July 2021: Urban Renewal Plan Approved by the State

There are a few updates to share about the Winter Hill Urban Renewal Plan.

State Approval Earlier Than Expected

The Urban Renewal Plan has been approved by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development. Their review went far faster than anticipated, just 30 days. This does not mean any immediate change but does mean that we can move forward. The next step is to convene a community advisory committee, and the organizational work to set that group up is ongoing. We are continuing to work toward the first meeting of the advisory committee in September.

Visit SomerVoice.SomervilleMA.gov and select the Winter Hill Plan Implementation project for details and to review the approved plan.

July 22nd Neighborhood Meeting on Star Market Development Proposal

There is a new development team looking at 299 Broadway, the former Star Market site. They convened a neighborhood meeting on Thursday, July 22nd to share their proposal. Meeting was held Thurs, July 22nd, 6:30 - 8:00 pm. This meeting was organized and prepared by Mark Development. This was not a City of Somerville led meeting, and is being shared for informational purposes only.

Link to Slides | Link to Video

POST MEETING UPDATE: Comments and questions for the Mark Development team can be emailed to dash[at]adamdashlaw.com. If you would like to share your comments with the City of Somerville, please include Rachel Nadkarni, rnadkarni[at]somervillema.gov as well.

What does all this mean?

While City staff continue to move toward implementing the urban renewal plan and engaging the Winter Hill community in that process, the goal has been to spur redevelopment of the site. The City has been and continues to be open to working with a development team that purchases the site if their plan is consistent with the urban renewal plan and supported within the community. Economic development staff will be on hand at the development team’s meeting to address questions about how the processes relate.