By Linda Scott
Watertown Resident
Looking at Trends
Looking back on the past few years, I see a trend:
1 – The Watertown Square Planning process was a plan to rezone our city core. The MBTA state Law that mandated zoning for 1701 new housing units was a major part of this process, and yet a plan for 1,701 didn’t even reach our councilors’ desks, not to mention the community. After community input for 1,701 units, the City came back with a plan for 6,320 units and effectively defined Watertown Square as an area that extended west on Main to Lexington Street and up Galen, almost to the Mass Pike.
The City ultimately “settled” for a number just over 3,000 (3,133) units. The response from our City government when this bait and switch was pointed out? Don’t worry. We’re zoning this way, but that kind of development will never happen.
For a more complete recounting of this process see Bruce Coltin’s “The Battle for
Watertown”: https://thebattleforwatertown.blogspot.com/2025/10/watertowns-crisis-of-mistrust-and-man.html
2 – Illegal signs plastered all around Watertown Square for a Watertown Square overlay and falsely implying that affordable housing is illegal in Watertown Square. These signs were put up during the 2025 Watertown election season and were taken down after a City cease and desist order.
These signs seem to indicate that a small but vocal political group isn’t interested in the compromise that was reached in the Square planning and zoning and is trying to end run that community process.
Overlays are rules that are written to stand on top of the zoning rules already there in a neighborhood. For instance, some overlays would supersede the Watertown Square zoning rules that we just put into place after many community meetings. For more on plans to overwrite the community’s zoning efforts, see #4 below).
3 – A verbal report from long time resident renters that their rents are being raised more than ever (in one case 10 percent). When they balk, they are told to just look around them at the new buildings … in other words … this old building is a bargain! Pay up!
4. A discussion at the Watertown Affordable Housing Trust meeting on July 15, 2025. To streamline this and get to the relevant portion of this meeting for our limited purposes here, I recommend that you start at minute 1:31:00 and go to minute 1:43:30. See http://vodwcatv.org/internetchannel/show/3989?site=3
An aside … I went back to the City calendar to go to this scheduled Watertown Affordable Housing Trust meeting to find the meeting documents. This meeting isn’t even listed on the Watertown City calendar. It is, however, available to people who have signed up for notifications, which means that many Watertown residents didn’t even know that this meeting was happening. Also, “a very detailed study done by Housing for All Watertown (HAW)” is mentioned during this meeting, but not available for the public to see. Where can the public see this report?
I think that the whole meeting might be an eye-opener for folks who haven’t been following this issue, and folks might be better informed by viewing the whole meeting. However, the sound in this room is very difficult and muddy, and the topic, reviewing a lengthy document, may be a slog. If you’re interested in reading the transcript for the entire meeting, here it is, but please be aware that it’s AI generated and quite garbled in its own right:
https://watertown.munitrac.ai/transcript/printable?id=2025-07-15_TownMeeting-0u390.mp4
In the selected video section of this Affordable Housing Trust meeting, http://vodwcatv.org/internetchannel/show/3989?site=3 minutes 1:31:00 through 1:43:30, Sam
Ghilardi, one of the leaders of that small but vocal political group (HAW) refers to a study that they have done (was there any housing expert involved in this?) and where city-wide re-zoning is recommended. Again, where is this report for community review?
The City Manager, George Proakis, who is not opposed to rezoning on its face, quite rightfully, asks if they “are ready to do that?” “That” being a recommendation by HAW that defies the City’s Comprehensive Plan. The defiance? Adding a housing overlay in areas defined in the Watertown Comprehensive Plan as low and medium density residential. To see where your neighborhood fits in, zoning-wise, check out pages 81 and 84 of the City of Watertown Comprehensive Plan. The link to that is below, under “Critical Questions.”
Mr. Proakis says, “The HAW request, which is very similar to what Cambridge has done and others have discussed, which is basically to allow affordable multi-family residential units on all parcels of land [in Watertown] by right, with the exception of open space parcels.” My Note: Let’s be clear here … we are not just talking about two and three family residences when the term “multifamily” is used. The manager, for instance, mentions a sixplex. By the way, to hear some of his suggestions, go beyond minute 1:43:30.
Rezoning the whole City is beginning to be discussed! In other words, the most affordable (and diverse) residential parts of our community are being discussed as places to double down on density, in opposition to the Comprehensive Plan and without our involvement!
I wanted reassurance … that’s not what I got:
Having considered all of the above, at a recent meeting hosted by the Watertown Business Coalition, I asked the panel of experts on Watertown development whether the goal was for all of Watertown to be zoned like Watertown Square.
Gideon Schreiber, Director of Planning and Zoning, of the Watertown Department of Community Development and Planning (DCDP), responded that those were City Council decisions.
Here’s the audio clip:
https://www.littlelocalconversations.com/episodes/watertown-s-open-the-state-of-development-in-watertown. See Minutes 54:11 to 57:20.
He and Andrew Copelotti (Arsenal Yards) went on to say that even if neighborhoods were zoned that way, building large multi-unit buildings in small Watertown neighborhoods would be difficult, given the numbers of different property owners to be dealt with. In other words, don’t worry. The City can rezone it, but development will never happen. It’s beginning to be a City of Watertown stock response.
Critical Questions:
In many ways, we are at a kind of crossroads here in Watertown. How can we continue to be generous and welcoming to individuals and families coming to our City without ruining what the City has to offer and the reason people gravitate and stay here?
I know that this is a concern for many residents in Watertown. How do I know? First, because Watertown’s neighborhoods are specifically written into the Comprehensive Plan as low and medium density. (See pages 81 and 84 of the Comprehensive Plan). https://portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=87541&repo=r-5ece5628
I know because when plans were being developed for a huge bio lab abutting a small West End neighborhood, voters from all over the City signed a petition to say, “Let’s protect our small neighborhoods from encroachment.” The beginning of this grassroots petition started like this: “The goal of this petition is to protect existing residential neighborhoods from the intrusive impacts of outsized and incompatible development on the borders of adjacent districts.” Over 400 signatures were gathered from all over the city (not just that neighborhood) in a matter of a few weeks.
Moderation and careful thought is sorely needed, as is your participation. It’ll make the difference between Watertown the community and Watertown the anonymous passthrough city.
Memories are short:
As Gideon Schreiber said at the Watertown Business Coalition event, bottom line, these will be City Council decisions. Perhaps it’s time to let your councilors know that you want them to live up to the commitment made with the City’s guiding document, the Comprehensive Plan. It never hurts to review this plan and send a reminder!
Where is your neighborhood going? Shouldn’t you be part of that conversation?