first two I'd even say a lot of it is just in the first chapter because by chapter two things are starting to go bad already from what I remember um but then there there's I think it's at the end of chapter two there's a there's a scene that completely changed the way I looked at the book and I was like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa what it's like wait a second it was almost like psycho man it was like wait no that's supposed to be the main character hold up back up what are we talking about here anyways so yeah uh the knight will find us absolutely amazing and he's a new to me I'll be reading everything Matthew Lyons writes from here on and finally uh this book if you've read it you know anybody who's read it knows exactly what I'm going to say so I would just link to my review of it down there in the doobly-doo I'm going to link to all of them down there but Betty by Tiffany McDaniels is hands down the best novel I have read this year it is now in my top five best books of all time it is I don't know it's tied right now with the Goldfinch by Donald Tartt for my favorite novel of all time at number two my number one is still it by Stephen King I just I can't quit you you know um Betty I don't know that I will I've reread it 18 times I finally stopped after 18 times I read the Goldfinch a total of six times before I stopped I think I got everything I needed to get out of it by that time I don't know though if I am going to be rereading Betty this book absolutely destroyed me there is some there is some animal abuse there is some there's there's some incest stuff that rape that kind of thing it is a very very dark book but there is some light it's in in fact it it is I know it how arbitrary it is to say you know 2020 2020 was hell 2020 is either it can't be any worse you know that there's no line there there's nothing that rebooted or changed come 2021 it's still it's still it's it's it's an invisible line it doesn't matter what's over because time is a construct but I would say that bet that Betty by Tiffany McDaniels McDaniel I can't remember which one if there's an s or not but I would say that that book encapsulates 2020 perfectly you have all these wonderful moments being utterly crushed by huge massive issues and bad times so yeah I say it's it's a perfect novel to come out in 2020 for sure and I know it took this was the first book that Tiffany McDaniels wrote the summer that melted everything was actually the second but it was the first one she published she couldn't find a publisher for this one for so long and I have no idea why I don't I don't understand that this book has it it's devastated every single person who's read it I think the only negative reviews that I've read had the only reason they mentioned how negative it is is because of the the annual abuse and it is it is hard to read it's very hard to read so if you get to the point with the kittens I would say probably skip ahead to the next chapter because it is not something that is just you know a one-off thing where you know this happened and then moving on it is an entire chapter of yeah the only thing that affected me this much was uh Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door I think deeply affected me to the point where I I didn't want to read the book anymore and I got to thinking about it like is this why don't I want to pick it up again and it's because I was so insanely triggered and I don't I'm not saying that flippantly now there's a difference between offense and and being triggered and I was I was I was triggered you know I I've had some experience with you know cats dying around me not in that form but if you've read Life After Dane you know my experience because that's what happened to one of my cats when actually several cats when I was younger um but anyways I don't I don't want to get too dark here at the end but I think Betty is a it's one of those things that you know just kind of mirrors the year that it came out and it is a product of its of its times but it's not because it was written so so long before now that uh it almost like the office press you know prescient omniscient I don't know predictive profit prophecy I don't know what what what's the word let me know down there in the doobly that's everything I have for my best of 2020 if you have uh I would say if you have videos tag me over on twitter because I'm not checking spam anymore spam has just turned into like uh 18 co dot xxx or whatever that that's all my spam is only checking anymore because it's usually hundreds of those um and also youtube has made it harder to find the spam folder which I like because then I don't like ooh what's all the what's this 104 spam comments and of course there's real people mixed up in there too but um I mean I can't do anything about it I can't wade through a hundred you know hundreds of messages trying to find you know the the actual comments if you want to tag me in your in your video for your best of 2020 do so on twitter it's uh at Edward Lorne it's LORN um if you if you want to just type out your list I know a lot of you just like to do that just type out your list down there in the doobly do let's have a discussion about some of our favorite books I do respond a lot faster over on twitter or if you are commenting after the first week that the video is up I probably won't see you because I stopped checking the comments for the videos after a week I just can't I have so many videos now I cannot I can't respond to everybody I'm sorry but we'll talk about that more later so until next time actually let me stop there I hope this year as arbitrary as it sounds I hope I'm using the right word because I'm another um I hope you I hope this year is better for you um I know nothing is going to change just because the number the construct is changed uh one year you know we've cycled the earth you know we've circled yeah we've circled the earth whatever we've circled the the the sun uh a full a full time you know it means absolutely nothing but I do hope that 2021 is as good for you as it has been for me and I wish you nothing absolutely nothing but the best whether you like me dislike me whether you dislike me you're not here right now but I just wish you the best I wish you all the success and happiness in the world but until next time I have any you've been you this has been my best books of 2020 I'll talk to you guys later bye bye


All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Town of Arlington Redevelopment Board meeting on October 10th, 2023. My name is Rachel Zembery. I'm the chair of the board. I'll call this meeting to order. If the other members of the board could please introduce themselves. Steve Revolac. Eugene Benson. Ken Well. And we also have joining us the director of the Department of Planning and Community Development, Claire Ricker. Thank you. So for those in the back, I'm going to apologize. We don't have projecting mics this evening, so we will project our voices. Let me know if you can't hear me. Let's move to our first item on our agenda this evening, which is the Redevelopment Board report to fall 2023 special town meeting. And a special thanks to Claire and Marissa and the Department for turning this around so quickly after our meeting last Monday evening. So, Claire, I will turn it over to you to overview the board report. And then my thought was that we would go article by article. We'll first start with any overall comments on the board and then we'll go article by article. Turn it over to you. Okay. Thanks very much. And thanks to the board for reviewing the draft report over the weekend. And some of the responses that, you know, we've gotten already. So essentially the report covers by article as listed in the warrant. Each of the articles that we discussed at our deliberation and discussion meeting, I took quite a few notes at that meeting as did Marissa. I hope I captured at least some of the discussion that was had that evening. I tried to put it in small narratives discussion section immediately after the language of the warrant article. Some obviously I had more language on than others, but, you know, certainly open to any edits, additions or comments from the board this evening. Great. Thank you so much. Let's see. So, let us go ahead and start with any general comments around the opening section and then we'll go article by article. So, let's start with the introduction and overview and the zoning articles overview. And I'll run through the board members to see if there are any additions or corrections there starting with Ken. I am none. Gene? On page two, near the bottom, it mentions that the ads are in the Arlington advocate, but the advocate technically isn't the name anymore. Okay. It's the advocate and star. So, I would suggest that we change that. It's the fourth line from the bottom on page two. Yep. And star. It's not Arlington anymore. It's just called advocate and star. I went online today to confirm that that was correct. We lost our newspaper. The other thing I wonder, it's a general comment and I think Rachel may have mentioned this the last time. Do we want to put in here whether the vote at town meeting is majority or two-thirds or do we want to leave that for when we get to town meeting? Thank you, Gene. I can just weigh in on that. We have not in the past included that. I think that's a great question. Unfortunately for the turnaround that we have, I know that Claire and I had put that question to Doug Hyme right as he was, you know, in his last week and Michael Cunningham is now currently looking at that and should be getting back to us any day with whether or not. There are some articles which we are confirming with town council, which require a two-thirds, a supermajority versus a simple majority vote, which affect density for multifamily uses. So once we have that, we can add it in. I just don't know if it's going to be in time for Claire and the department to submit this to town meeting. So I think that's a great suggestion for the future. If the other board members are in agreement, if we're not able to get it in this round. Anything else? No. If I do get an answer, I can include it for sure, if that's what the board desires. Yeah, we know MBTA communities is a simple majority. Correct. But it's the others that. Right, so there are open space, rear yard setbacks, step backs, corner lot requirements. Street trees are not. Those are the only four that I believe are subject to the simple majority. Could be, yeah. Could be subject. I believe that they are per the definition, but again, I'm having town council double check that. And there are specific guidelines within the Mass General Law, which relate to those two thresholds. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Jean. Thank you. Steve. Okay. I have one and possibly two. Okay. The first in the, this would go into the zoning article overview where we give sort of a statutory description of how this fits into, we give it, we give a statutory description. And I was wondering if just a more, we might augment that with sort of like a broad overview. Some of the articles are oriented towards enhancing business districts and the others are MBTA communities and trees. And just some of the motivations. I provided a memo with some suggested language, which I believe was posted with the agenda. I also have copies. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And just, you know, so my thought was to just give a little bit of the background information and explain why they're coming now because we had planned to bring them in the spring and it was, and we're asked to defer them. And yeah, that's basically that. I'm in support of that. Are there any concerns with adding Steve's proposed general language to the opening into the zoning articles overview? That's the section you wanted to add. Yeah. So the section would be zone. Yeah. Under zoning articles overview. Perfect. Correct. The other sort of more general, and this actually goes a little beyond further into the report. It's into the table of contents. I was going to suggest that we first have the articles appear in the report by order and include the article number along with the article title. I am fine with that. Any concerns with that change? Okay. I actually have a question while we're talking about the table of contents about the ordering of these. They are, they're not in numerical order. So I was just wondering if there was a particular reasoning for that. Sure. There is no reasoning for that other than it was difficult to move the table of contents around and provide appropriate draft. Okay. So the articles will be listed in the order they are on the warrant. Okay. In the final draft. Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. And I also was thinking to Steve's point, there was a great general note that was listed in I believe article 10 about why these zoning, why the group of zoning articles that we've included are included this year that I wanted to propose to the board that in addition to Steve's language we might want to include. And I'll just read it out. And I will send you the notes, my notes after this. Thank you. We can include this if the board feels so. So the section was reads while the amendment to FAR by 2022 town meeting has made redevelopment of underutilized properties more attractive. Other requirements such as setbacks, stepbacks, usable open space, parking buffers and minimum lot areas and frontages frustrate the ability to reach the maximum allowable heights. So in my mind that could either be included in each one of those referenced zoning articles or again to Steve's point in the overview as to why the suite of zoning articles were included as a package this year for town meeting. So I wanted to propose that for discussion. Steve? I would include it with each article where it's applicable. Okay. Gene? I think that makes sense also. Okay. Are you fine with that? Same here, yes. Okay. So we will make sure that that is included for stepbacks, usable open space and height, which is the other one that that applies to the list. So open space, rear yard setbacks, stepbacks, any of the dimensional lot requirements basically will add that language in. Anything else on the front end, including the table of contents? All right. Let's move on to the individual articles. So we'll start with article five, open space and business districts and we'll start with Kin for any additions or corrections. I have none. Okay. Steve? So two, one, although the discussion, these are just the discussion section, although the discussion mentions, focuses on usable open space, I think the, what it's saying is also applicable to landscaped and I had suggested some edits accordingly. And the other one was I received an email from the chair of the zoning board of appeals suggesting a language change in the main motion, not really a language change, but a pair of quotations. That on here? No. It's not in here. Do you want to run through what those are? Yes. So there is, let me find it, the section in the report. Yes. So this would be in section 532.c. And the last sentence reads for calculating usable open space and landscaped open space in the business districts. See the note at the end of the be district open space and lot coverage table in section 552 a. So Mr. Klein suggestion was to put the table name in quotes. So it would be quote unquote be district open space and lot coverage and quote table. Is that consistent with I have not gone back to double check to see if that's consistent how to how other references are included. Gina shaking his head nails. It is not. Okay. Okay. Then I would say we should keep it as it is fair enough. But I appreciate the in terms of any questions or comments on Steve's proposed changes per this per his document in terms of identifying open space as both usable and landscaped. Because I think he's right. The references do apply to both. And his other wording that modification which I think is appropriate as well. Concerns. Okay. Great. Jean any modifications for article 5. I do and I apologize. I didn't send these around before. I didn't get them done too late in the afternoon. Where. Thank you. On page 6 I would suggest two sentences be added. The first is allowing green balconies and green roofs as part of open space for occupants can enhance the use of their property and provide a pleasant green building facade. And the second I think we should add is while decreasing the amount of usable open space for mixed use buildings which is not required to be green or permeable and can prevent good mixed use buildings are being developed. This increases the required amount of landscaped open space for mixed use buildings which increases the amount of green space for trees and other plantings. So I'd like to include those two sentences in the discussion. Thank you Jean. I actually had a similar recommendation that I was intending to make around ensuring that we highlight the increase to landscaped open space and not just the removable abuse. I'm supportive of both of those changes. Steve. Supportive. Okay. Great. One other on page 6. Yes. I'm not sure if Steve got to this. It says the definition of usable open space limits where and how the public and private benefits but usable open space is only private benefit. There's no public allowance on that space. So I would delete the words public and so it should just read where and how the private benefits of open space can be achieved. The private. Correct. So we take out public and public and. Okay. That makes sense. Where did you. Yeah. Where is this. I'm sorry. So that is in on Steve's memo on Steve's. Yes. Okay. Sorry. No, no. It's fine. It's also on on his memo. He has another modification to that same sentence. So on that one, Claire, if you just wanted to strike out on the next page, the second line. Public and private. Where it says public and keep private, but just public and would need to be removed. Yeah. Great. Okay. Gene, anything else? No. On this one. Okay. Ken. Nope. Okay. So what I have. I'm going to apologize. I keep moving between. Windows. Is. This is actually on each one of the. Articles. So where it says the redevelopment board voted for zero zero that the zoning by law be in here boy by as amended as follows, we need to add either favorable action or no action to what the vote. Was in this section. So if you could do that in each one of the sections, this would read then the redevelopment board voted for zero zero voted favorable action for zero zero that the zoning by law be and that will just be a general note across all of them. Great. Let's move on to the next article. So the next article is rear yard setbacks in business districts. Ken, did you have any modifications for this one? No. Gene. No. Steve. No, no changes. Okay. Great. Let's move to article seven step back requirements in the business districts. Starting with. Ken, any modifications? No. Gene. I have one modification. Okay. And a parenthetical at the end of the vote that says the parenthetical would say the ARB member who voted no was in favor of the amendments opposed in this article. The no vote was because the step back requirement would remain on the fourth floor rather than be raised to the fifth floor. I know you said something like that above. It's reference, but it's not clear. Not clear. So I wanted to put this parenthetical in. Okay. To make it clear. Ken, are you okay with that modification? Sure. It's clear. I thought that was enough. Thank you. Okay. Steve. Fine by me. Okay. Great. So I had one modification and again I will send you my Word document. So you have these here. There was a section in what we originally proposed these for spring town meeting. There was a section that was included that had to do with the review of zoning regulations in Arlington's neighboring communities. Yes. And around how most of those do not have any step back requirements. And for those that do where those began or what the step back requirement was tied to. So my thought was that before we add the board debated whether the step back requirement should begin above, you know, that we add that sentence which reads a review of zoning regulations in Arlington's neighborhood. And again, I'll send this to you. Arlington's neighboring communities reveals that most do not have step back requirements of those that do require step backs, the step back requirement either does not begin until a height of 65 feet or the step back is required as part of the community's design standards to allow planning boards of flexibility to negotiate step backs as part of the overall design review. Some communities requiring step backs require them only on the principle of the facade. So I thought it was important to add that back in again for context as part of our discussion. And then the other thing that I thought we should add is where we talk about the board debated whether the step back requirement should begin above the third or fourth level that we add in that the board came to the conclusion that maintaining the requirement for at a minimum a step back on the principle facade only at the fourth story was contextually appropriate for the town of Arlington. The board also clarified that the step back should be measured from the principle property line. I wanted to bring some clarification to the discussion around the fourth versus fifth story and also the fact that we are clarifying that this is from the property line which was unclear we felt in the original bylaw. Okay, so I have those spelled out and again I'll send you the word modifications. Okay, great. And I will note too that we will make genes proposed changes. Let's move to article four reduced height buffer area which was a no action vote. So I wanted to see if there were any modifications starting with kin. Nope, still no action. Okay. Gene. No change. Steve. Nothing here. And this looks good to me. So let's move to article nine corner lot requirements starting with kin. Nope. Gene. No change. And Steve. I would suggest adding a paragraph in the discussion noting that there is a section in the zoning bylaw that essentially gives the board the ability to adjust setbacks during environmental design review and what we're proposing is really a codification of how the board has been applying this and with the hope that it would lead to more predictability and improving the clarity of the bylaw. Thank you Steve. I think that this is a good change or a good addition to town meeting in terms of the thought behind the discussion. My other thought, and we had a question from a town meeting member saying, I just don't understand this article. And one thought I had, because I can see this one's a little bit harder to understand because there's a lot of references to underlying business district versus adjacent. I thought that Gene had a great example that during our discussion he provided around when a property is next to a, the abutting property is residential and the setback is 15, required to be 15 feet. You made the observation that in many cases those properties are non-conforming themselves so it imposes a stricter requirement than what actually exists. So again it's just one more example of why we felt that this clarification and predictability was important. If we think that that's over complicating it, we don't have to add it, but I'm again trying to be responsive to some of the questions we've already had in terms of whether or not we think it's helpful to provide an example or two for clarity. I think the other way to think about it is the adjoining lots on different blocks may have different required setbacks. So you're constraining what happens in the business district in a different way which makes no sense from block to block in the business district just based on what's happening down the side street. So I think that might be a way to say it, but not exactly the way I see it, but with some better clarity. The requirements for corner lots make all the sense in the world when the corner property and the two abutting it are all in the same district. Works very well in that case, but when they are in different, the corner lot is in a different district than anything that touches than one of the adjoining ones, then it can get awkward. I think that's a great way of saying it. So Steve or Jean, do either one of you, I could take a stab at coming up with some wording, specific wording for this, unless either one of you have something more specific. I know Jean, you've provided a couple of good examples. I'm leaving town tomorrow morning. You're leaving town tomorrow morning. So why don't I take a stab and I can email that to Claire and Steve, and I'll CC you and you can help us wordsmith. Happy to do that, yes. Okay, great. So no diagram? That would be in the slides that we'll prepare for town meeting. Thank you. Does that work for everyone? But I agree, I think a diagram could illustrate this very clearly. Would you show it right off? Absolutely, absolutely. I'll make a note of that. So the next, any other changes to article nine? The discussion points. All right, let's move to hide in story minimums. Article eight, we'll start with Ken. Nope. Jean. The second paragraph in the discussion that says within the business districts doesn't seem to relate to this article in which we're just adding, you know, they must be at least two stories high. So I would completely delete the second paragraph in the discussion. And I would add to the last paragraph, I would remove the phrase at the end with a requirement to include a second story. That's at least 30% of the first floor dimension because that's not what we're proposing. Great. And I'd replace that with what I wrote here with a requirement that the second floor be usable and allowing the redevelopment board to waver, modify the requirement if a second floor would be infeasible for the project open Perenn, e.g. for a gas station close Perenn. So those are my suggestions for this one. Great. Thank you, Jean. Steve. I just had a small wordsmithing change. So this would be in the first paragraph, striking the words intensifying development opportunities and replacing them with encouraging the development of higher value buildings. And I agree with both of those proposed changes. I also was looking at rewordsmithing that second paragraph as well. So I think Jean, your suggestion of just eliminating it entirely makes a great deal of sense. Great. So I will note here, take out my comment and note to accept Steve and Jean's proposed changes. Great. Let's move to Article 3 of the administrative correction. Any changes to this section, Ken? No. Jean? No. Steve? No. I just wanted to note, sorry, before we move on to that, is when we do the slides for town meeting, one thing that's been helpful in the past is when we identify when the underlying zoning was changed, which created the misnumbering. So not for this report, but when we get to the slides for town meeting, that the underlying zoning change sometimes is helpful so that people can see when that change was made that created. I'm pretty sure it was lost. I believe so too. So I was just going to go back and double check that. Great. So let's move on to the next item, which is Article 11, Residential Uses in the Business District. Any changes to the report sections? Ken? No. Jean? I have one suggestion to the discussion and that's add two sentences at the end. One in two family dwellings can continue to be used and are not required to be converted to any other use. They will be considered non-conforming uses of which there are many in Arlington. Okay. That makes sense. Steve? Nothing here. Is anyone in agreement with Jean's proposed changes? Great. And I think that is, I was trying to get at the same thing. It was going to suggest that we are allowing development of new single family and two family homes, but I was trying to get at the same thing that you were, that we're not saying that those are no longer, the existing uses are no longer permitted. So we'll just note then that we will move forward with Jean's proposed changes. So the next article is Article 10, Street Trees. Ken, any modifications? No. Jean? I have two modifications. Okay. In the second paragraph of discussion, I would suggest deleting the phrase along Arlington's main corridors because this applies all over town and not the main corridors. Yep. And I would suggest adding a sentence at the end that says, this is a necessary addition so that development in the MBTA community's overlay district will also require street trees. Great. Can I ask one question? Please. If you can do that. It's only, it's applies to all over town only if it's going under environmental review. So if you pull a permit to add a dormer. No. It has to be new development. New development. Okay. We haven't changed that part of it. We changed. Yeah. We made sure that the wording was such. What does it say that? It says new construction additions over 50% of existing footprint or redevelopment. We didn't change that at all. Okay. Then I'm fine. I think that that is something that we'll make sure to highlight in the slides though. That's a really good point. Okay. Yep. I agree. I think that that's an important call out. Yep. And if you think Ken that we should make that clear in the discussion, we can do that in this report as well. Yeah. I mean, we can highlight that. I think that that's a good call out. We can add that saying that we talked about that so that this only applies. I think that's a good comment. Or it doesn't apply to minor changes in dormers. Okay. Only to new construction renovations over 50%. And redevelopment. That's right from the zoning violence. Great. Steve, any modifications? None here. Great. Okay. The next is article 12 MBTA communities overlay district modifications to the discussion point starting with Ken. I like what Gene said earlier saying some points were some of the board member, well eight board member was in favor of this, but not in favor of all the changes and went along to go with this. I don't know how you said it Gene earlier, but it was quite elegant. So we can take what I did in the other one and transpose it over here. Great. So that was the ARB member who voted no was in favor, although you didn't vote no on this one. We can say voted yes. Yes. Yeah. One ARB member who voted yes was in favor of the, the, the, by the redevelopment board to the working groups original. To add that part of the discussion. Yep. Okay. Because we did discuss that. We did. Okay. Add to the discussion in favor of maintaining the three highlighted original. The study groups working groups. Yeah. The three highlighted working group recommendations. Yep. Thank you. Ken. Any other modifications? Nope. Gene. I have two modifications. Okay. Page 24, the third paragraph of the discussion. I would part way down. I would delete the phrase allowing for development of multifamily housing in the R zero and R one zones because the proposal does not do that. So about halfway down in the third paragraph, it says allowing for the development of multifamily housing in the R zero and R one zones, but that's not what's going on here. So I would just delete that from the third paragraph. Okay. Okay. And then I would add a new paragraph after the fourth paragraph and I'll read it to you. State law and guidelines require our town to rezone at least 32 acres where there would be a capacity for at least 2,046 housing units, open per end, three units or more per building, close per end. That would not require a special permit to be constructed open per end as of right close per end rather than limit the zone to one area of 32 acres, which would allow the entire area to have five and six story high buildings. This article takes the context of the town into account, setting the height of buildings like those already in the areas and placing the zones on and near our transit and business corridors. Placing the zones on and near Mass Ave. Broadway will help support sustainable walkable neighborhoods where residents can walk to local shops, services and public transportation, thereby reducing the use of automobiles. It will also provide more potential customers open per end and perhaps employees and owners close per end for those businesses, keeping them strong and help maintain our vibrant business corridors. That is consistent with town policies and the community survey responses about how to implement the MBTA community's law. In addition, the new development will be subject to site plan review, which authorizes the redevelopment board to make sure the development is consistent with an environmental design review standards and guidelines. So I'd like to add that to sort of round out what this is about. I think this is a great addition. May I make one proposed modification? So rather than make sure the development is consistent with environmental design review standards and guidelines, those were modified slightly by what we have identified in the, actually, you know, it was the site plan, the special permit requirements which were updated. So this is fine. That makes sense. Sorry. Had to work that out in my head as I was reading it out loud. Steve, any questions or concerns about Jean's proposed change? I think it's a fine change. Yes, I think it's good. Great. Steve, any additions or modifications to the section? Yeah, I'd like to propose two paragraphs after the first. Okay. So the first paragraph ends with a citation of the working groups report. Yes. I'm suggesting to add a paragraph that basically highlights the differences between the working group report and what the board's recommendation to town meeting is, specifically the reduction in height limits in the neighborhood multifamily district, the minimum parking requirements, and the map changes along Mass Abyss of Orvis Road. I think that's fine. There are several others, but I think perhaps these are the most substantive. So perhaps the, whether it's largest or... Yeah, so that's why the sentence begins. These differences include. Right. So I... That's right, because you're referencing the substantive differences that you identified before. And the second paragraph would just be to, because there's been much talk in hubbub about capacity. I'd like to have a paragraph that provides the number of acres, the capacity of the proposed district, the number of existing dwellings, the difference between the existing conditions and model capacity, and how many parcels we think will be redeveloped over the next 10 years along with a net change in units. And I'm willing to work out the numbers for the last two. In favor of that, I think that more data, Claire, what are your thoughts on that one? Sure. I'm happy to make that change. I think more data is better. Yeah. Sure. So what I was suggesting is the addition of a paragraph that would read something like as follows. The proposal before town meeting has a capacity of blank units on blank acres. The multifamily district has approximately blank existing dwellings, such that the difference between existing conditions and model capacity is blank units. If adopted, the board anticipates that blank parcels would be redeveloped over the next 10 years, leading to a net increase of blank new units. I'm suggesting these just because they're all things that I've heard on numerous occasions, you know, statistics that people are interested in. My only concern is that it's a challenge to put a specific number to the anticipated number of parcels. Oh, it would be a range. A range. Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that. Oh, absolutely. The range. It is a range. Okay. Both in terms of parcels and number of net new. Some of that objective range or something like. Anticipates. That's fine. How about projects, the potential for blank range parcels? Yes. Okay. There's no way that's known. I mean anticipates is perhaps a stronger. Right. Yeah. Projects projects is fine. Okay. I think the question will be, you know, if, is it a hundred? Is it a thousand? Is it 10,000? I personally, you know, from having crunch numbers, I think it's closer. If I had to pick one of those, I would pick a hundred, but it's probably more than a hundred, but not a whole lot more than, but it's way under a thousand. Okay. Can I make one proposed change to the first paragraph that you suggested? So where you talk about the substantive differences between the working groups recommendation and the main motion before town meeting. What I'd like to do is reference why the development board made that change. And so the text I was wanting us to discuss adding was, so the differences, if I go back to again, your wording here is the substantive differences between the working groups recommendation and the main motion before town meeting add that were adopted as a result of continued dialogue between the ARB and the members of public who attended the many public outreach sessions, the Department of Planning and Community Development, the town's planning consultant, and the members of the working group. Sounds good. Okay. No. Wait, wait, wait. It was more than that. Then let's add to it. It was also for the height limits. I've forgotten the exact wording that's in the guidance, but the height limits are more contextual to the side streets than the proposed height limits. The minimum parking requirement is consistent with reports that have been done throughout the region, and the map changes because we think it's important to rezone. So the things that we talked about at the last meeting. Okay. So let's add that in now. So specifically, let's do them in order that they're in there. So Steve defines what those are after that sentence that I added in. And then I think we add in a section that says the ARB adopted these changes due to the, let's start with the height in the multifamily district, the neighborhood multifamily. So the ARB adopted these changes. So here's a language from the guidance that I think we can use. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Due to the scale density and aesthetic of the neighborhood district. Thank you. In the neighborhood district. In the neighborhoods. Yeah. In the existing neighborhoods of the proposed neighborhood. Is it existing or adjacent neighborhoods? Well, existing and adjacent neighborhoods. Yeah. It's really the neighborhoods in which the overlays go. Okay. The next is the minimum parking to maintain consistency. Across the town. And because studies have shown that one space per unit is appropriate. And because they can be reduced with a transportation demand management plan. To maintain. Okay. So of our friends. A. B. To maintain consistency across town. In accordance. With MAPC. Parking study guidelines. Or parking study. Conclusion. Conclusions. Because they can reduce with transportation.  I'm really going to apologize for Claire. Okay. And see. This is the change in MAP to. To. Main. To maximize the potential in. To allow. We shouldn't have said to allow a process to rezone. That part of NASA. Without. The Arlington. The East Arlington business district right. As a. Complete. As a complete district rather than. Peace. In a holistic manner. Thank you. As to Steve. I also thought we needed to put in capacity. So I think that's the right thing to do. Do we know what they are at this point. Didn't you do that survey. Well we changed the map. Okay. So you have to redo that survey. So well there's yeah it's. You told us the capacity in the acres. What is. The capacity. Three thousand two hundred and sixteen units. Three thousand two hundred and sixteen. On one hundred and fifteen point six acres. Thank you. And I should I can fill in the other blanks tonight. Right. You send me the spreadsheet. Yeah. I think. Okay. Any other modifications to. The discussion. Section. Under article twelve. Okay. Anything else on the report in general before I ask for a motion. Okay. The only thing that I will just note for the record is that. This. We will take a vote to. On. We will take a vote to. Deliver this. Report to. Special Town Meeting. The only thing again that I'll note is that this will be amended. Once Town Meeting starts. Once the hearing is complete for. Article thirteen. On October sixteen. So we'll do an addendum. We will need to do an addendum. Okay. With that article. Thank you. Thank you. So we'll do an addendum. We will need to do an addendum. With that article. Okay. So is there a. Motion to. Approve and deliver the. Arlington redevelopment board. Report to twenty twenty three special town meeting. As amended this evening. So moved. Second. We'll take a vote starting with kin. Yes. Jean. Yes. Steve. Yes. Thank you again to. Rissa and everyone in the department for. Pulling this together so quickly. Much appreciated. Okay. Let's move to the next agenda item which is. New business and I'll hand it over to you Claire. Great. So. In conversation with the chair of the working group. We knew that there would have to be at some point. A vote to disband them. So. This. Body the ARB voted to establish the working group on November. Seventh of last year. And the recommendation is that. We vote to. You vote to disband. The working group as of the. Beginning of the special. Fall twenty twenty three special town meeting. Working group members wanted to still attend precinct. And other meetings as. Members of the working group. But that. Once town meetings started. They were okay with the solution of the group. Thank you Claire. So. I'll open it up for discussion and one question I would have is. Should we just. Band it at the start of special town meeting or at the. End of special town meeting in case any other questions. Potentially. Arise. Because I know that these will not be the first articles. That are taken up. You know it's probably a good idea to say. At the. At the conclusion of the special time. Okay. Okay great. Any discussion starting with Ken. No. Jean. No. Steve. Nothing. Great. Is there a motion to. Disband the MBTA community's working group. At the conclusion of fall twenty twenty three special town. Meeting. So motion. Sarah second. Second. Take a vote starting with Ken. Yes. Jean. Yes. Steve. Yes. And I may ask as well. Thank you. Thank you Claire. And at this time we'll move to. Open forum. So at this time any member. The public who's joining us this evening who wishes to speak. Please raise your hand. You'll have up to three minutes to. Address the board and we have a. Location for you right over here and we'll pull a microphone over. So. Please. Yes. That way we can pick up the microphone for the recording. Or your voice on the microphone. For the recording. And if you could please introduce yourself with your first last name. To address for the record that would be great. Jordan Weinstein. I live at twenty three Lennon road. Here in. Arlington. I was going to say Lexington. Arlington. This is. It's not the ultimate. It's sort of the penultimate conclusion of a long. Involvement. From the outside anyway as a town meeting member and. A resident and property owner in Arlington to be. Following this whole debate. And. I'm. Pleased that. The better angels and. The. Perceptions of the minds of the ARB were. Were. Set in motion and. Were able to see what I felt was an excessive. Plan that was handed to you and that. And in large plan that was unnecessarily large. For a couple of reasons and I'm glad that you. All voted to. Reduce the heights in the neighborhoods. And also to add parking all of which has helped to reduce what was initially. Thought to be a capacity of twenty thousand fifteen thousand and then. Ultimately probably close to the seventy five hundred capacity down to about three thousand. Which is about a hundred and fifty percent of the required capacity that the MBTA. Act which I call the MBTA gentrification act because that's really what I think it is. What disappoints me about this whole process to be honest is. The the wrapping of it the packaging of it as. Almost a social justice presentation to. Correct the injustices of. Zoning that has historically been looked on at least now in retrospect as. Exclusionary and not inclusive. And I I agree with those characterizations of. What suburban America has become and how it's used zoning to exclude minorities and. And poor people. My problem with this though is that. The way I perceive it and the language that the state has handed to us the the. Mandate has nothing to do with affordability. If our application. With the state for our own affordable overlay as it is now fifteen percent. Of six units or more is rejected and I just want to point out that Lincoln's has been rejected and they started well before we did. We're going to be. Probably most likely we're going to have a an overlay that's going to have a much reduced.  Thank you. Okay thanks so much I think that it's just disingenuous the way this whole thing has been rolled out. You've been heard thank you. And anyone else with. This evening please. Yes. Kicking it up a notch to. Put my timer on. I think you guys have done a great job. I'm sorry Susan stamps thirty nine Grafton Street. Thank you. I think you've done a great job and the only thing that I and Green Streets Arlington is. Not thrilled about is you're not you won't be surprised to hear is your your removal of this of the planning department sites. Recommendation for the environmental bonus. Versus you put in the lead gold. I really want to be supportive of everything you've done. And I I'm not an architect I don't know about lead or sites. But I do know about Google I have been able to do some research and I'm not seeing how. Lead gold is giving us any of the environmental. Outside. Benefits that we were looking for. Sustainable landscaping climate resilience rain gardens trees bushes all kinds of good stuff in the setbacks. And I know that you're this isn't a dialogue but we are very concerned about that. We'd like to talk maybe doing a friendly amendment on the floor of town meeting. Or maybe I can just be better educated on what you're suggesting. And then I'll feel fine about it. So I just wanted to say that I very much respect all of you. And I'm open to the idea that this that that the suggestion of lead gold. Did include outdoor kinds of environmental enhancements that we were looking for. And if if if that's the case I would be an eye in Green Streets Arlington would be most appreciative. Of some communication or opportunity to find out what the thinking is on that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak please. My name is Kristen Anderson. I live at 12 up the road west and I just wanted to say that I've spent a lot of time watching how this elegant sausage has been made. And I'm really happy that the ARB has chosen to protect existing businesses and create a pathway for planning in the future for more commercial groups. And that was the thing I was most concerned about from the start. It's the thing I remain concerned about. So thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak please. Grant Cook Walston have on the topic of social justice. I was really gratified walking in East Arlington today to see a support every take community sign on the front yard of the Calvary Church. And I know what has been talking about targeting churches to see a church take that lead in social justice was really refreshing. I'll use another story about wealth. You know there's a house on the market right now just across the border of Winchester. It was a one so kind of what you call your affordable house in Arlington which means it's sold for a million dollars. The house most of us actually in this room probably live in about that price. It got torn down and turned into a 2.7 million dollar house least listed. That is wealth. Now six or seven people could get together in multifamily spend seven feet eight hundred a million on condos and truly afford homes and they could outbid that 2.7 million dollar wealthy person. But we've rigged the game. So the only thing that exists is that 2.7 million dollar house. That is the protection of wealth and the system we've built with our reliance on single family. And I'm glad to see the start of rolling that back. And I hope as we touch the East and touch the heights where I live we do much more of it. So good start. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak this evening. Okay. With that we will close public comments and Susan I know that you had some specific questions. And if you'd like to reach out or stay afterwards we'd be happy to go through a little bit more about the lead sustainable sites sections and also some of the alternative compliance paths which we built in in addition to lead into the proposed community's piece. So with that back to my agenda. Are there any other items from the board. Then I will see if there is a motion to adjourn. So motion. Is there a second. Second. Take a vote starting with Ken. Yes. Jean. Yes. Steve. Yes. And I'm a yes as well. Thank you all for joining us tonight.


We have a developing story tonight in downtown Bemidji where reports of shots being fired has brought a heavy police presence to the immediate area. According to police scanner chatter Monday evening around 7 p.m. authorities responded to reports of shots fired near the 300 block of 8th Street or Northwest. Conversations overheard on scanner claim that bullet casings and bullet holes were observed in the area. Shortly after a few blocks away from the scene near their intersection of Fifth Street and Minnesota Avenue, a suspect is believed to have been taken into custody. We will continue to bring you updates as they have become available. Chatter overheard on the scanner reported that no officers were injured.


Hi there, this is Brett with Summit Automotive and we are checking out the brand new 2018 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Sahara JL. From this HD video, hopefully you'll be able to get a really good idea of the overall design and what's changed on the JL from the JK for 2018 and the new body style. Right off the bat, you'll notice that it looks a little bit bigger than the old ones, than the old JKs. They've redesigned the whole body on this thing, they've made it lighter, they've made it more aerodynamic, they've upgraded it with an 8 speed automatic transmission which gives it a little bit quicker acceleration and smoother shifts. They've got new wheels for 2018 as well, those are 18 inch painted and polished aluminum. This is a Sahara package, also an unlimited, it's been some questions if Jeep was going to stick with the unlimited name or not and it definitely looks like they've stuck with it for the four door. They've got the Sahara block lettering right there, a little bit of indentation on that front fender. These are the 18 inch painted and polished aluminum rims, you still get the little Jeep logo on the rim there, Bridgestone Duler 25570R18 tires, new for the JL is the LED lights in the front fender. This one has the LED lighting group which gives you the LED fog lamps, the LED ring around the headlamps and of course the LED headlamps themselves. Seven slotted grille, got just a little bit of indentation for that headlamp. They've made the vehicle more aerodynamic, they've slanted back the roof or the windshield I should say, so it's not so vertical. They've also added a little bit of a cool thing they do, the T50 for your Torx wrench so it tells you what size Torx that you need for those doors to take those doors off so you can still remove those doors. Color matched fenders are also part of the Sahara package. The removable hard top of course, part of the Wrangler group, does have the backup sensors which are new for 2018 on the JL, LED lighting group also gives you the LED tail lamps and they all come standard with a backup camera now. Black clear coat is the color on this vehicle. As we go in the back here, you can see it has the bag for your front hard top pieces. This one has the upgraded Alpine sound system, you can see it still has the three bolts on the inside of the hard top to remove them. New for the JL, you have your windshield washer fluid and your electrical connections right there. You can now put those in a spot, they have a spot for them, they clamp right into there and that way they're not flopping around. The old JKs, you never really knew what to do with them and tried to stuff them down the side or you know, didn't really know where to put them, now there's an exact place for them. The roll bars look really good. Lots of storage underneath here, so now you still get the subwoofer and the storage. In 2015 they switched to the subwoofer in the floor which you lost all that storage space underneath here. You have your bolt holders for your door hinges and your roof and now they have the windshield bolts that you can put in there as well because they've made the windshield a lot easier to remove. The rear gate is now lighter and it does have the badge which tells you the overall length and the wheel base and how much water forwarding you can do as well as where it's built in. The little badge on the door that's on all the new Wranglers and the top still closes like they always did. The door is a lot easier to close than the ones on the JKs, a lot smoother, a lot lighter. Just a little bit easier. The new step bars look really good on the Wranglers. They're wider. The mirrors now have the blind spot indicators as well as the heated mirrors. This is a Sahara package but it has the cloth interior so you can see what that cloth looks like. You can still get the Sahara stitched into the backrest. Has the driver's seat height adjuster right there. This is your lumbar support and this is for your backrest. Has the all-weather topographical formats which are pretty cool, auto headlamps and this is what the new door looks like as well. As we hop inside here you can see the new 7-inch TFT display. Still all the same functionality as the other 7-inch TFTs. It's just a little bit redesigned for the Wrangler. The steering wheel is redesigned as well. You have your Bluetooth audio controls on this side as well as your information center controls that's for that right there. Leather wrapped cruise controls on that side. And they still do have the radio controls on the back of the steering wheel. This one has the 8.4 4C radio with navigation. It also has your Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility. The one thing I love on the new Wranglers is that it has the backup camera which is super high definition, very crisp, very clear and very nice. Push button start. Dual climb control.  Then you just touch the screen and it comes right back on. 4x4 shifter on the floor. The 8-speed automatic transmission gives it just a little bit more pickup. Has the AUGS USB and USB-C ports right there. One of your windows in the middle. The new key fob. Has a remote start on it. Has the hideaway key to get into the doors. And the key fob is very thick, it's got a good weight to it so it's cheap on the back. And just a very heavy-duty key fob on there. All-weather floorman on that side and once again just the design on the seats there. Looks like the hardtop comes off pretty much in the same way that they always did. They've changed the design on the roof just a little bit. Has more of like an eggshell.