Early July 2023 - book club, j-a-s, stickney

A Somerville real estate listing recently caught the eyes of a lot of people on social media: a modest three-bedroom cottage on Stickney Avenue with a price tag of $1.2 million dollars — even though the listing had no interior photos at all, a major red flag for anyone looking for a place to live. That price reflects the desirable location right next to the Gilman Square T stop, and of course the redevelopment potential of the parcel into what is likely to be a very expensive duplex.

Why a duplex? This parcel is in the Neighborhood Residence zone, which allows only one, two, or three-family buildings. However, requirement that one third of a three-family building be affordable means it’s a money-losing proposition, so the only sensible thing for anyone to build would be a duplex.

Given that it’s so close to a T stop, why wouldn’t it be zoned for more housing? Well, our current map reflects what was already there, rather than what might be sensible or possible or desirable. If we want to spread the cost of land and construction across more households, we need to “upzone,” or increase the zoning capacity, of areas near our T stations. That won’t cause everything near them to be torn down and replaced, but it would make it legal and feasible to build more than two homes in a neighborhood that's just steps from a train station.

Zoning Update Success

One recent small change to our zoning code may have a great effect on housing production. Just-A-Start, a nonprofit developer of affordable housing, is working on plans for a building on Webster Ave. Their architect and structural engineer found that the code had setback (distance from sidewalk to building) and step-back (smaller top floors) requirements that would make design and construction extremely expensive. Just-A-Start brought their concerns to City Council and was able to get an amendment to those rules for entirely-affordable buildings, meaning that it's likely they'll be able to build additional affordable housing at a lower cost! We’ll be on the lookout for other ways to make housing, especially below-market housing, easier and faster to build.

Book Club

Looking for a beach read this summer? Join Somerville YIMBY and A Better Cambridge in reading Homelessness is a Housing Problem by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern. This book examines the structural causes of homelessness, and highlights the importance in keeping housing prices low. We will host a discussion at Bloc Cafe on September 9th at 2:00 PM to talk about what we learned, and if there are any lessons we can apply to our cities.

Note: If the book is not available at the library and purchasing it would be a burden to you, let us know and we’ll get a copy for you.

Upcoming Events

Meeting on Homelessness: Rev. Jordan Harris has been working with a small group of concerned people on ways to help people experiencing homelessness in East Somerville. Join them on Tuesday July 11, 6:30 pm, at Connexion UMC, 149 Broadway, for brainstorming and strategizing about about ways to do more, and press the city to do more, for some of our most vulnerable residents. Questions? Write to Rev. Jordan at [email protected].

Somerville YIMBY General Meeting: Join us online on July 12 at 6:00 to talk about endorsements, policy goals, and more. Register on Zoom.

AHMA Panel: Brookline for Everyone: Formed in 2019, Brookline for Everyone has recently had some major success electing representatives to Town Meeting there. Learn about how they organized and what they did in an online forum on July 17 at 8:30 pm. Register at AbundantHousingMA.org.

A Bill to Promote Yes In My Backyard

The AHMA-endorsed housing bill HB1379/SB858, “An Act to Promote Yes in My Backyard” is still gathering sponsors. If you haven't already, please use this quick toolkit to send your representative and senator a note asking for their support in making more housing available statewide. We're close to 500 people using the AHMA petition form, so please help us hit that milestone!