Somerville Voices

Join us on Tuesday, June 24th, 6pm at the Somerville High School Auditorium to show your support for Affordable Housing in Union Square -a CORE ISSUE FOR AHOC!!!!!!!

(Note AHOC = Affordable Housing Organizing Committee of the Somerville Community Corporation)

This coming Tuesday, June 24th, The City of Somerville is hosting a public meeting to share new plans for the rezoning of Union Square. As many of you know, this is the third round of attempting to rezone Union
Square, as the first 2 rounds never made it to a full vote by the Board of Alderman. The newest proposal will be taken to the Board of Alderman this fall, but in the meantime, the City Planning Department (part of
OSPCD) has been working hard to “get it right” this time. They formed a focus group made up of representatives from the community, including AHOC and SCC, to solicit input and response to their proposed plan. This group met many times for long meetings lasting late into the night.

There are some good elements of the City’s rezoning proposal that we can take credit for from our previous organizing work, i.e. there are a couple of sub-districts in this new proposal that call for 15% required affordable units (city wide inclusionary zoning is at 12.5%), and even a sub-district (with a higher density allowance) that requires 17.5% affordable housing. AHOC has continued to push for 15% affordable housing across the Union Square area included in their rezoning, as well as asking for specific means of achieving deeper affordability, family sized units, a mix of rental and owner units, and preservation of existing affordable housing.

While we should be pleased by the City’s effort to increase affordable housing requirements, given the sweeping changes to Union Square that may very well happen as a result of the rezoning and the coming of the Green Line (read: gentrification), it’s imperative for our folks and allies to present a powerful position that the City needs to be even more proactive in making sure the low and moderate income residents, new immigrant population, and families of Somerville have a place to stay, and don’t get pushed out. When you look at the demographics of Somerville, Union Square perhaps reflects best the diversity that everyone claims to love about Somerville-and we need to work especially hard to keep this.

So, we need you, and others that you know, to help take this message to the city: “Zone for People: Keep families and low/moderate income residents in Somerville!” We have been and will continue to work on this campaign as the zoning progresses, and will keep you involved every step of the way. Union Square is a critical playing field for determining the fate of the rest of the city in the next few decades, so we’re setting precedent for what comes next. While there will be at least one public hearing in the fall, the meeting next Tuesday, while not a public hearing, will be a good chance to show up in numbers, and remind the City how important affordable housing is to this community. We’re not sure if there will be scheduled time in this meeting for general comments, but there will be time for questions, and we encourage you to stand up and give your feedback, ask the poignant questions, and generally let folks know we are watching and care.

We don’t have an electronic version of the City’s draft proposal for the rezoning, but if you want to see this, we could scan in our hard copy and send it to you electronically, just let us know. We also are working on a list of talking points that I will send in a bit. If you have any specific questions about Tuesday, give me a call: 617 776 5931×230.

We hope to see you on Tuesday! We will try to sit together, and will have stickers for your shirts.

Mary Regan, SCC Organizer

Sponsored by the Somerville Community Corporation - Get involved today!