The Arlington Select and Redevelopment boards held an infrequent joint meeting Monday, Sept. 16, to cover nine essential items, including parking, affordable housing and business development.
The boards met in the Arlington School Committee Room for nearly two and a half hours. The boards’ chairs, Stephen DeCourcey and Rachel Zsembery, led the meeting. Present in person were Select Board members Diane Mahon and John Hurd; Redevelopment Board members Kin Lau, Eugene Benson, Shaina Korman-Houston and Stephen Revilak; Town Manager Jim Feeney, Town Counsel Michael Cunningham; Select Board Administrator Ashley Maher and Claire Ricker, director of planning and community development. Select Board member Eric Helmuth was absent on Monday night, and Lenard Diggins joined the meeting via Zoom.
The two boards discussed the Arlington Heights Business District, one of three business districts in the town, and its need for renovation. They presented no specific plans.
Possible Town Meeting article
Zsembery referenced a planned warrant article that the Redevelopment Board is working on for rezoning this business district. The article, likely for next spring’s meeting, has some connection with the Arlington Heights Community Action Plan from 2019.
“It became clear that it would be very helpful to the town for us to really define what the boundaries of what both the Arlington Heights business district would be, the Capitol Square business district, as well as Arlington Center for a number of reasons,” said Zsembery, who added that some of these reasons are the MBTA community efforts and affordable housing.
The two boards talked through the need for affordable housing in Arlington Heights and how they can work on incentives to encourage business and development in general.
“I spend a lot of time in the Heights, and I think it’s certainly due for an overhaul,” said Hurd. “And we’ve been talking about that for a few years plus. For me, one of the biggest challenges is just parking like you mentioned.”
Overnight parking pilot
Transportation issues, including parking, were discussed. Board members considered how to make transportation faster down Mass. Ave. and addressed the lack of parking in these business districts.
The boards reviewed the overnight parking pilot program, which will be sticking around. The number of permits increased, and the program has been extended until next June.
Hurd said the pilot didn’t add many new cars to the town, and only 78 people have permits. Thus, there would have to be some exponential change for them to stop this program, according to Hurd.
The boards also discussed potentially expanding parking benefits districts, which allow the town to use the net income from parking meters to improve the area and make it more inviting, according to the town’s website.
Affordable housing
The affordable-housing overlay district, which will be shown in a proposal by the Affordable Housing Trust Working Group, marks areas where affordable-housing space needs to be added. This group is working on a proposal for an affordable-housing overlay, suggesting that a much more public process was necessary.
The Redevelopment Board awaits for the proposal, which is actively being worked on and will likely be presented at the spring Town Meeting.
“It will challenge some of the decisions we’ve already made as a town with regard to things like the MBTA Communities Act and also some of what we’re trying to accomplish in the business districts,” said Zsembery.
The working group does not plan to restrict its proposal to the business districts, which concerns the Redevelopment Board. The group has also asked to eliminate all parking requirements.
“Not all of us agree that having boundaries for this is commendable,” said Lau. “Just because we don’t want to create one section of town being that affordable area,” adding that he was speaking for himself and not the Redevelopment Board. “Where I grew up, they called it the projects. That’s where I lived, and that’s where the affordable housing was. And I never liked that. I think it’s a great policy but get rid of the boundaries.”
Liquor, cannabis licensing
The boards discussed the regulations for liquor licenses for restaurants and shops. Some of these include a rule that food must be sold with alcohol. One example of where this may not work is at businesses like breweries.
Some licenses require a minimum of 50 seats. Multiple of these are still available, which might be because it is not easy to open and operate a restaurant in the town with a minimum of 50 seats. Not many storefronts are big enough.
The boards considered changing food and seat minimum requirements, which may make more licenses available.
They also deliberated about cannabis licensing and the potential for an increase in special permits for cannabis sales.
The Redevelopment Board can issue three special permits through zoning laws. Before the applicant reaches the Redevelopment Board, the applicant must go through the Select Board, get approval from the Cannabis Commission and proceed through multiple other steps.
If an applicant doesn’t obtain any of these approvals, their application becomes null and void.
A third application, for a proposed Calyx Peak shop on Summer Street, has been stalled because of a disagreement over the site, impeding the potential for more applications. The law says that the town can increase the number of permits, but it is not required.
“There’s at least two or three other applicants that I think demonstrate perhaps a demand or desire to operate this type of business locally,” said Feeney.
Signs enforcement, vacant storefronts
Board members discussed enforcing signs that do not meet town requirements, as they have seen an uptick in nonconforming signs.
Select Board members stated that when an establishment applies for a permit, the town makes clear what signs are allowed and what are not. But board members are still seeing violations, including references to cigarettes.
Board members spoke about using different enforcement methods or perhaps a heftier fine.
Mahon talked about accessibility, suggesting that another part of this problem is that the wording may be unclear when non-English speakers complete the applications. She indicated that these applications and regulations can be shared in many different languages, so it is fair for all establishment owners.
In other business, the boards mentioned the potential to increase fines for vacant storefronts or make these fines accumulate over time.
“It’s a question we get as board members a lot,” said DeCourcey. “One of the questions we had is what is our process for keeping in contact with landlords and when do we get to the point where we throw up our hands and say OK, this has been a long time.”
AmpUp board member
During August’s meeting, the Select Board discussed its contribution to the AmpUp Advisory Committee, the group that will update the town’s master plan from 2015. The Redevelopment Board suggested the need for a Select Board liaison on the committee, meaning that one of the board’s members also serves on the AmpUp Advisory Committee.
Watch ACMi video:
However, the Select Board hoped to designate someone to the board only on their behalf.
The groups ultimately decided to submit two members of the Select Board to the committee so that someone would be present at each meeting. The Redevelopment Board approved and said they would seek the committee’s approval.
Sept. 10, 2024: Select Board OKs removing 12 trees, adding 16; endorses letters about Alewife concerns
This news summary by freelance writer Jessie Castellano was published Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
