After a few years of dancing through the political minefields of Somerville, aptly designated by Stephen Smith as “the dark forest,” KSS Realty Partners is finally going to get their day of reckoning Рand we can only hope that the neighbors and the city watch over the project with a scrutinizing eye until the last nail is hammered at the Max Pak development.

While smaller conversions and projects have had their feet held to the fire every step of the way by neighbors and city inspectors, we as a community have repeatedly stood back and watched in amazement as medium to large project developers run roughshod over this city with little retribution.

Two cases in point: the developer of the Morrison/Willow Avenue property and the multiple name developer with a track record for ignoring neighbors, elected officials and city inspectors on Osgood Street and Teele Square (not to mention the Summer Street fiasco).

These developers came into this city with the fluff and fanfare promise of doing what is right for the community, only to end up doing whatever the hell they wanted to and in some cases, leaving unpaid bills in their wake. And yet, they still want to build in this city.

So while we begin to look at the massive multiple-year project at Assembly Square in its entirety, finally – the Max Pak development will be the testing ground (or ground zero if you are KSS) of how we move forward and interact with this type of developer in the future.

We can’t just put up a sign saying ‚Äúlow-life shady developers keep out‚Äù at the city gates, but we can hold developers like KSS accountable for their promises – that should send the message to the ones that could care less about this community that they’re not welcome here anymore.