by Brian A. McDonald

City Hall and the developers of the Assembly Square took a step towards breaking ground Sept. 14 when the city issued permits and collected fees, despite opposition to the project.

“This is an important moment for our city. Not only does it demonstrate forward progress on this project but it means our community is finally reaping some financial benefit from this site,” said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone.

The developers, Assembly Square Limited Partners, paid permit and other fees totaling more than $1.2 million for the city: $525,000 for community benefits, $380,000 for traffic mitigation and more than $300,000 for the permit.

The permit, issued for the redevelopment of Assembly Square Mall, will allow ASLP to start renovations as soon as possible, said Curtatone.

Whether or not the project will ever start is still the subject of some debate.

Alderman-at-Large Denise M. Provost said she offers words of caution to an administration moving quickly into a multiple hundred million dollar development deal at what could be one of New England’s last best-chance for intelligent urban planning.

“The belief that you can follow your impulses today and pay the consequences tomorrow may make for a wonderful attitude about life, but let’s not confuse it with good planning,” said Provost, who is also president of the board.

The permit issued at the Mall is currently being contested in a suit, filed by Louana H. Evarts and Mystic View Task Force, against the city. The suit claims new zoning ordinances, approved by the Aldermen in April, illegally allow for change of use development at Assembly Square and that any permit issued under that law is void.

Still, Curtatone said the current plan is to break ground at the mall end-cap, most recently occupied by Building #19, by Thanksgiving. The Christmas Tree Shop and Staples are to be the new tenants as soon as construction is complete.

“The public has been very supportive and they are happy just to see something happening,” he said.
The fiscal analysis of the project, completed by Richard Bonz of Bonz and Company, Inc., the city can expect to bring in between $4-5 million in net new taxes from the completed project at Assembly Square Mall, which includes the IKEA store, said he said.

Alderman-at-Large William A. White, Jr. said the analysis’ tax projection for the project, when cast against the city’s projected personnel budget, is not impressive.

“The city’s personnel budget, including fringe benefits, is currently about $70 million per year. That figure increases at an annual rate of about 4 percent, or $3 million per year,” White said.

Assuming a six-year build out, by the time the city sees the net new taxes from the Mall, the personnel budget will have increased over $18 million,” he said.

“The $4 million is not that significant when compared with projected budget increase,” he said.

“The only way to really increase tax revenues to the city is through an intense build-out at Yard 21 which will create dense use of the land and increase property taxes substantially,” he said.

White said he voted against the zoning ordinances drawn up by the planning board in April. “I would have voted for the new zoning ordinances if there had been a commitment to the development of Yard 21 on the part of the developers.”

Without Yard 21 to significantly increase Somerville’s tax base, senior citizens and working class people are going to be squeezed out of the city due to the rising residential property taxes necessitated by the naturally increasing budget, White said.

Curtatone said the city’s recent victory over Central Steel was testimony in its commitment to fully develop Yard 21.

The decision, applying the principle of eminent domain, allowed the city to take 1.7 acres of land belonging to Central Steel Supply Co. at Yard 21. Central Steel has appealed that decision, but Curtatone said he is confident the suit will be found in favor of the city.

White said an even greater concern to city officials and of residents East Somerville is the ever-increasing number of cars at Assembly Square.

Traffic at Assembly Square, already approaching failure levels during peak hours, will exceed capacity if current plans to re-tenant Assembly Square Mall and build IKEA move forward, White said.

“There is no doubt that Assembly Square Mall will eat up traffic capacity at Assembly Square,” he said.
In 2003, the city retained the services of Rizzo Associates, Inc. to determine the traffic impact of future development at Assembly Square, he said.

That report found that any development beyond the re-tenanting of Assembly Square Mall and the construction of the IKEA store would require a significant re-engineering of local traffic systems, White said.

William C. Shelton, head of Mystic View Task Force, said he has doggedly pursued the city to present a smart growth agenda at Assembly Square.

The increased traffic volume arising from the re-tenanted mall and IKEA has not been sufficiently planned for and will preclude development at Yard 21 thereby quashing what he feels is the city’s last great chance at smart growth, he said.

“The City’s traffic consultants Rizzo & Associates forecast that the ASLP & IKEA project will absorb all of Assembly Square’s traffic capacity,” he said.

No one can identify where the $100 million in new traffic infrastructure that would then be needed to build Yard 21 would come from,” he said.

Shelton said, “Like Esau in the book of Genesis we are trading our future for one meal.”

The alderman for Ward 1, William M. Roche, who represents the Assembly Square and that neighborhood, said he is more inclined to move forward with the project and attack urban planning issues like traffic congestion as they arise.

“Any sign of any type of development at Assembly Square will help us move forward with regard to developing Yard 21 and building an Orange Line stop,” Roche said.

“Traffic improvements naturally have to go along with city development. Is it going to be $54 million? I don’t know,” he said.

“We have to trust the traffic management people studying the problem. There are always the naysayers just looking for a reason to stop the project. I don’t see it as a problem as long as we implement the suggested improvements as we go along,” he said.

That type of-ad hoc planning is not what the newly reorganized Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization, or Boston MPO, is looking for, said Provost.

The increased traffic capacity would require, among other things, a reconstruction of the I-93 interchange. Funds for that project would come from the Boston MPO, a federal agency, she said.

“Somerville can’t possibly pay for the increased traffic capacity,” she said. “Whatever the figure is, it is not realistic or possible for the city to pay it.”

“If we really mess up Assembly Square and go to the state looking for help, we won’t find the old MPO,” Provost said.

The reorganized MPO is operating under instructions to make its funding criteria more transparent to the public, and make its process of awarding funding more merit-oriented and less political, she said.
Projects are rewarded for following principles of good planning, not for knowing the right people, she said.

“Somerville is right now sending mixed signals to MPO. On the one hand we have a transit oriented plan with Yard 21. On the other we have an automotive oriented plan with the Mall and IKEA,” she said.

The Boston MPO takes a long-term view when budgeting and with the lack of a coherent plan at Assembly Square, the MPO has a hard time taking Somerville seriously, she said.

Despite the presence of internal opposition to the current plan and an outstanding lawsuit that questions the legality of the permit issued for the re-tenanting of Assembly Square Mall, the mayor still plans on having shovels in the ground at Assembly Square Mall by Thanksgiving of this year.

The end-cap at Assembly Square Mall is safe, in any case, from the current MVTF suit and ASLP can safely begin renovations there, said White.

“The end-cap is grand-fathered under the old zoning ordinances so it can move forward,” he said.
The rest of the mall can be developed as well, he said, but the developers would be doing so at their own risk pending the outcome of the Zoning suit.

And that’s just what ASLP is going to do, said Roche.

ASLP has plans on moving forward with the re-tenanting of the mall even in light of the current suit against the zoning ordinances because they feel like they have a good case, said Roche.

Roche also said that ASLP has indeed made a commitment to move forward on Yard 21.