Somerville City Council: 2023 Year in Review

The Somerville City Council got a lot done in 2023. Here are some highlights of issues I was particularly focused on:

Rent Stabilization. At our last City Council meeting of the year, we unanimously approved a home rule petition that, if approved by the State Legislature, would allow us to protect tenants from large annual rent increases.

You can read the bill itself, and a helpful FAQ, here. Our bill was covered in the Globe’s “Spotlight” series on housing affordability in Greater Boston, and covered in more detail here.

As a City Councilor, I have heard from so, so many constituents over the years after their building was bought by a new corporate landlord who was dramatically raising the rent, effectively evicting whole the building. Even many residents who are generally wary of rent control have reached out after watching a neighbor getting displaced, saying something to the effect of: “I’m not crazy about rent control but surely there should be some limit on how much a landlord can raise the rent, right?”

In March 2023, I initiated this work with a Resolution calling on all of us to undertake this effort following the historic efforts by Boston to re-establish reasonable limits on rent gouging. This Resolution was unanimously supported by the City Council and by the Mayor’s office. I worked as a member of the City’s Anti-Displacement Task Force to hold a series of public listening sessions, undertake policy research, and draft language to submit to the Council.

The home rule petition that we ultimately passed was greatly informed by successful bills that have been enacted in recent years in states and municipalities across the country. Our bill limits annual rent increases to inflation +2% annually, up to a maximum of 5% each year. We exempt owner-occupied 1–3 unit buildings (which is not where we are seeing massive rent gouging and displacement issues anyway), allow for large capital improvements and tax/water bill increases, and exempt newly constructed apartment buildings for 15 years after they are built. This latter exemption is to ensure that we don’t make it impossible to build new housing in Somerville, which is also an important priority. Altogether, I believe this is a very well-balanced proposal that will do an enormous amount to keep people in their homes.

Of course, home rule petitions do not pass quickly at the State House. But I very much believe that this home rule petition will add to the growing the statewide efforts to address our crisis of housing affordability. I’m incredibly thankful to the enormous coalition who worked so hard on this policy to get us to this point.

Green Roofs. I’m very happy to say that we also just passed another priority that I’ve been working on for many months: a zoning amendment to require “vegetated roofs” (aka green roofs) on newly constructed large buildings in Somerville (anywhere that isn’t covered by solar panels, required equipment, or roof decks). In such a densely built city, we need to do everything we can to add more plant life to Somerville, and this is a creative way to do so on roof-tops. You can read the amendment text here.

This policy, which I co-sponsored with Council Wilson, was a collaborative effort between community groups Green & Open Somerville, Mothers Out Front, and Zero Carbon Somerville, was a surprisingly heavy lift to get passed, and I’m thrilled we got it over the finish line.

Here’s a picture of a beautiful green roof on the Cala building in West Somerville:

Triple Deckers (and other three-unit buildings) legalized citywide. In 1912, during a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment, triple deckers were effectively banned in communities across Massachusetts. Now, Somerville is first city in the state to reverse that ban and allow these buildings (and other three-unit housing structures) citywide. This effort began as a way to meet a new legal requirement to satisfy a state zoning law called the “MBTA Communities Act,” but also became a rallying cry for many residents who were surprised to learn that triple deckers (and other three-unit housing structures) were effectively banned in ~80% of the city, despite being an iconic and widely present building type. We discussed this item at great length over the last year (and, actually, over the past several years), and I shared why I was strongly supportive of this change in a recent newsletter. if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty, you can watch the relevant meetings here.

And, as part of this process, we also got rid of a bizarre old law banning “more than four unrelated adults” from living together — an effort I launched earlier this year, together with Councilor Pineda-Neufeld. You can watch my remarks on this topic here. Just a few weeks ago, this outrageous, arbitrary law was used to harass a wonderful elderly neighbor of mine who lives with a group of roommates who help her out with housing and health-related issues. I’m glad we were able to overturn it. (And rest assured, there are building and health code regulations which address true issues of over-crowding.)

More 2023 accomplishments:

• Bicycle Network. The City Council unanimously endorsed the city’s first ever Citywide Bicycle Network Plan to make our streets safer for everyone. More information here.
• Fossil Fuel Ban — progress. Following on a home rule-petition I filed last year to ban fossil fuel infrastructure in new construction, we approved an Ordinance so that we are ready to go if and when the State allows us to join the ten “pilot” communities authorized to do so, as well as a Resolution in support of our application sponsored by Councilors Davis & Wilson. This is a critical part of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Somerville.
• Energy efficiency in new buildings. We voted to become one of the first city’s in Massachusetts to adopt the “stretch energy building code” to maximize energy efficiency in construction projects. Major climate win.
• Making lab developers pay their fair share. The City Council doubled our “housing linkage fees,” which are payments that we collect from large commercial developments (i.e. lab buildings, office buildings, etc.) to fund our Affordable Housing Trust Fund. These linkage fees also include a payment to go to local jobs programs. More info here.
• Neighborhood Councils & Community Benefits. I led efforts to amend our local laws to make it simpler and clearer for neighbors to establish grassroots “neighborhood councils,” as we have seen with the Union Square Neighborhood Council, and now the Gilman Square Neighborhood Council. You can read the amendment here.
• Construction noise. While construction noise will always be an issue in cities, I was glad to pass a law that bans the most egregiously loud and disruptive construction activities on Saturdays and weekends. You can read it here.
• Transparency on water bill issues. I spent a lot of time over the past few months working to address with an egregious billing issue with Somerville water bills, where some residents were seeing very large one-time bills without explanation. In addition to working with the Administration, I got this problem covered in the press so that more people would be aware of the issue(article, article, article), and I’m thankful that water bills are now being sent with far more information, though this remains a major issue for some residents.

Lastly, two important pieces of recent news:

Police Staffing Update. Last month, the Administration presented a long-awaited outside analysis of staffing issues within our police department. This topic that has been the subject of a lot of rhetoric over the years, but not much real data. When I read the study, I described the feeling as “the opposite of being gas lit.” In other words, it validated a great deal of many of us on the City Council have said for years. Here is the statement I posted upon reading it:

“I am very grateful that the Somerville Police Staffing & Operations Report is now complete — it gives us a solid factual basis to continue moving forward.

This report, conducted by outside experts, confirms what many of us have argued for years: that we can make major improvements without sacrificing public safety by reallocating staffing efforts. In particular, by doing away with the inefficient “ward based” patrol system, which follows arbitrary political boundaries rather than data, and by right-sizing patrol shifts to meet our community’s actual needs, Somerville can start to address unmet public safety needs, including the creation of a new unarmed, first responder team for certain types of non-violent emergencies.

I am very gratified that this report also emphasizes that we need to finally move forward to create civilian oversight, and to engage the public in a transparent process to define a use policy for body-worn cameras — in order for these cameras to be an effective oversight tool, we can’t have a toothless policy. These are both efforts that myself and my colleagues have been focused on over the past several years. The report also identifies a number of positions that would make more sense to be performed by civilians, thereby allowing sworn officers to prioritize police work.

To community members who have been following our efforts, I encourage you to read the report and watch the presentation about the main findings here: https://www.somervillema.gov/spd-updates.

Now, it is up to us to ensure this report does not become just another file on a shelf. I look forward to working with the Administration to enact these recommendations.”

Winter Hill & Brown School Buildings Update: Earlier this week, the Administration gave its first public presentation of possible paths forward to build new school buildings for students at the Winter Hill and Brown Schools. You can view a PDF of the slides from that meeting here — these are very important for anyone following this process. These slides outline a number of different possible paths forward, along with pros and cons of each — very tough and important decisions ahead for all of us.

This presentation followed on the very welcome news that the State has advanced our Winter Hill School Building project to the next round of consideration (the body that oversees these funding decisions is the Massachusetts School Building Authority, or MSBA.) However, the MSBA did not approve a separate proposal for the Brown School — instead, they noted that they would entertain a proposal that combined the two schools. Undoubtedly, the path that Somerville ultimately chooses to follow is going to be among the biggest and most difficult decisions that our community makes over the coming year, and my commitment is to be fully transparent with all of the information that we receive, and to work with everyone in our community to make the right decisions.

Lastly, I’m happy to say that my colleagues have elected me to serve another year as City Council President, which means that I will be giving a speech at this year’s Inauguration on January 2, 2024, at 6pm, alongside our School Committee Chair and the Mayor. You are all invited to the High School Auditorium at 6pm for the festivities and a party at the Row Hotel at 7:30pm — come one, come all!

And, as always, I hope to see you on New Years Day at noon for the annual Flag Raising at the Prospect Hill Tower!

Thank you all for everything you do for our community, and I hope you have a great holiday season.

Sincerely,

Ben Ewen-Campen
Ward 3 City Councilor