These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.
Combining two public schools
New School Building Project School Building Committee, 4:30 to 6 p.m. Monday. More work on construction of a 925-student complex at at 115 Sycamore St., Winter Hill, to meet the needs of the combined communities of the closed Winter Hill Community Innovation School and aging Benjamin G. Brown School. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Assembly Square walk audit
Community event, 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Community organizations and neighbors assess how safe, accessible and comfortable it is to walk in Assembly Square, which is surrounded by the most dangerous roads in Somerville – most of them state property. An Assembly Square Neighborhood Plan adopted last July seeks to improve the area’s sense of connection with the rest of the city. Members of the Somerville Pedestrian & Transit Advisory Committee, Assembly Connect, the Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets and Groundwork Somerville will be on the walk, which starts at The Lawn, 301 Assembly Row.
Cultural trust launch session
Community meeting, 6 p.m. Wednesday. City staff explain what it could mean to establish a municipal cultural trust to collect and distribute money to support cultural space and buy and manage properties dedicated to creative work. The meeting will present findings from Metropolitan Area Planning Council research, gather feedback and take questions. At the Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave., Central Hill.
Development in Porter Square
Planning Board, 6 p.m. Thursday. A four-story, 29-unit apartment building is proposed for 32-40 White St. at the White Street Place cul-de-sac, across from a shopping center now known as The Mix Porter Square. The apartments would replace two homes and the long-closed Fleming Printing. A four-story laboratory office building (with a fifth floor of mechanicals) was proposed for this site in 2022, but the developer withdrew when a Planning Board memo in 2023 limited its available square footage. In the new plan, among a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom homes are five that are deeded as affordable. There will be 29 long-term bicycle parking spaces and four short-term, but no car parking is included – and because they will be within a quarter-mile of a T station, residents can’t apply for on-street parking passes.
Plans are also discussed for a 19-story lab building at 120 Middlesex Ave., Assembly Square; the Dunkin’ Donuts at 222 Broadway, Winter Hill, across from Foss Park, which has long been considering later hours, one of several city business asking recently to stay open longer; and for 6 Wheatland St., also near Foss Park but in the Ten Hills neighborhood, where more than a year ago a landowner said they wanted to build five units of housing by tearing down the current two-unit structure on land behind a convenience store and the Dumpling Garden restaurant.
School Committee special meeting
School Committee, 7 to 9:30 p.m. Aug. 10. This meeting has been scheduled and posted on the municipal calendar with no agenda, documents or even a topic attached as of press time.
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