Community Corridor Planning
The Green Line will be extended through Somerville with planned completion in 2015. With our partners the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership Somerville Community Corporation and the Somerville Community Health Agenda, Groundwork Somerville is making it possible for residents to participate in the land use planning process. The extension will provide at least five major new transit stops in Somerville and at least two in Medford. We have a pivotal opportunity to organize, propose, design, and make decisions that ensure sustainable environmental impacts, quality of life concerns, and equitability in land use planning. As the city officially leads the land use planning process, our collaboration focuses on engaging community residents to establish priorities that reflect community values. Our goal is to engage all community residents, including youth, immigrants, and low-income residents in making recommendations. Guiding principles include:
- More Local Jobs,
- Increase Commercial and Economic Development,
- Keep and Add Local Businesses,
- Keep Somerville Affordable,
- Maintain Our Diversity,
- Improve the Green Environment,
- Encourage Walking and Biking,
- Create Community Gathering Spaces,
- Improve Access,
- Community Involvement,
- Connecting Buses and Trains.
Check out our video, “Back on Track: Talking Transit in Somerville,” created by Tufts University Students, Team Six Studios. – Coming soon!
CCP Hosts Community Design Workshops for the Proposeed Green Line Stations
Green Line_Final Report_07-23-2010
June 2nd marked the last session of a 3-part design workshop to get residents to explore design ideas for their neighborhood stations. Over 75 people from Somerville, Cambridge, and Medford participated in the sessions. Anyone walking into the room would immediately be blasted with the energy of this group of residents, hard at work, every person in the room fully participating.
During the last session, each of the small groups representing the 7 proposed Green Line stations presented their ideas and recommendations to the others. It was a dynamic night, filled with cheering, applause, and startling, innovative ideas. As the central facilitator, a consultant hired by CCP, Gretchen VonGrossmann, stated—no one knows a neighborhood better than the people who live there.
One of the exciting components of the design workshops was that each small group was facilitated by a graduate of SCC’s Leadership Development Institute. Also, CCP had reached out to a dynamic group of volunteer design professionals to help with each of the small groups, so that residents could learn how to turn their ideas and values into graphic representation on the station plans and maps.
This workshop series gave residents from the community hands on skills and the opportunity to creatively and pragmatically express what kinds of stations would serve their neighborhoods best when the Green Line arrives. This gives Somerville and neighboring communities a head start in working with MA DOT to make sure the final plans will best meet the needs of the community. CCP (Community Corridor Planning) will now work with workshop participants to facilitate continued design work, as well as to make sure these vibrant ideas are delivered to MA Department of Transportation. CCP will work with the station groups to host neighborhood walks with their local alderman.
We also encourage people to attend a community meeting about the Green Line hosted by the City of Somerville and MA DOT on June 12th at the Argenziano School, 10am.
CCP Working Groups
If you are interested in making sure that the post-Green Line Somerville is the city you want to live in, please consider joining a CCP working group. These groups meet regularly, and it’s not too late to join. Please contact the following people if you are interested:
1. Affordability and Diversity: Mary Regan (617) 776-5931 x230
2. Jobs, Local Businesses, and Economic Development: Lisa Gimbel (617) 776-5931 x235
3. Green Space, Open Space, and Sustainability: Jennifer Lawrence (617) 628-9988
On June 2nd at the final presentations, everyone agreed that it is critically important to make sure these great ideas are presented to key Mass DOT staff and their consulting team, to our local elected officials and City of Somerville staff. Gretchen Von Grossman and Don Kindsvatter, our workshop consultants, are now assembling all of your great ideas into a final version to be presented to MA DOT. However, we know that submitting the document is only one way to present our ideas. To maximize our impact on the Mass DOT design process we invite you to stay involved, During the next months there will be many opportunities to present your ideas and to keep up to date on the progress of the Green Line extension. A first, important opportunity to do so is this Saturday at the Green Line Informational Workshop.
Below is a list of ways that you can stay involved followed by more detailed information about each
- Continue working on your station design over the summer with your station design group.
- Attend Green Line Informational Workshop hosted by City of Somerville and MA DOT.
- Help get the word out about the Green Line extension and your experience as part of the Design Workshops to local newspapers.
- Write comments on the MA DOT’s Final Environmental Impact Review (FEIR) that should be released no later than June 16th.
- Join your neighbors for a walk of your station area with your Alderman.
- Join one of the working groups!
1) Continue Design Work: If you want to keep working with your neighbors on your station designs, this summer is a great time to do that, so that your proposals can be presented during the fall when MA DOT holds its own community station design workshops. Nothing speaks louder than well thought out ideas and drawings coming directly from the people that know the area best—YOU. Contact Ellin Reisner, president of STEP if you are interested in doing this, as she can help your group with logistics, finding places to meet, etc. Ellin can be reached at reisnere51@gmail.com or 617-776-1987.
2) Help get the word out about the Green Line extension and your experience as part of the Design Workshops to local newspapers! Let us know if you would be willing to write an op-ed, or be interviewed by a reporter to describe your experience with these design workshop. Contact Jen Lawrence from the CCP team to let us know and we will work on getting this to happen: jllawrence@groundworksomerville.org
4) Join your neighbors for a walk of your station area with your Alderman. If you would like to help coordinate this for your neighborhood or be a part of this, let us know! The goal is to share our ideas with our Aldermen and engage them directly in this process by walking through the potential site and showing them the ideas that came out of the workshops. Contact Jen Lawrence to help plan these walks.
5. Join one of the working groups! The Green Line will have a huge impact on Somerville beyond just improving our transportation options. We are working with groups of people on
a. Affordability and Diversity
b. Jobs, Local Businesses, and Economic Development
c. Open Space, Green Space, and Sustainability
These groups meet regularly, and we encourage more people to join. If interested in being part of a group, contact Lisa Gimbel: lgimbel@somervillecdc.org (617) 776-5931.
Documents
Green Line_Final Report_07-23-2010
Spring 2010 ways to get involved
Air Quality Fact Sheet Portuguese
