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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Support for Housing
Opposition to housing is not universal. In 2016, Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly to support mixed use
development by Special Permit along commercial corridors, a zoning change that might ultimately increase
housing opportunities.56 Similar support was voiced for zoning changes in Arlington Heights.57 Even during the
2019 zoning debate, several community members (including Town Meeting members) voiced support for the
proposed zoning changes or variations on the proposals. Some residents also organized a group on social media
called “Arlington Neighbors for More Neighbors” with a mission to “stand up for secure, abundant homes for
everyone.”58
Assessment: Opposition to housing development and policy reform is a critical barrier to improving fair housing
access in Arlington. Opposition to a given design of a given development may be warranted, but the sum of the
opposition to all housing development and reform limits the availability of housing overall. These limits help to
drive up housing costs and limit access to housing only to incumbent homeowners or high-income households, a
condition that disparately impacts members of those protected classes that tend to have lower incomes. In the
absence of a strategy to purchase the existing housing stock to create fair housing choice, opposition to housing
development is an impediment to fair housing. Certain conditions may ameliorate the opposition logjam in the
coming years. Organized support for housing reform may change the tenor of the public conversation.
Additionally, Massachusetts’ recently-passed Housing Choice legislation will lower the threshold to pass many
zoning amendments at Town Meeting, removing the procedural advantage previously held by opponents to
residential zoning reform. Perhaps