These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.
New Leonard Grimes Park
Ribbon-cutting ceremony, 11 a.m. Monday. Celebrate the opening of Leonard Grimes Park, 31 Tufts St., East Somerville, with a ribbon-cutting sponsored by Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and her Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development with Ward 1 city councilor Matthew McLaughlin. The pocket park designed through two years of community engagement is named after a Black minister, abolitionist and underground railroad conductor who, in the 1850s, helped end enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act in Massachusetts.
Conditions for new pathway
Somerville Conservation Commission, 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday. The commission considers the next stage in state efforts to revitalize Blessing of the Bay Park, one of Somerville’s only waterfront green spaces. To apply for future permitting and continue its half-decade project, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation will need an “order of conditions” from the commission, the city’s stewarding body. The DCR will be represented by a consultant, Horsley Whitten Group. Watchable via videoconference.
Expansion of homeless shelter
Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m. Wednesday. The board considers a building permit filed by the Somerville Homeless Coalition that’s contested by a small group of residents. The permit, first granted in June, allows the group to move its homeless shelter to First Church Somerville and expand its occupancy count by 10 beds, bringing its total capacity to 26. One resident, who appeared to be a prior donor to the coalition, argues that the relocation does not follow zoning law. Watchable via videoconference.
Another step to cannabis shop
Planning Board, 6 p.m. Aug. 1. Hear a potential future Somerville resident – the cannabis vendor Seed, operated by Core Empowerment LLC – make the case for a special retail sales permit before the board to continue its permitting process for a next retail location. If granted, the permit would allow the company to fill 500 Medford St., Magoun Square. The space, empty since 2023, was once K-2 Beer & Wine – whose owners once wanted to build apartments overhead and considered opening its own adult-use pot shop, according to the Magoun Square account on Twitter. Watchable via videoconference.
A stronger
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