by Keith Howard

The Somerville Bicycle Committee met Feb. 20 with Stephen E. Smith Jr., principal developer of the five-acre K.S.S. Realty project, to answer questions about the multi-family, 199-unit residential neighborhood, which his company will build at the Max Pak site located at 56-61 Clyde St.

     The entire project will take about four years to complete. During the first half of development, construction vehicles will use part of the Community Bicycle Path between Lowell and Cedar Street to gain access to the site.

     The covenant, a written agreement between the city of Somerville and K.S.S. Investment, mandates that K.S.S. will not delay the city‚Äôs construction of the path and will leave the path in the same or better condition.

     K.S.S. Investment is trying to accommodate and be cooperative, Smith said. ‚ÄúFor me it‚Äôs easier to go down Clyde and Warwick,‚Äù he said, ‚Äúbut this is less intrusive and noisy to people.‚Äù

Smith encountered a plethora of questions and comments from members of the community regarding the decision to use a section of the Community Bicycle Path for the development of the property.

     Bennett said his organization helped to raise $8,000 to help reconstruct the path and worries that this development will cause further delays.

     ‚ÄúI feel like we needed to be informed. I don‚Äôt want to say you can‚Äôt touch it, but I do feel that we have been contributing to the community path for a while. People are going to feel burned,‚Äù said Joel Bennett, founder and chairperson of the Friends of the Community Path.

     The redevelopment of the Community Path is currently scheduled for the spring of 2009.

     ‚ÄúMy concern, after reading the proposed covenant, is that it says K.S.S. gets to use the community path, and when it‚Äôs done, it gets returned to us as it was before. All the benefits seem to go to one side,‚Äù said Bicycle Committee member Ron Newman.

     In a private interview, Smith commented on the decisions being made to keep the best interests of each party in mind. ‚ÄúI worked with the city to create a draft of the covenant. It‚Äôs something that‚Äôs good and represents the interests of the community, and it‚Äôs acceptable to us,‚Äù said Smith.

     The portion of land, which is currently the property of the MBTA, was deemed unsuitable for public use, he said. ‚ÄúWe are using part of an abandoned track to get to and from the site because it creates much less traffic. It‚Äôs abandoned. In the future it will become part of the path. I was a little puzzled as to why we weren‚Äôt using it,‚Äù said Smith.

      A great deal of time was spent analyzing the potential effects of our project upon the city and the results proved our development will only have a non-discernable impact on the city‚Äôs traffic, he said. 

     The covenant can be worked on, and things can be added to or taken away to best meet the needs of the people of Somerville, he said. ‚ÄúThis is not the end all, be all,‚Äù said Smith.

     K.S.S. Realty must receive a special zoning permit from the city‚Äôs Planning Board, and amendments must be made to articles 6, 7, and 17 of the city‚Äôs zoning ordinance, before the project can begin.

     ‚ÄúThe entire BOA is listening. We want to hear from everybody involved to make an informed decision. This zoning will effect the whole city, but the Max Pak is what drives it,‚Äù said Alderman-at-Large William A. White Jr.

     Alderman O‚ÄôDonovan, Chairman of the Committee on Land Use, encourages people to voice their concerns March 1 at 6 p.m. in City Hall, where the Committee on Land Use will be hosting a joint committee meeting with the Planning Board to discuss the zoning amendments and hear from the public.         

     The last three years of planning the K.S.S. project have required more consultation than any project in the history of Somerville said Alderman O‚ÄòDonovan. ‚ÄúWe started four years ago. It‚Äôs an evolving thing,‚Äù he said.