Somerville: active threads

Updated November 10, 2026

SomerWiki follows the questions Somerville city government hasn't settled yet: zoning changes, development projects, Council fights, the budget, schools, streets and more. Each page covers one of them and says what's happening now, how it got here, and what comes next, with links to the sources.

The pages are grouped by topic below, housing and zoning first, followed by upcoming meetings and deadlines. Who's who identifies the people, Recently in Somerville lists decisions by date, and About the sources explains where the information comes from and how current it is.

Housing and zoning

• Zoning amendments tracker — four mayoral amendments await the Planning Board; Nov 5 hearing result pending; Question 7 failed
• Backyard cottages, ADUs and lot splits — Land Use eyes 1,152 sq ft ADU cap; White's 900 sq ft limits heard Nov 5
• Housing tax-break zone — UCH-TIF zone approved 10-0 Sept 10; now with the state, then a first project deal
• Tenant protections — building-sale notice in effect since Oct 14; condo-conversion amendment at committee Oct 27
• Rental registry — registry stalled; short-term rental amendment heard Oct 27, result not yet posted
• Rental assistance — $2.1M aid pool projected to run dry this fall; voucher contract renewal Oct 28
• Somerville's bills on Beacon Hill — eight pending, none passed; three approved petitions await sponsors; arts-trust petition next

Development

• 90 Washington Street — land deal still in talks, Council vote expected by year-end; Cobble Hill seniors fight access road
• Teele Square hotel — ZBA deliberation on the Pit hotel postponed, no new date; gut permit filed for burned building
• Davis Square Neighborhood Plan — visioning wraps up; feedback summary due within weeks; YIMBY presses for much more housing
• Union Square — US2's plan a quarter built with its labs empty; Hamilton has filed nothing new; a frequent Route 96 may come after 2028
• Assembly Square — MGB leases 100,000 sq ft of labs at 74M; Planning Board members questioned the 19-story spec lab
• 299 Broadway — the Star Market site under construction: 319 homes, 136 affordable, opening 2027–28
• The lab glut and the tax base — Boynton Yards owners sought a zoning change Nov 5; tax classification hearing Nov 12

City Hall and money

• Three Council seats turn over — Taylor vs. Rice in Ward 3; papers Nov 16, due Dec 9; preliminary Feb 2
• Wilson's reorganization — nine cabinet departments and 23 fewer FTEs; salary ordinance ordained, but the structure never got a vote
• Equity reorganization — cut to four positions; unpaid, unbudgeted Human Rights Commission now investigates bias complaints
• City workers' union — about 220 staff still unrecognized; SMEU Unit A contract signed Oct 23
• Charter buildout — boards review reports in December; first recodification of the ordinances since 1963 begins
• Capital plan — cash-or-borrow, maintenance-first plan: $59M streets, $25M schools, $16M fleet; Council acts by Dec 1
• Tufts PILOT and labor — still no PILOT talks in public; library staff vote 41–5 to unionize

Police, public safety, civil rights

• Civilian police oversight — first hearing Oct 13 drew no speakers; no ordinance; board targeted for January
• Surveillance, police technology and AI — AI ordinance result not posted; Tufts confirms campus plate readers
• Immigration protections — Council urges Healey to end the state's 287(g) deal with ICE; $350,000 legal aid approved 10-0 Sept 24
• Divestment and ethical procurement — out of committee Oct 27; full Council vote set for Nov 12
• The Cummings warming center — reopens in December; Council committee finally takes it up Nov 10

Schools

• The new school at 115 Sycamore — MSBA moves 925 seats into schematic design; design forum Nov 10; debt-exclusion vote next
• School buildings — WSNS whole again Nov 4 after storm repairs; high school tiles failing again; East School facade bids opened Oct 15

Streets and transit

• Mobility projects — driveway-owner parking permits at committee Nov 9; Magoun design out for comment until Dec 4
• McGrath Boulevard — $130M boulevard starts about January 2028; city hires Utile for its corridor study
• Traffic calming — no traffic death since 2022; oversized early speed humps rebuilt; eight streets get humps in 2027

Water and sewer

• Combined sewer overflows — Council votes 9-1 against the draft plan; comment closed Oct 30
• Flooding and stormwater — PCB soil adds $3.1M to the ArtFarm pump station; stormwater fee slips to 2027

Culture

• Arts and culture — Creative Space Trust petition heads to the Council in November; Armory 20%+ empty

Dates that matter

• Nov 5 (results pending) — the Planning Board's joint hearing with Land Use on White's cottage and lot-split petitions and Boynton Yards · the City Council meeting of the whole, with the Poplar Street pump station orders (The capital plan: fix it first, borrow last) · outcomes not in our sources yet
• Nov 9 — Traffic and Parking on driveway-owner parking permits and school drop-off traffic
• Nov 10 — new-school design forum, Somerville High, 6–8 p.m. · Public Health and Public Safety on the warming center and rats · the Urban Design Commission on 84 Broadway
• Nov 12 — the FY27 tax classification hearing puts the commercial collapse on residential bills · the full Council's scheduled vote on the ethical procurement ordinance
• Nov 16 — nomination papers out for the Ward 2 and 3 special election · neighborhood meeting on an adult day health center at 20 Inner Belt Road
• Nov 18 — Somerville's Nov 3 results certified (State primary and election)
• Nov 25 — one year since the Council's divestment resolution, the deadline supporters cite (Divestment and the ethical procurement ordinance)
• November — the Council's hearing on the capital plan · the Creative Space Trust petition reaches the Council · Traffic and Parking on Community Path enforcement and construction parking · the high school tiles back in committee · postponed DSNC bylaw votes · Nov 30 applications due for an open ZBA seat
• Dec 1 — deadline for the Council to adopt or reject the capital plan
• Dec 4 — the Broadway–Magoun survey closes
• Dec 9 — Ward 2 and 3 nomination papers due, 5 p.m. (Three Council seats turn over)
• December — the warming center reopens · the boards-and-commissions review reports; the $50M Morrison Ave and $65M Mystic/Foss sewer projects go to bid; 90 Washington land-deal vote expected and zoning must finish or restart; Dec 8 Arts Town Hall; the city's target to file the Creative Space Trust petition by year-end; ARPA money expires Dec 31
• Dec 31 — Ewen-Campen, Scott and Mbah leave the Council; Marianne Walles takes the at-large seat (Three Council seats turn over)
• January 2027 — the stormwater fee target; the oversight board target; MBTA results on the Route 80 cut; Jan 4–5 reporting deadlines end the session for Somerville's bills
• Feb 2 and March 24, 2027 — Ward 2 and 3 preliminary and final (Three Council seats turn over) · about February geothermal go/no-go for the new school

Recently concluded

• State primary and election — Question 7 rejected statewide Nov 6 despite Somerville's 77% yes; certification Nov 18
• Rodenticide ban — ban ordained and home-rule petition approved 10-0 Sept 24; rats and dumpsters back at committee Nov 10
• Davis Square Neighborhood Council — recognized 10-0 Sept 24; Oct 26 meeting weighed postponing its bylaw fights
• Homeless shelter zoning — ordained 10-0 Sept 10: shelters by right in most districts, by special permit in Neighborhood Residence
• The FY27 budget — $394M passed 9-2 June 25; Wilson warns FY28 faces the same squeeze

Reference

• Before the boards — rolling docket of the Planning Board, ZBA, SRA, condo, design and preservation boards, licensing, and Council committees
• Recently in Somerville — dated log of notable decisions and news, newest first
• Who's who — the mayor's cabinet, eleven councilors and their committees, and a delegation in flux
• About the sources — what feeds the wiki and how far the record reaches