If
you don't know where you're going, any path will take you there. That
was too often the case in the past, when city officials did not set
clear goals for the city's future guided by an agreed-upon vision for
the future.

They approved developments that generate
relatively low city revenues on land that could support higher-value
uses. They approved conversions of commercial properties with high tax
rates and low municipal costs, to residential uses with low tax rates
and high costs. The result was a structural fiscal deficit.

Now,
the mayor wants to set destinations and define the paths that will take
us to them, and he wants to involve as many Somerville residents as
possible in doing so. Leading the effort are staff from his Strategic
Office of Planning and Community Development (SOPCD).

Keith
Craig, who is guiding the effort, explains that a provision in
Massachusetts General Law authorizes municipalities that wish to, to
prepare a comprehensive plan. It's comprehensive because it includes
plans for economic development, housing, open space, city services,
recreation, and transportation; and because it must account for how
each of those elements interacts; and because it must anticipate future
trends.

Imagine the nested Chinese boxes or carved Russian dolls
that are sold in gift shops. You open one to find another. You open the
next to find yet another, and so on through a dozen boxes.

Now
imagine that Somerville is the middle box. Within it are boxes that
represent the elements being planned for and conditions shaping them
within the city. Surrounding it, boxes range outward, from regional
dynamics to global economic forces. Finally, imagine that each box is
in a state of continual change, affecting and sometimes transforming
the boxes around and within it.

Understanding those dynamics is
quite a challenge in itself. And the comprehensive plan must provide
clear guidance for future decision makers while allowing sufficient
flexibility for trends and events that cannot now be foreseen.

Two events that can
be foreseen are the arrival of the Orange and Green Lines. There is a
finite amount of time in which to make plans that will maximize the
opportunities they bring, while minimizing such risks as
gentrification. What with conducting the comprehensive planning process
at the same time, SOPCD staff are busier that a one-legged planner in
an ass-kicking contest.

That planning process begins, as it
should, with exhaustively collecting and rigorously analyzing those
data that describe Somerville's economic, housing, population, and
transportation trends. Accurately understanding how they brought us to
this moment, while combining this information with regional and
national trends, creates a baseline for understanding where we are
going. While our city faces the same challenges confronting many
cities, we are only 4.2 square miles in scale. So as Keith Craig
explains, "Somerville is a microcosm of all the challenges going on the
in the world, but in a manageable space."

SOPCD staff are
conducting a series of open meetings to inform residents of their
research findings and solicit insights regarding their meaning. In the
next step residents will work together to set a vision for the city's
future. Much of the visioning will occur in large public forums in
which the price of admission is participation.

SOPCD Executive
Director Monica Lamboy anticipates that different participants will
inevitably be passionate about different issues. She hopes to conduct a
productive conversation-bounded by the finite realities defined in
SOPCD's real-world data analysis-through which participants can
understand how their issue fits into the whole that is greater than the
sum of its parts.

The forums' results will go to a 56-member
steering committee composed of representatives appointed by the mayor,
aldermen, superintendent of education, school committee, key
departments, and community organizations. They will prepare drafts of
what they've heard and how it has influenced their thinking.

The
drafts will go back to the public participants and form the basis of a
dialogue between them and the steering committee, from which the
committee will draft goals, policies, and action plans.

Once
finished, the plan will guide creation of an updated General (land use)
Plan, which has not been revised since 1989. It will attract investment
to the city by giving developers and commercial tenants comfort about
what they can expect within the districts in which they might locate.
And it will sensitize and position public and private city leaders to
take advantage of future opportunities.

This is a rare moment
when it is possible to shape Somerville's future for generations to
come. Everyone, who cares about our city should participate. You can
learn more, review research produced to date, and find out about
participation opportunities at the Comprehensive Plan's website. Go to www.somervillema.gov/,
click on "City Departments," and then link to SOPCD. On the right side
of the page will be the comprehensive plan link. You can send questions
and suggestions to Mr. Craig at kcraig@somervillema.gov.