By Joseph A. Curtatone

(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)

This week, I once again had the pleasure of speaking to Somerville’s business community at the Somerville Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business Town Meeting, about how we’re working to support and protect our local businesses. Our local businesses are the lifeblood of our neighborhoods and squares. Not only do local residents rely on them for goods and services but more and more are becoming destinations that draw visitors from across Somerville and the region. They fill our neighborhoods with people, and become the places where we meet and greet our neighbors. Local businesses build community—on a personal level, but also on a financial level. They create the strong economic foundation that allows us to continue investing in the people of Somerville, but these benefits don’t happen by accident. They happen when we plan for, attract and support our businesses as well.

One way we plan for businesses is to create the type of environment they thrive in and seek. These days, that includes being a walkable, bikeable community connected by public transportation. As a community, we’ve developed SomerVision goals that call for vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood-style development around transit centers that creates housing—including affordable housing—and jobs. We set those goals because our residents want them for their own life quality. But it also attracts businesses that bring benefits too. Transit-oriented development makes room for more businesses and offices that bring in an active daytime population, which in turn supports local businesses. Successful businesses bring more commercial tax revenue that allows us to invest in our schools, our infrastructure and city services that we all rely on. All these pieces fit together to ultimately create a sustainable local economy and desirable community.

Another way we keep our local businesses thriving is to invest in them and create incentives and supports for them, which is a core mission of our SomerVision plan.  Our proposed customer-friendly zoning overhaul includes incentives for small local businesses and checks against chains and big-box stores. It also supports our arts and creative economy with fabrication districts that will be zoned for arts and maker spaces only, and by including built-in supports and requirements to establish creative spaces as a percentage of designated new construction. Meanwhile, with a fairly small investment, our pilot Small Business Suite has brought large benefits to neighborhood Winter Hill and Magoun Square businesses looking to grow with the community. And thanks to our partners at US2, that program is being expanded to Union Square to provide long-time businesses with support from business best practices to understanding advertising to social media training. The city’s three SomerViva language liaisons have expanded the reach of the program as well by assisting Portuguese, Spanish and Haitian Creole- speaking business owners in taking part. Finally, we are connecting local workers with local jobs and vice versa through our First Source workforce development efforts, strengthening our businesses and our residents at the same time. And we’re continuing to make it easier for businesses to apply for permits and licenses through our online CitizenServe portal, with renewals now available through that service.

Our efforts are paying off. All the financial signs are pointing in the right direction. Last year, our local option meals tax revenue was up 14 percent over the previous year, bringing in $1.24 million through November—a sign not only of new restaurants opening in the city, but that our community is increasingly known for its food scene. Last fiscal year, we saw the most new growth in more than a decade. We’re projected to surpass that this fiscal year, and over the next decade we should see years in which our new growth is double and even triple what we will receive in new growth revenue this year. And the commercial share of our tax base that pays for our children’s education, public safety, roads and city services is likewise projected to increase over the next decade, as we continue to attract larger enterprises that alleviate property tax pressure on both residents and small business owners. This is SomerVision in action.

So again, it’s important to remember why SomerVision is key here. With so many factors and pieces that go into building a strong foundation for a local economy, planning is critical. That’s why we spent years as a community creating our plan—SomerVision, a single stop that brings together the planning for every area, from housing to transportation, sustainability, green space, diversity and jobs. It codifies not what we want to build, but what we value as a community and the kind of the community we want to be in 2030. Whenever we’re faced with a decision, our first question is always: Does this help us reach our goals in SomerVision?

Those values are what is guiding the creation of Somerville’s newest neighborhood, Assembly Row, where this past year the first new T station in a generation opened, the first high-tech tenant moved in and Partners HealthCare broke ground on its new home. This is what is guiding and will guide the growing of Union Square, where Somerville by Design is working with the community—including through a visioning session held in five languages simultaneously—to develop plans for the seven key blocks targeted for revitalization. SomerVision guided the creation of our draft plan for the Inner Belt and Brickbottom and guides our continuing expansion of mobility, from the Green Line Extension, to more and better bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

Somerville is growing, and as we do, we want to make sure we are tending to what makes our city great. That includes those local, small businesses that help define our neighborhoods and build our community. So while we expand our economy and envision a thriving future, we will keep working to protect those local businesses that have helped make us who we are today—and will help us create that thriving future.