Somerville ADU Bylaw Analysis

UPDATED

Provision-by-provision analysis of Somerville's ADU bylaw against Massachusetts Chapter 150 and 760 CMR 71.00.

Somerville Bylaw Consistency

Somerville Zoning Ordinance (Ord. 2025-16, adopted 06/26/2025) · Last updated June 2025

Last reviewed: February 15, 2026

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What This Means

Somerville is relatively ADU-friendly after adopting Ord. 2025-16. The ‘Backyard Cottage’ building type makes detached ADUs straightforward. The main watch item is the affordability requirement in Neighborhood Residential zones — it adds compliance costs that may discourage some projects.

Permit Activity

24 of 40 approved (60%)Share of 2025 applications approved in 2025

Approved (24) Denied (0) Pending (0)

View Somerville ADU permit data →

Data Provenance

Reviewed: February 15, 2026

AG action: None

Bylaw source: Zoning Ordinance · retrieved February 19, 2026

Version date not published; analysis based on publicly available text retrieved February 19, 2026

8 provisions analyzed against Chapter 150

Full Compliance Analysis Available

We've mapped 8 provisions in Somerville's ADU bylaw against Massachusetts Chapter 150. Enter your details to get the full provision-by-provision analysis.