Part 3 of the Dig's Somerville Files (ZBA Issues), Greater Somerville interviews the Authors

[samcoren.livejournal.com]

The Dig published Part 3 of The Somerville Files - the investigative series into Somerville development issues and politics. This one actually covers a Davis Square issue too, taking a deep dive into the Zoning Board of Appeals and the VFW.

Here are Part 1 and Part 2 DSLJ discussions.

Joe Lynch also interviewed the 3 authors of the series on SCATV's Greater Somerville, which in some ways, I find more fascinating than the articles themselves. Definitely worth watching - especially for the "so what/what's the big deal?" crowd: http://www.scatvsomerville.org/greater-somerville/

Comments

[nathanjw]

Right at the start of the article:

Whatever you wish to change, if you’re before the ZBA Machine it means you want to do something that requires you to bend or break existing zoning ordinances.

...without noting that approximately everything in Somerville is in violation of the zoning ordinances as currently written, are grandfathered in, and thus require ZBA approval all the time for projects. Now, most of the article isn't about standard residential zoning kinds of things, but he sets it up as if it's only for special, out-there projects, which isn't the case at all.