By William A. White, Jr., President (At Large)

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

At the last meeting of the Board of Aldermen, I introduced a zoning amendment which would have required that in certain parts of our City designated as critical development areas, any developer who wanted to build more than 3 residential units on a 10,000 square foot lot, would have to split the development between 60% high-end commercial development and  40% residential.  The high-end commercial development would include office, high-tech, bio-tech and research and development buildings.  The critical economic development areas are the area around Union Square by the proposed T stop and the Boynton Yard area, the Brick Bottom area, the Inner Belt area and the area at Assembly Square that has not been built.  It would not apply to any other areas of the City.  It also would not apply to the high end commercial developers who did not propose any residential units.  After discussion, the Board unanimously recognized that commercial development was so important that we agreed to increase the commercial development  requirement to 68%.  All members of the Board signed on as co-sponsors of the proposed zoning amendment.

Some folks may say that why all the fuss about this change?   The City has been talking about new zoning for almost 2 years.  The difference is that this is the first time in recent history that the Board of Aldermen has taken a direct role to preserve our valuable space for economic development.  And this is important for us all.  The Somerville commercial tax rate is about 60% more than the amount that residential property owners pay.  Simply put, that means that the more commercial property there is, the less that our residential homeowners will pay in property taxes.  Also, these types of developments bring good-paying jobs to the community which also spin off even additional economic growth.

All too often, because of the quick and substantial profits that residential developers can make, they can quickly move into desirable areas and outbid other types of developers to acquire land.  Then, these developers come to the City with proposed residential developments, freezing out potential commercial developers.  If this ordinance passes, the City will let everyone know, both property owners and potential developers, that in these critical areas, the City will require at least 68% high-end commercial.  Therefore any residential developer will understand that they must partner with high-end commercial users.  Enactment of this ordinance will send a message to high-end commercial developers that the City welcomes them.  We might even put in an expedited permitting process for these types of developers to let them know that Somerville is serious in wanting them to locate here.

As we look at the City’s financial capital plans going forward, we see large expenditures ahead.  A new high school, repairing our libraries, improving our playing fields, proposed police and fire stations, and major improvements to our antiquated water and sewer systems are in the works.  The payments on the bonds for these improvements will add substantial costs to our regular city budget and to our water and sewer fund.  Without commercial development to pay taxes covering these future expenses, increased property taxes could end up forcing folks, especially seniors and middle and working class homeowners, to sell.  Also, increased taxes would also lead to increased rents, pricing out families and working class residents.  This could have tragic consequences to the nature of our community.  As the alderman who originally introduced the residential home owner exemption that increased the residential exemption from 20% to 30% and then called for the current increase to 35%, I am glad that our residential exemption now saves every Somerville resident homeowner $2,624 per year, the largest in the state.  My fear, however, is that exemption will not be enough given these future expenditures, so we must do more.

I know that the Board will welcome the input of the public on this issue.  Some people have suggested we add hotels, “think tanks,” incubation labs and fabrication facilities to the list of high-end commercial activities.  I am sure the Board will welcome everyone’s thoughts as we deal with this fundamental issue that will affect Somerville’s future for generations to come.