Special Newscast on Union Square Development

Somerville, MA, Mar. 25, 2015 – A number of community groups, non-profits, business owners and residents are not happy with the ongoing planning process for the redevelopment of Union Square.

About 12 acres, located on seven blocks of real estate, are slated to be redeveloped by a master developer, chosen by the City last year. Union Square Station Associates, or US2, is a consortium of firms – led by Chicago’s Magellan Development Group LLC and Boston’s Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc. – that formed specifically to undertake the billion-dollar development.

Comments at recent meetings, a protest [see related story], editorials and newspaper articles make it clear that, despite the hours of presentations at many meetings in the old Post Office building, and the dozens of drawings offering variations on how different blocks might be designed, many stakeholders feel that their voices are not being heard.

Joe Beckman, a community activist who attended many of the meetings, said that in his opinion, the meetings – most recently held March 9-11 and March 19 – have been too big, and have been too focused on what the developer wants.

“I discovered long ago that first you listen, and then you talk,” he told Somerville Neighborhood News (SNN). “They are talking and not listening, and the thing that’s embarrassing is that they mean to listen.”

Beckman said he felt that there has been “too much information” and too much one-way communication.

“You never have a large group and then never listen to them,” he said. “That’s exactly what they’ve done.”

At many of the sessions on March 9, 10, 11 and 19, residents, business owners, members of organizations like Union United, staffers from non-profits like the Somerville Community Corporation (SCC), which heads Union United, and others echoed Beckman’s sentiments. They worried the Community Benefits Agreement or CBA [see related story] won’t be strong, that there won’t be enough affordable housing for those with low incomes, and that the planning for two of the seven development blocks, D2 and D3 which are adjacent to one of the future Green Line stations, is going too quickly.

Here are a few excerpts:

“You already see that the tax increase, the rent increase is already pushing businesses out, but my concern is that it’s going to happen more and more,” Ryan Habbyshaw of Local Supply Company said on March 10.

Mimi Graney, former director of Union Square Main Streets and who is co-owner of Relish Management, said she is worried about the construction period.

“We saw how disrupted it was doing Somerville Avenue,” she remembered, also at a March 10 session. “It looks beautiful now but it was three years of hell and there were lots of promises of, ‘Oh, we even put up signs about all the local businesses still open, we will put up little walk way to get into the business,’ and it didn’t happen. So, if there could be some guarantees and that if the contractors or the City don’t follow through, that there is cash back to the businesses, because if you are two weeks out, if you don’t have customers for two weeks, that can take some of these businesses down. They are operating very small margins.”

“I heard lot of people speak the need to provide both inclusionary housing and other kinds of affordable housing for very low and low income families, and individuals who have fewer options,” SCC’s Karen Narefsky said on March 10. “One of the things that Union United is putting forward as part of our proposed CBA is actually a much higher percentage in Union Square of affordable housing than even inclusionary program would call for.”

Many have also expressed concerns about the amount of space on the D2 and D3 blocks that will go to commercial development as opposed to housing.

At a recent Post Office meeting, US2 said it was planning to put in up to 925 housing units for “Millennials,” much to the consternation of those present and to several columnists writing in the Somerville newspapers.

Asked about the issue on March 19, City of Somerville Economic Development Planner Brad Rawson explained that there are still many weeks and months of planning and decision-making to go.

“We are very early in this process,” he told SNN. “We have been working really, really hard to get a number of community members involved to help us understand priorities and goals in a one-year time frame, a five-year time frame and even a 10- and a 20-year time frame.”

Rawson urged people to go to the Somerville By Design website in order to look at the various plans that were generated at the meetings, to download and fill out a survey, and to learn about upcoming meetings.

PLEASE WATCH THE ENTIRE MARCH 24 NEWSCAST FOR MORE ON THE RECENT MEETINGS AND ON THE PLANNING PROCESS!