Taking the lead, continued

by Laura A. Siegel

Ikea and National Development have already come back to the table with plans that conform more closely to Cecil's requirements. In addition to Kmart and an expanded Home Depot that will be moved into what's now the mall, the new National Development plan would include some waterfront amenities, an office building, a parking garage, a hotel, a freestanding McDonald's, a Borders Books by the river, and an 1143-space parking lot. "Instead of what we were getting a year ago -- all big-box -- now we have a brand-new mixed-use development," says Kelly Gay. Ikea recently added a second restaurant and an office building to its plan, and said it would sink some of its parking underground and top it with a Little League ball field or some other form of open space. Currently, there are no plans to move businesses on land not owned by Ikea and National Development -- such as Good Times and Circuit City -- though the building currently housing Home Depot will become the more upscale Home Expo.

Right now, the city is putting together a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with National Development -- a legally enforceable contract that will spell out exactly what the developer would do. "It's a protection for the city, to ensure we won't get big-box and nothing else," says Kelly Gay. Though details haven't been set yet, one way an MOU could be enforced would be through a performance bond -- money the developer would have to give the city if it reneges on its promises.

But the Mystic View Task Force claims that the developers' plans -- and Cecil's -- are still big-box in disguise. "Only one-fifth of National Development's site is taken up by mixed use," says Mystic View president David Dahlbacka. Most of it, he says, would still be made up of the two big stores and their parking lots. And Mystic View members don't see Ikea's second plan as much of an improvement over its first. Slight changes to the architecture could make a big difference on both sites -- such as building higher on a smaller footprint, or breaking the stores up into a couple of smaller buildings with pedestrian-friendly streets between them.

Without those concessions -- which the developers show no interest in making -- Mystic View thinks limited big-box plans would lock the site into the big-box model and threaten the possibility of ever creating a dense mixed-use neighborhood. "It's terribly unrealistic," says Mystic View member Wig Zamore. "I am not aware of any other situation that has proposed going in one direction at the beginning and doing a 180-degree U-turn and zipping past it in the opposite direction to get to the endpoint."

Mystic View says that at the density it envisions, the site could eventually generate $30 million annually. An intermediate density described by Cecil might provide up to $17 million. But starting with big-box might prevent those lucrative densities from ever developing. "The mayor is so obsessed about the short term she's sacrificing really significant long-term gains for a really minor short-term gain," says Mystic View member Lynn McWhood.

Worst of all, the group fears that the low population density associated with big-box development would threaten the crucial T stop. "We don't think the MBTA is going to find big-box retail attractive enough to justify one," explains Dahlbacka. The T refuses to put rail service in even the most transit-dependent area of Boston -- the Washington Street corridor -- because it doesn't think there would be enough ridership to justify it. It hasn't built a brand-new T stop in 13 years -- not since the "new" stretch of the Orange Line, from Back Bay to Forest Hills, was completed in 1987. It can't manage to update its antiquated signal system. Its entire funding mechanism is changing this summer, and the bulk of the state's transportation funding is going to the Big Dig.

Still, Kelly Gay and Cecil are confident that Assembly Square will get its T stop. The city just bought a piece of land called Yard 21 and will soon put out a request to developers for proposals for a T stop there. Two developers -- Forest City and Cathartes Group -- have already expressed strong interest in the project.

Kelly Gay spoke with Transportation Secretary Kevin Sullivan in mid May, and the T is now conducting a feasibility study that should be done by late this summer. Factors it's considering include the proposed development for the site, how an elevated track could be accessed, the project's impact on roads, and its projected cost. "If it was determined to be feasible, we'd possibly provide some of the funding, but look for the lion's share from private entities in the area," says John Carlisle, press secretary for the state Executive Office of Transportation and Construction.

The developer would pay most of the cost of building the T stop -- estimated at anywhere from $3 million to $20 million -- though the T would probably provide normal operating costs. The city would keep the land the T stop would be on, and the developer would buy the rest of the plot, most likely putting up office buildings around the station.

A T stop at Assembly Square would increase the Orange Line's meager ridership out of Boston -- which the T should like. And there's plenty of backing in the legislature. "It would be a very top priority of everybody in the delegation," says State Representative Pat Jehlen.

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Kelly Gay thinks the city can have its cake and eat it, too. "Cecil's long-term vision of Assembly Square is something that can happen, and will happen, if we do the right things along the way," she says. As development begins and a T stop is considered, "that land becomes too valuable to use as a parking lot. Even though people know right now that we haven't got a T stop, they're coming in and making inquiries." As for the rest of Assembly Square, that will be transformed by "developers coming in, seeing the vision for the site, talking to existing industries, trying to buy them out," says the mayor.

Only time will tell. The city is waiting for yet another plan from Ikea, and negotiations on the MOU with National Development are under way. Construction won't begin for at least two years, although work on the new Home Depot may start in just a year. It will be a long time -- if ever -- before Assembly Square becomes the mixed-use, vibrant neighborhood nearly everyone wants to see.

But Somerville's planning process is a good start -- one that Boston should look to emulate. "There was an honest attempt to do a real plan, whereas in Boston there's never a real plan," says the Alliance for Boston Neighborhoods' Kressel. Assembly Square may never become the urban mecca of Mystic View's dreams. But if the mayor continues to hold developers to the city's vision, Assembly Square's future should be much brighter than its past.

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Laura A. Siegel can be reached at lsiegel[a]phx.com.