Formal recognition of the Davis Square Neighborhood Council won unanimous approval Thursday from the Somerville City Council.
The news was greeted with excitement within the 642-member neighborhood group, already a state-recognized nonprofit, that started two and a half years ago with just 11 people exchanging email addresses.
“In fact, our very first meeting was at one of the tables outside of J.P. Licks in Statue Park, and at the first meeting everybody got to sit down. That’s how small we were,” president Elaine Almquist told city councilors in July, when the group presented its bid for formal recognition.
Treasurer PJ Kim-Santos emailed the community Thursday for the board to announce the official recognition and thank their attendees and those doing the painstaking and sometimes combative work of crafting bylaws and tackling development issues. “All members of the DSNC should be proud of what we’ve built together, and we can all look forward to making a positive difference in our community,” Kim-Santos said.
The group has also expressed thanks to advisers from the Union Square Neighborhood Council, which was the first of its kind but has been followed by Gilman Square. Almquist said in a Monday conversation that residents of East Somerville and Teele and Assembly squares may be preparing to organize as well.
The City Council vote didn’t come without the signaling of complexity felt by officials. Some spent much of a Sept. 15 committee meeting describing being forced to create the law behind the neighborhood groups by the mayor in 2017, Joe Curtatone. He’d locked in language with a developer that community benefits negotiations would be handled by a “neighborhood council.”
There had also been concern over the DSNC membership and some ongoing bylaw debates about quorums. “There are some legitimate questions that were raised,” said City Council president Lance Davis, who represents Davis Square’s Ward 6. “Ultimately, in my view and in the view of the Law Department, the legal issues were settled. The intent is to give these organizations broad leeway and really allow them to determine what’s appropriate.”
Still, Davis said, “We’re reviewing all of our ordinances to to see if there’s some cleanup or some clarification that can be done.”
Members and much to do
Much of the questioning came about the group’s catchment area and its membership. “Our half-mile welcome is a little odd because we’re in a corner of Somerville, so within that half-mile includes Medford, Cambridge and Arlington,” Almquist said in July. “The Cambridge border is only 1,000 feet away from the main Davis Square intersection.”
Though 567 of the group’s members are Somervillians, or 88 percent, the board has approved “a handful” of Cambridge members, four residents of Medford and two from Arlington and welcomed business owners and workers, some volunteers and a few people who have just taken a strong interest in the square, Almquist said.
Members are active in beautification, community-building and advocacy work and now can negotiate with developers. There are a half-dozen real estate projects “that we’re actively monitoring in our catchment area,” Almquist said. At the time, a divisive proposal for a 502-unit, 26-story residential tower loomed over the group and its timeline for approval (but has been withdrawn). “We have plans coming to us, and we want to be ready to meet those plans with an understanding of what our needs and desires are so that we can negotiate in good faith on behalf of our neighborhood.”
Beyond developer negotiations, the DSNC had much to keep it busy, she said.
“We take an interest in everything that our community tells us they care about, so we have Green Davis volunteers putting plants in the ground and working with the city on maintenance. The Elmway Action Group has just submitted a recommendation to the city for pedestrian and parking improvements to a couple blocks of Elm Street, and we have people who are very interested in redeveloping the city-owned little white church on College Street across from the library … our programming committee is trying to have more fun events and raise money to keep us going, we have infrastructure needs, as you can imagine, and the zoning committee is interested in homeless shelters.”
“There’s a committee on the Davis Square Neighborhood Plan, so housing is a theme,” Almquist said. “And there’s a lot of small ideas, like public art and things that people are always bringing to us. When we have volunteer capacity or people are excited, we give it to them or form a committee.”
