Arlington resident Wynelle Evans, a proponent of Town Meeting articles aimed at controlling teardowns, write the following opinion piece. The above photos show the same Arlington property — before, at left, and after.
When I bought my house in Arlington 16 years ago, there were plenty of options for first-time buyers like myself. But today prices are moving beyond reach for many buyers, including longtime residents looking to downsize and stay in town. Smaller, more-affordable homes are being demolished and replaced by large new houses, often out of scale and character with their neighborhoods.
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council finds that the median sale price an Arlingtonian can afford is $310,000, while median house price is $580,000. The U.S. Census Bureau indicates that household size in Arlington is shrinking. In a nutshell, we’re building bigger houses for smaller families, at prices much higher than many of us can afford, while destroying many of the characteristics of our neighborhoods that draw people here.
Arlington recently commissioned a master plan, in part to address these changes, which drew extensive input from residents about the direction they want for our town. A significant finding was that “residents said they want to maintain Arlington’s historic character, and curb – or at least exercise greater control over – new development. Residents seem concerned that additional development will be out of scale or character with the qualities they value in their community. One purpose of a master plan is to identify and strive to preserve the community character that residents cherish” (master plan, pg. 36).
In line with this finding, a recent Boston Globe poll in the MetroWest edition asked: Should Arlington adopt further controls on the size of new homes or additions? Sixty-seven percent of respondents said yes.
The master plan has been adopted by the Arlington Redevelopment Board and endorsed by Town Meeting. It recommends that the town “study and consider amending set-backs, floor-area-ratios and other techniques that could address concern for neighbor impacts of new large homes constructed in existing established residential neighborhoods” (p. 186). On Monday, April 25, Town Meeting will vote on amendments that seek to implement the master-plan recommendations by revising several zoning bylaws, put forth by the Redevelopment Board, and also by a group of residents that includes Town Meeting members and seasoned town office holders.
We’re not alone in this effort: Belmont just adopted their second one-year moratorium on teardowns in various neighborhoods; Bedford recently adopted much stricter requirements for teardowns; Somerville overhauled its zoning bylaws; and Needham, Wellesley and other towns are considering revisions to their zoning bylaws.
Some members of the development community are saying that these revisions will prevent them from building, and that they will negatively affect existing homes. Neither fear is founded.
Not only will these revisions not stop development or require changes to existing houses, they are, in fact, very modest reforms. They seek only to reduce ambiguity in the current definitions, control some of the large-scale construction that is currently unregulated and out of step with the surrounding community, and bring Arlington in conformance with the state building code.
In further support of the Redevelopment Board’s articles and the master plan, the citizens’ articles recommend a slight increase in side yard setbacks, and revised definitions of height and stories. (The latter will be grandfathered, so there will be no change for existing homes, thus preserving their owners’ ability to make additions and renovations.) They also seek to close an inequitable loophole that allows a developer to demolish and rebuild a house without a Special Permit from the Zoning Board of Appeals, yet requires a homeowner to obtain a special permit to build a large addition.
Arlington, already one of the densest towns in Massachusetts, is growing, and one of our biggest challenges is how to provide services for our expanding population. The burden falls on homeowners in our single-tier tax system, and the natural inclination is to think that by encouraging more residential development, we can increase our revenues.
But new residential development creates greater demands on services, while also driving up overall valuations, leading to increases in property taxes. And, as the master plan states, “There is a general sentiment among Arlington residents that the town is already built out” (p. 37).
We need to acknowledge this, and not continue to shoehorn ever-larger houses into our neighborhoods. Arlington needs to reaffirm its commitment to affordable housing, along with a commitment to preserving residential neighborhoods — as recommended by the master plan.
Developers are worried about any restrictions on their ability to build. But their interests must be balanced with the rights of existing residents to enjoy some semblance of stability in their neighborhoods. Arlington’s future should be in the hands of its residents, and should embody their wishes, as most recently expressed through the master plan.
Please contact your Town Meeting members and urge them to support Articles 8 (as amended), 14, 15, and 16 on April 25. Their contact information can be found here >>
This viewpoint was published Thursday, April 21, 2016.
