Assembly Square developers agree to pay city’s legal fees
By George P. Hassett

Federal Realty Trust, the company developing Assembly Square, agreed this week to pick up the tab for Somerville’s legal fees for the creation and defense of the Assembly Square zoning laws, which were passed in 2004 and ruled “invalid” by a Land Court judge in March.

  The city has paid the Boston law firm of Palmer and Dodge nearly $1 million since August 2004. Individual attorneys at Palmer and Dodge charged the city as much as $409 an hour, but sometimes spoke to one another about the case and charged $818 an hour.
  City officials said no local tax money was used to pay the lawyers. The $962,290.81 paid to Palmer and Dodge was drawn from Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and $125,000 in private donations from Federal Realty, said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone.
  CDBG‚Äôs are meant to fund programs to help low- and moderate-income families. CDBG‚Äôs, like other block grant programs, are subject to less federal oversight and are largely used at the discretion of state and local governments.
  Activists from the Mystic View Task Force (MVTF) criticized the city for its spending, while city officials maintained it was the lawsuits of MVTF that made the fees necessary.
  But after an Oct. 17 agreement was reached between MVTF, the city and Federal, all has been harmonious in the once-contentious 145 acre business district. And this week‚Äôs pledge by Federal to pay all outstanding and future legal debts of the city for Assembly Square was an extension of that harmony.
  ‚ÄúIt only seems fair that we pay the legal fees,‚Äù said Don Briggs, senior Vice President of Federal.  ‚ÄúThe city spent an extraordinary amount on legal fees for the benefit of private development and it‚Äôs appropriate we cover that expense.‚Äù
Curtatone said Federal’s willingness to pay almost $1 million in legal fees for the city is an example of their dedication to an honest partnership with Somerville.
  ‚ÄúFederal has made a commitment to this development and to the community. They stepped up to the plate on this one and took another step toward building an Assembly Square that will benefit the whole community,‚Äù he said.