These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.
Progress toward a new school
School Building Committee, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday. A collaborative workshop focused on sustainability at a planned 925-student school that combines the Winter Hill Community Innovation School and Benjamin G. Brown School at 115 Sycamore St., the site of the Winter Hill until it closed unexpectedly June 2, 2023, over safety concerns: It was discovered that a chunk of concrete had fallen from stairwell ceiling. The School Committee voted March 16 to combine the schools (which will reunite the Winter Hill’s prekindergarten-to-eighth-grade community after it was split between the Edgerly Education Center and Capuano Early Childhood Center). The Winter Hill and Brown are the city’s oldest schools, but the city got approval only for a new Winter Hill and an invitation to consider a project combining the two. At the East Somerville Community School, 50 Cross St.
Finances in the school district
City Council and School Committee, 6 p.m. Tuesday. A review of the financial condition of the city, with revenue and expenditure forecasts, before budgeting begins for the next fiscal year. At 93 Highland Ave., Winter Hill, Somerville, and watchable online and by Zoom videoconferencing.
Displacement and affordability
City Council Housing, Community Development and Equity Committee, 6 p.m. Wednesday. This committee run by city councilor Kristen Strezo hosts discussion on the status of residents facing displacement and the number of households seeking rental help and asks the director of Housing to report how many housing units have been approved for development, year-by-year, since adoption of SomerVision 2040 – and, of those numbers, how many are permanently affordable, and how the department defines affordability. At Somerville City Hall, 93 Highland Ave., Central Hill, and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Doughnut and a hotel project
Planning Board, 6 p.m. Thursday. The Dunkin’ Donuts at 222 Broadway, Winter Hill, across from Foss Park, brings a request for later hours, one of several city business asking recently to stay open longer. Board members will also hear the continued case of the Somerbridge Hotel at 1 McGrath Highway (so called because it straddles the Cambridge-Somerville line) as developers seek major changes to a plan approved in May 2023 (and in Cambridge in July 2023) to put up a six-story hotel with a restaurant, bar and fitness center. Arts & Innovation District urban design is due for discussion too. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Change of use in Union Square
Planning Board and Land Use Committee, 6:30 p.m. Thursday. In an all but comatose commercial leasing market, developer Union 2 Associates, which is owned by The Hamilton Co., wants to drop plans for the five-story office building that was agreed upon as part of a Union Square plan controlled by master developer USQ. It wants to build up to six stories of housing instead. At Somerville City Hall, 93 Highland Ave., Central Hill, and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Looking at bus route changes
Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday. A check-in on the MBTA’s Bus Network Redesign, as changes to Route 85 began this month and more changes are expected soon, and an exploration of how buses will work on the future McGrath Boulevard. This redesign is intended to take down McGrath Highway, which separates East Somerville from the rest of the city, and put the replacement road on a “diet” to two lanes from three in each direction in multiple locations. With designs at the 25 percent stage, the project is expected to go out to bid next year and see construction begin by 2028. There will also be updates on a Shore Drive Greenway project, safety improvements at Broadway at Wallace Street and Simpson Avenue, on snow clearing following a snow-heavy winter and on other upcoming street projects. At the Tufts Administrative Building, 167 Holland St., in the Tufts neighborhood near Teele Square, Somerville, and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
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