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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However, as segregation in greater Boston was challenged and integration became a real prospect across the
region, Arlington’s attitude toward development shifted. Concerted opposition to development projects began in
the 1960s and became more organized in the early 1970s. Activists used both explicit and coded anti-
integration language to rally opposition to apartment development and the related effort to downzone portions
of the town.21 In 1975, following a one-year moratorium on multifamily construction, Town Meeting adopted a
new, more complex Zoning Bylaw that created multiple new permitting processes for most forms of development
and “downzoned” most of the town through restrictions on density, height, lot size, and parking. The ability to
develop any type of residential use except higher-cost, single-family housing was severely curtailed. In 1991,
Town Meeting adopted an amendment creating the R0 district, which extended this logic to require even larger
lots of new single-family homes in some parts of town.
The new Bylaw elevated procedure and civic participation in the development process. While these do not
necessarily result in anti-development outcomes, much less segregationist ones, they created friction and
increased opportunities to derail projects. The new Bylaw also incentivized a form of civic participation that
magnified individual abutters rights, essentially creating a new property right wholecloth: the right to exclude. In
the decades since the 1975 Bylaw was adopted, housing development in Arlington plummeted, as it did in
countless jurisdictions across the country that adopted similar changes to their Zoning Bylaws. Arlington’s
population even declined 21% between 1970 and 2000.22