These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.
Future housing policies
Somerville Housing Authority, 4 p.m. Thursday. The authority hears public comment on planning documents: the 2025 Federal 5-Year Plan; Federal Annual Plan; and 2026 State Annual Plan. Through these documents, it lays out a map to be followed in coming years and presents budget breakdowns. As is to be expected, there is continued focus on developing projects such as Clarendon Hill and addressing Somerville’s high housing costs. Held at the Mystic Activity Center, 530 Mystic Ave., Ten Hills.
New housing and lab space
Planning Board, 6 p.m. Thursday. The board hears developers hoping to continue work on a nine-story lab building next to McGrath Highway approved two years ago, and from DiCamillo Associates on plans to build 30 apartments, including six affordable units, atop Lyndell’s Bakery, an iconic establishment at 720 Broadway, Ball Square.
Greystar, a global real estate company, asks a special permit for a 1.3 million-square-foot lab, office, hospitality and park development at 20-23 Cummings St., Assembly Square. Greystar – also putting up a 16-story lab building a few blocks away at 74 Middlesex Ave. – says this project would go on the site of the La Quinta hotel and 99 restaurant.
The board also hears about an ordinance proposed by Mayor Katjana Ballantyne to allow apartment- and multiplex-style housing in the city’s urban areas. The board has been asked to provide a recommendation on the proposed policy change. Watchable via videoconferencing.
Preventing tobacco access
Board of Health, 6 p.m. Thursday. The board hears from four leaders behind an initiative to curb adolescent tobacco use in Massachusetts cities. In aiming for a “nicotine-free generation,” the policy would gradually raise the age for the legal purchase of tobacco to prevent current adolescents from ever buying the product even as they grow into adulthood, while preserving access to tobacco products for the current generation of users. Watchable via videoconferencing.
McGrath Highway Boulevard plan
Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday. The state Department of Transportation plans to replace the McGrath Highway overpass and replace it with a streamlined boulevard. The design team presented a plan to community members in late October and now, representatives of the “McGrath Coalition” will recap project plans and progress to the committee. At the Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave., Central Hill, and watchable via videoconferencing.
A stronger
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