Somerville Infill and Small Developments

shmessy said:
Dear God, that Mayor Ballantyne is showing zero leadership on this large, cleared site right next to the Gilman Square station. That's downright sad. Can anyone wake her up? Look, I know Curtatone was there until 2 years ago, but I would venture to guess that once the station opened up he would have at least started a serious process.
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You are correct. It’s shameful and stupid (and right down the street from my condo).

Next to: new green line station, city library, high school, city hall, and Sarma (first and only restaurant to get a five-star rating in the Globe) — yeah, the best use of that space is a mostly unused, large gravel lot with cheap and ugly fencing! Totally great city management. All-American City, the “new Brooklyn!” Way to go Somerville!

Fuckin joke
 
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#bancars said:
Lol:

www.bostonglobe.com

Dubbed the âTeele Square Pit,â a vacant lot in Somerville has become the source of many questions â and quips - The Boston Globe

Surrounded by a chainlink fence, the property has stood vacant since 2011, testing residents' patience.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com
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“You have got to understand, it has not been 13 years with me” owning the property, he said. “It’s only been four or five years.”

probably: "the other 8 or nine years my brother owned it...."

Shameful Eyesore.
 
This lot used to house 5/6 storefronts! Major loss for a Sq. the size of Teele. Both this lot and Gilman are confounding given the tight real estate market.

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and how about the 12-ish yearlong vacant Star Market lot on Broadway in Winter Hill. For a very in-demand, "progressive," and "cool" city, Somerville sure is fucking stupid about a lot of real estate.

And, yeah - I know: There are plans to redevelop the Star lot. There have been "plans" since forever and nothing ever happens and I truly won't be surprised if nothing ever does.

Absolutely laughably incompetent and idiotic city leadership.
 
Dr. Rosen Rosen said:
Looking sharp. Strange floor plate yeah, but fills out the site.
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Personally i liked the architecture that was there before better, but I'll take the density.
Especially those tall windows are awkwardly proportioned.

What is all that roof top steel with the wires on the West facade? please don't tell me someone is expecting plants to grow up the wires in the next 50 years....
 

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The rigging on the west wall is temporary for erecting the party wall cladding.
 
fattony said:
32 homes on a former used car lot. Nice!
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I just realized this afternoon while walking by that this is the property!

I'm glad that we're replacing this auto use with some nicer-looking residential. But, I worry about this being a bit forboding as a pedestrian. A couple of the other newer builds on Prospect really try hard hard to screen - kinda rightfully - at eye-level on the sidewalk. Which make the walking experience really lackluster. No worse than an auto use, but, sadly no better.

I'm looking for something on the Somerville planning/zoning database site, but, don't see plans or decisions. Anyone know where there's more stuff to look at?
 
As-of-right stuff doesn’t get published. Only stuff that needs a variance does. I wish they would publish all permits and their application material in a fully indexed and searchable manner.
 
RandomWalk said:
As-of-right stuff doesn’t get published. Only stuff that needs a variance does. I wish they would publish all permits and their application material in a fully indexed and searchable manner.
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That is disappointing. Would at least like to see the permit and their submission!
 
I really hope this doesn't get built - why hasn't the "Brickbottom Small Area Plan" been adopted yet? (second iteration presented to planning despite a '22 'final draft')

Proposed: 151 Linwood St U-Haul Drive-in (across Joy St from the new E Somerville T Station)
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www.cambridgeday.com

U-Haul proposal has baggage to deal with: Complaints of site's current management - Cambridge Day

Despite significant changes to design, a proposed expansion in Somerville by U-Haul heard significant grievances from neighbors and residents.
www.cambridgeday.com www.cambridgeday.com
 
It doesn't look like they listened to the city from the last proposal, so hopefully this once again goes back to the drawing board.

Somerville has been dragging their feet on planning around the new stops. They were floating a 5-year development moratorium at Ball Square despite no publicly known proposals at the time, it has been absolute silence with Gilman, and they can't seem to pass any planning studies for East Somerville. Each stop is screaming for new housing, but it seems the city doesn't want to be blamed for the additional gentrification that comes with it and squeeze it all in at Union, despite begging for GLX...
 
fattony said:
32 homes on a former used car lot. Nice!
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Only a couple of used car lots left on that stretch of Prospect (I'm sure there's some interesting history as to why the street had just gobs of them) - then there's the brick industrial building on the corner of Oak Street and things are pretty much built out. All without any plan for road layout that removes one of (a) parking; (b) bicycles; or (c) buses (which the MBTA just added back to the street). My preference would be to direct cyclists to Tremont Street and turn it into a full-on bike boulevard. As it is, its a pretty dangerous corridor with more cars being added in these apartment developments.

There actually is an argument against retaining the street parking, since a surprising majority of properties on the Somerville side of the line have off-street parking, including all of these new buildings (though from what I understand, it's designed horribly and is very difficult to use). Even doing that only gets you either a one-way bus/cycle dedicated lane or cycle lanes on both sides.
 
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