The second virtual meeting on the 90 Washington Street project drew together project team members, associated project stakeholders and the general public to review and look forward to the future of the project as it develops.

By Jim Clark

The second virtual meeting to envision a new 90 Washington Street, the future home of the Public Safety Building (PSB) and the Washington Street Redevelopment Parcels, took place on Wednesday, February 16.

The project team provided updates on the PSB project and showed options for future development based on the feedback received at the December meeting.

Ted Fields, Senior Planner in the Economic Development Division of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD), led off the meeting by introducing team members and describing their various functions within the project. He then explained that the main purpose of the meeting was to follow-up on the first meeting held in December of 2021, when participants stated what they wanted to see on the Washington Street site, what sort of new land uses like stores, affordable housing, etc., were desired, along with the proposed safety building. The follow-up was intended to ask participants specifically where they wanted these uses located on the site, including the new Public Safety Building.

OSPCD Director of Capital Projects Melissa Woods provided background information on the acquisition of the site and thanked those who offered input on the results of the December 13, 2021, meeting. “I spent a lot of time over the past six weeks thinking about how to best summarize what this is about,” said Woods. “And I’ve really settled on the analogy of being in a horse race. Now, you may have heard the Kentucky Derby called the most exciting two minutes in sports, or something like that. Our racetrack is a little bit bigger than that. It’s going to take us a few years to circle this racetrack. But for any true fans of horse racing the most important thing is that all horses finish the race. And that is the most important thing about the 90 Washington Street project.”

Woods continued by reminding participants of the meeting that the City Council and the Somerville Redevelopment Authority took the property because they saw value in having a site that could not only host the Public Safety Building, but also include a community vision. “There’s enough opportunity on this site for the Public Safety Building and the implementation of a community vision,” Woods said.

Director of Racial and Social Justice Department (RSJ) Denise Molina Capers, Esq., also a member of the Public Safety Building Committee, offered her views on the project saying, “Part of the work that the RSJ Department is doing is making sure that we are closely connected with the different steps and details of the Public Safety Building as far as Capital Projects is concerned. And so, a critical component that the RSJ Department is partaking in is with the staffing and operations analysis of the Somerville Police Department, which includes the fleet concerns that were mentioned in December and doing a study that will inform that.”

Molina Capers emphasized that those interested in learning how the Police Department operates should reach out to the RSJ Department.

A number of sketches and design concepts for the Public Safety Building, adjacent facilities and public spaces were shown to and discussed by participants of the meeting.

Following the main virtual meeting, several breakout rooms were set up for participants to use for general discussion and asking questions of the various team members.

The meeting video can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOCemPXtzAQ&t=6s.