The Capital Investment Plan (CIP) provides a 5-year potential roadmap for the City’s major investments to critical infrastructure such as buildings, streetscapes, parks, property, and equipment. It serves as a companion to the City’s Annual Budget–providing a guide to spending on major improvements and maintaining the long-term fiscal health of the City. The CIP maintains a 5-year planning horizon that shapes project timelines should they be greenlighted and as funding, resources, and capacity allows. While the CIP charts priorities for both the near-term and projects that could unfold over the coming decade or longer, it is revisited annually and evolves based on community needs and circumstances.
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About the CIP
Below, find a series of Frequently Asked Questions about the CIP:
- How is the Capital Investment Plan different from the Annual Budget?
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Both the Annual Budget and CIP guide how the City spends its money to provide municipal services to residents.
While the Annual Budget covers recurring operating expenses, such as staff salaries, supplies, and professional services, the Capital Investment Plan sets priorities for major non-recurring expenses (as defined by Massachusetts General Law) including buildings, streetscapes, parks, property, and equipment. The non-recurring expenses are typically financed through bonds, grants, and loan programs. The debt incurred by the City in the process of making such investments then becomes an expense on future Annual Budgets. - How do we determine what investments are included in the 5-year CIP?
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The CIP is the result of a complex prioritization process guided by community priorities and needs but constrained by finances, market conditions, and availability of resources such as land. The investments included need to represent the evolving nature of our community–both in terms of the City’s changing capacity to undertake improvement projects and the community’s expectations of a values-driven expansion of municipal services. Rooted in an understanding of community priorities, potential investments are then identified through technical evaluation and financial modeling by a range of City Departments and Divisions. Included in this work is the generation of standardized, high-quality cost estimates for each potential investment.
After investments are defined and costs projected, those potential investments are evaluated based on risk and consequence. Risk is the likelihood that the asset will fail if the project is deferred. Consequence is the impact failure would have on safety, core service delivery, or repair/replacement costs. - How often is the CIP updated?
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The CIP is updated annually due to the dynamic nature of financial, construction, and supply chain conditions as well as to ensure the City can be responsive to changing community priorities and needs. The decisions made are revisited each year and the CIP will adapt to meet changing needs and circumstances.
- Why is the FY2027 CIP for 5-years?
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A 5-year CIP lends itself to both stability and adaptability, enabling the document to reflect the City’s evolving needs and finances. Investments included in the CIP will continue their development, while potential investments not yet on the list will mature both in terms of community process and technical evaluation.
- Does the CIP need to be approved by the City Council?
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As part of the City Charter approved by voters in November 2025, the mayor must submit a capital improvement plan to the City Council by November 1 each year. After a public hearing, the City Council by resolution adopts or rejects the CIP. The Council’s authorization of expenditure for individual project investments comes later when they approve the issuance of bonds and accept grant or loan terms for each project. The CIP provides councilors with the context necessary to weigh individual investments in the context of how they could impact our ability to deliver other projects or the long-term financial health of the City.
- What if a project I care about is not on the CIP?
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Many priority projects that are in various stages of review, community process, research, evaluation, or acquisition, do not yet appear on the CIP. As each project gets closer to being ready, it will be reevaluated for including the next year’s CIP update. Some projects may still need additional community processes. Others may still be undergoing technical review. Some that involve the need for physical space like land or a building, may still be in search of a location. The important point is that the CIP will evolve annually as new projects mature and conditions change.
- How can the community get involved?
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Community engagement for major public investment projects such as buildings, streetscapes, and parks is held on a project-by-project basis. When these community processes are announced, joining those discussions will help you learn about the project and be heard. The CIP is then developed with the outcome of those processes always top of mind as staff crunches the numbers, evaluates market conditions, and reviews the technical feasibility of projects. Then once a project is funded and design gets underway, the City usually holds public design and project meetings where the community has an opportunity to help shape the final features, purposes, and look of the project.
FY2027 CIP
Past CIPs
On March 9, 2023, City of Somerville Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management, Richard E. Raiche presented the Fiscal Year 2023 Capital Investment Plan update to the City Council. A recording of that full presentation will be shared below once available.
The FY2023 Capital Investment Plan is available to view on the City’s FY2023 Budget Book presented through ClearGov.
Video of the presentation to the Council can be found below:
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