The Central Somerville Avenue Project aspires to become a hub of artistic and technical innovation.
By Katherine Davis
On October 28 the Mayor’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development kicked off its first meeting regarding the Central Somerville Avenue Project, the area also known as the stretch between Market Basket and Conway Park.
The idea of the Central Somerville Avenue Project is not new, the city and the impacted community have been working for around 4.5 years to preserve the artist/maker and also grow the climate tech industries simultaneously, the interim Director of Somerville’s Planning Preservation and Zoning, Dan Bartman, saying “We’re really trying to not redo everything, but bring all of those loose threads together and come to a consensus so that we can move forward into the future.”
Opening discussion to the public is the next step in order to provide the necessary input needed by the Development Office to ensure the final plans for this area are handled with respect and efficiency. Mayor Ballantyne officially started the meeting by saying that the main concern of the Mayor’s Office is, “How do we ensure that our city continues to thrive as a hub of innovation and economic growth while protecting the creative spaces that have been at the heart of our community for so long?”
In order to accomplish the balance between the arts and science in the Central Somerville Avenue area, this meeting proposed a Five Point Plan:
- Clarify zoning language addressing arts and office / laboratory uses. 2. Draft a research and development zoning district for start-ups and incubators. 3. Update the SomerVision map to accommodate potential redevelopment areas. 4. Create an Urban Design Framework to guide future development. 5. Write a zoning overlay district to allow for expansion of the research and development uses.
Speakers from the three stakeholders involved in this project gave presentations on the importance of this issue, and the multiple perspectives of who will be impacted by the changes that could or will ultimately occur with the Central Somerville Avenue stretch. These three groups that made up the Stakeholders panel were the Union Square Neighborhood Council (USNC), the #ArtStaysHere and Don’t F With Fab movement, and lastly SomerNova.
The meeting also included a brief section on the history of the area, and an important note was made by the Senior Planner with the Planning Preservation & Zoning Division, Sarah White, which was that “You can’t have the large industries without the small businesses, [and] without the residents, so it’s this absolute constellation of moving parts and this symbiotic relationship between the big and the small and the medium and everything.”
The plan moving forward for the project before the next meeting is straightforward. The first is to submit zoning amendments, which has already been completed. These are as follows: the Arts and Creative Enterprise and Office Use Category Changes, the Research & Development or Laboratory Use Category Changes, and the New “Research & Development” Zoning District. The second is to form a stakeholder group which involves consolidating prior work from the last 4.5 years, and determining the redevelopment potential of SomerNova.
The hope of the group is to have the project’s drafts relatively wrapped up before the Christmas holiday. Future meetings and key dates to mark on calendars are:
- November 12, 2024 Central Somerville Avenue Topic Summary Public Meeting – Civic Space and Mobility
- November 18, 2024 Central Somerville Avenue Topic Summary Public Meeting – Infrastructure and Zoning
- December 02, 2024 Central Somerville Avenue Public Presentation of Drafts
To gain an in-depth understanding of the project and its processes, access presentation slides, and make your voice heard to the city, visit voice.somervillema.gov
This post was originally published on here
