Land Use Committee

All right and now to clear this land use committee meeting in order please note that pursuant to chapter two sorry chapter two of the acts of 2025 this meeting of the city council committee will be conducted via remote participation We'll post an audio recording, audio-video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City of Somerville website and local cable access government channels. Clerk, please call the roll.

This is a real call, Councilor Davis.

Here.

Councilor Sait. Here. Councilor Wilson.

Present.

Councilor Ewen-Campen. Councilor McLaughlin.

Here.

Four Councilors present and one absent. We have quorum.

We just have a few housecleaning items that we could have taken care of last meeting. I apologize for coming here now. I'd like to move to approve items 1, 2, and 3, which are the minutes. Two items that we had presented by the city. Does anyone have any discussion or objection? Clerk, please call the roll.

On approval of agenda items 1, 2, and 3, Councilor Davis.

Yes.

Sait?

Yes.

Councilor Wilson?

Yes.

Councilor McLaughlin?

Yes.

Those items are approved.

All right, please read the next item.

The next item is agenda item 4, 12 registered voters requesting a zoning map amendment to change the zoning district of 363 Highland Ave. from mid-rise 4 to mid-rise 5 and from mid-rise 4 to mid-rise 6 and 110 will have from MR4 to MR6.

Mr.

Chair, I'm recused.

Councilor Davis is recused, yes. So do we still have a quorum? We have three here. I believe when we last discussed this, we had a conversation and most people seemed supportive. Did not hear a motion at the time because we still have the plan. Planning Board Recommendation, which should be before us by the next meeting. Does anyone have any thoughts on this item? I see Councilor Wilson.

Mr. Chair, thank you. I'm supportive of this. I have not heard from anyone in the public who's not supportive of this. It seems very much in line with everything we always talk about in terms of, well, land use. Yeah, eager to hear the planning board's thoughts on this. I guess... Okay. Liaison Radassi

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to share PPZ is in support of this amendment and I asked to see if Planning Board has made a recommendation at their meeting yet. He said that they are still presenting on this item to the Planning Board.

Thank you. Councilor Sait.

Through the Chair, I am supportive of this. From what I recall from our last meeting, the reason we did not vote is that we're waiting for the planning board to make a recommendation. I am inclined to wait for that recommendation. Yeah, just my... All right.

I see Leah's on Radassi again.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I did want to just clarify, the full council cannot vote until there's a planning board recommendation before the full council. The committee can still vote to discharge without a recommendation or recommend for approval. So I just wanted to clarify that.

All right. Thank you. Councilor Sait, do you have a comment again? Councilor Wilson, you had your hand up and down.

Yeah, I was going to say that. So absolutely, as I made my point.

Well, I'll tell you, as you said, Councilor Wilson, no one is opposed to this. I know this site, and by eyeing it out, would say it's a great site for something like this. So we can discharge without a recommendation, but I'm going to move to approve. And if people object, we can discuss that at the next council meeting. Any discussion?

Mr. Chair, I think it's a good motion. All right. So moved. Please call the roll.

And on roll call for approval on agenda item four, Councilor Sait. Yes. Councilor Wilson?

Yes.

Councilor McLaughlin?

Yes.

Three councillors in favor. That is recommended for approval.

All right, we'll give Councilor Davis a moment to come back. I intend on keeping this next item in committee. We have a lot to discuss on it in the coming year. I don't think we're going to get it done at the last council meeting of the year or the last committee meeting of the year I just want to take a moment to thank you all it's been an interesting term I feel like we got a lot done and we have a lot more to do and I'm looking forward to Yeah, Mr.

Chair, I want to thank you for really being behind the idea of Having this conversation and really digging in on how we can do a lot better with this land of ours that's by these new tea stations. You know, things changed. when the Green Line came into our city a few years back. And I think this is a really important thing that we've started the process here. I want to thank our land use analyst for really bringing some thought-provoking... presentations forward here you know especially particularly the part about you know parcel size you know about you know and also then just the interactions between the different the different districts i thought that that you know i'm admit those were things that were not on my brain when we started this process that now are sitting front and center.

So I am sad I will not be able to play a part in this going forward, but I feel like This project is in very good hands and I have every bit of confidence that the next council is going to get it done. Thank you.

It's a shame Councilor Wilson will have no role in the future of the city. Councilor Davis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, the fact that Councilor Wilson thinks he's not going to play a part of this is... I'm sure that's not what he meant, obviously, but I had to chuckle as well. No, I actually just want to thank you for putting this meeting together. I know I asked for it because one of the things I'm really trying to do is... President of the Council is to make sure we follow the rules as strictly as we can. And having this meeting to discharge these items is technically what we would be required to do. And so I appreciate you calling the meeting so that we could do it by the book.

Thank you, Councilor Sait.

Through the Chair, speaking to this last item, I want to Also, thank you for getting the ball rolling on this and initiating this conversation. And also want to thank Samantha for all the work. you know we have been helping with um yeah just yeah personally like meeting with you and uh getting a sense of like where we're at as a city and and the potential of all these areas has been extremely helpful. Yeah, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on this next year.

I'll see you all sooner than next year. We'll see you next week and hopefully a few more times between now and then. Councilor Sait would like to move to adjourn.

Chair, I just also want to reiterate to Councilor Davis's point, there are no other meetings, so this item will expire. So a new item will have to be entered if you would like to mark it work completed.

Let's mark it work complete. Thank you, Clerk.

Perfect. And on adjournment, Councilor Davis.

Sorry, could I just speak to that last point, just an administrative point? And Maddie, you may, Madam Clerk, you may have the answer to this, but... If it's marked where complete, has the list already been made of things that may or may not need to be?

To my knowledge, there is no list of things to be resubmitted. Things expire, and then if someone would like to take an item up again, they can resubmit that item.

Let me put it another way. Ms. Chair, I would prefer to leave, to not mark this work complete, because I don't, not that this is going to get dropped or forgotten about.

It will go away, though. It will go away. Someone will have to enter the item again.

One other time, please, everybody. It will go away, but in the interim, when we're looking at items that are going to go away and counselors might be making lists of things they want to resubmit, I don't want something to have been marked complete such that it doesn't show up and somebody forgets about it. So, I mean, look, with this one, I'm not going to forget about it. Councilor McLaughlin's not going to forget about it. So I guess I'm arguing, but just from a process standpoint. Things need to be actively resubmitted. Someone needs to take that initiative to do it if we want something to come back because of the way we approach this now. and so I would just caution folks about marking something where complete and then not remembering that it was there when they go to look at the box on December 22nd and and they don't see it right if that makes sense um so

Through the chair, what are the other dispositions available here beyond marking work complete?

This was going to be a five minute meeting and it's a ten minute meeting. What's going on here? Councilor Davis, I think Let's just market work complete because I am absolutely going to resubmit this and we may even get new counselors who want to sign on to it. So I'm not going to forget this. There won't be an issue.

And Mr. Chair, can I just say, if it makes us all be able to sleep at night here, it was sent for discussion that this thing happened. We definitely did discuss that. Hopefully no one comes away thinking that, you know, we think it's job done. But, you know, we... We're supposed to discuss it. We discussed it. I think that's work complete.

Thank you. And I would say that I hope the future mayor makes this a top priority in the coming years. The coming term, actually. Let's just get it done. So we'll leave this item where complete. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Councilor Sait calls to adjourn.

And on adjournment, Councilor Davis.

Yes.

Sait. Yes. Councilor Wilson.

Yes, please.

Councilor McLaughlin.

Yes.

We are adjourned.

Good night, everyone. Thank you.