Somerville Somerville Planning Board 04-16-2026

Good evening. It is 6.01 p.m. This is the April 16th, 2026 meeting of the Somerville Planning Board. With me tonight are Michael McNeely, Lynn Richards, Jahan Habib, Coralie Cooper, and our staff liaisons. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, sorry, and I am Amelia Aboff, Vice Chair, chairing tonight's meeting. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of Acts of 2025, this meeting of the Somerville Planning Board will be conducted via remote participation. A video recording of the proceedings will be available on the City's website, meetings and events page, or by emailing planningboard at somervillema.gov. We have very limited things on our agenda tonight for the planning board and then we will reconvene at 6 30 with the land use committee in a joint hearing with the land use committee.

For tonight's planning board hearing, we have three minutes that need to be approved, as well as one item that has requested a continuance that we'll need to address and about to continue. So let's take up the minutes first. First, we have meeting minutes of March 5th, 2026. Did anyone have any comments or corrections to the March 5th meeting minutes? Seeing none, I will move to adopt the March 5th meeting minutes as written. Seconded by Jahan. Could we have a roll call, please?

Jahan Habib. Aye. Lynn Richards.

Next we have the meeting minutes from March 19th, 2026. Does anyone have any comments or corrections to the March 19th meeting minutes? Coralie?

Really a question. I just wanted to know if the public comments... that were given in the joint meeting with the Land Use Committee. Are those recorded in the Land Use Committee minutes?

That's an excellent question. They are part of the recording of the Land Use Committee meeting, but I have never myself reviewed the Land Use Committee's meeting minutes. Does anyone on the staff side have an answer to that question?

I do not, but I'm happy to double check and follow up with that.

Thank you. Thank you.

Great question. Coralie, are you comfortable moving forward with the vote or did you want to hold on those for a question?

No, I'm comfortable moving forward with the vote.

All right. If everyone is otherwise set on the March 19th meeting minutes. I will move to approve those as written. Seconded by Jahan. Could we have a roll call, please?

Jahan Habib. Aye. Lynn Richards.

Aye.

Coralie Cooper.

Aye.

Michael McNeely.

Aye.

Amelia Aboff.

Aye.

Thank you. And last, we had the revised meeting minutes from February 5th. This was the set of minutes that were Corrected to reflect the subsequent revision on the decision for, or clarification on the decision for 44 White Street. Has everyone had a chance to review those minutes and are there any comments or corrections? Yes, John.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a quick question. I'm perfectly fine with the meeting minutes, and I think that they're fine to be voted on. But I just have a quick question for Alvaro or perhaps somebody on the staff side. With respect to the subsequent meeting minutes, are we going to reference back to the original meeting? Because I know there's been some, there were two meetings where there were There were some voting, I guess, assessments that needed to be done. I just wanted to better understand because if everything's going to be addressed in these meeting minutes, then that's great. But I just want a clarification there. So Alvaro or anyone on the staff side could clarify. That'd be great.

Yeah, so I think to clarify that set of minutes, these will be posted under that meeting and they will say revised minutes and then they will have the explanation they have on the minutes. Just kind of like noting there was the error within the record and then there was corrected and so it shows the actual outcome of the voting.

Great. Thank you so much, Alvaro. And Madam Chair, I feel comfortable. Thank you.

Good question. All right. Lots of quizzes for staff in this meeting set. All right, I will then move to adopt the revised February 5th, 2026 meeting minutes as drafted. Seconded by Jahan, could we have a roll call please?

Jahan Habib Aye Lynn Richards Aye Coralie Cooper I'm staying Michael McNeely.

Hi.

Amelia Aboff.

Hi. All right. Thank you all. Clearing those out. Excellent. And then we had two hearings on our agenda for tonight. The first was 222 Broadway. This was opened at our previous meeting or a previous meeting and We have subsequently received a request for a continuance. Does anyone have any concerns or objections to continuing this? The applicant has requested it be continued to the May 21st meeting. Okay, seeing none, I will move to continue 222 Broadway to our meeting on May 21st. Seconded by Jahan. Can we have a roll call, please?

Jahan Habib. Aye. Lynn Richards.

Aye.

Coralie Cooper.

Aye.

Michael Magnelli. Aye. Amelia Apoch.

Aye. And the other case on tonight's agenda was 1 McGrath, which had been both previously open and previously continued, so we actually do not need to vote on that, but we will be reconvening on that case at the previously scheduled date, which is June 4th. All of the other items of business this evening are part of our joint hearing with the Land Use Committee, which we will convene on for at 630. The only other item... Sorry. Alvaro and then Lynn?

So just to note, the meeting notice was for 6.30, but I think the land use committee already has started the meeting and the... Their liaison just emailed me letting me know that they will be ready for the board to join so if it's okay we can move into the recess and then rejoin in that link and then the meeting will start

I, um, just to confirm, was a 6.30 start noticed on our agenda or the 6 o'clock start was also noticed on our agenda?

I saw a six o'clock start.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Sorry. I texted Michael because I forgot that he was going to be here and then I jumped on because I saw two six o'clock starts and I was like, where do we go first? And then I figured here to do everything that we just did and then to roll over to there.

No, no, that's great. That makes a lot of sense. It's just not the same.

I have a quick process question. So I read through the, I love reading zoning code. And so the question that I have is that they're going to read it in, there'll be a presentation, they'll open it up for public comment. and I'm always like I don't understand the land use committee as well as I understand our committee like is it going is tonight the night that as planning board members we can actually engage in conversation or does that happen at a different time

I will be happy to have Alaro give an additional answer to this, but the practice of the board and the land use committee is typically that the land use committee asks the Planning Board to keep any sort of comments fairly brief in the context of the joint hearing because it is primarily being held as a Once to both of us as entities. And then they asked the planning board sort of internal deliberation happen at the planning board subsequent meeting after the close of public comment. When there are amendments being put forward by the city, city staff is in the practice of then attending the planning board meeting to have that dialogue. When there's an amendment being put forth by a citizens group,

Those groups sometimes do and sometimes do not choose to attend the planning board's subsequent meeting. So if you want to be engaging with a The initiator of the amendment, there's not a guarantee that they will come to the planning board meeting where it is being discussed amongst the planning board, but we can always ask them to or invite them to. Does that make sense?

Yeah, so that I'm so glad I asked. So clarifying question of, you know, it says 10 here, you said eight, which is it? Clarifying question, brief and short, but the more substantive. The more substantive discussion will happen at another point. Got it.

Thank you very much. with the person who is bringing the amendment forward and they are not the city it is worth making sure to ask them to attend the planning board meeting however because not every submitter will do that by default

All right, that's very helpful. Thank you, Amelia. Of course.

Thank you for asking up front that. It's probably useful for others as well. Yes, Coralie.

Yeah, just to follow up to Lynn's question. So when would we ask them to attend? Is that tonight when we would ask them to attend the planning board, the meeting when it's on the agenda, or is that at some later time?

So typically it will be the... We sort of discuss live with the land use committee how long they are leaving open their public comment period to and both boards set the public comment period to a line and the planning board typically takes up the matter at the next meeting after that. after the close of public comment so um we will defer to the land use committee if they are setting their public But for tonight's meeting, typically we would expect to leave public comment open on these items until May 1st, and we would then pick them up at the May 7th meeting of the planning board. It's possible that those dates will change live in the meeting Thank you Of course And Coralie, was your first meeting a joint hearing? You know the drill of switching over to the other link I'm prepared tonight.

Yes, it's going to be smooth.

No, no worries. Trying to make sure. So for anyone in the audience who might not be familiar with this process, I don't think we have anyone in the maybe we do um we will Put the playing board in recess momentarily. We will leave a notice on the screen that we are in the Land Use Committee virtual meeting room. We will reconvene at the Zoom link hosted by the City Council Land Use Committee. Take up those items in the land use meeting and then we will reconvene here as a group to just close out the meeting very briefly after our business is concluded. So if there are any other process questions, I am happy to field them. Otherwise, seeing none, I will put the Planning Board in Recess. Elro, if you could put up that notice, please, that would be great.

And I will see you all on the Laney's Committee link momentarily. Thank you.

All right. Thank you all. That was an interesting conversation. Look forward to discussing it with you at a future meeting. I would like to see no other agenda items. And just to recap, sorry, we still have the urban design framework for Summer Nova on the agenda. That's something that we are going to hold to a future conversation for many reasons. including Sarah White's availability. So with that I see no other items of business and move to adjourn tonight's meeting 9 p.m. seconded by Jahan. Alvaro, could we please have a roll call?

Yes. Jahan Habib? Aye. Lynn Richards?

Aye.

Carly Cooper?

Aye.

Michael McNeely? Aye. Amelia Aboff?

Aye. Alvaro, can I keep you for one moment?

Yes.

All right. Good night, everyone. Thank you so much.

Good night.

Although I don't think that I verbally said that we would keep our written record open to the same time as the land use committee for that last item in the midst of trying to Get things closed out. If you are in touch with the liaison for the land use committee, would you mind messaging... Back to them, just in case there's any confusion, in case Ben needs to say that on the record before they close out.

Yes.

Thank you so, so much. Appreciate it.

No worries.

Thank you.

Of course. Have a good night.