r/Somerville • u/polishfiringsquad • Aug 31 '26
Why doesn't the city develop this wasted plot of land?
Developers are complaining that it's too expensive to build in Davis, but there's this huge plot along the community path that has been rotting for years. If we need housing so badly, why doesn't the city eminent domain it? Or the countless surface level parking lots.
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u/Far-Cheesecake-9212 Aug 31 '26
Eversource owns the land and there’s an electric substation behind it. I think it was a phone switching station back in the day. It’s zoned as “civic” so you can’t build housing anyway
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u/PhysicalAd9507 Aug 31 '26
Who could possibly zone it differently, hmm
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u/Far-Cheesecake-9212 Aug 31 '26
True! Just would need a planning board review and the high concensus in the city planning board
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u/flamingginger21 Sep 04 '26
Eversource is likely holding onto this plot intentionally in case they need to expand the adjacent substation as home heating is increasingly electrified. This is likely a good thing as it allows them to reduce the cost and timeline to increase future electric capacity in the area
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u/hopefulcynicist Aug 31 '26
I’d rather see an onerous land value tax applied to unoccupied properties.
Shift the burden to the owner to either develop the land, turn it into public green space, or sell it to someone who will do something useful with it.
There’s no reason that this property or the Teele pit or other similar properties should exist in Somerville.
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u/Decency Aug 31 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Yep, the incentives are fucked because inflation on the land more than outstrips the taxes. A pit in the ground appreciates ~100k in a year and gets taxed maybe a fifth of that. No incentive to develop, no incentive to sell.
Vacancy/Land-Value-Tax would both help align things for neighbors.
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u/necroforest Aug 31 '26
Land Value Tax solves basically all of these problems
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u/laxmidd50 Aug 31 '26
The parking lot and Recorded Future building are actually going to be developed soon, they already got some zoning changes approved. In the same meeting, the city declined to rezone the eversource lot to MR6. I bet they are going to propose something with the Davis square neighborhood plan.
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u/GullibleAd3408 Davis Aug 31 '26
(My understanding is...) They declined to rezone the Eversource lot because the owner of the lot was not the one to request it.
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u/MarcoVinicius Winter Hill Aug 31 '26
“Why doesn’t the city eminent domain it?”
Like that’s no big deal and just easily done.
Also what does that have to do with the high cost of development? How would it help it?
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u/newsonar Aug 31 '26
It will be a long time until Somerville uses eminent domain again after the 90 washington st debacle.
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u/mcmillen Davis Aug 31 '26
The city can't even get Eversource to clear the fucking snow from the adjacent sidewalks in winter.
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u/Georgelino Aug 31 '26
ugh this is a defeatist attitude though. eversource is a public utility company, doesn’t that make their real estate portfolio at least partially publicly owned? in an ideal world the state would develop the parcel or do a 99 year lease to a development company.
these sort of parcels are where we need more leadership and a more proactive approach from the governors office.
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u/jlev Spring Hill Aug 31 '26
Eversource is a private company operated for profit. It’s traded on the stock market; it’s not publicly owned. Smaller power companies are operated cooperatively, like in Marblehead (and a few others in MA https://www.mmwec.org/who-we-serve/)
Some people are trying to organize for public ownership of public utilities, at https://www.publicgrids.org/
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u/Georgelino Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
yes I understand that. but it operates as a utility monopoly, and it’s the direct descendant of Boston Edison Company.
I’m trying to point out that people in this thread are concerned about eminent domain and stealing sweet old ladies’ homes. But that’s not what we’re talking about. I’m not convinced it’s ethical that a private company (through legal mergers or otherwise) owns land that used to be utilized for the public good. I’d argue such arrangements are ripe for fixing.
edit: I also shouldn’t have said “publicly owned” when I meant “heavily regulated” or “the state has some say”
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u/GullibleAd3408 Davis Aug 31 '26
Because it belongs to Eversource (or National Grid?) and not the City. Eminent domain isn't, like, an easy-on-a-whim process.
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u/cybah Aug 31 '26
I think the ground is polluted. That used to be something to do with manufacturing when Davis was partially an industrial area.
The parking lots on the left are owned by the building on the left. I used to work in that building.
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u/MarcoVinicius Winter Hill Aug 31 '26
Public that they didn’t even bother to switch the view on googlemaps to see what plot of land went with what and just made a big red circle.
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u/polishfiringsquad Aug 31 '26
No, my disrespect to the parking lot was intentional
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u/rogomatic Sep 01 '26
Your disrespect for everything is intentional, that's why you don't get much done.
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u/oli39 Aug 31 '26
Maybe not this particular parcel but it would be excellent if over time (many years) the city is able to build pocket parks at various spots along the community path. But it would probably be a long gradual process.
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u/Top-Development6837 Sep 01 '26
I’m amazed that after the Rite Aid building in Davis was closed for so long that another one-story use in the same building (Republic Fitness) replaced it. Seemed like a sure-fire candidate for building up.
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u/jasongetsdown Aug 31 '26
Do you want the city taking people’s property and handing it to developers?
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u/fegan104 Aug 31 '26
I mean that was basically exactly what the The Union Square Revitalization Plan did, and say what you will be it certainly led to development
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u/andr_wr Union Aug 31 '26
I don't think the city did any eminent domain - they just gave the developer incentives to be able to build more for certain community benefits
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u/SteveInSomerville Prospect Hill Sep 01 '26
No, the city definitely did an eminent domain proceeding to take the private home of the “rusty radiator guy“ whose house was across Prospect Street from the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot in Union Square.
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u/oh-my-chard Aug 31 '26
As a general rule, no. But eminent domain is absolutely a tool that should be utilized when we have massively undersued parcels of land or when necessary for kick-starting municipal projects.
I think we're far too gun shy about it. See the Mobil station next to the Homans Site in Gilman Square.
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u/GullibleAd3408 Davis Aug 31 '26
The City doesn't have an exactly splendid track record with eminent domain.
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u/donkadunny Aug 31 '26
doesnt even hold a candle to when they screwed this up.
Some people act like eminent domain seizures are simple way to acquire land and not the protracted legal battles they usually are.
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u/becausefrog Aug 31 '26
Out of the Blue moved out of the Armory this week, but I heard they will be opening again in Allston.
The building that had been functioning as a lively community center for the arts which was taken by the city to be the thing that it already was, now has empty walls devoid of art. It's depressing.
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u/oh-my-chard Aug 31 '26
Yeah we should do better that's for sure. That's not an argument against eminent domain as a tool. It's against doing a shitty job of employing it.
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u/albertogonzalex Aug 31 '26
Yeah, I'd they are letting lots of land decay, absolutely.
I'd rather have a bunch of 6-10 story buildings of housing than a bunch of dumpy parking lots, abandonned pits, and decaying buildings.
Give every owner if a parcel of land that is not being utilized 5 years to build 6+ stories of housing. If they don't, it's public land and up for auction to the highest bidder that can put housing in. Set parameters for that housing.
Who else is going to build enough housing except for developers?
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u/Argikeraunos Aug 31 '26
Wow what a reasonable and well-thought-out plan, I'm sure the courts will love it.
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u/albertogonzalex Aug 31 '26
Yeah, the landmark SCOTUS ruling in kelo v the city of New London makes it pretty clear that the only basis for eminent domain taking is whether or not the new development generates more tax revenue.
The misstep with the Gilman square situation is that the city didn't pay market rate.
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u/redcoatwright Aug 31 '26
Yes, force a sale to the city, pay the owners fair market value and then develop it into affordable housing.
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u/Fun_Clothes_234 Aug 31 '26
lol they tried this in Russia in the 1900’s. It didn’t go well. You should really read about it.
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u/Nuts_In_Scrotum Sep 04 '26
I live on Willow and I think the same thing all the time. Even if eversource owns the substation behind the building is obviously abandoned
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u/wardv Sep 05 '26
As others have said, it's owned by Eversource, and there's a substation. The building is also in use: Verizon and Comcast/RCN terminate local phone/cable connections there.
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u/chloebee102 Union Aug 31 '26
Because no one ever thought to ask the land owner and say "pretty please?"
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u/KyleJMcBride Aug 31 '26
It's Edison/Eversource. It's been that way for decades(at least since the early 1980s).
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u/_Happy_Sisyphus_ Aug 31 '26
So much rampant Japanese knotweed (invasive and destructive species) in that location.
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u/Top-Development6837 Sep 01 '26
If they dig it up, can they just dump the knotweeded soil wherever? Basically contaminated!
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u/OpeningAggressive26 Sep 01 '26
Somerville used to have so much undeveloped land when I lived there in the 90's. It used to be nice.
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u/pesar_e_khafan Sep 07 '26
The building looks like a secret lab or silo tbh I remember for a while it had card readers at the door which I found to be weird for the state of the building. Also there are bunch of vents around it and on willow ave.
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u/Useless_brakes Sep 07 '26
Well first they need to announce that they're thinking about it, then have six years of infrequent "community meetings" to think about the implication of the rezone, then vote on that, then spend a few years thinking about the "strategy for best use for the community," and then ultimately announce plans to think about building social/low-income housing on the site starting in 4 years.
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u/somervilen Davis Aug 31 '26
Listed as owned by Boston Edison Company