 |
East Arlington Parking Study
01/26/2010
As part of the Town's Commercial Development Planning, a parking study focussing on the East Arlington business disctrict was conducted by Walker Parking Associates. The Redevelopment Board (ARB) has reviewed the study and made comments and recommendations to the Selectmen who will review them at their February 1, 2010 meeting.
Commercial Development Plan Moves Forward
09/21/09
Earlier in the year, The Town hired consultant, Larry Koff & Associates to identify commercial revitalization strategies to improve the mix of businesses, the physical environment, and parking. Additionally, to understand, through the study of selected sites, how future potential commercial redevelopment might enhance the commercial vitality of the centers. Currently, Koff & Associates is working on a draft of a Commercial Development Plan. The draft incorporates results from the approximately 500 respondents who completed a retail survey in June. In the coming weeks, the Town planners and the consultant team will meet with business and property owners in key commercial districts to gather feedback and input before completing an initial draft plan. Public meetings will follow to continue work on the draft before finalizing. Those
meetings will be announced via Town of Arlington Notices and on this page: arlingtonma.gov/commercialdevelopment.
Town of Arlington Launches Commercial Development Plan
06/09/09
Past planning efforts, including the Arlington Business Community Study (ABC Study) of 1994, the Planning Dialogue of 2007, and the Vision of Arlington Statement of 2008, have focused on enhancing the three vibrant commercial villages located along Massachusetts Avenue. To further these efforts, the Town of Arlington, with the support of the Board of Selectmen and Redevelopment Board, recently retained a consultant team headed by Larry Koff & Associates, a community planning firm located in Brookline, to undertake a Commercial Development Plan. Todreas Hanley Associates, Inc, a Cambridge-based retail development consulting firm, is providing the retail market analysis, and marketing and leasing strategies. Assisting this team are two firms that played a key role in the ABC Study, Icon Architecture, Inc. (formerly City Design),
and Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc. Walker Parking Consultants and Colliers Meredith & Grew are providing additional support in the fields of parking and real estate, respectively. The federal Community Development Block Grant program is funding the project with funds accumulated specifically for this purpose.
A kick-off meeting with the consultant team took place in February of 2009 under the direction of Clarissa Rowe, then Chair of the Board of Selectmen, Brian Sullivan, Town Manager, Kevin O’Brien, Planning Director, Chris Loreti, Redevelopment Board Vice Chair, and Robert Bowes, Chamber of Commerce. This meeting was preceded by a tour that included the three commercial centers and a number of possible development sites. Planning staff continues to meet and work with the consultants to implement this project.
The broad focus of this project is to identify commercial revitalization strategies to improve the mix of businesses, the physical environment, and parking, and to understand through the study of selected sites how future potential commercial redevelopment might enhance the commercial vitality of the centers.
Three priorities are of immediate concern. The first priority focuses on input and feedback from the community on how to improve the mix of businesses and the shopping experience in Arlington’s village centers. To this end, residents are asked to complete a retail survey, which is available online here and in public locations throughout Town. In addition, the project includes a number of meetings designed to gather feedback: meetings with different groups of stakeholders;
one-on-one field interviews with business and property owners; and advertised public meetings to present the draft preliminary and draft final Commercial Development Plan. Project information will be posted here at arlingtonma.gov/commercialdevelopment. To receive updates on the plan, residents can subscribe to Town of Arlington Notices at arlingtonma.gov/subscriber. Finally, informative articles will continue to be submitted for publication to the Arlington Advocate.
The second immediate priority is the need to consider parking management strategies, beginning with East Arlington. East Arlington is the focus in order to coincide with the proposed Massachusetts Avenue Corridor Project Phase I roadway improvements.
The third immediate priority is to provide guidance for three key sites, each site is to be representative of a type of site which if redeveloped could serve as a model for the Town as it considers other such significant sites in the future. The guidance provided by the study will focus on the potential redevelopment of these and future sites in a manner consistent with Town and neighborhood goals.
For further information and to provide your input, contact David A. Berry at the Planning Department at 781-316-3088, or dberry@town.arlington.ma.us.
Larry Koff & Associates has additional information about this plan at their website here.
| |
