3½ -year community-based planning effort provides framework for citywide economic development, urban design, transportation and social policy through 2030; First-ever comprehensive plan draws on extensive input from residents, business owners and community organizations

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and Executive Director of Strategic Planning and Community Development Michael F. Glavin submitted the city’s first-ever Comprehensive Plan to the Board of Aldermen at their February 23  meeting. The product of a process that began in 2009 and incorporates input from over fifty public meetings throughout the city as well as professional expertise from a wide range of urban planning specialists, the SomerVision document provides a framework of values, goals and principles to guide the city’s planning and policy-making for the next two decades.  In addition to presenting what Mayor Curtatone called a “shared vision of the future we want to build for ourselves and our children,” those goals include 30,000 net new local  jobs, 125 new acres of publicly-accessible open space and a total of 6,000 new housing units, all to be developed by 2030.

“This is an extraordinary achievement made possible by the hard work of hundreds of community-minded contributors both inside and outside government,” said Mayor Curtatone. “Because it is based on so much public input and review, it truly represents a consensus view of our values and priorities as a community.  And, because it is rooted in the best possible forecasting and professional analysis, its ambitious goals are practical and achievable.”

“A comprehensive plan of this depth and quality is an advantage that any city development and planning team would envy,” said Glavin.  “It tells us what kinds of development our residents would most like to see, and where they’d like to see it.  It provides solid evidence that our residents understand thatSomerville’s economic and social diversity are valuable assets that should be preserved.  It offers strong support for the idea that healthy neighborhoods support and encourage a mix of uses, and are truly multi-modal when it comes to transportation.  SomerVision will help us make the most of our major transformative areas, includingAssembly Square, Brickbottom and Inner-Belt, but it’s equally useful in guiding desirable change and growth in our established commercial and residential areas.”

“This is more than an urban planning document,” said Curtatone.  “It helps us think about how to harness all of city government – our schools, our libraries, our youth and recreation program, our arts, cultural and historic activities – in service to a shared community vision.”

SomerVision is designed to set the city on a path to a future that includes:

• 30,000 new jobs “as part of a responsible plan to create opportunity for allSomervilleworkers and entrepreneurs;”
• 125 new acres of publicly-accessible open space “as part of a realistic plan to provide high-quality and well-programmed community spaces;”
• 6,000 new housing units, 1,200 of which will be permanently designated as affordable housing “as part of a sensitive plan to attract and retainSomerville’s best asset: it’s people”
• 50% of new trips via transit, bike or walking “as part of an equitable plan for access and circulation to and through the city;”
• 85% of new development in transformative areas such asAssembly Square, Inner-Belt, Brickbottom and Boynton Yards “as part of a predictable land use plan that protects neighborhood character”

“These goals sound ambitious – and they are,” said Director of PlanningGeorge Proakis.  “But they are also realistic, given the best available data and trend analysis aboutSomerville’s development potential across all of these benchmarks. Best of all, the Comprehensive Plan lays out a guide for achieving these goals that’s consistent with the values of our residents and the quality of life in our neighborhoods.”

Proakis said the next steps would be to engage the Board of Aldermen and the City’s Planning Board in a detailed discussion about the findings, themes and goals included in the plan.  “We hope to ask the Somerville Planning Board to approve the plan as the City’s official Master Plan underMassachusettsstate law, and we are also requesting that the Board of Aldermen consider formally endorsing the plan.”

At the meeting, the Board referred the plan to its Committees on Land Use and on Housing and Community Development.  Proakis said that “several aldermen have already been involved in this process through their participation in the steering committee, so we know that they are aware of the quality of the work and intensity of the process that went into this plan.  The development of this plan would not have been possible without the involvement of our dedicated sixty-member steering committee that has been involved in every step of creating this plan over the past three years.”

Proakis said “Once the Board of Aldermen and Planning Board have a chance to review and, we hope, endorse the plan, the next step will be to begin its integration into the city’s performance management system, so that the values and goals of the plan become a part of our standard approach to measuring our progress.  The SomerVision plan will helpSomervilleto stay on the cutting edge of performance management, since it allows residents and elected officials to measure progress towards our diverse community goals.”

“Over the past few years,Somerville’s image and reputation have been increasingly defined by major policy initiatives like SomerStat, Shape Up Somerville, 311 and the Happiness Survey.  I think SomerVision certainly ranks with those achievements – and I think Somerville’s residents and business owners will continue to benefit from this effort for many years to come,” Curtatone said.

Downloadable copies of an executive summary and the complete report are available from the city’s website at www.somervillema.gov/compplan.