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By David Dahlbacka

In July, the Somerville Planning Board unanimously approved a new Assembly Square Neighborhood Plan, proposing to rezone the district.

The Neighborhood Plan talks about balancing commercial development with housing, but gives the nod to “market demands” for high-end housing. For the last twenty years, developers have cited regional demand to justify building expensive housing units near the Assembly Square riverfront. However, according to the Neighborhood Plan, “… the units are largely rented by single occupants who only live in them during the workweek.”

Somerville’s own housing crisis is, in fact, an affordability crisis. Shouldn’t new housing in Assembly Square be affordable for people with moderate incomes?

Developers tell us they cannot build affordable housing and maintain the level of profitability their investors demand. It’s true that developers will only build affordable housing with substantial subsidies. It’s also true that new commercial development would boost the amounts available for those subsidies.

Where will affordable housing come from if Somerville builds expensive housing rather than commercial development?

In Somerville, about 82,000 live in an area of about 4.1 square miles, making Somerville the most densely populated city in New England. In 2024, 81% of Somerville’s taxable property was residential. Next door, in Cambridge, 52% of the taxable property was residential.

Given the high cost to residents of services such as schools, each residential unit in Somerville is a net loss in municipal revenue. Only if a residential unit is part of a new mixed-use development will it return positive revenue, and even then, only if it has one child or fewer per ten units. In the same development, 1,000 square feet of office space will return at least ten times the revenue of a residential unit.

To reduce car traffic and the health impacts of car exhaust pollution, about 70% of our population should work in Somerville. But with fewer than 32,000 jobs, almost half of our working population must leave Somerville to work. Next door, Cambridge has a population of about 121,900, with a job count of over 144,000, or almost 170% more than Somerville’s.

Is satisfying regional housing demand Somerville’s responsibility? Should Somerville citizens be doing it at their own expense?

Why would we, if it weren’t housing that Somerville residents could afford?

Next: Where does affordable housing come from?

Credits: Wikipedia article on Somerville; somervillema.gov; Assembly Square Neighborhood Plan (2025); worldpopulationreview.com; Employment and Wages Report (ES-202) (2024); Data Analytics and Resources Bureau, Division of Local Services, MA Dept of Revenue, “Assessed Values by Class.” With thanks to my friends in the Mystic View Task Force for their comments and insights.