by David Dahlbacka in All Ages, Assembly Square, Beat Reporter, City Finances, Development and Zoning, Events, Orange Line, Somerville By The Numbers
Posted on March 20, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Last Modified on April 3, 2011 at 9:09 pm
| March 31, 2011 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
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Thurs. Mar. 31 6:00 – 9:00 PM
Somerville City Hall
Aldermanic Chamber
93 Highland Ave.
Somerville MA (map)
This is a Public Hearing before the Board of Aldermen for public input regarding the Mayor’s request to authorize the city to borrow $25,750,000 in a bond for the cost of implementing the Assembly Row DIF District and Development Program. The hearing is called on by Alderman Maryann M. Heuston, Chairman of the Committee on Finance.
If Assembly Row is not developed to produce a high enough tax base, the city could end up repaying this bond from general funds.
For more information, see:
- Staff Report: W-ZHA Fiscal Impact Report (PDF)
- W-ZHA Report: Fiscal Impacts of Phase I of Assembly Row (PDF)
- DIF Tri-Party Agreement (PDF)
- Staff Report: DIF Bond Authorization (PDF)
- Assembly Row District Improvement Financing Program.
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Immediate news from tonight’s Assembly Square DIF Bond hearing: according to Repr. Sciortino, the state House and Senate just passed a bill rescinding the permit extension that allowed IKEA to not proceed with development. The bill was addressed to “all iCubed projects.” The bill is on the Governor’s desk.
This means that one of the reasons why we need the Assembly Square DIF bond issue may go away. Unfortunately, we still do not have the federal funding for the Assembly Square T-Stop, which is the other reason we need the Assembly Square DIF bond issue.
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did they approve?
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Here are the key developments:
1. The A.S. DIF Bond was not approved 3/31/11. The record is being left open until April 14 (there is a BOA meeting 4/14, preceded by a Finance Committee meeting 4/13). The committee has scheduled an intervening Finance Committee meeting April 6 at 7 PM in the 2nd Floor Committee room to discuss the issue. They said they would try to include a public hearing, but said they were constrained by notice requirements.
2. The W-ZHA report, which predicted minimal increases in city costs due to the DIF residential and retail development, was sharply criticized by the Finance Committee for its methodology, which relied upon interviews with City department heads who were asked if they thought the DIF development would require additional resources (mainly additions to city staff). Chairman Heuston pointed out that a department head in any organization who said “no” when asked if he or she could do his job with the resources available was asking for trouble. Furthermore, every year Finance Committee heard how the city budget is stretched to the limit.
3. Highlights of citizen input:
a. It was astonishing that adding 400 new apartments, 287,000 square feet of new retail, and 1050 parking spaces would require no additions to police, fire, or public works staff or equipment, even though the city is not able to pay its bills with its tax revenues.
b. The rest of Assembly Square must be devoted to high-value developments like research & development or office, otherwise Assembly Square will not be an engine for growth. Instead it will stagnate.
c. City government should find a way to mandate that a percentage of both construction jobs and permanent jobs be allocated to Somerville residents.
d. City government should put teeth on a guarantee that when they acquire the infrastructure, they are (i) not paying to acquire it after paying to build it, and (ii) not being forced in 20 years to foot the bill for major overhauls due to mistakes in construction, as has happened with the Big Dig and elsewhere.
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