Mugar ‘evasion,’ Mt. Gilboa
In both cases there is considerable irony in the developers’ desires to evade Arlington’s zoning laws — the Mugar land in East Arlington is zoned Planned Unit Development, which is a zone specifically designed by and for the Mugars decades ago, enacted by Town Meeting at their request, and is the only such zone in town.
The former church in the Mt. Gilboa area is proposed for multifamily use, although it’s in an R-1 (single-family) zone. The Housing Corporation of Arlington has received millions of dollars thanks to Town Meeting votes, but blithely ignores the fact that Town Meeting has twice voted anti-40B resolutions.
The housing director is also quoted as saying that if this parcel were not exploited by HCA, there would be “three pricy homes” built. Can she be unaware that the Mt. Gilboa/Crescent Hill Historic District Commission has design control over anything in that area?
Historic district protections are another thing that 40B developers can ignore, and the HCA has not even given the commission courtesy of a presentation of their proposed project, although both state and local law require that notice to the historic district commission must precede notices to other governmental units. HCA’s executive director resides in the district, so can hardly be unaware of it.
In my 46 years as a Town Meeting member – 19 of them as moderator – I have had opportunities to observe what property owners do when they want a project not allowed under current zoning – they ask for a change in the zoning map, and let Town Meeting decide. That’s the way it works for those who play by the rules.
The Advocate for some reason quotes CHAPA propaganda, which is not only poor journalism, but also odd in that they didn’t check with Arlington’s own John Belskis, who knows more about 40B than almost anyone.
The Advocate has it wrong when it says that 40B violations of zoning can’t occur without the selectmen’s concurrence. State bureaucrats don’t much care what the selectmen think. But Arlington citizens should care, and should be appalled that our leading officials are ignoring previous votes of Town Meeting. The end does not justify the means.
Never has, never will.
This letter to the editor was published Monday, June 15, 2015. Pam Hallett, executive director of the Housing Corporation of Arlington, and Laura Wiener, town director of housing, have been asked to comment or offer their own views about 40B.
Just to correct the record, HCA is on the agenda for the June 25th Historic District Commission meeting. We originally presented our plan to community members in November 2014. About 25 people attended the meeting. There were many excellent suggestions made and they have been incorporated into our revised plan. We just completed the revised site plan a couple of weeks ago and will be presenting it to the Commission.
We are proposing 9 units, all affordable housing and all within the current footprint of the building. The unit breakdown is: 1 studio, 5 one bedrooms and 2 two bedrooms and 1 three bedroom apartments. Three will be wheelchair accessible. Each unit will have a parking space.