An overflow crowd packed the Community Baptist Church on February 12 for a community meeting hosted by Copper Mill, the firm looking to develop the stretch on the north side of Elm Street from The Burren to Grove Street. This was the fifth and latest in a series of meetings on the potential project, but by far the most heavily-attended meeting so far. A high-profile flyer war over the proposed development put the issue on the radar of a lot more people than previous meetings.

A large number of those in attendance took the opportunity to share their views in support or opposition to the proposal in what was generally a respectful setting. We heard from community members who had been involved prior meetings involving the nascent Davis Square Neighborhood Council as well as those just joining the conversation that evening.

There were some common themes from those who spoke that evening, including questions and comments about:

• the fate of current businesses threatened with temporary or permanent displacement
• the urgent need for affordable housing creation
• the height of the proposed 25-story residential tower
• Davis Square businesses needing more customers and foot traffic
• the impact on our musician community of even a temporary closure of The Burren
• the need to build more housing in the region
• the plan for parking (and especially accessible parking)
• the proposal's interaction with existing zoning
• the shade impacts of a taller building on the neighborhood
• potential competition for existing Davis Square businesses from new commercial tenants in the proposed development

There were questions about the process in general, including some confusion about whether that meeting itself was part of the required public process. (It was not, since nothing has actually been filed with the City yet.) All in all, that evening left everyone in attendance with a lot to chew on.

I always approach development as transactional. Private parties want to do something in our community that they believe will benefit them financially. Generally, development is going to benefit the City financially by creating new growth that allows us to increase our tax levy and therefore our revenues -- particularly when there is commercial or mixed-use development involved.

So then the real questions when evaluating a proposed development would be:

• What does the community stand to gain from this?
• What are the negative impacts on the community?
• Do the positives outweigh the negatives such that it makes sense for Somerville?

I want to stress that there is no official proposal being put forward yet, but looking at the rough outline of the project that we're seeing and hearing, we can sketch out some of these answers.

On the positive side of the ledger, we have the potential creation of 500 housing units, of which at least 100 will be affordable housing. Somerville is already the most densely-populated city in New England and we can't solve the national and regional housing shortages by ourselves, but we can do our part. And pursuing dense transit-oriented mixed-use development at a transit hub like Davis Square is a great way to do this. I'll wait to see the eventual number of affordable units and a breakdown of AMI percentages and bedroom types in the affordable housing portfolio before making a judgment on the true impact on our affordability crisis, but right now this looks like a big benefit.

Those 500 new housing units also will be welcome news to the businesses of Davis Square who have been facing a customer decline since the arrival of the pandemic five years ago. The rise of Work From Home culture and resulting drop in commuter foot traffic in Davis Square -- particularly in evening rush hour -- has been a blow to business in Davis Square. Commercial development adding office space to the square would bring a big increase in daytime customers, but that's not going to happen any time soon. So adding 500 residential units with residents likely working from home at least some of the time might be the best-case plausible scenario for area businesses.

I get asked routinely when we might see a pedestrianization of at least the two blocks of Elm Street in the heart of Davis Square. The reconfiguration of loading zones and parking -- and most crucially accessible parking -- as part of development of this stretch of Elm Street and Davis Square Plaza are key dominos in efforts to equitably center pedestrians in Davis Square. When we are able to smartly pedestrianize Elm Street it will make Davis a more welcoming place for everyone to live, work, and play.

Then there are any community benefits that might be explicitly negotiated by the Davis Square Neighborhood Council when it achieves formal recognition by the City. The developer, Copper Mill, already has publicly pledged sign a Project Labor Agreement, a commitment by the developer to use local, union construction labor. So it will be interesting to see what other potential commitments to provide features and amenities for the community the Davis Square Neighborhood Council is able to negotiate as party of a Community Benefits Agreement.

Finally, there is the aforementioned financial benefit to the City of capturing that new growth, allowing us to increase our municipal tax base outside of the 2.5-percent annual limit. But as I said before, I consider this separate from community benefits.

As for the negatives, any conversation about the downside to this kind of development has to start with the displacement of the existing businesses. The local small businesses are what make Davis Square what it is, and we need to make sure development in the square isn't coming at the cost of losing these businesses. In this case, we've heard from the developer a commitment to offer leases to The Burren and Dragon Pizza at the same rents they're currently paying. However, we've also heard that current tenants Kung Fu Tea, Martsa on Elm, and McKinnon's Meat Market have declined similar offers.

The prospect of an 18- to 24-month hiatus for constructions is a big challenge for a business, and it's an even bigger issue for workers, including the musicians who call The Burren a home away from home. The local musician community was well represented at the February meeting, and conversations with them afterward at The Burren explained why it's not as simple as shifting that demand to another venue like we heard offered as a solution in the meeting. That cultural displacement is a major challenge for the community with this proposal.

The parking also is a big question mark for this proposal. We heard the plan is to provide underground parking that would serve customers, and it's going to crucial that this include accessible parking for both customers and residents of the building. I understand there are concerns about the water table as it impacts the ability to dig down for subterranean parking. A second floor of underground parking also gets much more expensive. One important thing to keep in mind is that residents of the market-rate units would be ineligible for resident parking permits per Traffic Commission regulations.

As we heard in the meeting, I've had some constituents express opposition to the height of the tower. I heard similar things when a tower of similar size was built in Union Square, and it's understandable this would be jarring to people visually. I personally have no issues with height. The biggest height-related concern I have would be the impact of shadows on surrounding properties with rooftop solar. The abutting apartment building at 402 Highland, for example, has an installation of rooftop solar panels that would see their sunlight blocked by this proposed tower to the south during a portion of the day.

I had some constituents ask about the City's water and sewer capacity in the Davis Square area, and my understanding from a conversation with City staff is that this isn't a source of concern. But it does provide a reason for urgency with fixing the combined sewer overflow (CSO) that sees raw sewage from that area of the city flow into the Alewife Brook during heavy rain events.

I also want to name the importance of factoring in potential development in Davis Square when determining future enrollment for Somerville Public Schools. This is particularly timely with the City facing decisions of school unification and the siting of the new school being constructed. The John F. Kennedy School and West Somerville Neighborhood School are bumping up against capacity and the Benjamin G. Brown School is operating in an obsolete building, leaving current families in the west half of the city in a precarious situation before any large housing developments are built there.

The City Council is looking at holistic, transit-oriented upzoning of transit areas -- including Davis Square -- but the concern is accelerating displacement of locally-owned small businesses. I'm working on a proposal to figure out affordable commercial inclusionary zoning. This approach coincidentally was recently recommended in the Small Enterprise Displacement Committee's report, with a density bonus tradeoff suggested along with a change to regulations to allow space sharing by multiple businesses.

In any case, there's a lot to mull over here -- and we haven't even gotten an official submittal by the developer. Should that happen, there will be a legally-required public process and plenty of opportunity to community engagement. In the meantime, I'll continue following this proposal extremely closely and talking to constituents.