Arlington Redevelopment Board Recommends Teardown Restrictions, Mixed-Use Zoning

Photo Credit: Joe Lipovich/Patch Staff

ARLINGTON, MA—The Arlington Redevelopment Board voted to recommend two zoning changes that may change the face of Arlington's buildings.

The Arlington Redevelopment board unanimously voted to recommend zoning changes enabling developers to build small mixed-use buildings in business districts at its March 21 meeting. That the board voted to recommend measures that regulate teardowns and new residential development in town.

According to Arlington's Director of Planning and Community Development Jenny Raitt, both of these changes have been voted to recommend to Town Meeting, but must be approved by Town Meeting before adoption.

The zoning changes enable for easier development of mixed-use buildings, i.e. developments that have shops or offices on the ground floors and housing units above them. Mixed-use buildings still require approval from the Redevelopment board.

According to a report by Wicked Local Arlington's James Sanna; the proposed teardown restrictions involve three tools:

The ARB's proposed teardown restrictions would, taken together, shrink the total possible size of any new home using three tools:

• Reduce the average height of a home's basement visible above ground by one foot and reduce the height of a home's third floor, its so-called "half story," to seven feet. New homes in Arlington are allowed a third story whose footprint takes up only half of the second floor's footprint.
• Increase the size of a home's total contiguous yard area, not including driveways, from 30 percent of the home's gross floor area--minus areas like mechanical spaces, attics and attached garages--to 35 percent of that area.
• Mandate a maximum driveway slope of 15 percent

CORRECTION: Previous editions of this story described Raitt as the "Planning Board Director." Raitt's title is the Director of Planning and Community Development.