This past Wednesday evening there was a data dump of about three dozen documents relating to the Monday, July 6 Redevelopment Board hearings for the Hotel Lexington and also the redevelopment of the Toraya commercial block.
You will have to drill down a few levels in the Novusagenda pages on the Town website to find these documents. Alternatively, Shane Cucuru, a long-time Arlington resident has been working on a website, Menotomy Matters, to make it easier to find such materials. Here is his link: https://menotomymatters.com/me
Hotel Lexington is up first, and will include the first new material since the January hearing. In May the developers had excused the lack of a traffic study by their reluctance to spend the money until assured that the Board would approve other aspects of their proposal. There was comment at that meeting that a traffic study was not doable in the foreseeable future because of disruption of normal traffic patterns and school attendance due to the pandemic. But the developer has miraculously come up with a study anyway, based upon data taken last February.
There is finally some actual topographic information in the plans. It confirms that all of the fine drawings showing a level front facade are incorrect. The east end of the lot, where the DAV building is, sits four feet lower than the high point at the corner of Clark and Mass Ave. Some new terracing is shown on the new plans, but not in sufficient detail to see exactly how this four foot drop is being accommodated. One detail that is in the drawings for the circular driveway suggests that it will have a 15% grade at the very end where it crosses the Mass Ave sidewalk and meets the street.
Grading issues also exist with the ramp leading down from Clark St to the parking area in back. Back in January the applicant was questioned on this and insisted that it was no more than a 5% grade. The new elevation data show that one part of the driveway ramp is indeed a 5% grade, but at the other side of the driveway entrance it is a dangerous 15% where it meets the sidewalk. It is also interesting to note that the single handicap space on the lot is placed on this entrance ramp, where it slopes 5% from left to right and also 5% from front to back.
The latest rear elevation drawing continues to hide what is actually happening with the parking garage underneath. Back in January it was pointed out that the garage entrances were very low, perhaps between eight and nine feet.
Finally we can determine from these drawings that the height of the building at the two rear corners is 53' 5".
Another part of the submission is a letter from the attorney in which she makes various semantic arguments regarding residential usage, corner lots, and frontage. The first argument starts with the claim that 'residential use' is not defined anywhere in our bylaw. It then conflates 'residential use' with a 'dwelling', and then follows a tortuous logical argument to prove that a hotel is not a residential use.
To the contrary, 'Residential Use' is clearly defined in our bylaw. Table 5.5.3 defines residential uses for businesses districts. Hotel or Motel is one of them.
Amusingly, in the same letter a claim is made for an exception to the yard setback requirements. It is amusing because this exception only applies to residential lots.
Another semantic argument tries to claim that the hotel will have no frontage along Clark St. I would try to refute it but I cannot make heads nor tails of just what the argument is.
Next on the agenda for Monday is the Toraya Block teardown and redevelopment as an apartment building in a B2 neighborhood business district. At the last hearing there was a strong turnout of residents who deplored the loss of more of our commercial base under the provisions of the 2016 Mixed Use bylaw. The bylaw was supposed to strengthen our local businesses by supplementing them with housing on the upper floors as an accessory use. Instead the law is being used to destroy the business base by making the primary use residential rather than retail. A token office space to qualify as Mixed Use is clearly not what was intended by Town Meeting.
The applicant's response to the community has been to eliminate one of the ground floor apartments to make more office space and to bump up the height from 39' to 46'. The required upper story stepbacks have strangely disappeared. The building simply goes straight up four stories on all sides, in violation of the bylaws. Other violations noted in the first hearing remain unaddressed.
As problematic as this particular project is, it is also a troubling harbinger of a dangerous trend that threatens the vibrancy, livability and fiscal future of Arlington. Earlier this week the Mirak family announced their plans to convert two acres of Industrial zoned property to purely residential use. Presented as a 40B project, it is not subject to local zoning laws or many other regulations. The Miraks own much commercial property in town which may be headed for similar redevelopment.
The applicants for the redevelopment of the Toraya Block seem to be on the same course. They are also the owners of other significant commercial lots in Arlington. Currently they are trying to convert a B1 property at 400 Mass Ave in Arlington Center from three offices and two accessory apartments to a principal use of four apartments with a token office space to make it Mixed Use. Last week they tried a bit of venue shopping by attempting to pass it by the Zoning Board of Appeals. The ZBA would not go along with the proposed change of use and we can expect to see it presented instead before the Redevelopment Board alongside their concurrent proposal for the Toraya Block.
What will come next? How about the Leader Bank building in Arlington Center, at the corner of Mass Ave and Medford St. All of those businesses on that side of Medford St and a half dozen or so store fronts along Mass Ave are part of the same family holdings. What if they decide to redevelop the Arlington Center business district in the same manner as the Toraya Block and 400 Mass Ave?
If that were not enough to worry about, guess who owns the business block in east Arlington, on the southeast corner of Lake St and Mass Ave, just past the much-loved Capitol Square block?
By Don Seltzer
