Somerville Awards $2.7M In CPA Funding: What Received Money

SOMERVILLE, MA — The city awarded $2.7 million in Community Preservation Act funding to open space, historic preservation and affordable housing projects.

At the recommendation of the Somerville Community Preservation Commission, the city council approved more than $1.2 million to go toward the following projects:

Open Space & Recreation

• Glen Park Community Garden: $210,200 to double the existing garden area.
• Somerville Junction Park: $100,000 toward the park expansion, which will combine an existing passive park with an adjacent City-owned lot previously used for parking.
• Land Acquisition Fund: $250,000 to be added to the City’s Open Space Land Acquisition fund to create additional open space.

Historic Preservation

• Elizabeth Peabody House: $30,000 for renovations to meet the State Building Code for assembly spaces and increase occupancy capacity.
• Somerville Hispanic Association/Grace Baptist Church: $494,110 to install accessibility improvements and make emergency structural repairs to the historic Grace Baptist Church, where the Somerville Hispanic Association for Community Development holds its programming.
• Somerville Museum: $157,352 to complete the design and renovation of the museum’s collection storage areas.

The committee also transferred nearly $1.5 million to the Somerville Affordable Housing Trust to support affordable housing projects. The trust will solicit proposals and award funding later this year.

Past projects have included the 100 Homes Project, which acquires and preserves existing homes throughout the community; Mystic Waterworks, which converted a historic building to house 23 units of affordable housing; and rental assistance and housing stabilization programs. To learn more, visit somervillema.gov/sahtf.

To date, the Somerville CPA program has supported 50 unique housing, historic, and open space/recreation projects or programs through awards of over $30 million since its adoption in 2012. This includes $5 million in CPA matching funds from the state.

For more information about the CPA, go to somervillema.gov/cpa.