whna | Entries tagged with development

From the city Somerville Economic Development Team :

Thanks for Attending Our Meeting!

We had about fifty people join us Monday night for our latest community meeting on a possible Winter Hill Urban Renewal Plan. Thank you to Councilor Clingan and Winter Hill Brewing Company for having us, and to everyone who came by.

Below is our voting sheet that participants updated last night; we're still seeing support for an urban renewal plan including all sites except for the Brewery Block. This does not include voting on SomerVoice, which will be open until 2/17.

Beyond the voting, we heard a variety of different priorities highlighted:

Community Land Trust parcels for affordable housing and/or commercial
Commercial use / grocery stores
Some wanted no housing, some wanted affordable housing
Center for youth as well as space for the elderly
The importance of keeping parking/traffic in good shape, especially near the Elizabeth Peabody House.

Next Steps

2/13 - Reunión de la comunidad de Winter Hill: La ciudad de Somerville está reuniendo comentarios sobre un posible plan de renovación urbano en Winter Hill. Esta iniciativa ayudaria a saber que te gustaria ver en el sitio vacante de Star Market y podría apoyar otros objetivos de la comunidad en el vecindario. Únase a la conversación en español y comparta su perspectiva. Jueves, el 13 de Febrero de las 6:00 - 7:00 pm, Escuela de Winter Hill, 115 Sycamore St, Somerville, MA. (We have one more meeting, to be held in Spanish, on February 13 at 6pm at the Winter Hill Community School.)
2/17 - Online Feedback: You can still weigh in online at SomerVoice.SomervilleMA.gov until February 17.
2/19 - Presentation to the Somerville Redevelopment Authority: Staff will be sharing the results of our community engagement at the next SRA meeting on Wednesday, 2/19 at 5:30pm at the Somerville Public Library Central Branch Auditorium. There will be an opportunity for public comment, and we will share the slides on SomerVoice.

mem_winterhill

Pasted from city email; this is not a meeting run by Winter Hill Neighborhood Assn:

Have You Weighed in on Winter Hill's Future?

The City is gathering feedback about whether an urban renewal plan might be the right path forward for Winter Hill, particularly for the Star Market site. If an urban renewal plan is the next step, are there other sites that should be included in the Winter Hill neighborhood? We are listening to community input through early February and we would like your perspective.

Join Us in Person

All are welcome at the following events to ask questions or share feedback in person. None of the information has changed since our December 17th meeting, so you can pick which session to attend or simply weigh in online. Please note some upcoming dates have shifted!

Community Meeting with Portuguese Interpretation

This repeat of our 12/17 meeting will be held mostly in Portuguese, but all are welcome.

Thursday, January 23 | 5:00pm-7:00pm

Brazilian Times Office, 311 Broadway, Somerville, MA

Winter Hill Community Meeting

Co-hosted by Ward 4 Councilor Jesse Clingan and Winter Hill Brewing Co., this repeat of our 12/17 meeting is specifically targeting business and property owners, but all are welcome.

Monday, February 3 | 4:00pm-6:00pm

Winter Hill Brewing Company, 328 Broadway, Somerville, MA

ratushebarl

https://patch.com/massachusetts/somerville/upcoming-somerville-hotel-gets-53-8m-financing

Not exactly Winter Hill but maybe of general interest: apparently they're putting a huge 6-story hotel on that long-vacant lot next to Wings over Somerville and the UPS Store.

I guess it's the leading edge of the Kendallization of Union Square? Not clear to me why anyone would want to stay there now...they're going to walk to Market Basket? Artisan's Asylum maybe? Not exactly a boon to Somerville Ave traffic. Anyway it comes as a suprise to me.

mem_winterhill

Justin and I are working with the city's Historic Preservation team to have a neighborhood walk on May 5 2019. 2pm. Starting at about 425 Broadway on the top of Winter Hill.

If you are new to Jane's Walk, here's more detail: https://janeswalk.org/

We are currently planning to start it at the very top of Winter Hill, and wind our way down to Gilman Square. If you have insights, special stops, great local tidbits, we hope you'll help us out.

DID YOU KNOW: Abigail Adams had coffee on Winter Hill. I have the letter that describes this. I'll share it on the walk.

More details to come, but we wanted to get the word out now to get you thinking about great items for the walk. And put the placeholder on your calendar.

In addition, we hear there will be a showing of the film Citizen Jane: Battle for the City that week. Stay tuned for details, but in case you are curious, this is the film.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3699354/

"Citizen Jane: Battle for the City Official Trailer 1 (2017) - Documentary" (Watch on YouTube)

mem_winterhill

As many of you know, one of the options for the Star Market property is a city acquisition of the site by eminent domain. I thought maybe this story about a property in the city might be informative about that:

Somerville’s continued use of eminent domain http://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/89961

5 years.

“That parcel has been vacant for 5 years and the partners who own it have been battling each other in court for most of that time,” said Ward 5 Councilor Mark Neidergang. “So since there was nothing there and no prospects anytime soon for it being developed, and since the city needed a public safety building, the administration asked the board for that $8.7M to take it using the right of eminent domain.”

mem_winterhill

Hey Hillens: there was an article in the Globe the other day that I just caught up with. But it covered a number of issues that we should be thinking about.

Forming a more perfect Union Square, by Tim Logan. It covers the development, the tensions, the CBA, neighborhood council, and touches on the Clarendon issues too. I think it's informative about what we could face here on the hill someday. Worth reading.

That is: What is lost, and gained, as a rough-edged old city gives way? And how much room should the new make for what came before?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/12/08/toward-more-perfect-union-square/3ePMp6CNkv7NRFoh7yuPCL/story.html

If you don't have a Globe subscription, of course you can use the local library database to read the articles for free. It doesn't have the photos, but they key info is here.

https://www.minlib.net/online-resources/somerville and see the Boston Globe link. Search with the title.

I also happened to catch this commentary on twitter that is probably good research for us to have. https://twitter.com/bhbradlow/status/1072679453736747015 There's a link to the video from the meeting with the neighborhood council and the alderfolks.

mem_winterhill

I got Stephanie Hirsch's newsletter (it's loaded with info--I am not sure how you can sign up but check out her site and ask via email perhaps? http://www.somervilletogether.com/about Her email is posted there.)

Anyway, one of the things that caught my eye was this planning meeting for assessing housing info here. You can see more details on Facebook, but here's the tidbit from the newsletter. Sounds like a data nerd + neighborhood housing nerd dream event.

https://www.facebook.com/events/153096858789095/

Planning for Housing Hackathon: To better understand our community’s housing inventory and ownership patterns, my incoming BOA colleague Will Mbah and I, along with researchers from MIT and local data experts, will analyze housing data. Join in on a “Housing Hackathon” planning meeting on January 8th. We will turn what we learn into policy proposals that promote neighborhood stability.

secretlyironic

Monday at 6 PM at the Argenziano school on Washington Street-- meet with developers and city officials to see what the current plans look like.

The plan has several updates in response to neighborhood feedback, including relocating a park further from the busiest roads, and adjusting the massing of some buildings to make them fit into the surrounding buildings.

This is bound to be controversial so this is a really good opportunity to have input on the ways in which the community is going to be redeveloped.

Winter Hill Neighborhood Association

Unofficial forum of Somerville Winter Hill Neighbors

Entries tagged with development

Next Steps and Meetings for Winter Hill [Star Market Urban Renewal]

City notice of Winter Hill urban renewal related meetings

Giant hotel on Somerville ave

Jane's Walk, May 5 2019, 2pm | Winter Hill and Gilman Square

Eminent Domain in Somerville

Instructive piece about Union Square, CBA, etc

Planning for Housing Hackathon: Jan 8 2018

Union Square planning presentation

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