The Elm-Beacon Connector

Community Engagement Report

In March of 2025, the City published a concept design for the Elm-Beacon Connector project. The design included quick-build protected bike lanes, clear corners, parking regulation proposals, traffic signal changes and closing the southbound motor vehicle connection between Mossland Street and Cedar Street.

We shared these designs at an open house on March 10 at the Kennedy School and spent the following month engaging community members to gather feedback and promote awareness about the project. This included outreach activities like

• Tabling at the Kennedy School parent teacher conferences
• Hosting a street outreach pop-up on Elm Street at Hancock Street
• Holding a virtual office hour
• Conducting an online feedback survey
• Meeting with businesses one-on-one along the street
• Posting fliers on over 400 homes in the project area
• And meeting with our Pedestrian and Transit Advisory Committee and Somerville Bicycle Advisory Committee.

We’d like to thank community members who participated and shared feedback. Please check out our Elm-Beacon Connector Concept Design Community Engagement Report which describes all the outreach activities we held and what we heard. We estimate that we spoke with over 571 people in these efforts.

Updated Limit of Work

We are excited to announce that we have expanded the scope of the project to include the intersection of Somerville Avenue at Craigie Street. We appreciate all the community members who shared their safety concerns about this specific location. We will now be including quick-build changes at this intersection to increase safety and comfort. We will share the new design when we publish final designs for this project. This work will connect to the future quick-build protected bike lanes planned for Somerville Avenue between Elm Street and Bow Street.

Updated Timeline City staff are working to incorporate the feedback we heard into a final design. We had originally hoped to begin delivering this project in late 2025, however, we ended up dedicating more time in the early summer to review and process all the community input we heard. It has also taken more time than anticipated to incorporate all of that feedback into the next phase of the design plans. We are now expecting to finalize the design by the end of the year and publish the final plans in January 2026. We will then conduct the bidding process over the rest of the winter and start implementation first thing in the Spring of 2026.

If you have any questions, please reach out to transportation@somervillema.gov.

On March 10, the City hosted an open house to share the concept design for the Elm-Beacon Connector Quick-Build project. Thank you to the community members who were able to join, ask questions, and share your feedback. Take a look at the materials below to learn more about the proposed concept design.

• Check out the posters from the March 10 Open House detailing the project design elements.
• Review the detailed concept design plan.
• Check out the brochure an overview of the proposed changes in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Nepalese.
• Take a look at the traffic signal modeling, analysis and re-phasing presentation.
• Review the proposed parking regulation changes.
• Watch the recorded presentation talking through the concept design details.

We want to hear from you! Over the next month, we aim to gather as much feedback as possible through a variety of community outreach activities.

Take our Concept Design Feedback Survey to share your feedback. The survey is now available until April 11, 2025. The survey is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Nepali, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

Come join us at our upcoming street outreach pop-up on April 2 at the intersection of Elm Street at Hancock Street near the Porter Square Shopping Center from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. to talk to staff in-person, share your ideas, and ask questions. If we change the date due to inclement weather, we will post an update on this project webpage.

Join our Virtual Office Hour on March 19 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. to ask your questions or give feedback to the project team. Community members can log into the zoom webinar at any time during the event.

• Register in advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eTxkzM22SNK2r86-0m55UA
• Call-in information: +13092053325,,89576034442#,,,,*332433# or +13126266799,,89576034442#,,,,*332433#
• Or dial: +1 309 205 3325
• Webinar ID: 895 7603 4442
• Passcode: 332433

At any time, please feel free to reach out to the Mobility Division with any of your questions or comments at transportation@somervillema.gov or 311 (617-666-3311).

The City of Somerville can provide you with an interpreter in your language for free. To request an interpreter, please contact us at somerviva@somervillema.gov or call 311 (617-666-3311) at least 7 days in advance of this event.

Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Adrienne Pomeroy in advance at 617-625-6600 x 2059 or apomeroy@somervillema.gov.

Information available in: English | Español | Português | 繁體中文 | 简体中文 | Kreyòl Ayisyen | नेपाली

Open House Will Showcase Concept Design for Quick-Build Safety Improvements and Provide Opportunity to Share Feedback

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, Ward 6 Councilor Lance Davis, Ward 5 Councilor Naima Sait, Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, Ward 2 Councilor J.T. Scott, and City Staff invite you to an open house to discuss proposed new quick-build designs for Elm Street between Russell Street and Somerville Avenue, Somerville Avenue between Acadia Park and Elm Street, Beacon Street between Somerville Avenue and Oxford Street, and Mossland Street. The event will be held on Monday, March 10, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the John F. Kennedy School Cafetorium. Please enter the cafetorium through the Sartwell Avenue entrance.

In the fall of 2024, we launched this project with the goal of making safety improvements along these key routes. Community members shared their safety concerns, priorities, and ideas for improvements. We reviewed all the feedback we collected and used it to shape our new conceptual design for these streets. To learn more about what we heard, please check out the Pre-Concept Design Community Engagement Report.

The open house will feature multiple stations where community members can learn about different aspects of the Concept Design and share their feedback and questions with City staff. We will also have pizza and refreshments.

Following the open house, we will publish all of the material and a recorded presentation on this project webpage. We will also provide other opportunities to participate, including an online survey, virtual office hours, potential street outreach pop-ups (weather dependent), and more. Details will be posted to this project webpage in the coming weeks.

We also want to share that we are anticipating the project to be completed in 2026 instead of by the end of 2025. We will continue to keep community members posted as we see changes in the timeline.

If you have any questions, please reach out to our team at transportation@somervillema.gov or by calling 311 (617-666-3311).

Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Adrienne Pomeroy in advance at 617-625-6600 x 2059 or apomeroy@somervillema.gov.

Interpretation into any language is available upon advance request (at least seven days in advance) by contacting the SomerViva Office of Immigrant Affairs at somervillema.gov/ContactSomerViva or calling 311 at 617-666-3311.

Information available in: English | Español | Português | 繁體中文 | 简体中文 | Kreyòl Ayisyen | नेपाली

On Wednesday, September 25, from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m., we hosted our first community meeting on Zoom. Thank you to all who were able to join. During the meeting, we shared background on the project, related plans and ordinances, community engagement strategies, and potential design options. We also heard input and questions from community members regarding safety challenges and possible solutions.

Meeting Materials

• Click here to download the slides shared at the meeting.
• Click here for a video recording of the meeting.

We want to continue to hear from you! There are multiple ways to share your input to help us learn more about your transportation safety concerns and gather feedback on design elements we should include in the project.

• Share your ideas through our survey! Take the survey online in English, Español, Português, Kreyòl Ayisyen, नेपाली, 繁體中文, 简体中文. The survey is available until October 25.
• Come join us at an upcoming street outreach pop-up to talk to staff in-person, share your ideas, and ask questions. We will be at the intersection of Beacon Street and Somerville Avenue on Thursday, October 3 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. (inclement weather date: October 16). We will also be at Kennedy School drop off on Tuesday October 8 (weather dependent).
• Add your comments to our online Public Input Map. Writing your comments on this map will let us know what you see as issues and opportunities in the project area. Use pins to highlight locations that you think it is important for us to prioritize for changes or improvements, as well as locations that are currently working well. Once you add a pin, you can also include comments and images to highlight specific priorities or concerns.

Check out our Frequently Asked Questions to learn more about the project. We will be adding more questions and answers throughout the development of the project as we gather more questions from community members.

At anytime, you can always share your ideas or questions via email to transportation@somervillema.gov or via phone at 617-666-3311. Subscribe to the Mobility Monthly Newsletter for project updates.

Meeting flyers available in: English | Español | Português | 繁體中文 | 简体中文 | Kreyòl Ayisyen | नेपाली

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, Ward 6 Councilor Lance Davis, Ward 5 Councilor Naima Sait, Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, Ward 2 Councilor J.T. Scott, and City Staff invite you to a community meeting to discuss the Elm Beacon Connector.

Come hear an overview of the project, learn more about the opportunities in quick-build projects, and share your questions and feedback.

Date: Wednesday, September 25

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Register in Advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6FYX8cSgQBqOgnv3aQ8yAg

After registering in advance, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the zoom webinar. To join via audio:

• US: +13052241968,,82106607359#,,,,*382317# or +13092053325,,82106607359#,,,,*382317#
• Or dial the following number and enter the Webinar ID and Passcode: +1 305 224 1968
• Webinar ID: 821 0660 7359
• Passcode: 382317

Following the community meeting, we will launch an online survey to gather community input and host a street outreach pop-up on October 3 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the intersection of Somerville Avenue and Beacon Street. (Inclement weather date: October 16).