These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.
Combined Sewer Overflows
Public meeting, 6 p.m. Tuesday. Cambridge, Somerville and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority have submitted a draft control plan to the federal Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Environmental Protection to end the release of waste in public waterways when sewer and water systems get overwhelmed by rainfall. Watchable online.
Homes at the Florentine Gardens
Historic Preservation Commission, 6:45 p.m. Tuesday. There’s a request to tear down 282-284 McGrath Highway, Ward 2, split the lot and create six homes. The current one-story building from around 1910 is sometimes called The Florentine Gardens Building and claimed to be “Somerville’s First Pizzeria” (established in 1934 by Italian immigrants Raymondo and Rosa Cangiano). After a stint as a music club called Lucie’s, in 1969 the building was sold and became the home of Lucia’s Restaurant until approximately 1990. Its final burst of life was as the Núcleo Sportinguista da Área de Boston, a club for Portuguese and Brazilian communities, from 1998 to 2019. Members also consider splitting the lot at 17 Monmouth St., Spring Hill, now the site of a five-bedroom, five-bathroom home built in 1900. As a Somerville Housing Authority property, it gave single-room occupancy to elderly or disabled residents selected through a Medford organization called the Walnut Street Center. In June 2024, board members voted to take the house out of the SHA portfolio because it was “functionally obsolete” – it lacked accessibility to people with physical disabilities – and because the the center had voluntarily vacated the property several years earlier, saying it had no clientele to house there. The applicant for the splitting of the lot is Sanjay Kansagra of Burlington, whose Sems Holdings LLC also has property on Tremont Street near Inman Square. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Fix for temperatures at Edgerly
City Council and School Committee Building Facilities and Maintenance Committee, 7 p.m. Wednesday. This committee run by city councilor Jon Link and committee members Leiran Biton and Laura Pitone look at issues at the Cummings School, around for swing space when construction or other issues displace students, a school building maintenance project website, custodial staffing at the East Somerville Community School and the temperature in the Edgerly School cafeteria and kitchen. Officially watchable by Zoom videoconferencing, yet no Zoom link is given.
Assembly labs, Union condos
Planning Board, 6 p.m. Thursday. Plans are discussed for a 19-story lab building at Assembly Square and for a 27-home condominium building at 32 Webster Ave., Union Square. The Webster Avenue site holds a dilapidated single-family home built in 1890 that’s been empty and neglected for several years (to the extent that city staff say the “physical integrity of this building is in doubt”) but is considered architecturally and historically significant by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
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