Anonymous flyers circulating in Somerville, Massachusetts, are heating up debate about a proposed 25-story apartment building in Davis Square.
If approved, the project would bring a mixed-use building with 500 apartment units over retail space on Elm Street.
"One of the neighborhood council members had emailed us with a photograph that had been delivered to our neighbor's doors," said Elaine Armquist, acting president of the Davis Square Neighborhood Council (DSNC). "It was inserted into mailboxes, and it had a version of a rendering of the building and it was a big flat orange building, very tall, and it said something like, 'Is this what we really want in Davis Square?' It mentioned to contact the mayor and to also contact the neighborhood council meeting on Monday."
Another anonymous flyer circulated in Somerville answering the question in the first flyer with "Yes," noting the increase in housing and affordable homes the project would provide.
She said she was surprised to see the council mentioned, as they were not involved with the flyers.
"We still don't know who is responsible for the flyers and we think there's a better forum for whether you support or oppose this building proposal," said Armquist. "The developer is holding open community meetings about it right now for it, although we certainly welcome anyone who lives and works and volunteers in Davis Square to come to our meetings."
DSNC is sharing renderings provided by Copper Mill, the developer behind the project, as well as notes from their community meetings, so that residents can see what is being proposed.
Slides from the December meeting show a revised ground floor plan incorporating community feedback requesting that the lobby for the residential building be accessible from Grove Street, instead of Elm Street, and what is described as contiguous retail frontage.
In an email, Andrew Flynn with Copper Mill development explained the diagrams are conceptual in nature and do not necessarily reflect what the proposed building will look like.
"One of the primary purposes of the Dec. 11 meeting was to present a couple of different conceptual options to the public and garner feedback from the public with regards to which option they preferred and further changes that they would like to see made, as we want this to be a stakeholder-driven process. Accordingly, we have been working on more detailed design concepts which incorporate and reflect the feedback and guidance we received in December. We hope to have this next round of design completed in February and will be sharing it with the public," Flynn wrote.
"When we have opportunities where we can put a larger building that works, that will fit in a place that's well supported by transit — in this case we got the Red line, lots of bus stations, and our bike infrastructure is getting better every day — this is one of the best places to put up a big building like this," said Jeff Byrnes, of Somerville YIMBY, which stands for "Yes In My Back Yard," a group of Somerville residents advocating for more housing. "And the best part is, on top of having more homes generally, the more homes you build in any particular building the more subsidized homes we can get because of Somerville's inclusionary zoning ordinance, where 20% of the homes in any particular project need to be subsidized to a number of below median income levels."
"A 25-story building will be a big change, and it was shocking certainly when I first heard it, but I can live with that if that's what we need to do to get the housing built," said Jim Gallagher, a long-time Somerville resident who attended one of the community meetings hosted by the developer. "Hopefully at least some of these businesses will come back. I use most of these businesses. I've been going to the Burren since it opened. I'd hate to see it gone, but I don't see how they could possibly be open while all the construction is going on."
The owners of the businesses that would be impacted by the development on Elm St. were not available for comment on Friday.
Asked about the estimated timeline for construction and plans for the existing retail business, Flynn wrote, "While the construction commencement date remains unclear at this point, I can confirm that construction will not commence in 2025. Active discussions remain ongoing with all existing tenants - each tenant has a unique set of circumstances and future needs, and accordingly, we will continue to engage in good faith and in a spirit of partnership and collaboration with each tenant."
Almquist said engagement regarding this development has led more people to the emerging Davis Square Neighborhood Council.
"Last year we were just five people meeting at the public library. So, we have something like 170 members now and they are having this conversation about what we want and I think that's exciting," said Almquist.
She invites interested Somerville residents and other stakeholders to join them at the next council meeting on Monday at 6 p.m. at the Somerville Community Baptist Church on College Avenue.
For more information, visit sites.google.com/view/DavisSquareNC.