Some satisfaction with jobs agreement, but oversight committee wanted

By Kimberly Geronimo

IKEA, and all of its low priced furniture, is coming to Somerville. And with it more jobs, more construction, and a lot more traffic.

Somerville residents met with city officials, developers, and IKEA representatives at a community meeting last Wednesday to discuss the retail giant’s arrival and other development plans for Assembly Square.

Representatives of Federal Realty Investment Trust, the developer of Assembly Square, presented designs for a new hotel, 2,000 new residential units (a percentage of which will be affordable housing), retail, a new Orange line MBTA station, and an expanded waterfront park.

The total project is estimated to take up to 10 to 12 years according to David Webster, director of development for FRIT.

Although IKEA is just one component of the plans for Assembly Square, it was in the spotlight throughout almost the entire meeting.

Traffic engineer Patrick Dunford presented an elaborate traffic design for Assembly Square to mitigate the increased volume of vehicles going to and from IKEA. This included widening and improving roads, appropriate signage to access IKEA from I-93 and Route 28, and intelligent signal communication between stoplights.

Residents, however, were far from satisfied with the designs. Many remained deeply skeptical that the new traffic plans would be able to handle the volume of traffic generated by IKEA customers.

Ward 1 Alderman Bill Roche was also at the meeting and expressed his own disapproval of the traffic designs in a private interview. ‚ÄúI agree with every neighbor’s concerns here about the traffic,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúI spoke against the traffic plan at the planning board as it was submitted,‚Äù he said, but the planning board approved it unanimously anyway. He said he thought that the design was not adequate for the increased volume of traffic generated by IKEA.

“I feel for these residents because they have legitimate concerns,” he said.

The meeting also presented residents with information about a jobs hiring agreement between IKEA and the city. According to the agreement, Somerville residents would be able to apply for jobs at IKEA two weeks before the general public, and East Somerville residents would be able to apply one week before that, said Katie Brillantes, project manager for the Assembly Square development.

There were very few questions or complaints about the jobs agreement at the meeting. One Somerville resident, Bill Shelton, attributed this to the fact that Somervillians were happy with the agreement because it was so good.

But not everyone was completely satisfied. Yvette Verdieu and Mary Jo Connelly, members of East Somerville Neighbors for Change, said they hoped that there would be an oversight committee of residents to hold IKEA to the agreement.

“We are excited that the city is taking our need for jobs seriously but we would have liked to have seen an agreement with teeth in it,” said Connelly. She said she worried that because the agreement to favor East Somerville residents over other applicants is entirely voluntary, IKEA might not fulfill its promise without a watchdog.

Roche, however, who said he played a significant role in the jobs agreement, was more trusting of IKEA. ‚ÄúI’m happy with it,‚Äù he said of the agreement. ‚ÄúI know there are some concerns about monitoring it and accountability, but IKEA is a first class act.‚Äù

Peter Tsourianis, a resident of East Somerville since 1951, also said he was pleased with the jobs agreement, although his main concern at the meeting was traffic mitigation. “The jobs agreement is a perfect example,” he said, referring to the productive outcomes of community meetings with resident input. The question now is how enforceable will the agreement be or will it be just more “lip-service,” he said.

‚ÄúI’m happy there’s a dialogue,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúIt seems we’re working together toward what’s best for the community whereas in the past the stores have dominated. If that dialogue continues it’ll be better for all of us. This is the beginning,‚Äù he said.