Town Meeting Night 2 - Weds 4/27

 Session 2 of Arlington's 215th Annual Town Meeting

There were a number of voting glitches and we had to vote in waves (instead of all voting in a normal open-voting time).

Reports (including the Finance Committee were received). Here's the bad news - after 2024 because the ARPA funds disappear, we will need a large override unless spending can be cut.

The long range budget:

By 9pm, things were going pretty slowly.   At least one TM Member was unable to vote on Article 6 and said the voting process was worse than last year.  On Article 7, a member wanted to speak but had technical issues.

Article 7 BYLAW AMENDMENT/ YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULT ADVISORY BOARD - we voted to create an organization of 21 precincts and 42 youth and young adult members who will provide vision and voice of the young people of Arlington to the Town, and interface back to the youth from the Town.

Article 8 BYLAW AMENDMENT/CIVILIAN POLICE ADVISORY COMMISSION
Town Meeting voted to amend the Town Bylaws to establish a Commission to provide a public forum for feedback on policing in the Town, to educate the public about their options for filing complaints and commendations regarding police conduct, to guide community members in filing complaints and commendations, to work with the Arlington Police Department to analyze and publish data on policing, and to comment on police policies and procedures; setting forth the membership, duties and responsibilities, administration, and requirements of such Commission; or take any action related thereto.  

There was a lot of question and debate about this, 2 different Amendments (one preventing former police officers from joining the civilian police advisory commission. Both passed (preventing former non-Arlington police from joining, and expanding the set of competencies of members of the commission.)

Fun fact: We are the 21st safest community out of more than 350 communities in the Commonwealth!

Immediately, there was notice of reconsideration on Article 8 - meaning someone who voted on the Article wanted to ask TM to run the vote again (meaning that something was unclear or there was some reason that the affirmative vote would not have been cast.).

And we concluded at about 11:10pm

Town Meeting April 25 - Night 1

                      How it went: Night 1 of Town Meeting:  

 Article: Consent Agenda.  Previous Moderator John Leone publicly questioned a change this year that requires at least two people to ask to remove items from the consent agenda (streamlined voting, no chance to ask questions, or vote anything other than "we support the town's recommended vote".  Moderator Christiana presented his justification "5 is too many a threshold, 1 is too little..."

Boy, things go slowly on high tech virtual Town Meeting.  We had only made our way through 3 of the consent agenda item yes/no votes by 9:45pm....

Consent Article 57: Celebrations: I removed the Celebrations budget form the consent list - I wanted to ask why we don't have fireworks at Spy Pond anymore..

.

Other than that, since the new moderator has set the threshold at 2, I sometimes contributed a 'second' to make sure that any single Town Meeting Member who wanted to discuss, debate or introduce a substitute motion would have the chance to.  

The meeting is going very slowly.  By 11pm we had only removed the items from the consent agenda that TMMs considered worthy of debate - and we then voted, without question, in the affirmative for all the remaining consent agenda items.

And so ends the first day of Town Meeting 2022, online and virtual.

                                                                                        

2022 Town Meeting Gets Underway!

 

UPDATE: ACMI will provide LIVE coverage of Town Meeting on Government Channel (Comcast 22, RCN 614, Verizon 26)or ONLINE here: http://acmi.tv/govlive/  (8pm-11pm Monday and Wednesday)

Town Meeting Starts!

I'm excited to report that Town Meeting will get underway tonight.   There are a number of interesting Articles, which I'll update you on here and some that I am very concerned about, such as Article 38, which would allow 250 Town Meeting Members to end single family housing zoning in our town.  There are 77 total Articles...

:-(  Virtual Town Meeting

It will be virtual, so it means we all will be joining 'audio only' - and won't be granted the grace of seeing the presenters, as is part of in-Town Hall.  In our second year of virtual-only Town Meeting, so that the issues are heard well and the perspectives best understood, I think Town Meeting Members deserve to be seen, if they want, so that they can work best for our town's future.

The first night will be a 'coming up to speed' event, but there are some Articles that might come up.  Also, we may get through the 'consent agenda' of Articles that are generally not contested or debated - that all agree on, that the Town needs our electronic signature of approval on.

Updates that matter to our precinct and neighborhood here

I don't believe the public can watch the live Town Meeting, as you could on ACMI when we were/will be back in Town Hall.  I'll try to update you here on what happened each night (Mo/We 8pm-11pm are the session times--until all the business of the Warrant is disposed.

What's on the warrant this year?  Here's the link to it, as a PDF:

https://www.arlingtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/60035/637830397576000000

Here's an online version with clickable detail links:

https://www.arlingtonma.gov/town-governance/town-meeting/2022-town-meeting-warrant

Advertisement for not supporting Article 38 or Amendments:

Before and After (Single house becomes Two Family)

Two family development in current Two family zoning in Arlington:

Redevelopment Board approves Article 38 - Ending Single Family Zoning

Unfortunately for us and Arlington, the ARB voted on Monday, April 4 to support Article 38. This allows it to gain significant chance of passing at Town Meeting, which starts April 25. It's going to be important for all of us to let our neighbors and Town Meeting Members know about this and ask them to commit to opposing it. 

We should oppose it if we care about affordability, open space, the Arlington we chose to buy or rent in, the delivery of good services like schools and infrastructure. The measure would do nothing for Arlington, except add higher priced housing, taxes and density.

Here's a brief primer on how Warrant Articles work: By January, they are proposed by residents or the ARB, or other town bodies.  They are reviewed by the appropriate Town Body.  If the articles receive support by the board, then it is much more likely to be approved by Town Meeting, when the elected Town Meeting Members meet, starting April 25.  A vote of 'no action' by the board would have virtually condemned this bad article to defeat in Town Meeting.    Now, we residents and concerned Town Meeting Members will have to work to convince our neighbors that Article 38 - ending single family housing zoning - should not be approved by the 250 or so Town Meeting Members.

Article 38 was introduced by two residents.  It mirrors an article that one of the current ARB voting members, Steve Revilak, proposed two years ago - and which was not supported at that time.   I earlier argued, unsuccessfully, to the ARB that Revilak should not have been allowed to vote on Article 38 because he certainly supported what he himself proposed so recently.  Although the board said Monday they night they had never before received as much comment on any other article, they dismissed concerns about the article in a session where the public were not allowed to comment, noting the public had been allowed to comment earlier.

Important Redevelopment Board Meeting Monday April 4 - Vote includes Article 38 Ending Single Family Zoning

Important Meeting April 4 Monday - ARB vote on Articles that would dramatically change Arlington, including ending single family zoning

Tomorrow Monday, April 4, at 7:30PM, the Arlington Redevelopment Board will begin VOTING on proposed amendments to our zoning bylaw, in the form of Articles for 2022 Annual Town Meeting. To see all proposed Zoning Bylaw amendments, visit this link:

https://arlington.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/AttachmentViewer.ashx?AttachmentID=15357&ItemID=13482

The Warrant Articles the ARB will vote on tomorrow include many minor and positive improvements to our Zoning Bylaw. Several, however, are concerning because of what they would do to our town and neighborhoods:

Article 38 would end single family zoning in Arlington. This would be a dramatic change that makes housing in Arlington more expensive, making it harder for diverse populations to buy and stay here and making it more profitable for developers to buy small homes and tear them down. It would reduce the supply of the most affordable homes. It would make homes at higher costs and for higher income buyers. Plus, accessory apartments are already allowed by 2020 change to Town Bylaw.

The outcome of Article 38 tomorrow will influence the Select Board's upcoming vote on the deeply flawed Housing Production Plan, which recommends ending single family zoning as well as ending two-family zoning, by allowing three family units, and fails to consider the effects of changes on our town. We hope that you will speak up and tell the ARB not to allow Article 38 in any form or 'compromise' version.

Article 39 seeks to drastically enlarge the dimensional allowance of mixed use (residential units) in business districts, by large increases in the 'floor area ratio.' The 2015 mixed-use bylaw already allows residential units to be built without many of the zoning regulations applied within residential zones - and at a potential cost of crowding our businesses from the business zones. Article 39 is an attempt at incentivizing even higher-density residential uses inside of our struggling business zones. The Redevelopment Board may suggest 'a compromise' increase in FAR of 'only' doubling the FAR from the current standards. FAR is a complex metric that must be studied better before any adjustment. Very little thought has been put into this important metric. Please consider telling the ARB not to allow Article 39 in any form or compromise version.

Article 41 proposes drastically cutting the parking required for apartment building residents. It would reduce 1,2 and 3 bedroom apartment building unit requirements to 1 car per unit. It would reduce required parking down to 1 car for every 5 units in public senior housing.

Please attend to voice your concerns. You can also comment to the ARB’s members by emailing them tomorrow up until about noon-time (request that your comment be added to the record):

Eugene Benson, EBenson@town.arlington.ma.us

Kin Lau, KLau@town.arlington.ma.us

Melisa Tintocalis, mtintocalis@town.arlington.ma.us

Steve Revilak, srevilak@town.arlington.ma.us

Rachel Zsembury, rzsembery@town.arlington.ma.us

You can view the full agenda at:

https://arlington.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/MeetingView.aspx?MeetingID=1562&MinutesMeetingID=-1&doctype=Agenda

Join the meeting via Zoom at:

https://town-arlington-ma-us.zoom.us/j/83642279358

, Meeting ID: 836 4227 9358, or by calling (646) 876-9923, enter Meeting ID 83642279358, then #

Elected to Town Meeting Precinct 15! Thank You!

 Dear Arlington residents and friends, especially in Precinct 15:

The election results for yesterday's election are back - in draft form, pending final review.  I'm happy to say that over 1,000 people participated from our 'new' precinct 15, and 12 Town Meeting Members were elected, including me.  Thank you for your vote and for your participation in citizen democracy!

You can find full results on the Town website here

Greg Christiana, whom I did not support, was elected Town Meeting Moderator.  I wish him well and hope he leads the Meeting with fairness and transparency and with efficiency and good order.   I also thank John Leone, the past Moderator for his years of service.   One major selling point to Christiana's candidacy is that he will push for a more transparent speaker list when issues are being debated on TM's floor.  I look forward to this.

I came from Precinct 11, which was broken up during 'reprecincting', which also resulted in voting places being changed.  This was a horrible mistake for many voters, who will have to travel much further.  Some voters did get a better location, too.  Hopefully the reprecincting mess can be improved upon so that voters can vote as easily and close to home as possible.

Town Meeting will hear some proposed Articles this year that would dramatically change our town, for the better and for the worse.   The reason I have worked over 10 years as a (volunteer) Town Meeting Member so far, and why I am motivated to represent our precinct is that it's very important that we work to: preserve and improve Arlington's affordability, our local schools, our open green spaces and our transparent and inclusive government.   This is what I will work to do.  

Thanks again!

Carl

PS: you can contact me at cwagnertmm15@outlook.com or via my website: wagnerforarlington.com

PPS: This is our new Precinct 15, note the borders:

You can see the whole new Town Precinct Map here.