Town of Arlington, Fair Housing Action Plan (July 2021)

Citation: Town of Arlington, Fair Housing Action Plan (July 2021)
Jurisdiction: Arlington (municipal)
Source: Official source
Original Source: https://www.arlingtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/57214/637641171662530000 ↗

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households. While it is unclear how many racially restrictive covenants existed in Arlington, at least one Arlington
resident traced the title of their home in East Arlington and discovered a racially restrictive covenant included in
the deed.18 There are likely homes across Arlington and many of Boston’s suburbs with this language still in the
deed. Racially restrictive covenants were made unenforceable by a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision, but the
practice was not truly eliminated until it was made illegal through the Fair Housing Act in 1968.19,20
Yet another policy tool that shaped who could and could not live in Arlington was the Town’s Zoning Bylaw. Like
most municipalities in close proximity to downtown Boston, Arlington embraced growth and development in the
Town’s first Master Plan (produced in 1914), which was implemented in the Town’s first Zoning Bylaw (adopted in
1924). The first Zoning Bylaw designated much of the town as residential and allowed apartment construction in
three large business zones along Massachusetts Avenue. Allowed apartment uses were expanded several times in
the immediate post-War era, as the Town sought to accommodate new families and grow its property tax
revenue.