by Neil W. McCabe

The former president of the Board of Aldermen explained his vote against Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone’s plan for the development of Assembly Square May 19 to contributors of the Somerville News.

“Back in November, I met with the developersl and told them that to get my vote they had to make efforts to make the T-stop a reality,” said Alderman-at-Large William A. White Jr., whose term as president ended in January.

White said the inaction by Taurus, the Assembly Square developers, has left the proposed Orange Line station as far off as ever. “Up until today, those developers have done nothing in a concrete way.

“People who know me or have watched me operate as an alderman know that when I make a request for specific commitments or information before I cast my vote to take it seriously,” he said.

“Once the IKEA is built and the mall is re-tenanted, the traffic capacity will be completely used up, which means all other development physically cannot be built without both a T-stop and an off-ramp from Route 93,” he said.

“It’s not a matter of not liking traffic, it’s a matter of traffic engineering,” he said.

White said the economic activity generated by the revived mall and IKEA is not dense enough to meet Gov. Mitt Romney’s guidelines for new MBTA construction.

“If no T-stop is built, we can kiss good-bye to the dreams that we have for real development at Assembly Square, and anywhere from $11 to $22 million in tax revenues,” he said.

White said the mayor did not pressure him to support his plan out of respect for White’s work on the issue, and their having served together on the Board of Aldermen.

At his first meeting as an alderman in January 1998, White said, he addressed the issue of the Assembly Square Mall.

“What we had was a bankrupt mall and a Super Stop & Shop was going to locate on the site of the IKEA,” he said. “The site was fallow.”

At that first meeting, White said he proposed a zoning ordinance for a one-year moratorium on Assembly Square until a comprehensive plan was completed by the city. “It was never voted on, but within a matter of months the planning by the city had started.”

There is tremendous misunderstanding about the Mystic View Task Force and how it got involved with Assembly Square, White said.

“The mall was bought [by Taurus] for roughly $18.6 million, of which $18.3 million was in the front of the short-term note,” he said.

Home Depot then bought the note, in effect giving them control over the site. Home Depot worked out a deal with Taurus so that they could build a store just past the Kmart, White said. The deal called for the new Home Depot and modicum of waterfront development, which was written up into a memo of understanding with then mayor Dorothy A. Kelly Gay, he said.

MVTF got involved after the building permits were issued, he said. “They claimed that the planning board used the wrong standard when they issued the special permit, rather than a special permit with site plan review.

“The Superior Court judge agreed with the MVTF—then Taurus appealed that ruling,” he said.

Although the judge agreed that the city issued the wrong permit, if the MVTF withdrew its suit, the matter would be dropped, he said.

“At that point, I pointed out the need for mixed development and a T stop, which nobody has raised before,” he said.

The matter may also be rendered moot if Home Depot decides to
abandon Assembly Square and then sell the note to Taurus itself—which has been rumored, he said.

If Home Depot walks away, they would walk away from their permit, which was the basis of their litigation, he said.

“As the years have gone by, we have made progress from where we stood in 1998-99,” he said.

“A part of me wanted to vote for the mayor’s plan, but my concerns over the T-stop weighed in for my casting a negative vote.”