Proposed Somerville zoning codes spark confusion amid need to solve housing issues

The Somerville Board of Aldermen proposed a new zoning code for the city on Wednesday, April 15, after a series of three conferences. 

The proposed zoning code is intended to modify how properties in Somerville are classified, and is meant to afford local homeowners the ability to circumvent official approval when seeking minor alterations to their houses, as well as to create new standards for affordable housing that would pertain to all new construction.

In an interview with WickedLocal, City Planning Director George Proakis asserted that these new suggested zoning standards present much clearer alternatives to the existing codes, which are notably antiquated, having been last updated in the 1990s. Proakis noted, however, that the changes have been met with a lot of confusion from both property owners and developers, who have struggled to determine what falls within legal practice in renovating and constructing buildings within the city.

On his official website, Ward Five Alderman Mark Niedergang says that while changes to the zoning code have the potential to solve, or at least ameliorate, issues that the city faces with the current zoning codes, he has several concerns about some of the code's finer points.

Niedergang explained that if the Board of Aldermen do not support the changes brought about to the current zoning code, he plans to correct the problems presently faced by the city by introducing incremental changes to the system. Still, in his letter, Niedergang detailed the roots of some of his lingering concerns.

“The Site Development Plan (SDP) process, which would replace the Special Permit process for all projects of significant scale as well as some smaller projects, provides for less discretion by the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals ... In a small, crowded city, we need a fair balance between predictability of development and community influence,” Niedergang wrote.

He went on to express his trepidations regarding how the new coding plan would interact with other policy goals laid out by the city. Specifically, Niedergang mentioned how the aldermen are in agreement that the city is in an affordable housing crisis, and that the proposed new inclusionary zoning numbers are not high enough to combat this crisis as well as he would like.

He added that this plan would be in direct conflict with the goals of SomerVision, the city’s master plan, which intends to forge 125 acres of open space in the city within the next 20 years. He also discussed how the very nature of form-based zoning carries its own intrinsic issues that would interrupt the pulse of Somerville as a city.

“Many urban planners, architects and designers in Somerville have said that form-based zoning, such as in this code, is too prescriptive and inflexible and restricts design options," Niedergang said. "As such, it does not allow for creativity and the funkiness and quirkiness that is a hallmark of Somerville’s built environment."

For first-year Jean-Charles Zurawicki, who grew up in the area around Tufts, there are potential benefits to adopting the new codes for zoning. He said he particularly hopes to see some of his friends reap the benefits that will be brought about as a result of the policy changes.

“[The new codes] sound confusing, but it appears to give homeowners more freedom and ease when increasing the value of their homes and provides for less wealthy residents and Tufts ... students ... [who would] benefit from more housing options,” Zurawicki said.