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By Greg Karczewski
President, US2

As we prepare for Thursday’s Planning Board meeting, I wanted to take the opportunity to sincerely thank the Union Square community for creating a vision for the future of Union Square and working together to realize it.

As the master developer selected by the city for the revitalization, we knew this project could only be successful if it was a collaborative process with a wide variety of folks from across industries and backgrounds. We have listened to all of your feedback, taken it seriously and look forward to continuing the process in order to ensure Union Square welcomes new residents and ensures longtime residents and businesses have a place to stay and grow.

For example, we listened when the community shared that it wanted to see more green and open space in our plans. As a result, we refined our plans for the D2 block, significantly increasing the amount of open space and better helping to meet the goals for open space laid out in SomerVision. The new plans increase open space to 33,000 square feet, create a new neighborhood park, allow for better north-south and east-west connections, make the new MBTA stop more accessible and offer the potential for even more affordable housing and open space in Union Square.

In total, the D2 block will now feature 33,000 square feet of total civic space, which is an increase of more than 11,000 square feet from what was initially proposed, and open space now accounts for 35 percent of the site.

We are extremely grateful to the City of Somerville and its residents for its enthusiasm when it comes to feedback on this project thus far, especially when it comes to open space, and we are proud that these new plans have been well-received by members of the community. The community has also been enthusiastic about other project benefits, including:

• 200+ units of affordable housing across income levels, the single largest delivery of inclusionary affordable housing in Somerville’s history
• 4,300 construction jobs and 5,000 permanent jobs
• $5.8 million toward the Green Line extension
• $10.9 million in housing linkage payments for the full project contributing to Somerville’s Affordable Housing Trust
• $4.0 million for other local community benefit priorities

Over the past year, we have been meeting with representatives of the Union Square Neighborhood Council to draft a community benefits agreement that further addresses community concerns, such as the production of affordable housing, job training, sustainability and more. We remain committed to that process and are hopeful that we will come to an agreement in the very near future.

We look forward to continuing our work with the community and encourage all who are interested to attend the Planning Board meeting on Thursday July 11, in order to urge the board to move forward with the revitalization of Union Square. Not only will the project hugely benefit all of Union Square’s residents and visitors, but the entire City of Somerville will benefit. New funds are required for a number of citywide projects, including the new high school, the renovation of Union Square plaza, a new municipal public safety complex and more Green Line extension funding. The approval of USQ will be a vital determinant in the funding of these crucial projects.