Arlington Land Trust

Protecting Open Spaces in Arlington

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Take A Walk

Take A Walk  is another project of the Arlington Open Space Committee. This project is designed to encourage residents to get outside and walk to Arlington’s diverse parks and recreational facilities. The Open Space Committee has developed a set of seven suggested and overlapping walking routes across town. The maps indicate safe walking distances linking open spaces, conservation lands, playing fields, playgrounds, and other points of interest.

A town-wide map shows all seven routes, or you can download or print any of the neighborhood maps – East Arlington North, East Arlington South, Arlington Center South, Arlington Heights South, Arlington Heights North, Arlington Center North, and Arlington Center Central.

Experience Arlington’s Open Spaces

Take a walk around some of Arlington’s many attractive open spaces.

Arlington’s Open Space Committee has a number of resources that can inform and guide residents in using the town’s varied open space and recreation facilities. 

The Open Space and Recreation Plan  for 2015-2022 documents many aspects of the community and its open spaces.Section 5 of the Plan presents maps and descriptions of 20 major open space and recreation sites, with additional information on all of the more than 70 parks, playing fields, and conservation lands in Arlington. Other sections of the Plan present historical and environmental information on the Town, goals and objectives for future open space projects, and an action plan for implementing various projects in collaboration with many other Town departments, committees, and organizations.

Experiencing Arlington’s Open Spaces is a web-based application based on the Plan. Developed by Arlington’s GIS department, this app makes much of the site information readily available for viewing on your smart phone or tablet. For each open space site featured on the app there are multiple photographs and a brief description of the property, as well as a map showing access points and internal walking trails.

Mill Brook Video

Award winning video producer and Arlington resident Glenn Litton has worked with representatives of the Old Schwamb Mill to create a short video entitled Mill Brook Rediscovered.

The video was developed to complement the exhibit, “A Brook Runs Through It: Arlington’s Mill Brook Legacy,” which was shown at the Mill, 17 Mill Lane in Arlington Heights, from September 2018 until June 2019. An adapted version of the Mill Brook exhibit will be shown in the Town Hall Gallery from March 2 to April 30, 2020.

 See www.oldschwambmill.org for more information.

December 2019: Mugar Development Hearing Begins

Zoning Board of Appeals
Tuesday December 10th at 7:45pm
Lyons Hearing Room, Town Hall Second Floor

Oaktree Development will appear before the Zoning Board of Appeals to begin the public hearing process on its proposal to build a 291-unit housing project in East Arlington. The meeting is scheduled for 7:45pm.

An overview of the 40B permitting process is below. More background on the proposed project is available on the ALT website and from the Coalition to Save the Mugar Wetlands, which will hold a public discussion at 7:30 pm Tuesday on the steps of Town Hall prior to the Board of Appeals hearing.

Next Steps in the 40B Process

A developer acting under Chapter 40B submits a single application to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) for a “comprehensive permit,” so-called because all permitting procedures are consolidated under the ZBA. The zoning board notifies applicable local boards such as the Planning Board, the Board of Health, and the Conservation Commission and requests their recommendations.

Within thirty days of the receipt of the application, the zoning board begins a public hearing, which lasts up to six months. The ZBA must issue a decision within forty days after ending the public hearing. That timeline for the proposal by Oaktree Development was paused by various state-level administrative proceedings from the time of its original submission in 2015 until the hearing resumes on December 10, 2019.

At the conclusion of the public hearing process the ZBA may approve the application as submitted, it can approve the project with conditions or changes, or it can deny the application altogether.

Zoning boards and other town officials often work with developers to modify the project. The board may include conditions and requirements on any aspect of the project, such as height, density, site plan, utility improvements, or long-term affordability. If the ZBA denies the application or imposes conditions which render the project “uneconomic,” the developer may appeal the decision to the state Housing Appeals Committee. HAC is generally disposed to favor developers, but may uphold the ZBA decision if it finds that “local concerns,” including health and safety matters and open space needs, outweigh the regional need for affordable housing.

The comprehensive permit process offers two advantages to the developer: a streamlined and expedited path to permitting the project; and the ability to ask the ZBA to apply less stringent standards than those required by local bylaws, as long as they meet the state’s minimum requirements. A developer may ask for a waiver of any local regulation that it claims renders the project “uneconomic.” For example, Oaktree has already given notice that it may request:
Waiver to forego full compliance with the Arlington Wetlands Bylaw
Waiver from prohibition of a new habitable structure in an Inland Wetlands District
Waiver to allow less than 2:1 compensatory flood storage
Our Conservation Commission will review the project under the state’s Wetlands Protection Act, which cannot be waived, but Arlington like many communities has wisely adopted more stringent requirements to protect its natural resources. ALT will urge that these reasonable and prudent local environmental standards be upheld.

October 2019 Update on the Mugar Parcel

State agency rules against Arlington on 40B “Safe Harbor”

Mugar hearing resumption postponed at developer’s request

The state’s Housing Appeals Committee (HAC), in a decision that is disappointing but not surprising given HAC’s longstanding bias against local control, ruled this week that Arlington has not achieved a target that would have strengthened the Town’s hand in controlling 40B development.

In 2015 Arlington’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA), after extensive research, asserted that the Town has met one of the “safe harbor” thresholds available under Chapter 40B: that of having 1.5% of eligible land area devoted to affordable housing. If achieved, that status gives the Town more control and limits the developer’s ability to override local zoning and wetlands protections.

Oaktree, the would-be developer, disputed the Town’s findings. The Town’s experts presented a detailed analysis of highly technical land use data to support its position and demonstrate that it is properly applying state regulations. Oaktree relied on ambiguities in the rules to argue against the Town’s position.

The ZBA strenuously argued against HAC’s finding in extensive comments.

Read the full ZBA document.

Read the HAC findings.

The decision cannot immediately be appealed to a court of law by the Town. If the developer chooses to go forward with the project, the full Zoning Board-led hearing process would have to continue to a conclusion (either an approval, a rejection, or an approval with conditions). At that time, the Town could bring a court challenge on the 1.5% calculation.

The ZBA announced last week that it would reconvene its hearing on the application on October 29th but the matter has now been postponed at the developer’s request.  Our understanding is that they have asked to resume the hearing process in December. We’ll share more news as it becomes available.

Arlington Land Trust continues to advocate for the permanent protection of the Mugar parcel as conservation land. The site lies almost entirely in the 100-year flood plain, is subject to regular and significant flooding, and is a critical stormwater buffer for the surrounding and downstream neighborhoods of East Arlington.