The developer tapped for the $1 billion redevelopment of Union Square has finalized its master development agreement with the City of Somerville, which targets future investments alongside a new Green Line station expected to start serving the seven block area two years from now.
Last June, the Somerville Redevelopment Authority (SRA) voted to select developer Union Square Associates (US2), a co-venture between Chicago-based Magellan Development Group and partner Mesirow Financial, as master developer. Terms of the inked deal between SRA and US2 require a community-driven master planning and community benefits agreement for Union Square and Boynton Yards developments.
“If we are going to achieve the community’s goals and vision for Union Square, and manage the change that is coming to Union Square with the opening of the Green Line station our community pursued for decades, the community must continue to be a part of the planning for the square’s future,” said Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone.
The agreement is considered a framework for the state-approved Union Square Revitalization Plan and SomerVision, the city’s 20-year plan. Mayor Curtatone praised the signing of the deal, adding that it “keeps us on schedule to coordinate development with the opening of the Green Line station.”
Union Square Station–one of six new stations to be added by the Green Line Extension Project–is expected to open by December 2017.
The Union Square planning process is scheduled to launch on December 17. This community-driven planning process will be fully funded by the developer. The goal currently is to complete the planning process by June 30, 2015.
Planning will focus first on blocks nearest the location of the future Green Line stop, so that Somerville, the SRA, US2, and the T can focus on cranking out development plans in these areas, with the opening of Union Square Station just two years away–for now. Formal plans for so-called D-2 and D-3 Union Square blocks are expected to be submitted before the full neighborhood plan is completed.
US2 will cover legal fees necessary for the SRA to fast track neighborhood development.
On its surface, the planning agreement for Union Square seems similar to public-private development efforts such as Assembly Row and the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District. But unlike the Boston BID, “the agreement does not establish any new district,” Daniel DeMaina, a spokesperson in the Somerville Mayor’s office, told BostInno in an email Tuesday morning.
The Somerville Board of Aldermen and the state Department of Housing and Community Development, added DeMaina, approved Union Square as a designated urban renewal district in October 2012. Unlike a Business Improvement District, which is managed by property owners who levy additional property assessment fees to fund BID-specific projects, an urban renewal district “allows a local Redevelopment Authority to undertake urban renewal activities as enumerated under Mass. General Laws,” explained DeMaina.
An additional land disposition agreement between US2, the SRA and the Union Square Civic Advisory Committee (CAC) will be developed as an outline for each development block. The goals of the Union Square Revitalization Plan will act as the basis for the positioning of future retail, commercial, residential, and other projects in each of the seven development zones.
This is how Union Square development plans are different from, say, Assembly Row. Union Square planning has been based on the Somerville by Design process, which, since its launch in October 2012, has allowed “people in the neighborhood brainstorm ideas, set a vision for the neighborhood and then work with planners and consultants during the three-day charrette to come up with designs for the neighborhood, continued DeMaina. Already a development guide for projects underway on Broadway in East Somerville and Winter Hill, Somerville by Design has been used to draft ideas for locations surrounding two other planned-GLX stations at Gilman Square and Lowell Street.
Before any ground was broken on Assembly Row, a preliminary master plan for the site had already been approved by the mid-2000s; Union Square is–at least in theory–a community-first approach to development.
Union Square planning may be different from similar that of other redevelopment projects, but separate state laws on urban renewal and infrastructure development include similar language. Under M.G.L. Chapter 121B Somerville, through its Union Square urban renewal agency, “is authorized to undertake a wide range of public actions to address these conditions and to create the environment needed to attract and support private development and promote sound growth in designated neighborhoods.”
Assembly Row and Downtown Boston developments, on the other hand, have been made possible by new avenues of infrastructure funding opened under M.G.L. Chapter 23L – the law enabling Governor Deval Patrick, back in August 2012, to sign the Local Infrastructure Development Program into law. What this program has done is allow for the the financing of new projects through public-private partnerships between cities and/or towns and property owners; meaning, development in a designated area of a city or town is managed by a handful of property owners.
Union Square development plans, however, at least to some extent, must be designed by and for the benefit of the community as a whole. “This [master] agreement is reflective of our shared commitment to develop Union Square in a manner that promotes the community values and goals outlined in SomerVision,” said US2 development director Greg Karczweski in a statement, adding: “Having met this important and necessary milestone, we can now look forward to participating in an inclusive community planning process that will help design the future of Union Square.”
And Union Square’s future is tied to the Green Line. No pressure.
Photo via MIT-Libraries/Flickr
