Agenda Text
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Bill Valletta submitting comments re: the Green Line Extension, with a District Improvement Financing study.
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Official Text
To the Honorable Board:
As a contribution to the public discussion about the Green Line Extension and its financing, I am submitting to you and to the city administration the attached study, which I have prepared. It looks at District Improvement Financing (DIF) as a possible source of additional money for the Somerville stations and improvements.
The study provides a comparative analysis of the recent projects in which three Massachusetts cities (including Somerville) are using DIF for infrastructure, plus the similar New York City Manhattan No. 7 subway line extension financing. From this experience, I draw a series of tests that can evaluate the potential size, feasibility, risks and impacts of a DIF and then apply these tests to the transit-oriented redevelopment zones of Union Square/Boynton and Inner Belt/Brickbottom.
The report suggests that a DIF contribution as high as $170 million would be feasible and meet acceptable levels of risk and impacts. More important, it lays out a methodology for judging a DIF or similar value-capture mechanism of any size, which might finance necessary elements of the Green Line that cannot be covered by the state.
I hope that you will find this material to be helpful in finding a reasonable financial solution for the Green Line Extension. Please feel free to circulate this material to anyone that may find it of interest.
Best wishes;
Bill Valletta