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 #
