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41 residents submitting comments re: #204438, the Union Sq DIF bond.
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To the Honorable Board:
We are writing to express support for the proposed Union Square District Improvement Financing (DIF) Development District and a $63 million bond for Somerville Avenue streetscape and utility improvements.
As you know, Somerville’s combined water/sewer mains are over 100 years old and are failing. Just a few years ago, many Union Square homes and business were flooded during a stormwater event, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Climate change is likely to make the problem worse. With 60 percent of Somerville's stormwater flowing through Union Square, we cannot afford to do nothing.
This infrastructure is necessary to protect against flooding of existing homes and business but also to serve future buildings to be constructed as described by the Union Square Coordinated Development Special Permit (CDSP). We are aware that there are concerns in the community about US2 negotiating for Community Benefits directly with a Neighborhood Council, as described in Article 7 of the Development Covenant <http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/Covenant%206.7.17%20Draft.pdf> <http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/Covenant%206.7.17%20Draft.pdf>. Such negotiations have not taken place yet because the Union Square Neighborhood Council is only now just being formed. We expect such negotiations to begin in the coming year and will take place regardless of whether the DIF is approved. The DIF is a 30-year bonding plan and the City’s financial model includes a near term recession when calculating risks. The CDSP is also a decades long plan. The Neighborhood Council expects to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with US2 within the next year. As such, we feel that this 30-year DIF will not place an undue burden on the City to feel rushed to approve developments on the D blocks without proper design review.
As for concerns regarding the necessity of CBA funds to mitigate displacement, the Planning Board has already stated their approval of significantly increasing housing and jobs linkage fees based on the Nexus study, <https://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/Somerville_Nexus_Final%20Report_9_8_17%20%282%29.pdf> <https://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/Somerville_Nexus_Final%20Report_9_8_17%20%282%29.pdf> outside of a CBA. Furthermore, regardless of the details of a CBA, these infrastructure improvements will be needed.
The Mayor and the Board of Aldermen are responsible to the community of Union Square. Union Square renters and property owners are already subject to the flooding risks, which will get worse, not better. Furthermore, if property owners must continue to pay for damages due to poor infrastructure, such costs will get passed on to renters, exacerbating the current issues of affordability. Last, lower income community members are most at risk financially due to persistent flooding. We would also make an analogy to the High School funding referendum that passed overwhelmingly last year by the residents of Somerville. While that created even more debt than the DIF, we had to consider the impact to our children’s education and the high school’s accreditation instead of doing nothing. Inaction is not an option.
While we share in some of the frustrations with the Union Square planning and redevelopment processes, Somerville’s water and sewer infrastructure problems predate the efforts of any master developer and require a solution, no matter what is built in the future. We cannot allow misplaced anger to paralyze our ability to solve a very real problem that confronts us today. We are also concerned that if we do not approve the DIF, we will lose $13 million in MassWorks funding. This would be a tremendous mistake and fiscally irresponsible.
Please support the DIF and improvements to Somerville’s water and sewer infrastructure.
Sincerely,
1 Andy Greenspon, Ward 3
2 Tim Talun, Ward 3
3 Shu Talun, Ward 3
4 Rob Buchanan, Ward 3
5 Erik Neu, Ward 3
6 Sam Engelstad, Ward 3
7 Jacob Engelstad, Ward 3
8 Patricia Berman, Ward 3
9 Renee Scott, Ward 3
10 Gabrielle Blonder, Ward 3
11 Evelyn Rosenthal, Ward 2
12 Courtney O’Keefe, Ward 5
13 Zac Zasloff, Ward 3
14 Lori Zasloff, Ward 3
15 Lise Capet, Ward 3
16 Lucas Constanti, Ward 3
17 Tom Scahill, Ward 3
18 Aaron Weber, Ward 3
19 Seth Hoffman, Ward 2
20 David Dinklage, Ward 3
21 Jim McGinnis, Ward 3
22 Joe Beckmann, Ward 3
23 Rachel Alfie, Ward 3
24 Lhadon Tethong , Ward 3
25 Dhon Phunkang, Ward 3
26 Susan Lee, Ward 3
27 Michael Katz, Ward 2
28 Tom Bent, Ward 3
29 Dominique Stassart, Ward 3
30 Zach Baum, Ward 3
31 Tina Miller, Ward 3
32 Victoria Goodhart, Ward 3
33 William Conrad, Ward 3
34 Derek Brain, Ward 2
35 Thinley Ghapontsang, Ward 3
36 Jampa Ghapontsang, Ward 3
37 Tim Houde, Ward 4
38 Annegret Klaua, Ward 3
39 Stacey Simon , Ward 1
40 Philip Parsons , Ward 3
41 Patrick McCormick, Ward 3