Fwd: [DSNC] What neighborhood character means to me

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Kendra Fox

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Jun 1, 2026, 6:24:23 PMJun 1
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From: dohertypc <dohe...@hotmail.com>
Date: Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 9:46:04 PM UTC-4
Subject: Re: [DSNC] What neighborhood character means to me
To: judith.liben <judith...@gmail.com>, conor <co...@pjryans.com>
Cc: je...@somervilleyimby.org <je...@somervilleyimby.org>, merit...@gmail.com <art...@rcn.com>, david <da...@dbooth.org>, e...@woll.us <e...@woll.us>, Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>


Hi Judith - yes, Jeff linked to i that article in his comments and I read it thoroughly. I'd be happy to go through the points in the article which actually argue against some of the things being proposed/advocated for here. It really is quite a different situation in Austin so it just might not be the best leg to lean on.  

Best, 
Penelope 

From: Judith Liben <judith...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2026 9:22:23 PM
To: Conor Brennan <co...@pjryans.com>
Cc: Penelope Doherty <dohe...@hotmail.com>; Jeff Byrnes <je...@somervilleyimby.org>; Meredith Porter <art...@rcn.com>; David Booth <da...@dbooth.org>; Edward Woll <e...@woll.us>; Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [DSNC] What neighborhood character means to me
Not sure this article about Austin made it to this group.  Sorry if a repeat.

https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2026/03/18/austins-surge-of-new-housing-construction-drove-down-rents

On Sun, May 31, 2026 at 7:37 PM Conor Brennan <co...@pjryans.com> wrote:
Penelope,

Appreciate you making this comment, I visited Austin for the first time last November.

Space is something that they don’t lack. 

I like “ AIOBY - appropriate in our back yard”

Thank you 

Conor Brennan
PJRYANS 

Sent from my iPhone

On May 31, 2026, at 4:48 PM, Penelope Doherty <dohe...@hotmail.com> wrote:


Hello all - 

I'm new to the 'hood and therefore have been hanging back, listening and learning. The comment in Jeff's writing below about replicating Austin's results caught my ear, however, and I feel warrants a comment: 

Having spent most of my life in Austin and worked with the City on its Imagine Austin endeavor to shift to form-based code, it's important to know that Austin's fabric and available space is hugely different from Somerville and a comparison will not be apples to apples, as they say- more like peas to watermelons 🙂. The options are vastly different and therefore so are the appropriate tools and resulting percentages.

Happy to share more as helpful; my challenge in attending has been the scheduling. FYI I am neither NIMBY or YIMBY (more like AIOBY - appropriate in our back yard) 

Best, 
Penelope



From: daviss...@googlegroups.com <daviss...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jeff Byrnes <je...@somervilleyimby.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2026 8:13:59 AM
To: Meredith Porter <art...@rcn.com>; David Booth <da...@dbooth.org>
Cc: Edward Woll <e...@woll.us>; Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [DSNC] What neighborhood character means to me
 
In terms of zoning’s impact, both the old zoning & the current didn’t/don’t allow enough new homes to stem displacement & rising prices.
 
The current zoning is far more sensible & allows for amendments, but bear in mind that in 2019 it mostly had the effect of legalizing what we already had: 2-fam houses & 3 deckers.
 
Almost all of the new homes we’ve seen were built in Assembly & Union. About 2000 more homes were built over the last decade, or about 200 per year.
 
Roughly 75% of the city only allows 3 homes per parcel, so we just didn’t add a lot of zoned capacity in 2019 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
If we want to replicate Austin’s results (+30% more homes in 9 years, 2015–2024), we’d need to build ~11k more homes over the next decade (~30% of ~37k homes).
 
That’s more than 5 times as many homes as we’ve been building!
 
Hopefully those numbers give an idea of the scale of the challenge, & why current zoning is still holding us back.
On May 30, 2026 at 11:13 PM -0400, Meredith Porter <art...@rcn.com>, wrote:
On May 29, 2026, at 3:59 PM, Jeff Byrnes <je...@somervilleyimby.org> wrote:
> Thanks David. Some food for though on this:
> 
> “current zoning is now causing a major shift in Somerville's population, as artists, activists, musicians and other lower-income people are forced out by rising housing costs.”
>  
> This is true, since our current zoning doesn’t allow enough homes to be built to satisfy demand, so homes that have been affordable to lower-income folks continually become homes for upper-income folks, either through rent increases or renovations for sale as condos.

Is it really true that current zoning is now causing a major shift? I've been concerned for decades that our neighbors have been forced out by housing costs that have increased dramatically. We shifted to a whole new form-based zoning ordinance in December 2019 that made it possible to do much more development by right. There have been quite a few amendments as well. Zoning is just one factor that affects housing supply. Costs of land, materials, labor, and interest rates have huge effects, and other regulations affect costs too. Can enough homes be built in Somerville to satisfy demand in any case? The demand is immense, and Somerville doesn't exist in isolation. Conditions in surrounding communities make a big difference too. This isn't to say that we shouldn't do our part or that changes to zoning and regulations aren't warranted, but I firmly believe that good zoning is essential in making our city livable as it changes. That's where neighborhood character comes in. It's subjective, and we all should have a voice in determining what's appropriate.

I don't believe that the market can ever provide enough homes to those who are truly lower-income unless there's some fundamental restructuring. This is really important, and we'll continue to need a variety of approaches to deal with it, including through zoning and CBA's.

Best regards,
Meredith Porter ("Merit," he/him)

From: "Jeff Byrnes" <je...@somervilleyimby.org>
To: "Edward Woll" <e...@woll.us>
Cc: "David Booth" <da...@dbooth.org>, "Davis Square Neighborhood Council" <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2026 9:01:11 PM
Subject: Re: [DSNC] What neighborhood character means to me

Ed, I’m familiar with those guidelines, and others like it.
 
They tend to result in what we see being built over the last 20 years, so if that’s not what’s preferred, they’re best taken with a grain of salt.
 
As for “Ornamental box style is very boring”, that’s not particularly helpful, nor does it invite dialogue.
 
Ornamental boxes are the typical style of our older apartment & commercial buildings, so if one is saying “I like the way Somerville looks today”, that’s what one is asking for. 
 
I’m fine ignoring aesthetics altogether, since they’re quite subjective, and building enough homes for everyone is more important than what those homes look like, but starting from that stance isn’t helpful in establishing dialogue.
 
Personally, I’m hard pressed myself to consider this building as “boring”, but as always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
On May 30, 2026 at 7:50 PM -0400, Edward Woll <e...@woll.us>, wrote:
Further resource material dealing with neighborhood character and context is at MassHousing itself, as referenced below.  
Ed Woll

Handbook: Approach to Chapter 40B Design Reviews
Here are a few excerpts:

c.40B Guidelines on Design Review

The c.40B Guidelines prepared by DHCD (revised as of July 30, 2008) suggest approaches for applying the regulations with some additional terms and phrases in section 3. Findings, Design (760 CMR 56.04(4)(c)):

“Relationship to Adjacent Building Typology – Generally, a Project is developed in the context of single family dwellings and introduces a different form of housing into the neighborhood. Assuming that this is the case, it is important to mitigate the height and scale of the buildings to adjoining sites. In this context, it is particularly important to consider the predominant building types, setbacks, and roof lines of the existing context.

• The massing of the Project should be modulated and/or stepped in perceived height, bulk and scale to create an appropriate transition to adjoining sites.

• Where possible, the site plan should take advantage of the natural topography and site features, or the addition of landscaping, to help buffer massing.

• Design may use architectural details, color and materials taken from the existing context as a means of addressing the perception of mass and height.

Relationship to Adjacent Streets – Likewise, the manner in which the buildings relate to adjacent streets is critically important. Massing should take into account the pattern of the existing street frontage as well as maintain a human scale by reasonably relating the height of buildings to the width of the public way.”


These elements form the criteria under which the design review process is executed. The next sections provide an approach for completing the reviews including the sequential steps for the review, further define the terms used in the process and provide the forms for consistent applications.

...

Affordable housing projects under c.40B often have design elements that are different from the surrounding context as described by the terms used in the regulations; e.g., use, scale. However, with careful design and consideration of the project elements in relationship to the adjacent streets and properties, the projects can better integrate with the surrounding context.

...

Building Massing and Scale

Massing is the “organization of the building’s overall volume”. As an example, building forms providing the same volume of space may be low and wide or tall and thin. ...

Scale may be defined as the height and massing of a building and building elements and the relationship to surrounding spaces and structures. Common relationships are to the size of a human, to the context of the site, or in the relationships to adjacent buildings.

The mass and scale of a building may be reduced by altering the building’s bulk. The features that can minimize the mass and scale should be about the same size as the same features on adjacent properties. ...


Building Typology

...

Affordable housing projects typically vary from surrounding building types, but within the range of building types of buildings in the neighborhood.

...

Key design issues to review in the application materials and discuss with the applicant include:

• Facade appearance and orientation - Does the proposed design front onto the street the same way as the adjacent properties?

• Architectural and site details - Are the construction details of the proposed design SFDU compatible with the adjacent properties or minimize the differences between the new and existing structures?

• Design treatments of the edge - Do the street and landscaping details minimize the differences or buffer the transition between the different sizes, materials or orientation of the new design and adjacent properties?

...

Surrounding context

The surrounding context is defined by the existing development patterns outside of the site. From the c.40B Guidelines, specific reference is made to adjacent building typology and adjacent streets. Assuming that the new buildings will vary from the surrounding buildings, consideration should be given to the differences in architecture and settings. The conditions of the adjacent streets may define access points that in turn affect site layouts. The location of the buildings in relation to the streets may also be a factor in the visual impact of the building, as the following images in Figure 7 show.

...

The cross section below (Figure 9) indicates the ways in which the location and design of the proposed buildings may also be defined spatially in relation to surrounding streets and buildings.

...

Attachment A: KEY DESIGN ISSUES

...

Scale – The scale of a structure should be compatible with the surrounding architecture and landscape context. Compatibility of different building scales or sizes may be addressed through building typology, orientation, roof lines, setbacks, and the position of the building on the site. That is to say, the size of these elements relate proportionally to the size of the human body.

Height – The height of the proposed buildings should generally be compatible with the surrounding buildings and structures. The treatment of rooflines, setbacks, and position of the building on the site may be used to mitigate differences in height. See also Building Height Stepbacks.

...

Building Height Stepbacks - The design objective of a building stepback is to reduce the shadowing effect on public streets and surrounding buildings and prevent a “canyon” effect when taller buildings are located directly across the street from, or adjacent to, one another. At the same time, street enclosure (or the “Street Wall”) is an important design element in establishing or reinforcing surrounding development patterns. A typical building stepback requirement would specify that building height within a certain distance of the street right of way line not exceed a certain limit (stories or vertical feet). This height at the street right of way line may then be increased by a prescribed amount (in stories or feet) for interior portions of the building that are setback a further distance from the street right of way line. Building setback requirements may also specify certain roof styles, directional orientation and pitch facing to ensure compatibility with the surrounding area and established building patterns. Building stepback requirements may also specify that those portions of the roof in the stepback area may be used for certain specified accessory uses such as rooftop gardens, terraces, or similar uses.


On May 29, 2026, at 3:59 PM, Jeff Byrnes <je...@somervilleyimby.org> wrote:

Thanks David. Some food for though on this:
 
“current zoning is now causing a major shift in Somerville's population, as artists, activists, musicians and other lower-income people are forced out by rising housing costs.”
 
This is true, since our current zoning doesn’t allow enough homes to be built to satisfy demand, so homes that have been affordable to lower-income folks continually become homes for upper-income folks, either through rent increases or renovations for sale as condos.
 
This means that your #1 & #2 points may be in contention, b/c in order to reduce that displacement pressure, we need a lot more homes, and those homes can only emulate 100+ year old architecture to a point, since modern building codes & materials, as well as some of zoning’s regulations, dictate how new buildings look.
 
One thing I think would help though, is adjusting zoning such that builders are incentivized to build ornamented boxes, instead of the current style of articulated buildings (i.e., the outer walls of a building pop in & out, with alternating materials & finishes). Might be worthwhile to ask local architects what would need to change to shift away from the articulated design back to the more prevalent & historically-consistent ornamented style.
 
Basically: I think they’re in contention if you wish to preserve existing architecture. But if we can be welcoming of new buildings that “rhyme” with older architecture, then we can make these preferences act in harmony.
On May 26, 2026 at 5:04 PM -0400, David Booth <da...@dbooth.org>, wrote:
On 5/24/26 19:03, Zev Pogrebin wrote:
Question for everyone: what does neighborhood character mean to you?

My answer:

1. Interesting people. That is what attracted me to Somerville. But
current zoning is now causing a major shift in Somerville's population,
as artists, activists, musicians and other lower-income people are
forced out by rising housing costs.

2. The architecture. I love the old New England architecture here.
Steel and glass high rises do *not* fit in, but 6 story buildings -- or
even 10 story in some locations -- could fit in just fine if they were
designed to match the existing historical architecture.

3. Trees and green space -- super important.

4. Emphasis on walkability.

Thanks,
David Booth


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