Arlington Redevelopment Board Elects New Chair, Approves Robbins Road Site Plan

ARLINGTON — January 12, 2026 — Arlington's Redevelopment Board elected Ken Lowe as its new chair and opened a skeptical first hearing on a proposed five-story, 14-unit mixed-use building at 259 Broadway. The board voted 4-0 to continue the hearing for docket 3881 to February 23 after members raised extensive concerns about the 61-foot-tall proposal from Harrison Mulhern Architects and 259 Broadway Realty Trust, including whether the project's two commercial spaces — totaling roughly 1,220 square feet — satisfy the 60 percent ground-floor threshold needed to qualify for a bonus fifth floor under the Mass Ave-Broadway Multifamily Overlay District. Board member Eugene Benson said flatly, "I don't think you meet the 60%, and I don't think these spaces meet the requirement for the bonus." The board also challenged the project's Transportation Demand Management plan, which seeks to reduce parking from a presumptive 14 spaces to five, and ordered the applicant to revise the architectural massing, lower parapet heights, obtain tree warden approval, and submit a commercial market survey before returning. In the same meeting, the board unanimously approved the site plan for 9-11 Robbins Road — two three-story, two-unit residential buildings — and voted to close the docket for 126 Broadway after the applicant withdrew without prejudice.