Executive Summary
The Sustainability and Infrastructure Committee met remotely on October 26, 2026, to review enforcement of the City's vacant properties ordinance and address ongoing concerns regarding utility double poles and abandoned wires. City inspectional and public health staff reported on residential ticketing, registration protocols, and coordination with the state Attorney General's Neighborhood Renewal Division, with members requesting that Strategy and Development participate in future discussions. The committee also met with representatives from Eversource and Verizon, alongside public works and engineering staff, to examine Somerville's inventory of approximately 125 double poles, notification workflows through the NJUNS system, and a joint utility operating agreement, ultimately keeping the double pole orders in committee for continued tracking.
Enforcement of the vacant properties ordinance (Item 2)
The committee heard an update from Acting Director of Inspectional Services Kevin Klein, Colin Ziegler of the Public Health Division, and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Amanda Nagim-Williams regarding municipal enforcement of Section 11-111, the vacant properties ordinance.
Key discussion points included:
- Departmental Roles: The Public Health Division has taken on residential vacancy enforcement, focusing on identifying, inspecting, and ticketing blighted properties. Commercial properties involve broader economic development considerations, prompting recommendations to coordinate enforcement with Strategy and Development.
- Registration Timelines and Fees: Under Section 11-111, property owners are required to register properties within 90 days of vacancy. The registration fee is $50. Currently, approximately 12 vacant properties are registered with the city.
- State Revitalization Program: The Public Health Division began working with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Neighborhood Renewal Division early last year. The AG's office has assisted in locating contact information for absentee property owners and monitoring properties in auction, though no Somerville properties have been placed into receivership through the partnership to date.
- Inspection Authority: The ordinance mandates rodent mitigation within 30 days of registration and recurring inspections every six months. Staff noted that registration grants inspectors legal authority to enter private parcels to cite sanitary and structural violations rather than inspecting strictly from the public sidewalk.
- Council Feedback: Committee members expressed frustration that despite the ordinance being on the books for seven years, enforcement has remained largely complaint-driven, leaving long-term vacant properties uninspected.
The item was kept in committee to allow staff from Strategy and Development to attend a subsequent meeting.
Utility double poles and abandoned wires (Items 3, 26-0628, and 26-0627)
The committee jointly considered a communication regarding double poles (Item 3) and two council orders requesting public works officials and utility representatives to present plans to monitor and remediate double poles and wire hazards (Items 26-0628 and 26-0627).
Key discussion points included:
- Joint Ownership and Inventory: Utility poles in Somerville are jointly owned by Eversource and Verizon. Jason Wright of Eversource reported an active inventory of approximately 125 double poles across Somerville.
- Transfer Workflow (NJUNS): Utility poles and transfers are managed via the National Joint Utility Notification System (NJUNS). When Eversource sets a replacement pole, an electronic ticket queues attachments in top-down sequence: electric attachments at the top, followed by municipal lines and third-party attachers (cable and telecommunications), down to Verizon at the bottom.
- Operating Agreement: Eversource and Verizon entered into an operating agreement approximately one year ago under which Eversource sets the new pole and Verizon removes the retired pole once all attached utilities have transferred their lines.
- Queue Status and Delays: Tatum Kelleher of Verizon stated that Verizon maintains an internal 30-day transfer window and currently has zero Somerville poles pending in its queue, noting that bottlenecks typically occur among upstream third-party attachers such as Comcast and Astound, or unassigned member codes.
- Public Safety and Severe Leans: Councilors presented specific double and leaning poles of concern, notably pole 358-47 near an elementary school and poles 191-0, 191-1, 190-1, and 190-2 along Kent Street leaning toward the MBTA commuter rail right-of-way.
- Public Comment: A member of the public reported that double poles on their street had recently been removed following council attention, but cited historical incidents where unaddressed wires caused damage to street trees and expressed skepticism regarding utility outage notification systems.
- Working Group Proposal: Utility representatives suggested convening a quarterly working group with municipal leadership to track and systematically resolve priority poles.
Item 3 was discharged as work complete. Items 26-0628 and 26-0627 were kept in committee.
Approval of the minutes and adjournment (Item 126-1209)
The committee considered the approval of the minutes of the prior meeting and adjournment.
- Outcome: Approved with all votes in favor of approval, 2-0 (Councilor Scott absent for the vote).
The meeting adjourned at 7:59 PM.