2025 Town Meeting Opens!!!
Town Meeting opened Monday, April 28
Town Meeting opened with Diane Mahon giving the "State of the Town" speech - Article 2.
You can follow Town Meeting on ACMI video: https://www.youtube.com/c/AcmiTv
You can see the Arlington TM documents here: https://www.arlingtonma.gov/town-governance/town-meeting
Arlington Residents For Responsible Redevelopment (www.arfrr.org) publishes a Guide to the Zoning Articles for Town Meeting Members and the Public at: https://tmguide.arfrr.org I'm part of ARFRR, a grass-roots collection of residents and local business owners who follow and are concerned about zoning and redevelopment changes.
I'm really concerned that Article 40: The End of Single Family Zoning is wrong for Arlington and is being proposed by a small group of people, while most people know nothing about it. This proposal would turn single family zoning into two-family areas - and with an additional 1 ADU per each primary residences, imagine up to 4 total units on lots of your neighborhood around you!
Please take a look at ARFRR's Petition to Stop The End of Single Family Zoning: https://petition.arfrr.org Please share that link with others, too.
Art 2: Mahon said that there will be new trash/recycling service, starting July 1. They will deliver (free, I think) barrels to each residence. I believe this means your old barrels will not be used or needed anymore, except probably as "Yard Waste"
Art 8: Canine Control: We learned a lot about Arlington's bad dog and kenneled dog controls.
Art. 11. Debate continued on whether a process will be created to remove homes from the historic register/inventory. The proponent argued that their home is on by mistake, or due to erroneous inclusion.
APRIL 30 - Wednesday Night 2
Art. 11 - continued
It was sad to see multiple speakers talk about how it should be easier for people to deny their home is deemed worthy of preserving. It passed, probably due to the Arl Historical Commission changing their position to support it.
Art. 12: Allowing non citizens and those under 18 to participate on Town committees and working groups. On this motion, there was generally supportive discussion. Ben Rudick reminded us that about 5 years ago, TM approved non-citizens who are permanent residents to vote in local elections, but the State did not approve this change, so it has not gone through.
Art. 14 Real Estate Transfer Tax: The town already had a TM vote where we approved our desire to tax sales / purchases of property - to raise tax to put into the Arl Housing Trust Fund - which was pushing the Housing Overlay that would have turned all our business and residential districts into large apartment buildings with no parking. It passed on a majority vote. The details will be determined by future year Town Meeting Articles.
Art. 15 Senior Citizen Property Tax Credit There was an issue with a previously passed by TM tax credit, so this Article amends our bylaws (a second time) to approve our effort to provide such a tax credit - the details of which, the assessors' office will supply. It passed.
Art. 16 Select Board request to make a public ballot question to increase the number of package (alcohol sales) stores. There are currently 6 licenses and this would allow for 2 additional licenses. JP Lewicke made a motion to change the number from 2 to 4 new licenses. The amendment failed, but the main article passed.
Art. 17 Banning 2nd Generation Rodenticides - banning 2nd generation Rodenticide (like rat killers) that often end up killing our valued wildlife and sending the poison (anti-coagulant) through the food chain. I asked if we can still control rodents without these "SGARs". The Town Manager responded that we can manage with 1st generation rodentcides.
May 5, Monday, Night 3
We learned in the test vote that TM sometimes has 4/5th required or even 9/10ths votes - for issues where the body is asked to pay debts from past years. The most common votes are majority (50%+1 person) and supermajority (2/3rds+1 person) votes. The supermajority votes were always zoning issues in the past, but a law change, under Governor Baker, lowered the threshold for pro-density changes (going up to 3 or more units per property) to majority while it kept changes that would reduce density at the same 2/3rds+1 threshold that all zoning articles previously were held to.
Art. 7: BYLAW AMENDMENT / ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ELECTRIFICATION REVOLVING FUND To see if the Town will vote to amend Title 1, Article 22 of the Town Bylaws by adding a new section to establish and authorize a revolving fund to utilize monies received through state, federal and utility energy efficiency and electrification rebates, incentives and tax credits to fund future energy efficiency, renewable energy and electrification projects.
We went back to Art. 7, which the Moderator had ruled out of order last week. Today, the Town Manager explained that some of the Article had been approved in 2017 by Town Meeting. It was thus changed to omit the part (Section 5) that was already handled by TM. A member of the Finance Committee rose to postpone the Art. until next Monday so that it's possible to submit Amendments to TM and for the Finance Committee to review the Article.
Art. 18 - To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Select Board to file Home Rule Legislation to elect Town offices by Ranked Choice Voting. We adopted it 189 to 29 - in all office races.
Art 20. We voted to index a small property tax exemption for veterans to inflation (CPI). The total cost to the town is small for these tax exemptions - and now it will help the veterans as inflation increases. Here's the town-wide amount:
Art. 25: ADUs:
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May 7th, Monday, Night 4
Arlington's 250th history exhibit at the Old Schwamb Mill (oldest Mill in America) ends soon. Here's some of it online: https://oldschwambmill.org/exhibitions/
Donate to Support Arlington Heroes - to plant a flag by the Water Tower - Rotary International runs this, which also collects money for students. https://arlingtonmarotary.com/events/2025-flags-for-heroes
A library trustees report has been published (and accepted by TM) for the redevelopment of Fox Library. I think folks should be aware there is talk of giving the building or air rights above it over to developers. I couldn't find this report on the Arlington website.
Arlington Trash and Recyling Pickup is changing. Some questions were answered during the budgets portion of Wednesday, May 7th, but here is the Town Manager's interview with ACMI about the changes. I generally support this, though it's a big change that's being sprung quickly on us. Happily, there is no cost to residence for the new trash and recycling barrels - though Arlington taxpayers will pay $1.5 million for the free barrels we get. See this ACMI video for more info: https://vimeo.com/1082634586?share=copy&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
Tonight May 7th is Budgets Night. We paused debate on the still unconcluded Article 26, with a speakers queue etc - though I tried to get us to resolve that item before beginning the budgets.
Budgets: (The following budgets were 'held' so that TMMs could speak/ask questions about them)
1. Select Board - John Worden reminded us that the Town Hall Cupola/Tower/Spire/clock tower was removed last year. He asks if it is going to be replaced and when? He was not given an answer, because no budget in FY 2026 - he pressed to know if it will be replicated. Town Manager Feeney replied that the tower was scanned and detailed imagery as well as pieces of it were saved, so it will hopefully be replicated soon.
2. Information Technology: Went up 14.29%! Much of this was the hiring of a (Cyber) Security Manager role (recall that the Town lost millions due to a scam over payments to AHS rebuild vendors recently).
3. Treasurer/Collector: After a question, it was noted that the addition of electronics payments for residents actually necessitated more work for the treasurer's office - they added an additional clerk to handle the new additional workload - oddly!
4. Postage: Mr Loretti pointed out that paper copies of the Town Meeting materials were not mailed this year. He asked if there can be a commitment to mailing paper documents to any TMM who wants it.
5. Parking: Mr. Baudoin asked what the duration of the current Arl. Center parking meter contracts is? The treasurer stated that the meters are on a year-to-year contract. Baudoin suggested we change vendor, since they are hard to use. He asked about the collected fines - he sees the amount has fallen. It was noted that the 15 minute free parking meter option is still there - but not a single button click.
6. Public Works: Ms Anderson asked if a forum on waste transition (new trash barrels) could be set up. The manager said it could be done. Mr Moore pointed out the past trash hauler service had been poor. He wanted to know if the Town will get some money back from the old service and what considerations were for switching. The Manager said price and reliability were the main issues. Mr. Tremblay asked if poorly timed traffic lights could be improved, since traffic is severely hindered at many times. DPW Dir. Rademacher invited Tremblay to email him. Ms Farrell asked about the lead water warning from last year - what's the status? Rademacher responded that the Town has 10 years beginning of 2027 to repair all lead lines. Ms Pennarun asked about the cost difference between the new company and the old company (new company $6.5M vs today $5.5M - if we'd stayed with the same company, the Town Manager said, it would have been about $7M) Mr Jamieson asked who is paying for the free to residents Toter barrels. The answer is that the Capital Fund is paying with some help from grants. Jamieson also asked about the tonnage of trash, even though our tipping fee has gone up 10%. He noted the yard waste fee went up by $500,000. It was said that this waste now goes to Woburn - no longer to Lexington - and changed a long time ago. Mr Worden asked about the cost to the town of the new free barrels - it will be about $1.5M We are encouraged to use our current barrels for yard waste. Mr Worden asked about bulky items - The Town Manager stated that all bulky items will now have a fee for removal.
7. Police Services: There are now 49 officers, 9 sergeants, 6 lieutenants, 3 captains and Chief Flaherty.
A question was asked about disproportionate traffic stops of people of color. The chief disagreed that such a thing is happening. (Mr. Fischer alleged 3x higher stops for black people). A question by Ms Dray uncovered that officers still are not wearing body cameras, as one of two unions is still in arbitration with the Town.
8. Education: Ms Melofchik asked about the Foreign Students portion of the Education budget, a revenue source, as listed, how the costs are collected and what they're used for. Superintendent Homan stated that we charge at a rate that is less than the State's per-pupil rate - this year about $17K. Funds received are spent on the services used in the schools.
We passed the budgets in a single vote, after the interesting Q/A session.
I spoke to ask if we would be discussing the huge deficits beginning in FY 2026 ($13M) and doubling in FY 2027. The answer was that we would not discuss them, as they aren't part of the current FY Articles discussion, as I understood the reply I received.
See Appendix D of the 2025 Fin Comm Report here:
https://www.arlingtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/73684/638802179946530000
Specifically these circled numbers:
There will have to be enormous overrides - divided by 20,000 property payers... and it looks like $1,000 per family each year - our largest ever override. Let's hope I'm wrong. I believe we have to support our largest Town cost - the education of our children in public schools, which costs between $15,000 to $21,000 per student, depending on how the costs are calculated.
Capital Budget: Some questions were asked about road projects and intersection/crossing redesigns. 11pm came and we adjourned...
To Be Continued next week when we begin many dramatic Zoning Articles...
May 12th, Monday, Night 5
May 14th, Monday, Night 6
Article 41 - Housing Overlay. Although the housing overlay will receive a vote of "No Action" this year, an Affordable Housing Overlay Committee was sneaked in to our thread of debate... Greg Dennis, proposed we debate Art 41 (because he would be away next Monday). He introduced his "Motion To Commit" to a (public) Affordable Housing Overlay Committee (made up of people I judge to be nearly all pro-density, as many of them were on the private, secretive working group that proposed this year's Article 41) to implement an affordable housing overlay. Recall that the ARB voted "No Action" this year on the overlay, largely because it didn't notify all people in the affected areas. Also, recall that Article 41 proposed large buildings in nearly ALL residential and commercial areas of Arlington with little parking and no protection for trees and no enhanced setbacks, despite allowing 2 more floors than whatever underlying zone provided for.
Article 38: Allowing Business Uses in Residential Zones. Although originally it received 'no action' by the ARB and they said they have not ruled on the substitute motion, two somewhat bad substitute motions were proposed. The toned-down proposals still interfere with residents (deliveries, customers, noise, signs, trash, late nights/early morning activities, potential for crime and loss of neighborhood cohesiveness). Especially at a time where we just acted to remove the
May 19th, Monday, Night 7
Announcements: Liz Pyle told us about the A-B Rowing Crew organization incident where their truck and trailer were stolen by a man who wreaked mayhem in Arlington, Cambridge and Belmont Saturday night, damaging property and cars, including the rowing boats of the AB Crew team.
It was said that residents can now go to the Town waste website and select a smaller trash/recycling barrel, if they want it - the default size is 64 gallons. Barrels will be delivered to each residence unit in June for start of the new company (Waste Management) service July 1st.
Article 38 (again): We took up Allowing business uses in the residential districts again. The ARB (which voted No Action (against) the original idea, also stated that we shouldn't support either of the amendments (one is still too permissive, one is poorly specified). The ZBA (Zoning Board of Appeals) chair also spoke against the amendments. The two amendments failed. The main vote was "no action".
Article 39: Allowing an individual property to include itself in the MBTA density overlay. It was questioned whether the property was a non-compliant 3 family or a grand-fathered non conforming use. ARB Member Revilak stated that MA law allows a use to become legal after existence for more than 10 years. Mr Loreti said that the property shouldn't be admitted on a case by case basis, and also the intent of the MBTA density overlay was to taper down from front street heights to smaller MBTA density to existing zoning. The covered property is in the interior 'existing height' area. It was said that petitioner was interested in adding 3 additional units to their property. The Article passed.
Article 40: The ARB chair spoke about their 3-2 split support of Ending Single Family Zoning, but that they do not support the motion to Commit or the Amendment. There was a mass rush to add speakers to the speaking list and many concerned residents didn't get in to the initial wave...
Bethany Friedman introduced her article which would allow 2 family by special permit (as opposed to buy right, in the main motion).
Gary Goldsmith presented his Motion (with Matt Miller) to Commit - to form a committee to research not an implementation, but to ask if this makes sense given the many unknowns.
Joanne Cullinane presented her Amendment to the Commit Motion to add better representation of the public's stakeholders than in the original motion - to ensure that public input and the public's interest is supported by the work of the committee formed by the motion to commit.
Debate began ...
Xavid Pretzger asked if Planning would bring this Article again next year. Director Ricker appeared to say that YES the town would consider things like that.
Wednesday, May 21st, Night 8
We continued debate on Article 40.
There were no women allowed to speak tonight. There were no speakers against the Article allowed to speak tonight. It was just about the worst carrying of debate order that I have ever seen in Town Meeting.
The vote failed on 40 (all amendments failed) YAY! This means that we will not have the end of single family zoning. I'd prepared this presentation, but I wasn't allowed to give it. It explains why the Article was a bad idea - bad for affordability, bad for diversity and bad for our green efforts/climate resiliency.
We moved on to the easy Article 43 - Improving and adding to Shade Trees on our streets. That Article passed.
Wednesday, May 28th, Night 9
