Watertown is a Mixed-Income City, City Land Should Prioritize Mixed-Income Housing
This coming Wednesday, May 20 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., the City will host an open house at 9 Galen Street where residents will have an opportunity to better understand the proposed Watertown Square Demonstration Project, ask questions, and weigh in on our visions and priorities.
At last month’s rollout of the demonstration project, the City shared a lot of information about its plans for Watertown Square. We heard about a new parking garage, 200-300 units of market-rate housing and new open space in parcels behind the existing CVS, much of which is city-owned.
Like many residents, we have questions about the project. We are particularly interested to hear more from the City on the following questions:
• What would need to be in place for housing over the garage to be possible? How does it change the costs of the project, and what steps can the City take to make it feasible?
• City leaders have said they plan to add affordable housing behind the Santander building and/or the library. The city manager has emphasized that this land may be contaminated from its previous use as a rail yard. Has the soil on these lots, or the CVS lot, been tested for contamination (it was all formerly a rail yard)? What resources are available for remediation? How will that impact the feasibility of housing on these sites?
• In what ways can the demonstration project set us up to build more housing in subsequent phases of the Watertown Square redevelopment?
We support the addition of new market rate housing on the property. However, we believe that the City is missing a chance to address the shortage of affordable housing in Watertown. As the Affordable Housing Trust reported recently, 37.6% of Watertown renters and 28.6% of owners pay more than one-third of their income on rent. City-owned property is a major opportunity to impactfully add dedicated, deeply affordable housing in Watertown.
City leaders know this. At last year’s HAW City Council candidates forum, the five candidates for at-large City Council unequivocally supported an expansion of low-income housing. It’s time to put those commitments into action.
We welcome the vision for a revitalized Watertown Square, and encourage all Watertown residents to join us at the open house on May 20th to learn more, ask questions, and provide feedback. City Council President Mark Sideris has said often, “it is not a done deal.”
We hope you can join us as we pose these questions, and we look forward to hearing any other questions that you may have. May 20th is the time to ask!
Housing for All Watertown Steering Committee
Rita Colafella, Sam Ghilardi, Dan Pritchard, Josh Rosmarin, Jacky van Leeuwen