News & Announcements

Somerville YIMBY Open Meeting This Saturday

Join the steering committee on Saturday 2/19 at 4:00 pm for a free-flowing discussion of housing issues in our city, the state and the country. We'll also talk about:

• An update on goals for the year from our new Policy Committee

• Starting that book club

• Building alliances with other city groups, including labor and civil rights advocates

Join on Zoom, Meeting ID 87259042267, password @_ow5aNi5p

City Charter Survey

Somerville is revising its charter, which means asking really big questions about how we want the city to be run for the next decade or more: How long should mayors and councilors stay in office? Should council terms overlap? How much power should the mayor have? The Charter Review Committee has recently launched a survey to get additional input from residents.

Take the survey here

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Upcoming Meetings

We've been keeping the

Google Calendar

up to date with a mix of meetings and events on a variety of days and times. Here's a selection:

• Wednesday 2/16 (tonight!): Public Safety Building Community Meeting: A proposal to spend $100 million or more on new headquarters for our police and fire departments has run into stiff community opposition from abutters, the Defund SPD movement, and affordable housing activists. What exactly should happen at 90 Washington Street? Find out and provide your input at this meeting.

• Friday 2/18: The Harvard Joint Center on Housing Studies presents "Does Our Housing Stock Meet Our Accessibility Needs?" with JCHS Housing & Aging Aging Society Program director Jennifer Molinsky. Note: 2:00 pm, advance registration required.

• Wednesday 2/23: A big meeting about the Star Market site on Broadwayand a more technical question about the installation of an electrical transformer near the Union Square T station that might become problematic later.

• Wednesday 3/9: 483 Broadway Community Meeting, featuring a proposal from Woody's Liquors to renovate and move into that vacant laundromat on Broadway. If you live in the neighborhood, this is a great opportunity to support a local business that's faced some serious challenges in the past year. Also coincides with several other interesting meetings!

Zoning 101: Overlay Districts

Last time, we wrote about the various kinds of districts that make up Somerville's base zoning, like Neighborhood Residence for mostly 1 and 2 family homes, Commercial Core for central business districts, and High Rise for, well, high rises.

On top of those, we add overlay districts, which are modifications to the usual rules established for a district. Some overlay districts apply to a specific geographical area, like the Floodplain overlay district, which specifies what kinds of flood protections are required for new buildings in flood-prone areas, or master-planned developments like Assembly Square and Boynton Yards, where the city uses overlay zoning to specify how new buildings will relate to parks, roads and public areas that are heavily influenced by these huge projects. Others apply to the whole city but only for specific kinds of building. The Affordable Housing Overlay, for example, allows faster permitting and more density in nearly all districts for developments that consist entirely of below-market-rate affordable housing.