Three different proposals were submitted to the city's Board of Alderman late last fall for the 145-acre site. The administration of Somerville Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay had proposed one of the plans while at-large Alderman Denise Provost and a citizen's group, Mystic View Task Force, proposed the other two. While the latter two criticized the mayor's plan as too lax, especially with regard to big-box stores, most developers have called Provost's and the Task Force's proposals too restrictive.

The final plan, which is called the Assembly Square Interim Planning District ordinance, stipulates that large new projects must contain mixed-use development and will have more stringent open space and design guidelines than other projects. These guidelines will be created by a Design Review Committee, which will also implement them. Block sizes will be limited to between 3.5 to 4.5 acres unless there are extenuating circumstances."Big Box" stores, which are single use stores over 100,000 sf, will need to include one and a half sf of nonretail use for every sf over 100,000 sf. These large new developments will also need to create traffic plans.

"This plan failed in its commitment to plot a cause for the site," a member of the Mystic View Task Force tells GlobeSt.com. "It is just a ratification of the Mayor's agreement with Taurus." Taurus New England is the developer looking to build a Home Depot on the Assembly Square site.

According to the Mystic View member, this Home Depot would be one of the company's largest. "A small retail block of friendly stores doesn't happen around these big box stores," notes the Mystic View member. "It's a strip mall."

Part of the site's problem is that K-Mart, which occupies a site here, has a lease that allows it to have a say in who its neighbor will be. That has put constraints on what stores will be developed here. That does not concern Mystic View, which is gearing up for a fight.

"We are not going away," says the member of the task force. "There is such clear opposition to this plan." A local resident has filed an appeal against the plan, but it is unclear what impact that will have on the plan.

Instant Insights /

New Zoning Adopted; Local Activists Oppose Decision

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