They're Baaaack... - Hotel Lexington (VII) and the Toraya Block Tear Down

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/meetings/arb/#2020-07-06

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. 

That estimate was wrong; the latest information provided suggests that they are between seven and eight feet.  We can't know for sure until the architects provide a drawing that doesn't hide this area behind the privacy fence.

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

The Heights Hotel Part III - The Waiting Game UPDATED with new meeting date

The Heights Hotel Part III - The Waiting Game

UPDATE - Once again the next hearing has been cancelled.  Attorney Mary Winstanley O'Conner has written to the Redevelopment Board asking that it be continued to January 27th, without explanation of reason of the delay or why the developer waited so long to make this last minute request.

So, what’s up with the "Hotel Lexington" project?  The last real news goes way back to July 22 when residents gathered in the Lyons Room to hear the proposal and provide their concerns.   The developer left with a long list of potential problems and zoning issues to resolve.  The Redevelopment Board was left with the thorny legal issue of an estimated $100,000 in building permit fees that were being waived.  These are fees that are set down in our bylaws by Town Meeting but were somehow negotiated away by the Town Manager and the Planning Department.

Since then, hardly a peep.  There was a continuance to September, and then another to October.  At that time the developer postponed it again, this time for another two months until the  JANUARY 27th December 16 meeting of the Redevelopment Board.  Nothing more has been released for the public.

There has been some activity behind the scenes, though.  Back on August 12th, the developer did meet with some members of the Redevelopment Board to discuss the project.  Not at the public meeting that same evening, but just beforehand behind closed doors.  It was another of those unannounced, closed to the public, very private get togethers that leave the public in the dark about what is going on.  No minutes kept and not even a brief announcement of what went on or who attended.

Meanwhile, there has been a new development next door at 1215 Mass Ave.  The building that formerly housed Nicola’s is being converted into a liquor store.  The owner has already been before the Select Board and next will seek approval of the Redevelopment Board.  Whatever traffic studies the hotel developer has conducted need to be amended to account for the new use next door.

To refresh your memory of the history of this drawn out process, it was four and a half years ago that Town Meeting voted to approve the sale of 1207 Mass Ave. The Town budget actually included an expected $1,000,000 from the sale to help pay for the Stratton School project. The RFP bid that was accepted in late 2016 was for only $750,000.  The actual Purchase and Sale Agreement was signed just about a year ago, but the transaction has yet to be completed and it seems that the developer can back out of the deal if he does not get what he wants from the Redevelopment Board.

There is every reason for the developer to stall.  His purchase price for the town property remains fixed at the 2016 level even as real estate prices in Arlington have rocketed in the last three years.  More ominously, the Planning Dept is again pushing zoning changes for the Heights business district which conveniently has been defined as extending all the way to Forest St, thus including the hotel.  The proposed changes were authored by our old friends, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and go even further than the zoning changes that failed at Town Meeting last spring.  The new version would have that entire block of B2 (small businesses serving the neighborhood) rezoned to a super B3 district.  What does that mean for the abutting homes on Clark, Peirce, Forest, and Locke?  Think about higher and denser buildings, four or five stories in your backyard.

And for the developer, it means that many of those pesky zoning limitations that restrict him will go away.

Stay tuned.  Or better still, come to the hearing on JANUARY 27th December 16 in the Town Hall auditorium location TBA.