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The Boston Avenue Corridor redistricting proposal was made law Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, when the City Council unanimously approved a rezoning initiative.
Then Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn announced she planned to, in part, veto the proposal.
“I was irate with City Council on Tuesday,” she said just days after the vote was taken.
What’s happened
On the table was a proposal to rezone the Boston Avenue Corridor. City Councilor Matt Leming recapped the project as such:
“This is altering three areas of Boston Avenue, which we're calling BA1, around Hillside Hardware and Tamper Cafe, BA2 at the intersection of Boston Avenue and Harvard near St. Clements, and BA3, which covers the area around the Whole Foods,” he said.
That version of zoning allows for developers to build a three-story building by right in BA1, or four stories if various incentives aimed at bettering the city are met.
“In BA2, there's sort of a split between four stories by right and seven stories total in some parcels and three by right four total in others,” he said. “And BA3 – five stories by right and seven total.”
The committee also spent time looking at shadow studies and discussing setbacks and purpose-built student housing, which is where things got tricky.
The hiccup
The initial proposal required a special permit for purpose-built student housing in the BA3 area. Purpose-built student housing has been defined, by the council and the CDB, essentially, as privately owned and operated housing designated for students.
Leming made an amendment to allow student housing to be built in the BA3 zone by right, which means developers would not need a special permit. The BA3 zone includes the Whole Foods parcel along Auburn Street and 200 Boston Ave. down to North Street.
Councilor George Scarpelli had suggested the idea of allowing it by right be sent back to the CDB for further discussion, but Leming said he felt there had been ample discussion at a previous public hearing and he was ready to vote the issue. City Councilor Emily Lazzaro agreed.
She said since the definition of purpose-built student housing was so carefully restricted in its creation, the extra layer of requiring a special permit wasn’t needed.
“Also, we’re talking about one parcel,” she said.
The vote to amend the motion to allow for by-right building failed 4-3, but it didn’t end there.
At literally the 11th hour, or 11 p.m. that is, four hours into the City Council meeting, Councilor Justin Tseng, who was on the prevailing side of the original vote, asked to reconsider.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” said Council President Zac Bears, noting the late hour.
Tseng apologized, but said after having thought about it more and considering the importance of having projects that bring in revenue to the city, the best solution would be to make student housing by right.
The new vote succeeded 4-3 with Bears, Lazzaro, Tseng and Leming voting to allow student housing by right.
The response
Lungo-Koehn initially called it spot zoning. Spot zoning is prohibited in the Bay State if it’s aimed at a single or small parcel and done for the benefit of a developer.
In a statement released Wednesday, Sept. 23, she called it a late-night rash decision.
“This re-vote took place four hours into the meeting after zoning staff and neighbors left with virtually no one from the public in attendance other than an affected developer,” she said. “If the council wanted to take a matter back up, they should have done so when all interested parties were in attendance and not just the developer. This undermines how the process should take place, prior public comment from neighbors, and the work that is being done by the Community Development Board, our staff, and consultants to thoughtfully implement community-driven zoning changes. A change to by-right needs to be more thoughtfully discussed under the shine of community involvement. It is for these reasons that I am vetoing the amendment.”
Councilors also voted to adopt all of the CDB’s recommendations regarding the rezoning proposal and to send to legal counsel language that would require 80% of students in residency to be enrolled in a Medford/Somerville institution.
Lungo-Koehn is only suggesting she’d veto the reconsidered amendment. And according to her, the City Council can override her veto by a supermajority vote of 5 or more.
The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m.
