Introduction & Outreach

Hundreds of participants. Dozens of community events and working sessions. Over 60 volunteers. All of this hard work from our community comes together to create SomerVision 2040, an update to the City of Somerville’s Comprehensive Plan written by the community that lives, works, and plays right here in Somerville. This plan does not only capture our values, highlight our goals and ambitions, but also wrestles with our challenges. How do we protect our diverse, close-knit community in the context of rising real estate costs and the constant threat of displacement? What is the best way to use the four square miles of land we have to work with? How can we incorporate equity into everything we do, and ensure that everyone has access to meaningful opportunity? What needs to happen to ensure Somerville remains a welcoming place for everyone, from people who have been here for generations to our brand new neighbors?

This plan is an important checkpoint about what our priorities and concerns are as a community, but the work does not stop here. Implementation will require further community input, critical reflection, and careful planning. We cannot afford to hone in on one priority to the detriment of others, but rather must consider how our many different goals can support each other. This work will be difficult, but SomerVision 2040 will provide guidance on what needs to happen.

Somerville has a deep tradition of public participation in civic affairs, which goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War when Somerville was a part of Charlestown. This tradition is still alive and well today and can be seen at public meetings in lively debate; in the volunteers who support our many events and programs; in the lines at the polls; and online.

SomerVision 2040, the update to our comprehensive plan, is no exception. In 2009, the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development kicked off what would become SomerVision 2030, the City’s Comprehensive Plan. Stakeholders engaged in lively conversation over the course of more than 50 public meetings to imagine the future we wanted for our city. Through that process, the community identified the goals and metrics that would ensure Somerville continues to be an exceptional place to live, work, play, and raise a family. SomerVision2030 was adopted in 2012.

SomerVision 2030 declared that we wanted to change and how – we claimed a stake in our values, insisted on more commercial development, and identified where we saw things changing in the SomerVision Map. In some ways, Somerville has tried to have the drivers seat in our change, in others, Somerville is subject to market forces and national politics that feel out of our control. We’ve had growing pains and with each one there have been lessons learned. Staff and community residents are constantly striving to do better because we all love Somerville.

As we approach 10 years into the plan’s time frame, the time is right to take stock; extend the horizon another 10 years to 2040, and check-in, revisit, and edit the plan as necessary. The goal of this process is no different than the many before it – solicit broad and diverse representation in all phases of the update. City staff started by publishing The Path Since 2010, a document which captures our accomplishments since 2010, and creating a digital home for the update, SomerVision2040.com.

The 2030 Steering Committee was reconstituted as the SomerVision Committee for the plan update. We sought out participation in the committee from all corners of Somerville including elected officials, local non-profits, Board and Commission members, and even an open call. We asked members to commit to: reporting back/checking in with their constituency throughout the process, hosting a SomerSupper, and participating in the SomerVision Conference. From the conference, they continued onward to developing and writing the Topic Chapters. They also worked with staff to develop the SomerVision Numbers and identify our implementation priorities. We cannot thank the SomerVision Committee, Co-Chaired by Stephenson Aman, Rachel Borgotti, and Howard Horton, enough for their help.

With this plan update, we are reaffirming our commitment to work together – government, residents, non-profit partners, community groups, everyone – for more positive change. The change will be sometimes be small and other times, quite large. To be the community we desire to be, it’s all hands on deck. This is your comprehensive plan.

Our outreach strategy for SomerVision2040 centered around offering multiple avenues for participation to reach individuals that do not typically attend our more traditional evening public meetings due to either time constraints or because they found giving feedback in those settings too difficult. By mixing in-person and online engagement through formal and informal gatherings, both large and small, we aimed at offering at least one option that each resident would find suitable.

Our SomerVision card game gathered specific suggestions for the SomerVision Numbers from hundreds of residents. Our forums included only a few participants at a time but provided in-depth feedback from demographics typically underrepresented in standard public processes such as non-English speaking immigrants, elderly residents, people with disabilities, small business owners, and teens. Our SomerSuppers collected feedback from hundreds of community members in informal settings where the residents themselves lead the discussion without City staff present, then used a form to report back to us.

Through our SomerStories and our SomerVision online survey, we received dozens of lengthy answers to open-ended questions about both the challenges and opportunities residents found living in Somerville, as well as their vision for the City’s future.Through the combination of these various approaches, we received feedback in some form from over a thousand residents, ranging from general impressions to in-depth analysis, based on both personal experiences and general impressions. All the information we collected was carefully analyzed by City staff and reported out to the SomerVision Committee across multiple meetings. Key points throughout our chapters, as well as our considerations for SomerVision numbers and spreads on special topics such as displacement and racial equity, came directly from the extensive community feedback we received.