By David Taber

The Board of Aldermen’s Land Use Committee will recommend major changes May 22 to a proposed covenant between the city and developers planning to build 199 units on the Max Pak site on Clyde Street.

Speaking at the Somerville News contributors meeting May 10, Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston said the committee decided to revisit the covenant after residents raised concerns about it at a contentious public hearing on the rezoning of the site.

KSS Investment, the company seeking to develop the property, needs the Board of Aldermen’s approval of the rezoning before they can begin construction.

The board does not have the power to directly approve or reject the covenant, but, ‚Äúif the zoning is approved, you can safely say we approve of the covenant,‚Äù Heuston said.   

The Land Use Committee will recommend that the city require KSS Developers pull up the train tracks on a disused railroad right-of-way running past the site, she said.  KSS had planned to cover the tracks with gravel to create a temporary construction access road, but the city has been planning to turn the right-of-way into an extension of the Somerville Community Path.  Members of the City‚Äôs Bicycle Committee as well as members of the advocacy group Friends of the Community Path have been pushing for a clause requiring KSS to remove the tracks in exchange for use of the right-of-way, which may cause delays in the community path extension.

The land use committee will also recommend that the city require KSS to do acoustical studies before receiving permits for any of the three phases of construction it is planning.  A green line extension, slated to be built early in the next decade, will run past the site and residents are concerned the structures on the site will amplify the noise from the trains, she said. 

Heuston has been serving as chair for the land use committee during consideration of the rezoning of the Max Pak site and discussion of the covenant.  Ward 5 Alderman and Land Use Committee Chairman Sean T. O‚Äô Donovan recused himself from the discussions in early March due to a potential conflict of interests after he purchased a house on 30 Warwick Street, which abuts the Max Pak site.

Heuston also said she has drafted language for the covenant to hold KSS to a higher standard in its rodent control efforts during construction.

‚ÄúIt‚Äôs not enough to just bait around a construction project,‚Äù she said. Heuston said she has learned more than she ever wanted to know about rodent control in the course of her efforts toward the passage of a recent ordinance regulating curbside trash disposal. 

Rodents will only travel about 65 feet from their nests in search for food.  If they have to travel further they will move their nests to a new location, she said.  They migrate from construction sites because the work often interrupts their food source, she said. 

“What you need is an effort to go out into the neighborhood and make sure trash is secure, so there is no food source,” she said.

She said she wants language in the covenant to require KSS to provide financial support for the extra effort the city will have to put in to enforcing of the trash ordinance.

Regarding her own ward, which she has served for four terms, Heuston said her most important accomplishment has been overhauling the city‚Äôs licensing and permitting process. 

When she was elected, the aldermen‚Äôs Licensing and Permitting Committee ‚Äúwas not being very strict about what businesses could and couldn‚Äôt do,‚Äù she said.  The licenses the city was issuing did not include things like restrictions on hours of operation for garages or limitations on how many cars could be parked on used car lots, she said. 

Heuston has served on the Licensing and Permitting Committee for six years. Working with Inspectional Services and Fire Departments, and involving the neighbors, the committee has been able to significantly improve the process, she said.