By William C. Shelton

  (The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and  do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

The Union Square Green Line Station and Revitalization Plan promise unprecedented opportunities for the neighborhood and the city as a whole. With these opportunities come significant risks.

In October 2012, the city adopted a visionary plan to revitalize the Square. Its goals, drawn from the Somervision Comprehensive Plan, include

• Making Somerville an employment center;
• Reducing dependence on state fiscal aid;
• Leveraging the Green Line to enhance the city’s transportation networks; and
• Creating a built environment that nurtures community.

Thus transformed, Union Square could greatly contribute to correcting Somerville’s imbalance between workers and jobs while easing homeowners’ tax burden. A broad range of new jobs would help reduce the number of long-term residents who are being priced out of their own community.

Artist’s conception of possible design Block D-2 and D-6.

Minimize residential development

To achieve these goals, development and tenant mix should overwhelmingly focus on office and research-and-development uses, which generate the most tax revenues, most jobs, least city expenses, and least traffic. They also bring a daytime population that would support a thriving ground-floor retail, food service, and entertainment economy.

The city has issued a Request for Qualifications to select a master developer partner to “build approximately 2.3 million square feet of new development.” The RFQ is impressive in its requirements, the contingencies it anticipates, and the protections that it specifies.

It mentions residential development in only two locations: the row of properties that run from the Goodyear Tire Store to Grace Salon, and the “South Prospect Block,” on which Beacon Sales and Royal White Laundry are now located.

But a developer is inevitably drawn to whatever has the greatest and most lucrative market demand. In today’s Somerville, that means high-priced residential units that accommodate people without children—exactly what we don’t need more of. Increasing the supply of such units will do nothing to meet our need for affordable family housing or maintain our diversity.

The first projects of a revitalization campaign set precedent and build momentum in a particular direction. Establishing Union Square as a commercial center is essential to achieving Somervision goals and meeting this city’s identified needs. The South Prospect Block will be a gateway to Boynton yards and influence how it is subsequently perceived and developed.

City officials, eager to demonstrate results, can be tempted to compromise on our needs when commercial tenant recruitment becomes challenging and residential development, enticing. One solution to that is zoning that more narrowly defines allowable uses. Some U.S. communities are experimenting with zoning mandates for jobs and housing ratios. We should learn from their experience.

Select a reliable master developer partner

There is a rich global history of large developers’ promising to meet cities’ requirements and then finessing those requirements once they have achieved sufficient leverage. This is one of several reasons that many question the wisdom of selecting a single developer for all twelve disposition acres in the Revitalization Plan.

But land transformations work best when a city has clearly defined a vision and when a single entity implements that vision. This ensures that design and execution of every element will be integrated into a unified whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It simplifies management, reducing municipal costs, and increases efficiency.

To realize these opportunities while reducing their attendant risks, city officials must be rigorous in selecting and resolute in managing a master developer. They should hold out for a partner with extensive experience in office and R&D development and a history of integrity in relationships with public partners.

State and city approvals of land transformations such as Copley Place, Kendall Square, the Prudential Center, Lechmere, Fan Pier, and University Park specified those projects’ mix of uses, environmental impacts, and amenities. Generally, developers were not able to change such specifications by more than ten percent without having to go back through the entitlement process. Such protections will be essential in Union Square.

Strengthen public oversight

If expediency can tempt private and public partners to stray from a revitalization plan’s vision and objectives, then enforceable citizen oversight is essential as well. Regrettably, our elected representatives on the Board of Aldermen gave away their oversight role.

When they approved the Revitalization Plan, they turned that responsibility over to an unelected Redevelopment Authority. This is common practice. But wise legislative bodies maintain oversight by requiring redevelopment authorities to obtain approval when it comes time to spend public money. A week after approving the Revitalization Plan, Aldermen voted 10-to-1 to authorize issuance of $8 million in bonds, the proceeds from which would be controlled by the Redevelopment Authority.

These circumstances increase the need for public vigilance, both to make sure that the master developer builds what we need, and to protect the city’s fiscal health.

Ensure prudent financial management

The Somerville Redevelopment Authority committed $2 million of its bond proceeds to infrastructure engineering and $6 million to acquiring properties on the East Side of Prospect Street, from Washington Street to, and including, the Green Line Station site.

When a city takes property, it pays owners an amount determined by a retained appraiser. The owners then have three years in which they can bring an appeal for greater compensation. They may dispute the appraised value on its own terms, and they may argue that the improvements brought by revitalization would have increased their properties’ value.

This argument has greater credence when the increased value results from the actions of an entity other than the one taking the property—in this case, increased value resulting from the Green Line station construction rather than from the city’s revitalization plan. Juries have tended to be sympathetic to plaintiffs when their land was transferred to a for-profit business rather than committed to a strictly public use.

This poses risks that are worth taking during times of economic expansion. The present moment, however, is one of uncertainty. The Federal Reserve Bank’s Quantitative Easing program has created an enormous stock bubble. If and when the bubble bursts, the consequences could be devastating, severely limiting demand for new development and curtailing anticipated tax revenues that are required to service the debt on revitalization bonds and pay judgments that may result from eminent domain takings.

The city has already issued those bonds. But city officials should be extremely prudent in considering additional property takings and public debt.

Nix the “Civic Center Block”

Massachusetts poet Marge Piercy once wrote, “There are some dreams that glow so brightly that we will sacrifice first a finger, and then an arm, to let them burn.” That’s how I feel about building a new public library and city hall on the block where the Public Safety Building, Ricky’s Flowers, and Fred Susan Auto Body are now located.

Library staff and patrons have been promised a new facility for at least fourteen years. They deserve it. But prime commercial property in Union Square is not the right place. Civic buildings would preempt development that generates much needed new tax revenues and jobs.

Some cities have erected public buildings in revitalization districts believing that traffic to those facilities would generate sales in surrounding establishments. It hasn’t worked.

When I go to the library’s main branch, I see kids who attend high school next door doing their homework. Many would not otherwise have access to an environment that is conducive to study. Why take this away from them?

Intensive analysis and extensive collaboration among stakeholders produced new Union Square zoning in 2009 and Somervision in 2012. The Union Square Revitalization Plan is generally sound in concretizing their vision. Realizing its promise will require vigilance from all of us.