Design options will be posted at noon Tuesday for an apartment and retail project in Somerville’s Davis Square, said Andrew Flynn, head of the development company Copper Mill.
There will be four options for a building at varying heights, Flynn said, reflecting controversy over the original 502-unit, 26-story version in a design that even Flynn didn’t like. “This building can’t look like it does now,” he said of designs at the most recent meeting dedicated to the proposal, held March 10. “They are sterile. They are soulless.”
“None of the four will be perfect tomorrow,” Flynn said Monday, but they will show progress on emphasizing brick and “different shapes, structures and height” in how the building would look from the street.
Flynn made the promise of new designs at a meeting of the Davis Square Neighborhood Council held in the square’s Crystal Ballroom – the same location where, 48 days ago, he promised that those designs would be available within 30 days. He also talked then about the opening of a project office on Elm Street where the curious could come in to talk with Copper Mill staff and learn about the proposal. The office has remained locked and empty to the general public, though council president Elaine Almquist said on Friday that DSNC board members have visited a couple of times.
There was no explanation Monday, but Flynn said of his company that “we spent really the past month and a half in our R&D lab.” There was no response last week to an email sent to Copper Mill asking about the missed deadlines and lack of presence at the project office, which is in the former Caramel patisserie at 235 Elm St.
Building apartments at Elm and Grove streets would mean up to two years of construction that would close businesses from Dragon Pizza to The Burren, though that popular Irish pub and music hall has a deal with Copper Mill to return after completion with a long-term lease. The current project would include 126 affordable homes among its 502 total.
Staffing the project office
In addition to posting the new designs and getting them to the council and online resident groups, Flynn said that his company is revamping its website to take comment, and that on Thursday staff would post the first two weeks of hours when they would be in the office.
“Our goal is to have as many folks as possible come and meet” with himself and members of his team, because “there’s a big element of discovery for us in this process,” Flynn said. He noted the energy of the neighbors in debating the project and said, “We want to reciprocate with the same level of sincere engagement … we certainly intend to have a very consistent presence there.”
He also promised “many forums in the coming weeks and months to engage in more detail.”
The changes in shape and height will affect the units inside, but those technical specifications are still being made, he said.
Withdrawing state filing
In a brief Q&A session, Flynn was asked again if he would pull back his Dec. 22 filing to the state to build under its Chapter 40B rules, which are intended to ease the way for projects that include significant amounts of affordable housing – especially in cities without much of it. Somerville is considered to have enough affordable housing to make a 40B filing vulnerable to a challenge.
“The 40B is still sort of the elephant in the room. You’re going around us and going to the state, in a way,” the resident told Flynn. He asked whether Copper Mill would withdraw the filing.
A withdrawal is something “we would be open to consider,” Flynn said. “We don’t like or agree with the connotation that it is some type of loophole. We were pushed by the previous [Somerville mayoral] administration to pursue the 40B process.”
But Copper Mill, which has said it is likely to pull out of the project without consensus and approvals this calendar year, is left with the question “if it’s not 40B, what is the process?” Flynn said, referring to a “purgatory we’ve been stuck in for many years.”
“Anytime we’ve kind of leaned into the city or a nonprofit stakeholder saying, ‘Well, let’s work together on this,’ it always ends in the same place, which is us bumping our head up against the wall,” Flynn said.
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