Meetings Early October

Clarendon Hill Approved!

Thank you to everyone who joined the meetings or wrote in to support approval for the Clarendon Hill redevelopment. It's been approved. This project is a real win for the current and future residents of the neighborhood. We'd especially like to thank Laura Evans for her indefatigable work to support and document the plan's progress. For the full details on what exactly is approved, you can see the Zoning Board's ruling here.

Affordable Housing Overlay News

The Affordable Housing Overlay is taking shape rapidly. The current proposal is approximately this:

• Citywide, for projects that are 100% affordable, site plan review and number of units per building are no longer restricted. The building must still meet the existing size/shape/setback rules for the zone.

• In Neighborhood Residential, 100% affordable triple deckers and backyard cottages are allowed without special permit.

• On Neighborhood Residential locations that are also within 1/2 mile of transit, a 100% affordable semidetached triple decker, multiplex, apartment house (smaller than apartment building) or rowhouse is allowed without special permit, even though it would normally be allowed only in Urban Residential.

• In any Midrise district, 100% affordable apartment and general buildings are allowed without special permits.

• In Midrise district locations that are also within 1/2 mile of transit, 100% affordable housing buildings can go to a full 7 stories instead of just 3-5.

It does

not

address parking restrictions (which aren't really a big deal near transit anyway), the possibility of 4-deckers instead of 3-deckers, or setbacks. Also, it doesn't address the mix of subsidy levels or the mix of unit sizes – not because City Council doesn't care about that, but because those are almost always already handled by grantmakers and federal funding sources, so there's not much point in having

another

set of rules to cover those issues.

If that sounds good to you, please email

[email protected]

and

[email protected]

to say you like it!

City Survey on Shared Streets Program

The City is collecting input on how the public feels about shared streets in order to determine next steps. If you have any feedback for the City, fill out the survey

here.

Community Meetings

October 5: Councilor JT Scott will be hosting an online meeting on Monday Oct 5 at 6:30pm to cover a proposed development at Webster and Columbia Streets. This is a preliminary community outreach meeting - no specific proposal has been issued, and the developer wants to talk to people in the area. If you're in Ward 2 or near Union square, drop in to check it out.

October 7: Signal boost for our friends at Somerville Bike Safety: If you ride a bike on or near Washington Street (or don’t because it is not safe) and especially if you live in Ward 2, please come to a public meeting on October 7th at 6:30 pm and voice your strong support for the city's plan to improve bike safety in this corridor.