Dear Billy T and Somerville Speakup Line,

All great questions. And there are dozens more…. The City doesn’t inform homeowners/taxpayers/residents about any of the things on the drawing board that will affect them. If the transfer tax passes and funds affordable trust fund, combined with downzoning 3 units properties to 2 units thereby subtracting hundreds of thousands of value, and eliminating rental units by the thousands in the midst of a housing crisis, further exacerbated by the tenants right of first refusal, buyers will be running for the Medford hills. Developers who are purchasing most of the multifamily stock will never put their millions on the table, and patiently wait 7 months to see if they can purchase or not!!! The entire market can change in less time than that. Why are tenants allowed 7 months? Because of the ‘right to assign’ which is the backdoor by which the Trust Fund will procure your personal property. Who is this good for??? NO one. It is good for Mayor Joe and his ambitions to get his hands on 6000 rental units cheap. It is not coincidental that all these initiatives work to diminish property values when the city is looking to acquire multi family units. When RB is downzoned, property assessment and taxes are not being reduced even though the city’s rezoning is desicrating the real value of your now 2 family never to be 3 units, never for that property owner to develop that third unit, 3rd floor, or expand, or even to seel that potential to a developer. Add the ludricrous 7 month process that first right of refusal involves, and Somerville multi-family values will experience a tremendous nosedive. RB owners ought to be suing the City – its very like eminent domain. The city does not want property owners to realize the full scope of its agenda. Its insideous and its purposeful – there is no protection for private property owners when the city’s goals reign supreme. People have got to wake up, show up, and stand up to protect yourself. The city is out to screw you – and the last thing they want is to inform you about it!

Ann