These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City of Somerville website.
Affordable housing in Union
Affordable Housing Trust Fund, 5:15 p.m. Thursday. A Union Square housing development project approved by a local council in 2019 moves to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund to be considered for funding. Although its completion was expected by 2022 – with 51 units, 39 of which were to be affordable housing – the project has been in limbo since its approval, with residents growing increasingly frustrated at delays. Watchable via Zoom videoconferencing.
Against graduation requirement
City Council, 7 p.m. Thursday. Councilors will vote on a resolution presented by the School Committee in support of state ballot Question 2, which would repeal MCAS standardized testing as a requirement for high school graduation. The initiative is supported by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, members of which have argued the tests disproportionately affect students from marginalized backgrounds, whose scores become the sole measure of their education. Members of Gov. Maura Healey’s administration have argued in defense of the statewide testing standards and against allowing separate standards across school districts. The resolution is formally sponsored by councilor Naima Sait and supported by others. A similar order failed Monday in Cambridge on a 4-4-1 vote. At Somerville City Hall, 93 Highland Ave., Central Hill, and watchable online and via Zoom videoconferencing.
Take two against Ward 2 plan
Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m. Wednesday. Owners of an apartment building are fighting developers’ efforts to build a similar four-story apartment building on top of a neighboring parking lot at 10 Bedford St., Ward 2. Having their efforts once denied by Inspectional Services and the board, Dmitry Vasilyev and Patrycja Missiuro argue that the building’s planned dimensions violate a number of ordinances and that the two purchased plots of land on which the building would fall were merged illegally. A small housing complex also in Ward 2 is rejecting the city inspector’s claims that the association maintains a chicken coop too close to the property’s front lot lines at 2 Village Terrace. According to the complex’s owners, they have possessed a valid chicken coop permit for the past seven years and the coop falls on the side of their property, not the front. Watchable via Zoom videoconferencing.
Ward 2 gathering with officials
Ward 2 fall community meeting, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and city councilors welcome residents from around the ward (including Union Square, the Perry and Lincoln Park neighborhoods and Beacon Street area) for free food and discussion on projects, initiatives and crime statistics in the neighborhoods. Meetings for other wards will take place over the course of October. In the cafeteria of the Albert F. Argenziano School, 290 Washington St., Ward 2.
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