ICYMI: Board of Aldermen Confronts City Hall on Zoning

Over 1,000 comments from residents and push-back from the Board of Aldermen have led City Hall to slow down its campaign to get a new zoning ordinance passed this summer, and have encouraged the aldermen to take a more proactive role in what eventually does get passed, when, and how.

The 308-page proposed new code would replace the outdated and convoluted rules now on the books, but the new proposal has many aspects Somerville residents don’t want. And because it will impact the city’s density, the amount of open space and affordable housing, and many other features of the future Somerville, at the May 6 meeting of the Board, many aldermen made it clear that they want to do much more than rubber-stamp the proposal.

“At some point we’re voting on this and we’re making decisions and I feel like, as a Board, our concerns should be listened to,” Ward 1 Alderman Matt McLaughlin said.

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, who unexpectedly came to the meeting to address the Board and to support Director of Planning George Proakis, said he was aware of the criticism and concerns.

“We got some really constructive feedback. In some cases people don’t like some things, okay,” the mayor said, but he added: “At some point we will land at what I hope will be a common place.”

In order to get to that “place,” Curtatone and Proakis suggested a new round of citywide public meetings and some studies by outside experts. Proakis’ schedule included meetings in May and throughout the summer. But several aldermen had issues with the plan, noting they were surprised that the Planning Department didn’t consult the Board before going public.

“This body is a separate branch of government,” Board President and Alderman At Large Bill White reminded the mayor.

White noted that the announcement of a new slate of hearings was similar to how City Hall had handled the proposed zoning ordinance process.

“I’ve expressed some concerns about how the process began; how this was placed upon us,” White said. “Yes, there was a process of input with some public meetings that you folks had, and we the Somervision.”

But, he added, “before anything was published and submitted to this board, I would have liked that process to have taken place where we could have gone over some of these things.”

Several aldermen also note that having citywide meetings only was not necessarily constructive. They called for neighborhood-level meetings, and also suggested that meetings start in the fall, once the studies are completed.

The proposed code was presented to the Board on January 22. In the meetings that followed, and via a website, the Planning Department received over 1,000 comments, criticisms, and suggested map changes. The Board has not yet seen those.

“Greater than a thousand comments, concerns, were presented to you,” Alderman At Large Mary Jo Rossetti told Proakis at the meeting.

“Are you suggesting in this proposed consideration of timeline that July is when we as the Board will be hearing your and your staff’s opinions of those comments, as a breakdown? Because, that’s what I thought I was getting tonight,” she said, with a tone of obvious consternation.

“There’s been a ton of really serious critiques and I want to see responses to those,” Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang added.

Ward 7 Alderman Katjana Ballantyne wondered about the rush to pass the new code, given that the Somervision took three years.

“If it took three years to do a visionary plan, I’m not quite sure that I understand the rush to do the actual detail in a six-month period,” she said.

Columnist and community activist Bill Shelton has written extensively in The Somerville Times and other places about the proposed code and about related issues. He was at the May 6 meeting.

“The meeting was fascinating because the zoning is certainly transformational legislation but what it’s transforming is not just the zoning, but the Board of Aldermen,” he told Somerville Neighborhood News. “The Board is beginning to look like a truly deliberative body. It’s beginning, in its independence and its willingness to hash through legislation and think carefully about what it’s doing, to debate real issues.”

One real issue related to, and which will be impacted by, the new zoning is the redevelppment of Union Square.

On May 13, Proakis and his colleagues unveiled the latest designs at a big meeting held in the old Post Office.

If you missed the meeting, you can see the highlights in this 70-minute video.

And, you can download the designs and plans here.

Want to know some of the criticisms people have of the proposed zoning? Check out SNN’s previous story on this issue

The new proposed code, as well some of the comments and criticisms from your neighbors, can be found here.