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Planning Board adopts West Main Street redevelopment study and sends report to council
Summary
The Somerville Planning Board voted to adopt a study finding a West Main Street area eligible for redevelopment review and will forward the report to borough council; the study notes most properties are occupied and not blighted but recommends flexibility to support redevelopment of underutilized parcels, including the vacant Grants building.
The Somerville Planning Board voted on Oct. 22 to adopt an area‑in‑need study for a portion of West Main Street and forward the report to borough council for consideration.
Planner Mike Cole told the board “the area was studied. It’s about 15 lots,” and said most parcels west of New Street are occupied two‑family homes and older housing stock. Cole identified an irregularly shaped parking lot at New and Veterans as underutilized and singled out a largely vacant commercial property (the Grants building at 2011 West Main) as the site most in need of redevelopment tools.
The report does not declare the neighborhood blighted, Cole said, but recommends giving property owners and potential developers the option to use redevelopment tools: “it gives the developer and the borough the tools to help redevelop that property,” he said. Board members repeatedly emphasized the draft preserves owners’ rights; inclusion in the redevelopment area would not force changes unless an owner sought redevelopment.
After a motion and second to adopt the study and send it to council, board members recorded affirmative votes. The meeting transcript records affirmative votes from Andrea Dair (yes), Chris Addex (yes), Larry Cleveland (yes), William Kale (yes), Jason Krosca (yes), Barry Van Horn (yes), Mayor Gallagher (yes), Council member Vroom (yes) and Chairperson Warner (yes). The clerk later counted “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,” a discrepancy between spoken roll‑call lines and the oral tally that the board did not resolve during the meeting.
The board instructed staff to prepare a resolution memorializing the action for the next meeting and to inform council that the report has been forwarded. No redevelopment standards were adopted at the meeting; any future design standards or redevelopment agreement would be considered separately by the planning board and council.
The planning board’s adoption is a procedural finding required before council can consider formal redevelopment design standards. The board’s memo and the redline study will be available on the borough’s website and returned for further review if council requests changes.
