If you care about affordable housing, please write to the Somerville Planning Board at planning@somervillema.gov or if you can, come to the Planning Board meeting tomorrow, Thursday, April 6, 6 PM at City Hall & tell the Planning Board NOT TO GRANT A WAIVER to Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT) for its proposed 500 unit apartment building on Block 8 in Assembly Square.
FRIT, the developer of Assembly Row, is seeking a waiver so that they only need to provide 12 1/2% affordable units, rather than the 20% that is required everywhere else in Somerville for big projects. If FRIT gets the waiver, the City loses 37 affordable units in that building. This is a HUGE amount of affordable housing in Somerville!!
FRIT will present the project to the Planning Board and the public tomorrow and then there will be a public hearing where anyone can express their opinions about any aspect of the project. If you can’t attend the meeting or don’t want to speak, you can email the Planning Board at planning@somervillema.gov.
They will not be making a decision on the application until at least April 20th, so you can send your email anytime before then, but sooner is better.
Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang
I agree with the lower # of units I see some low income rental units at Assembly row and have seen our police at the same apartment many times Maybe they should be vetted better so you do not introduce crime over there which is rampant with shoplifters Increase the amount of people then increase the amount of police