Copper Mill 40B Application Letter & meeting info

[Elaine Almquist]

Hello Neighbors!

At our DSNC meeting on Monday, Councilor Lance Davis informed us that Copper Mill, and Davis Square Elm Holdings, LLC has filed a 40B application letter with MassHousing and the City of Somerville. I requested the letter from the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD), and was sent the copy today. I'm writing to share the document here with all of you. I am not attaching it, as it is 160 pages. You may have to download it to read it, as the file may be too large for a preview in your browser depending on your settings.

Chapter 40B is a state statute, which enables local Zoning Boards of Appeals to approve affordable housing developments under flexible rules if at least 20-25% of the units have long-term affordability restrictions if the municipality does not currently the minimum of 10% of homes in the Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI).

The letter is filed in our Copper Mill project folder, and you can always also find our cache of project info about the proposal for the site here:

Davis Square Neighborhood Council > Development Projects > Copper Mill Project Elm & Grove St (Burren to Dragon Pizza)

Additionally, Copper Mill requested a meeting with me, and we as a board of directors are in the process of finding a time before our January meeting for as many of our board members to attend the meeting as possible, most likely on January 20th or 21st. We will send an update after that meeting with what we learn. If you have any questions you would like us to bring to that meeting, please submit them to: dsnc-bo...@googlegroups.com and we will incorporate your questions into the conversation as best we can.

I'm sure as we all sit down to dig through the document, more information will come to light, and more questions will arise. Please remember that while we discuss this important matter, we keep our discussion neighborly and civil, even if we have disagreement.

Sincerely,

Elaine F. Almquist (she/her/hers)

DSNC President

BlueSky @EAlmquist  Instagram: @EFAlmquist
Phone: 978.375.2448

[Christopher Beland]

Some highlights from the document dump...

The owner of The Burren provided a signed letter supporting the redevelopment. He has apparently extended a short-term lease for the current buildings and signed a long-term lease for the new building. The letter is dated July 15, 2025, and addressed to Mayor Ballantyne. (Unclear it was actually sent then, as the DSNC is cc:'d, and it's marked "strictly confidential".)

Building design is the latest one publicly exhibited (full floorplans and visualizations shown):

• 502 residential rental units
• 25% (126) rent-restricted to affordable at 80% of area median income
• No on-site parking
• 2-3 stories tall at streetfronts: Floor 1 retail, floors 2 and 3 residential, bike room on floor 2
• 26-story tower, 275 ft, set back from Elm Street with roof terraces on floor 3 (Elm-Grove corner) and 4 (main axis of tower)
• Very wide sidewalks, 18-19 ft, with bike racks and seating
• 28% open space (9,555 sq ft), 13,000 sq ft of retail space, 327,062 sq ft total
• Diagonal covered pedestrian arcade at street level with retail on both sides
• Retail on both Elm and Grove Streets
• Residential lobby entrance on Grove Street
• Semi-indoor covered loading dock on Grove Street, hidden from 20 Grove by the side of the new building with a green wall on the outside
• Waiver requested to ignore some local form-based zoning regulations

Apartment mix with monthly rents assumed by the financial viability model vs. local market survey of comparable apartment buildings:

• Studio - 69 affordable $1472, 207 market $3500 (comparables: $2877)
• 1-bedroom - 38 affordable $1829, 114 market $4250 (comparables: $3328)
• 2-bedroom - 6 affordable $2177, 18 market $4500 (comparables: $4260)
• 3-bedroom (10% regulatory minimum) - 13 affordable $2300, 37 market $5500 (comparables: $5742)
• Accessible units (ADA Group 2): 18 market, 7 affordable
• All units elevator-accessible and single-floor (full floor plans included)

Developers note Somerville produced 42 affordable and 219 total housing units per year, 2011-2020, so this would be 2-3 years of production in one building.

Financials:

• Purchase price of existing buildings (option as of 19 Sep 2025): $42 million
• Development cost: $259.5 million
• Loan from The New England Fund (federally subsidized) via Eastern Bank: $168.7 million, assumed 4.25% interest
• Owner cash contribution: $90.8 million
• Annual operating expense per unit: $14,078
• MassHousing application fee for this many units: $27,600

MassHousing Limited Dividend policy caps annual owner profit at 10% of owner equity stake, updated at most every 5 years, with backfilling of previous under-performing years. Source: https://www.masshousing.com/-/media/Files/Developers/Financing-Policies/Limited-Dividend-Policy.ashx

The financial model (which seems a bit optimistic on rent levels) projects less than the 10% cap in annual profit: $8.7 million.

They included firm portfolios and staff bios for Copper Mill, CBT Architects, and VHB, and lists of meetings with the public and city staff and elected officials.

Copper Mill has also done or is working on buildings at:

• 75 Morrissey Boulevard, Dorchester, Boston (754 units)
• 123 Washington Street, North End, Boston (45-unit office conversion)
• New England Country Club, Bellingham (800 units)
• Brockton Fairgrounds, Brockton (1750 units)

-B.

[Frank Mals]

Timeline of how we got here according to the application: 

Phase 1: The Pivot to Copper Mill and Housing (2023–2024)

• September 2023: As the lab market in Greater Boston became oversaturated and "stalled," Scape exited the project. Andrew Flynn founded Copper Mill, which took over the ground lease to pursue a return to residential development.

• May 14, 2024: The City of Somerville initiated a re-engagement. Tom Galligani (Executive Director of OSPCD) met with Copper Mill to discuss the viability of residential development given the collapsing lab market.

• June–July 2024: Copper Mill and City planners held follow-up meetings to discuss permitting processes for 40B proposals and potential approaches to density and massing.

Phase 2: Public Engagement and Design Refinement (Late 2024)

• September 6, 2024: Mayor Ballantyne and Tom Galligani toured a recently completed 451-unit residential project by the developer to assess construction quality.

• October–December 2024: Copper Mill conducted a series of four voluntary public meetings at the behest of the Mayor.

    ◦ Meetings 1 & 2: Focused on the general concept of residential vs. lab uses and desired unit types.

    ◦ Meeting 3: Discussed local character and potential displacement of businesses like The     Burren and Dragon Pizza.

    ◦ Meeting 4: Presented massing studies for a 25-story tower. Community feedback led to moving the residential lobby from Elm Street to Grove Street to preserve retail continuity.

    ◦ Meeting 5: February 12, 2025: A fifth public meeting was held at the Somerville Community Baptist Church with several residents unable to gain access as the space was at capacity. Developer Flynn stated that 500 units was the "inflection point" necessary to make the project's costs, including union labor and affordability requirements, financially feasible.

Phase 3: The 40B Application and Future Planning 

• March 4, 2025: Copper Mill met with Mayor Ballantyne to discuss the statutory steps of the 40B process and strategies for mitigating tenant displacement.

• December 4, 2025: Copper Mill met with Mayor-Elect Jake Wilson, who expressed a preference for the project to proceed with "friendly" 40B status.

• December 22, 2025: Copper Mill officially submitted the Chapter 40B Project Site Eligibility (PEL) Application to MassHousing for the 502-unit tower.

Regarding Mayor Wilson's expressed preference for a "friendly 40B" (which is officially known as a Local Initiative Process (LIP).An LIP requires the written support of the Chief Executive Officer (the Mayor) of the municipality. The application for a LIP is typically submitted to the state by the Mayor on behalf of the municipality. Despite the Mayor’s preference for a “Friendly 40b”, and his statement on Facebook this week that this is a “Friendly 40B”, the formal Project Eligibility Letter (PEL) Application submitted on December 22, 2025, was filed by the developer, Davis Square Elm Holdings, LLC, directly to MassHousing, not the city.  So as of now, this application is a standard developer-led request for Site Approval, which is a prerequisite for applying for a Comprehensive Permit from the local Zoning Board of Appeals. Perhaps this will change into a "Friendly" 40b at some stage but right now it doesn't seem that it is. I could be wrong here. Lot's of questions. 

Regards,

Frank

[Zachary Yaro]

Thank you for summarizing those details, Chris!

I am glad to hear we won't be losing The Burren, but the rest of that is immensely frustrating.  It sounds as though, following massive public desire for compromise options between the current height and 25 stories (including several suggestions from various residents how they might achieve that), they cancelled public engagement meetings and went to the state with a taller building and cut the previously planned underground parking‽  Am I understanding that correctly?

What are our options at this point?  Can the Board press Copper Mill to show us they did a good faith exploration of compromise options if they did?  If they return to disengaging from the public following that meeting, like they did last year, what are our options then?

Zachary Yaro

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[Ron Newman]

My entire objection to this project has been to the temporary closure of the Burren and the risk of it not reopening.   If the owner of the Burren does not object to the project, I don’t either.

[David]

Over 100 new affordable housing units, no new cars added to the roads, new retail space, and the Burren is secure. These all sound like very positive developments. It's nice that we have a look at the financials now. It would be interesting to see a side-by-side with lower height plans, so we can assess the claim that smaller buildings don't pencil out.

Best,

David Tatarakis

On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 7:05 AM 'Ron Newman' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

My entire objection to this project has been to the temporary closure of the Burren and the risk of it not reopening.   If the owner of the Burren does not object to the project, I don’t either.

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[Elizabeth Merrick]

Does anybody else have a problem with a huge development featuring large tower that will dwarf everything else and change the human scale, neighborhood character of the square? Does anybody else think that multiple smaller developments integrated into our existing neighborhoods would be a better way to go? Why does an in-demand city like Somerville have to cater to big developers?  I find it implausible that we have to grab this or else we cannot solve our affordable housing issues.

Elizabeth Merrick 

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---

From: daviss...@googlegroups.com <daviss...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of David <dtata...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 9, 2026 10:14:16 AM
To: Ron Newman <rne...@alum.mit.edu>
Cc: Zachary Yaro <zmy...@gmail.com>; Christopher Beland <bel...@alum.mit.edu>; dsnc-bo...@googlegroups.com <dsnc-bo...@googlegroups.com>; Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [DSNC] Copper Mill 40B Application Letter & meeting info

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/CAOBd5n5BLvOe4Z2C_ZhaSkH7wqkjn4F4Pz6rzpofRLwuAH%3Dqxw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Elaine Almquist]

We have not taken any public stance on the project as an organization, so at this point we are in fact-finding mode to get the info we need to DSNC and then talk amongst ourselves about what we'd like to do next. If they ask for an opinion, we will say we have no formal opinion at the moment, and that our members are paying close attention and ensuring we are engaged in the discussion, process, and decision-making at every stage.

Best,

Elaine

Elaine F. Almquist

(she/her/hers)

BlueSky @EAlmquist  Instagram: @EFAlmquist
Phone: 978.375.2448

On Fri, Jan 9, 2026, 9:59 AM Michael Chiu <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:

Elaine,

Thanks for the update.  

If you and other Board Members do meet with Copper Mill, I expect that they will likely ask  for DSNC's position on this project specifically, or at least a development project of this scale generally.

I don't believe that the DSNC board, or the organization at large has discussed or voted on what position we are taking relative to the Copper Mill or any other project in Davis Square. 

Can you comment on how you and other board members plan to respond when asked about DSNCs position on this?

Michael 

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[John Wilde]

A 26 story tower in Davis Square is ridiculous and very short sighted!

John Wilde, AIA, LEED AP

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 9, 2026, at 9:34 AM, Zachary Yaro <zmy...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[John Wilde]

1000% agree

This height of building will destroy the character of  Davis Sq.  

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 9, 2026, at 10:32 AM, 'Elizabeth Merrick ' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/F5CA8BDF-18EE-8740-AFF8-FF0953C08D07%40hxcore.ol.

[Michael Chiu]

Elaine,

Thanks for the update.  

If you and other Board Members do meet with Copper Mill, I expect that they will likely ask  for DSNC's position on this project specifically, or at least a development project of this scale generally.

I don't believe that the DSNC board, or the organization at large has discussed or voted on what position we are taking relative to the Copper Mill or any other project in Davis Square. 

Can you comment on how you and other board members plan to respond when asked about DSNCs position on this?

Michael 

On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 10:12 PM Elaine Almquist <elaine....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[PJ Santos]

Their proposal seems very similar to the Market Central building in Central Square Cambridge, both similar size and similar surrounding buildings.

It might be worth us taking a field trip to help imagine what that'd look like in Davis? 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/CAEK62JeosuAe2TBCT-sP-GZXzY5BxTmy%3DLYLzEYo_vFha-BxPw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Zev Pogrebin]

Hi Elizabeth and all, 

I just want to add to the conversation and say my personal opinion that a large tower would improve, not detract from the human scale of Davis Square.

One question of mine is whether people primarily object to the density of people or to the physical dimensions of the building? For those who are opposed to the building for its 'scale', can you chime in whether it is the physical size of the towers or the number of people that you primarily object to? For example, if the tower component of the building were invisible, would you support the project?

Regarding the density, I think that by adding a very high density of people within the square and additional retail space would result in much more vibrancy in the area. The 500 people in the square will almost exclusively not be drivers, so Davis will likely be their first stop and destination when they go to restaurants, buy stuff, visit parks or libraries, or just take a walk. I think that the extra foot traffic would make the square feel safer and create more connections.

In terms of the physical shape of the building, the 3 story pedestal will line up with the other buildings on that side of elm street, and create a street wall with a much more village like feel. The tower itself would be somewhat set back and have a relatively small impact on Elm Street. Of course, if you are elsewhere in the neighborhood, you will definitely see the tower. I don't really understand how this is bad, but that is my personal taste, I just don't view tall buildings as eyesores.

The shape and size of the retail units seems to preserve the small business-oriented feel, and the pedestrian arcade area seems really cool. Because the building is going to be making almost all their money from residential income, I think that there will be more flexibility to lease the retail units with small businesses. Putting a bank in will not be financially advantageous to the property owner because it could negatively impact the market rents. 

In all the cities I have visited, I have found very nice neighborhoods filled with similar types of housing stock (single family up through something like a triple decker), which are next to very large towers. Many people bring up European cities like Paris when talking about how they oppose towers like this, but when I went to Parisian suburbs, I found several areas with high rise residential towers nestled in suburban residential neighborhoods, producing vibrant squares. Similarly, I was recently in Tokyo, where I spent time in amazing residential areas near Oshiage/Kyojima, filled with 2-3 story buildings but bounded on one side by Tokyo Skytree, one of the tallest structures in the world, and another side by a residential development with 20-50 story buildings. Even in our region, I would argue that the towers in Central and Union have had a positive impact on their surroundings (I rarely hear people who are seriously upset about the height of Market Central or the bacon building). What these neighborhoods all have in common is that the tower's population shops at businesses, walks around the area, and contributes to the neighborhood's community in general. The towers provide a good way to house these new residents without interrupting the local character in the main residential area. The alternative to house 502 units "in-scale" in our neighborhood would require gentrifying a large portion of local housing stock and replacing it with soulless 3-6 story condos (and such a solution would likely have far fewer affordable units).

All these are my personal opinions, and don't reflect my position as a board member, or the board's position as a whole. Please let me know your thoughts.

Respectfully ,

Zev

[Jeff Byrnes]

Thanks Zev, great perspectives that I agree with.

I, too, am curious how the height of a building destroys anything. As Elaine suggested, Market Central in Cambridge is a similarly-sized building (195 ft, 19 or 20 storeys), and clearly has not destroyed Central Square. It created a number of new retail spaces, plus a ton of homes for folks.

And, as Ron points out, The Burren is now secure via legal agreements. I would suggest that if we want to enjoy The Burren for another 30 years, this is an opportunity for them to stay in the same location, but in a building that isn’t tired & nearing the end of its life.

That sounds like a fantastic outcome for patrons as well as musicians who depend on it as a venue (that kinda includes me, I’ve jammed there plenty of times with my upright bass).

I also think it’s important to call this out in particular:

”Developers note Somerville produced 42 affordable and 219 total housing units per year, 2011-2020, so this would be 2-3 years of production in one building.”

That’s quite a win for market and subsidized homes, which we desperately need!

-- 
Jeff Byrnes
he/him

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[Mieke Citroen]

Thank you for sharing your opinion, and for that excellent writeup. And for others, with sharing all the information. Having this neighborhood group form has been great, and I really love how invested we all are in making Somerville home. 

--Mieke.

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[Denise Provost]

Would you please clarify for us, Elaine: who are the members of the DSNC?

Thanks

Denise

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/CAEK62JeosuAe2TBCT-sP-GZXzY5BxTmy%3DLYLzEYo_vFha-BxPw%40mail.gmail.com

.

[Colin McMillen]

I assume the elected board members listed here: https://www.davissquarenc.org/contact

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/604808712.4711130.1767978845446%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Heidi Lewis]

Does anyone know what the timeline is for the state with the 40B process? Wondering how fast something like this moves through.

Also, when comparing this project to the Central Square project, isn’t it true that the Central Square tower(s) - and the Union Square tower - are on the outskirt of these squares and better positioned to not overwhelm the center with a massive tower?

I’m concerned that Cooper Mill went silent for months and then went around the community to the state, right before the holidays.

-Heidi

PS: Thanks to all the previous writers for going through and highlighting the important details.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/d75ef6ae-a79a-4dd5-b9d2-e44cbdeba397%40app.fastmail.com.

Heidi Lewis

hlws...@gmail.com

[Elaine Almquist]

My pleasure, Denise.

I think you may have asked who the Board members are, and Colin is correct, those are the Board members on our website.

If you did mean who are the wider members, it's anyone who meets the membership qualifications in our Bylaws in Section 3.1 Membership:

Membership Eligibility 

Any person ≥16 years old may participate as a Member who: 

● Resides within ½ mile of the Neighborhood Boundaries; 

● Receives support services within the Neighborhood Boundaries; 

● Is employed at a business located within the Neighborhood Boundaries; 

● Operates a business located within the Neighborhood Boundaries; or 

● Owns real estate within the Neighborhood Boundaries; or 

● Regularly volunteers at an organization/agency located within the Neighborhood Boundaries; or 

● Is determined to have a genuine local interest by a majority vote of the Board 

To participate in DSNC meetings or votes, participants will complete a form with their names, addresses, email addresses, and either qualifying Member criteria or desire to participate as a non-member.  Non-members may still join and participate on the DSNC mailing list and attend and participate fully in DSNC meetings with the exception of voting. Members shall not be charged dues or any other membership fees. 

We have a paper form that people fill can out at meetings.

Best,

Elaine

Elaine F. Almquist

(she/her/hers)

BlueSky @EAlmquist  Instagram: @EFAlmquist
Phone: 978.375.2448

[Ron Newman]

One thing I would like us to advocate for is "The Burren In Exile": a temporary and nearby place where the Burren's extensive music programming can continue uninterrupted while construction occurs at the Copper Mill site.

Can Copper Mill, the Burren owners, the city, and possibly other owners of vacant properties come together to make this happen?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/5C75866F-392C-4EDC-8139-6A7D2CACA11F%40gmail.com.

[Elaine Almquist]

In the letter, it looks like I was sent a copy, but I never received any such letter. We have been 100% transparent about sharing everything we know about the project to the rest of the community as soon as we receive it.

The correspondence listed within this document is news to me as it is to all of you, despite consistently reaching out to Copper Mill for updates.

Best,

Elaine

Elaine F. Almquist

(she/her/hers)

BlueSky @EAlmquist  Instagram: @EFAlmquist
Phone: 978.375.2448

On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 12:35 PM Rachel Rosenberg <rachelro...@gmail.com> wrote:

Elaine - 

It looks like you were cc'd on the letter dated July 15, 2025 relating to the status of the Burren that we are now seeing on p. 5 of the 40B application.

This is something I consider to be a critically important update about the proposed Elm St. Development that is of significant interest to DSNC membership.  As a member of the DSNC myself, I am extremely concerned that the leadership has withheld this information from us while stating for months following your receipt of the letter that there are no updates on the Copper Mill Development.  

With this new information coming to light, how can the DSNC membership trust that the board is being honest and transparent with us?  What, if any, other information has the DSNC board been privy to but withholding from membership about the proposed Elm Street Development and this recently filed 40B petition that has apparently been in the works for many months?

Best,

Rachel 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/d75ef6ae-a79a-4dd5-b9d2-e44cbdeba397%40app.fastmail.com.

[Alex Dehnert]

My impression is that the Burren owners already have a bit of an
alternate-Burren: McCarthy's (https://www.mccarthystoad.com/calendar).
It's another Irish pub, it's half a mile away in Porter, it looks like
it also has a pretty active music calendar, and AIUI it's the same team
as the Burren. (Really I think the existence of McCarthy's under the
same ownership is one of the stronger signs that they can successfully
return after construction... and perhaps also a sign that if this
location remains in limbo they might eventually focus on McCarthy's
instead, if the Burren's location becomes run-down enough to need a lot
of work.)

On 1/9/26 12:42, 'Ron Newman' via Davis Square Neighborhood Council wrote

> One thing I would like us to advocate for is "The Burren In Exile": a
> temporary and nearby place where the Burren's extensive music
> programming can continue uninterrupted while construction occurs at the
> Copper Mill site.
>
> Can Copper Mill, the Burren owners, the city, and possibly other owners
> of vacant properties come together to make this happen?
>
> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026, 12:38 PM Heidi Lewis <hlws...@gmail.com
> <mailto:hlws...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Does anyone know what the timeline is for the state with the 40B
> process? Wondering how fast something like this moves through.
>
> Also, when comparing this project to the Central Square project,
> isn’t it true that the Central Square tower(s) - and the Union
> Square tower - are on the outskirt of these squares and better
> positioned to not overwhelm the center with a massive tower?
>
> I’m concerned that Cooper Mill went silent for months and then went
> around the community to the state, right before the holidays.
>
> -Heidi
>
> PS: Thanks to all the previous writers for going through and
> highlighting the important details.
>
>
>> On Jan 9, 2026, at 12:22 PM, Colin McMillen

>> <colin.m...@gmail.com <mailto:colin.m...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> I assume the elected board members listed here: https://

>> www.davissquarenc.org/contact <https://www.davissquarenc.org/contact>

>>
>> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026, at 12:14 PM, 'Denise Provost' via Davis
>> Square Neighborhood Council wrote:
>>>
>>> Would you please clarify for us, Elaine: who are the members of
>>> the DSNC?
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Denise
>>>
>>> On Friday, January 9, 2026 at 03:41:36 PM GMT, Elaine Almquist

>>> <elaine....@gmail.com <mailto:elaine....@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> We have not taken any public stance on the project as an
>>> organization, so at this point we are in fact-finding mode to get
>>> the info we need to DSNC and then talk amongst ourselves about
>>> what we'd like to do next. If they ask for an opinion, we will
>>> say we have no formal opinion at the moment, and that our members
>>> are paying close attention and ensuring we are engaged in the
>>> discussion, process, and decision-making at every stage.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Elaine

>>> **
>>> *Elaine F. Almquist*
>>> /(she/her/hers)/
>>>
>>> BlueSky @EAlmquist <https://bsky.app/profile/
>>> ealmquist.bsky.social> Instagram: @EFAlmquist <https://
>>> www.instagram.com/efalmquist/>

>>> Phone: 978.375.2448
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026, 9:59 AM Michael Chiu
>>> <michael...@gmail.com <mailto:michael...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Elaine,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the update.
>>>
>>> If you and other Board Members do meet with Copper Mill, I
>>> expect that they will likely ask  for DSNC's position on this
>>> project specifically, or at least a development project of
>>> this scale generally.
>>>
>>> I don't believe that the DSNC board, or the organization at
>>> large has discussed or voted on what position we are taking
>>> relative to the Copper Mill or any other project in Davis
>>> Square.
>>>
>>> Can you comment on how you and other board members plan to
>>> respond when asked about DSNCs position on this?
>>>
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 10:12 PM Elaine Almquist
>>> <elaine....@gmail.com

>>> <mailto:elaine....@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello Neighbors!
>>> At our DSNC meeting on Monday, Councilor Lance Davis
>>> informed us that Copper Mill, and Davis Square Elm

>>> Holdings, LLC has filed a *40B application letter* with

>>> MassHousing and the City of Somerville. I requested the
>>> letter from the Office of Strategic Planning and
>>> Community Development (OSPCD), and was sent the copy
>>> today. I'm writing to share the document here with all of

>>> you <https://drive.google.com/file/
>>> d/1wmZLxtUo9DmDlhcnFurwQ7bsGF_5ZNWk/view?usp=drive_link>.

>>> I am not attaching it, as it is 160 pages. You may have
>>> to download it to read it, as the file may be too large
>>> for a preview in your browser depending on your settings.
>>>

>>> Chapter 40B <https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/
>>> PartI/TitleVII/Chapter40B> is a state statute, which

>>> enables local Zoning Boards of Appeals to approve
>>> affordable housing developments under flexible rules if
>>> at least 20-25% of the units have long-term affordability
>>> restrictions if the municipality does not currently the
>>> minimum of 10% of homes in the Subsidized Housing
>>> Inventory (SHI).
>>>
>>> The letter is filed in our Copper Mill project folder

>>> <https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/13aSJsOy-
>>> b5aUwpFs5jem3ACPJnoBNpGj?usp=drive_link>, and you can

>>> always also find our cache of project info about the
>>> proposal for the site here:

>>> Davis Square Neighborhood Council <https://
>>> drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AvEAIASFTMu6dVuA-
>>> OUFJeK_8tSPDq5L?usp=drive_link> > Development Projects
>>> <https://drive.google.com/drive/
>>> folders/16kIqhJHK6BoIfqHb5qz8eYSCIOmcTWO8?
>>> usp=drive_link> > Copper Mill Project Elm & Grove St
>>> (Burren to Dragon Pizza) <https://drive.google.com/drive/
>>> folders/13aSJsOy-b5aUwpFs5jem3ACPJnoBNpGj?usp=drive_link>

>>>
>>> Additionally, Copper Mill requested a meeting with me,
>>> and we as a board of directors are in the process of
>>> finding a time before our January meeting for as many of
>>> our board members to attend the meeting as possible, most
>>> likely on January 20th or 21st. We will send an update
>>> after that meeting with what we learn. If you have any
>>> questions you would like us to bring to that meeting,
>>> please submit them to: dsnc-bo...@googlegroups.com

>>> <mailto:dsnc-bo...@googlegroups.com> and we will

>>> incorporate your questions into the conversation as best
>>> we can.
>>>
>>> I'm sure as we all sit down to dig through the document,
>>> more information will come to light, and more questions
>>> will arise. Please remember that while we discuss this
>>> important matter, we keep our discussion neighborly and
>>> civil, even if we have disagreement.
>>>
>>> Sincerely,

>>> *Elaine F. Almquist */(she/her/hers)/
>>> DSNC President
>>>
>>> BlueSky @EAlmquist <https://bsky.app/profile/
>>> ealmquist.bsky.social> Instagram: @EFAlmquist <https://
>>> www.instagram.com/efalmquist/>

>>> Phone: 978.375.2448
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Davis Square Neighborhood Council · https://

>>> DavisSquareNC.org <https://davissquarenc.org/> · https://
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>>>
>>>
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>>> CAEK62JeosuAe2TBCT-sP-GZXzY5BxTmy%3DLYLzEYo_vFha-
>>> BxPw%40mail.gmail.com <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
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>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
>>> davissquarenc/604808712.4711130.1767978845446%40mail.yahoo.com?
>>> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

>>
>>
>> --
>> Davis Square Neighborhood Council · https://DavisSquareNC.org

>> <https://davissquarenc.org/> · https://linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC

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>> e44cbdeba397%40app.fastmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
>
> Heidi Lewis
> hlws...@gmail.com <mailto:hlws...@gmail.com>

>
>
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[Denise Provost]

I appreciate this information, Elaine.

It's my recollection that, for purposes of its August, 2025 election, DSNC determined that residents of Cambridge, Arlington, and Medford living within half a mile from Davis Square were qualified to vote. Would you please confirm whether that is the case?

Also, would you please tell us which DSNC officer compiles DSNC's list of members? 

And on what date did our City Council vote to recognize DSNC as the official neighborhood council for Davis Square, under ordinance 2023-11?

Thanks again,

Denise

[Elaine Almquist]

Happy to, Denise.

In our bylaws, the current geographic boundaries are inclusive of parts of Cambridge, Arlington, and Medford. We received some informal feedback from a couple of Councilors that they didn't know that, and it's something we intend to address in our bylaws updates before filing our 501c4, and it could be that we change it for all votes of the DSNC, or just Community Benefit Agreements. It's something we need to formally address through a motion, discussion, and vote at one of our member meetings.

The membership lists are managed by our Secretary, Zev Pogrebin.

We are not yet recognized by the City of Somerville because our 501c4 process is currently still in the works. PJ Kim-Santos, our Treasurer, is driving that process with support from the rest of the board, and he gave an update at Monday's meeting. Therefore, the City Council has not yet been asked to consider recognition of our organization as the official Neighborhood Council for Davis Square yet. Council President Lance Davis has expressed his eagerness to take up a vote for approval as soon as we submit our petition to the City Council.

Best,

Elaine

Elaine F. Almquist

(she/her/hers)

BlueSky @EAlmquist  Instagram: @EFAlmquist
Phone: 978.375.2448

[Rachel Rosenberg]

Hi Alex,

I agree that we’re fortunate to have McCarthy’s and I really appreciate that this group is being thoughtful about the community impact of even temporarily closing the Burren during construction of a development project. 

I just wanted to clarify that even though it looks similar, there’s a lot of programming at the Burren that can’t be moved to McCarthy’s due to differences in venue size.  

McCarthy’s doesn’t have have the capacity of the Burren Backroom for example, which is a 100-person venue with a big stage and sophisticated sound system.  Every night the Burren Backroom presents shows (ranging from world class Irish musicians to my band’s monthly honky tonk dances) and on weekends there are even multiple daytime shows including children’s music.  

The Burren front room also has open jam sessions, ranging from Irish to old time to bluegrass.  This is another community benefit of the Burren that McCarthy’s doesn’t have the capacity to adopt. 

I’m grateful that folks are considering how to keep the Burren’s important programming alive, and just wanted to chime in that McCarthy’s isn’t really an option for fully sustaining that programming. 

Best,

Rachel

Davis Square Neighborhood Council · https://DavisSquareNC.org · https://linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC

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[Rachel Rosenberg]

Elaine - 

It looks like you were cc'd on the letter dated July 15, 2025 relating to the status of the Burren that we are now seeing on p. 5 of the 40B application.

This is something I consider to be a critically important update about the proposed Elm St. Development that is of significant interest to DSNC membership.  As a member of the DSNC myself, I am extremely concerned that the leadership has withheld this information from us while stating for months following your receipt of the letter that there are no updates on the Copper Mill Development.  

With this new information coming to light, how can the DSNC membership trust that the board is being honest and transparent with us?  What, if any, other information has the DSNC board been privy to but withholding from membership about the proposed Elm Street Development and this recently filed 40B petition that has apparently been in the works for many months?

Best,

Rachel 

On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 12:22 PM Colin McMillen <colin.m...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/d75ef6ae-a79a-4dd5-b9d2-e44cbdeba397%40app.fastmail.com.

[John Wilde]

I object to the excessive height not the density.

John Wilde, AIA, LEED AP

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 9, 2026, at 11:20 AM, Zev Pogrebin <zpogre...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Elizabeth and all, 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/668697c6-226a-4ee5-8a24-e0bd314f17a2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Elaine Almquist]

Just a quick note on the pace of this conversation--we have many spam submissions to our listserv, and therefore we have moderators who manually reject spam messages (mostly vent cleaning ads/scams) and approve legitimate ones. Please note that if you reply to the thread, it may not appear until a moderator manually approves it, but we try to keep up with that process fairly quickly. Thanks for your patience while we try to keep the riff-raff out of your inboxes!

Best,

Elaine

Elaine F. Almquist

(she/her/hers)

BlueSky @EAlmquist  Instagram: @EFAlmquist
Phone: 978.375.2448

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/3D34F8B4-0A2B-4822-8B04-C0C12869E879%40gmail.com.

[ebm...@comcast.net]

Hi Zev,

Thank you for your thoughtful and considered response. In answer to your question, I object to the size and height of the building rather than the number of new residents. (But of course, these are interrelated to a large extent. There's no way to fit 502 new apartments on that space without building a tower, I'd imagine.)

And if there were a magical way to make a huge tower invisible other than obscuring the view right in front by setting it back a bit, that would be great. But as you point out, that's obviously not possible and  I feel that a tower looming over the heart of Davis is not consistent with the appeal and streetscape that has made Davis special.

In addition to being oversized and of a height that changes the whole feel of Davis as a neighborhood center, new towers like this add a monolithic aspect, much different than multiple shorter buildings.

As someone else pointed out, the tower at Union Square is not quite in the heart of the square, as this would be in Davis. Also, I'm totally not impressed with the towering new building mentioned in Central Square. 

One more thought: In the long run, maintaining human-scale interest, charm (if I can apply that loosely), variety, uniqueness, and some older building styles has led many neighborhoods around the country and world to be desirable. It's easy to put up modern large towers. But it's impossible to recreate what drew many people to the place to begin with.

I am just hoping there is some way to develop this property without caving in 100% to the wish list of yet another developer. They always seem to say they can't build smaller or better, or else they won't make enough profit.

Elizabeth Merrick

---

From: daviss...@googlegroups.com <daviss...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Zev Pogrebin <zpogre...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 9, 2026 11:20 AM
To: Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/668697c6-226a-4ee5-8a24-e0bd314f17a2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Brendan Ritter]

I was very shocked to hear this information given the radio silence surrounding the project. 

I'm somewhat torn. While I do want housing, it's clear a large number of our neighbors take exception to the height. The similar projects in union and central occurred on streets that were far wider than elm. 

However, far more than the specifics of the building, I object to the manner in which the developer has pursued its community outreach. 

For months we were given radio silence, and now we know why. They were always going to ram it straight through over our heads at the state level. It seems like it was a done deal by July. 

So is that it? Since it's a 40b submission, even if we were able to gain nonprofit status and official recognition by the city, it wouldn't matter? (At least officially?)

Brendan

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/SA1PR17MB4772B03533D66158788B62DCFF82A%40SA1PR17MB4772.namprd17.prod.outlook.com.

[Carol]

I agree .

Carol Rego

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/SA1PR17MB4772B03533D66158788B62DCFF82A%40SA1PR17MB4772.namprd17.prod.outlook.com.

[Deborah Pacini]

I also agree.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/1244273117.416141.1767987725918%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Frank Mals]

The DSNC should hold off on meeting with the developer until they have secured official city recognition. Or, they should insist on extending the invitation to other community groups/merchant groups with the same standing (or lack thereof) to ensure no single unrecognized group is granted exclusive access or influence. 

Regards,

Frank

[David]

I want to add another perspective on a single large building vs several medium sized developments. To get 500 new housing units, imagine instead of this one large tower we manage to convince developers to do an equivalent number of medium sized developments in Davis. In order to get that many units with 4-6 story buildings you would essentially need to redevelop every single building in the square. That means that for each parcel we would have:

- A lengthy public process

- months or years of construction noise, debris, and other disruptions

- displacement of every business in the building

And these processes would almost certainly not happen concurrently, at least not fully. So we would be talking about years and years of constant construction and displacement. And it would take far, far longer to actually get levels of housing that we need. 

I'm sympathetic to the idea that a Davis Square with all 6 story buildings ala Paris might look nicer. And if that's the approach people prefer, that's a fine opinion to have. But we should be realistic about how getting there would actually play out. We should have been doing this incrementally for the past 30 years, but we didn't do that. And we're here now.

Best

David Tatarakis

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/SA1PR17MB4772B03533D66158788B62DCFF82A%40SA1PR17MB4772.namprd17.prod.outlook.com.

[Robert Collins]

I wanted to share my thoughts a little on this. 

So in some ways I have come around a little to the idea of a larger tower. I was in assembly and looking at the larger buildings and thought that it didnt look too bad or in some ways I actually liked it. However I am torn, I was reading a post from because I was reading a post from Elizabeth and can agree with her as well. 

However one thing I did feel strongly when I was looking over the 40B was my strong dislike for the design of the actual tower. I am not a fan of how it looks. It has a very strange design look to me. 

I remember at one of the community meetings the developer even said he prefers masonry cladding finishes but this does not have that. Perhaps Elaine you could say that to him. 

I may even be nitpicking at this point because in some ways I have sort of changed my mind and am in favor of it. But if there was one gripe I had it would be with the sort of zig zaggy look of the tower. 

I sent two emails to the developer over the past few months telling him my preferences but got no response at all. He asks for peoples input but couldnt even send a follow up email saying thank you or anything which I found a little annoying. I too also find it a little strange he went silent and now is filling this with the state. Im not saying he did it behind out backs because honestly I will never know. It does seem fishy though. 

One more thing I will add. I have found that the newer apartments seem to be a lot more flimsy then things built a little older even just 20 years older so if this guy does build this tower we need him to build it with high quality material and not cheap out. 

People are talking about the burren and what makes it special in part is the actual venue. I find a lot of new venues very sterile and makes it so the place does not do well. I want to avoid that from happening

Robert

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 9, 2026, at 7:02 PM, David <dtata...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/davissquarenc/CAOBd5n5xyW%2BQntrxHD_UiOGKWBfB-38_H7XQgNHS66GNxZSoXg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Susanna Coit]

I'd like to encourage people to also share these thoughts about this Copper Mill's 40b with Mayor Wilson's office. As he said in his video message, "my support depends on your support." It is important for him to hear from people!

[Christopher Beland]

Personally, I'm happy with how well the developer incorporated public input into the design. Among the things we asked for and are getting were housing, ground-level small-format retail, retaining The Burren, a human-scale street wall, residential entrance on Grove Street, more open space, and a roofdeck. I was actually going to suggest doing a no-parking tower as a way to compensate for high steel prices and high interest rates, and it's great that actually makes the project work. This is the perfect location for the 24% of Somerville households with no car, including those needing accessible and income-restricted units.

I'm not happy about the owner neglecting the site for years or the developer ghosting people when a simple "we're going to postpone public engagement for a while" would have been polite.

In a binding legal sense, the community lost its right to require a smaller project by saying "no" to housing too many times in recent years, including saying "no" to a 6-story building on this site that was proposed in the 2010s. That is why Somerville is below the 10% city-wide affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's anti-NIMBY provisions.

The developer has very little incentive to participate in a conversation about how they could do a smaller project and get less reward for the huge financial risk they are taking and the years of delay they have put up with. They have explicitly indicated they are uninterested in doing so. From what I gather, once this project is deemed eligible and gets bank financing, they will be able to build it more or less by right, so we have very little leverage to force a smaller building or negotiate community benefits.

However, now that Copper Mill has published detailed financial projections for the project, we can do our own rough evaluation of some compromise alternatives. For example, we could ask whether it would be feasible to take the same design and cut the tower to 11 stories.

Unfortunately, the Copper Mill application does not provide a realistic basis to estimate the financial feasibility of 5-6 story wood construction. We do know from the city report that this type of construction in Davis is currently not generally considered an attractive real estate investment because of a combination of market conditions and the 20% affordable housing requirement. It's possible Copper Mill would be able to fund a wood building without a loan, which would make a huge difference to profitability. We could ask (or hire) a third-party expert to run these calculations, but Copper Mill can probably just shrug and say "no thanks" to a proposal that they build that instead.

For an 11-story tower, I can calculate exact annual figures for:

• Lost rent: $11,639,958 (rent mix on removed floors, -5% vacancy)
• Avoided operating costs: $4,193,456 (298 units)

I cannot give an exact figure for how much would be saved in construction costs. Assuming the first three floors cost twice as much as the upper floors to build (they are about twice as big), that reduces the $154,600,000 construction cost by 15/29ths (51.7%), or about $80 million.

• Annual debt service reduction: $3,770,729 (52.6%)
• Net change to annual cash flow: $3,770,729 + $4,193,456 - $11,639,958 = -$4,048,543
• 26-story cash flow: $8,709,647/yr
• 11-story cash flow: $4,661,104/yr
• 11-story debt service: $3,397,959/yr

Importantly, the annual net profit from the 11-story tower is very close to the minimum cash flow required by the lender (1.25x debt service, $4,247,448/yr). If my estimate of saved construction cost is 10% too generous, that means the 11-story tower could not be financed.

If it can be financed, the 11-story tower appears 54% less profitable. On a $90,825,000 investment, that's the difference between a 9.6% annual return and a 4.7% annual return. (There's a regulatory cap of 10% for this program.) I'll also note that the financial projection assumes an interest-only loan, so the owners would need to make less profit for a while if they ever want to increase their equity.

Looking at the 2025 Somerville Financial Feasibility Analysis, market expectations for Return on Cost are 5.75%-6.50%. If I understand the definition correctly, on a total development cost of $259,500,000, the 26-story tower has an ROC of 3.35%, and the 11-story tower has an ROC of 1.80%. That implies to me that private finance markets would consider either of these designs to be very unattractive real estate investments. (I could get a CD at the bank with a higher interest rate than the 11-story tower.) I assume what makes it feasible to build the tower are the government-subsidized loan and the substantial amount of cash to be invested by the developer.

Even waiving the 25% affordable housing requirement would not make an attractive private market investment. That would add $3,449,616/yr in rent for the 26-story tower (4.69% ROC) and $2,003,412/yr to the 11-story tower (2.57% ROC). This aligns with the consultant who said any type of steel construction in Davis is financially unattractive.

There are many risks for Copper Mill with this project. For example, the studio market rent assumed in this application ($3500/mo) is 18% higher than the identified comparables ($2877/mo). If Copper Mill's rent projections are 18% too high, that would cut $3,717,240 per year in rent from the 26-story tower, and $1,622,047 from the 11-story tower, which would put the latter substantially below the financing minimum. If there are large-scale disruptions in the rental market similar to what happened in 2020, because of the debt leverage, either project could lose money in some years.

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

On Fri, 2026-01-09 at 12:37 -0500, Heidi Lewis wrote:

Also, when comparing this project to the Central Square project, isn’t it true that the Central Square tower(s) - and the Union Square tower - are on the outskirt of these squares and better positioned to not overwhelm the center with a massive tower?

Aggregated community input shows a preference for concentrating the tallest buildings in Davis Square on two blocks abutting the central intersection: the first block between Elm and Highland (which includes the Copper Mill site), and the first block between Highland and the MBTA busway. (See attached map from the pre-COVID draft Davis Square Neighborhood Plan.)

In Central, there are already two towers at the main intersection (and commercial and residential towers up Mass Ave toward Harvard and scattered on side streets). I'd actually say the 13-story tower at 675 Mass Ave is not the best. It's a big grey box that comes right up to the sidewalk with an inset entrance that doesn't do much to make it feel human-scale or provide a place to sit. The sheer drop makes a lot of street-level wind. (That is also a problem with the bacon building in Union, and I'm disappointed about that.) Market Central (which is halfway to MIT) I think is an improvement because it has at least a little offset at 6 stories, and the outdoor seating and covered pedestrian walkway are very nice. I'm excited about the Copper Mill proposal because it's designed better than any of these buildings. It's only 2 or 3 stories tall along Elm Street, de-crowds the sidewalk while providing outdoor seating, and also has an awesome covered outdoor retail walkway.

I think the thing that keeps towers from overwhelming the pedestrian experience is not which block they're located on, but setting back the tallest parts so people never find themselves staring directly up at them. But sheer walls can also still work sometimes. I was surprised to get cozy feeling in urban canyons in Manhattan and Providence where there's lots of pedestrian seating and trees. Perhaps because this recreates the human-evolution-friendly attributes of a natural canyon?

Unlike in Davis and Central, the Union Square rapid transit station is not located directly at the main intersection. The Union Square bacon building is a direct abutter to the new Green Line stop. Several parcels next to the T have already been upzoned for tall buildings, so the area around the Green Line will probably become a notable center of density for some period of time. Higher demand closer to the T makes taller buildings financially more feasible there, and it's also the obvious place to put no-parking buildings to optimize traffic. What happens in the main intersection will depend on the city-wide upzoning initiative. The parcels next to the T were a lot easier to redevelop in the short term, politically and physically, because they were mostly junk yards which were a poor use of high-value real estate.

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

On Fri, 2026-01-09 at 13:17 -0500, Rachel Rosenberg wrote:

I just wanted to clarify that even though it looks similar, there’s a lot of programming at the Burren that can’t be moved to McCarthy’s due to differences in venue size.  

I phoned up McCarthy's, and they said that upstairs at McCarthy's and Toad are roughly equivalent to the two stages at The Burren. I'm told in Porter there's an overall seating capacity of 202, with 100 upstairs (exactly the same as what you said for The Burren Backroom), and Toad is a bit smaller at 70.

It sounds like the Davis-Porter area will have pretty much the same musical performance capacity during construction as it did before McCarthy's opened?

-B.

[Christopher Beland]

People think of Paris as topped out at 6 stories or so, but it has towers scattered around its less-expensive outer neighborhoods - (to be fair, many ugly) apartment towers built in the 1960s and 1970s, and the bleh Tour Montparnasse.

One tower built in the 7th Arrondissement at the beginning of the elevator era (when taller buildings first became practical) was considered so ugly a group of 300 artists signed a petition against it:

"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection ... of this useless and monstrous [tower] ... To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years ... we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal."

The government rammed the controversial project through and it was built anyway. It does loom over the entire central city, and at night looks like a garish combination of a lighthouse and a twinkling Christmas tree. According to a snarky legend, one author hated it so much he ate lunch there every day, because it was the only place in the city where it could not be seen. The base is now so overcrowded it's surrounded by a glass wall to prevent terror attacks.

In English, it's known as the Eiffel Tower. I'll take the controversial stance that actually it's not that bad to look at.

There's also a more recent and beautiful business district full of monumental and eclectic towers called La Défense. It's visible from a lot of the city and intentionally put in a continuous line with the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Élysées, and the Louvre.

Davis Square is not an avenue of Parisian Haussmann buildings or the visually unified historic districts of Back Bay or Beacon Hill. When I think of Davis Square, I think of the nice but wastefully-low 1920s-ish row buildings (Mike's, HMart, Liquor World, and JP Licks being the nicer ones), and the lovely historic one-offs (Somerville Theatre, Bank of America). But the other half of the streetscape is a mix of modern buildings (CVS, Citizens Bank, Atrius Health), ugly Energy Crisis bunkers (Starbucks, MBTA headhouses, Middlesex bank), and weird stuff that doesn't match anything (Rosebud, the offices above Diesel and The Foundry, the 403 Highland underpass). These all vary between one and four stories somewhat randomly. Haussmann would certainly have most of the neighborhood demolished and replaced with buildings of a uniform height, and the streets realigned.

Some of the most interesting parts of Boston contrast completely different styles, like low but fancy historic buildings vs. modern skyscrapers in Copley Square and around the Old State House and Quincy Market. The fact that those contrasts work and that Davis is already a mix of styles makes me think the Copper Mill tower would work here aesthetically.

-B.

[Erik Nygren]

Since it sounds like with the 40B process we may be stuck with a tower, we may need to figure out how to engage with the developer and the city to make the best of it.

My top practical concerns not already talked about a bunch here are:

1) What this means for supporting vehicular traffic and temporary.  Even if there's no parking and residents aren't able to get access to parking permits (will they?) so can't own cars, what does this mean for moving trucks on September 1st, food delivery, Uber/Lyft, delivery trucks for the businesses, trash pickup, etc?  What does this also mean for any future options for making Elm St be a pedestrian street during parts of the day?  It will be critical to make sure this doesn't make the already bad double-parking situation worse in the square in a way that impacts pedestrian safety even more.

2) What this means for school capacity. While this is mostly studios, I'm sure that some portion of the 500 units will have people with kids needing space in our schools.  The elementary and middle schools within walking distance of Davis Sq are tight on capacity even with the Brown School open. The city doesn't have money for bussing, and driving isn't an option here if there's no parking.  This means that we need to make sure that as we build up we build school capacity within walking distance of where developments are happening, and there are other developments also coming online soon (eg, 299 Broadway which will have 288 units) that will put pressure on school capacity. 

Best, Erik

[Alex P]

Please stop comparing Somerville to Paris. 

We are part of greater Boston,  the 30th largest city in the US.

We need growth in the inner suburbs,  and our transformation zones where the towers belong. Protect and enhance our historic squares with mid rise structures. 

Our narrow streets are not well served by an out of scale tower. The union square tower is well outside of the central district. 

People should move to the Seaport if that is the vibe they want. 

Somerville is vibrant because of its arts culture, these developments all diminish the opportunity for those who made Somerville Somerville... this tower will not help our affordability crisis (distinct from the housing challenge).

Cambridge is about to undertake massive upscaling all along our border (they are truly short housing), we need to see how that plays out.

Stick to improving our tax base!

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[Michael Chiu]

While Davis Square was once called "The Paris of the 90's" for its hip culture, I don't think that it is very informative to use it as a comparison to Somerville.

• Somerville has 82K and a density of 7.6K/sqkm
• Paris has a population of 2M and nearly 3x the density at19K/sqkm.  Paris also has great public transportation and it rarely has accumulated snow (Boston averages 50"/year)
• If you include Boston in the mix, Paris is still 3x bigger as a city and 4x bigger as a metro area.

Despite the substantially larger size of Paris, I think that it has fewer than 10 buildings over 25 stories.  Furthermore, Paris currently restricts building heights to 37 meters (12 stories).  This ban was implemented in the 70's after they realized that Tour Montparnasse was a total eyesore.  It was relaxed in 2010 to 50M (15 stories) to address climate change but was reinstated in 2023 (despite France's commitment to addressing climate change)

While the story of the Eiffel tower is fun, what it tells me is that taste is fickle.  We may grow to love whatever is built by Coppermill, but it is equally possible that we initially think it is OK, but later hate it.  What is true in either case is that we will be stuck with it for the next 100 years, so let's get this right.

BTW, I'm not categorically against a tower and definitely support increased density and affordability in Davis.  I am also interested in making sure that we don't destroy what we love about our neighborhood in the process of trying to bring in more people.  If we get this wrong, perhaps some in this group can move on and find a next, better place to live.  For a variety of reasons, I'm committed, and perhaps this means I'm a bit more risk averse than others.  

Michael

Montparnasse is below, for your viewing pleasure.  For those of you passionate about the Burren, you can imagine a cozy Irish pub on the ground floor.

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[Frank Mals]

To Ron Newman etc: view any letter from any tenant supporting a developers proposals through the lens of tenant/landlord power dynamics.  I am sure the Commonwealth, and city officials view a letter like this through that lens as well. I would hope they would. 

Chris B. thank you for the hard work crystallizing the finer details of the 40b letter with the group. I don't know how you do it so quickly and so thoroughly. I agree though with Alex and Michael that it is useless to compare Paris with Davis Square.  

Also Chris, please remember that while it's great that Porter Square once again has a vibrant music and comedy venue that had been lost for years, what's at stake here is a Davis Square music venue.  The music situation in Davis (once a hallmark of the square) is dire. We've lost a legitimately iconic venue with Johnny D's. The Backroom is at (or near) that level now thankfully. We want more music in Davis Square not "less than", or "as much as" by combining Porter-Davis as you cleverly did in your message above. 

Davis Square Village has been working hard evaluating the 40b proposal, learning the differences between "Friendly" and "Traditional" 40b's and what those differences mean for Davis Square.  We have a draft statement written on this matter that we should have finalized by the end of the weekend.  We will publish it here, post it on our social media accounts and email it to our email list upon completion. 

This is an amazing community and it is a privilege to be a part of it!  We will get through this together. 

Frank

[Zev Pogrebin]

Hi all,

Thank you for your answers to my earlier question. It helps me understand the perspective of those opposed to the tower a lot better.

I agree with those comments that would prefer a more masonry style construction, and especially those people who said that they felt frustrated with Copper Mill's treatment of the community. I do not like Copper Mill but I still support the development, as I think that the outcome would be positive for Davis Square.

Another, more positive perspective on the 40B would be that this doesn't require the community to make a decision on allowing high rise construction elsewhere in the square. Earlier in the process, many people were concerned about Copper Mill setting a precedent of having numerous large high-rises in the square. This allows Copper Mill to proceed (and we gain a large number of new affordable housing units), while any future developments would require a substantial amount of of new affordable housing to use the same 40B process.

Regarding the comparisons with Paris: it's a comparison that many have brought up. Both Chris and I mentioned Parisian suburbs in the Ile-de-France region (which contains most of the Paris metro population) as opposed to the city of Paris itself. At the moment, suburbs in this region have similar access to transit as we do (mostly inbound lines and less frequent busses), and a similar density level. In these neighborhoods, there are plenty of high rise residential buildings. Some are public housing and others are private developments. In the background of the picture of Montparnasse (not a fair comparison to what we are talking about at all), you can see several high-rise residential buildings outside of Paris in the suburbs. These buildings are integrated into the local housing stock, which consists of a mixture low-rise residential construction, townhomes, and single family houses. From experience, this type of arrangement feels very different than Montparnasse. I would agree with Chris's statement that the addition of a high rise tower would be much less of an eyesore given Davis's mix of buildings, similar to the example of Parisian suburbs.

Chris, thank you for running the numbers. I wonder if it would be possible to estimate the impact this development may have on the city's tax revenue, which seems to be a concern for some people. Based on the sizes of the units, I can only imagine that there will be few school aged children, and new tax revenue from the building will vastly outweigh the costs. I am bad at math, and know little about assessing, but here is my back of napkin calculation. Supposing $25k of municipal cost per student, and that every unit with 2 or more bedrooms has a single school age child (~70 students), the extra costs to the city are around $1.75M annually. Using the construction cost of $259,000,000 as a baseline for the tax revenue (market value is likely to be higher, right?), this might yield approximately $2.8M (tax rate of 1.09%) of revenue for the city. This also doesn't consider any tax revenue from the ground floor retail tenants. While there may be other costs to the city involved, it seems like this would indicate that the development would be positive for the city, from a tax base perspective.

Best,

Zev

[Alex Dehnert]

> this tower will not help our affordability crisis (distinct from the
> housing challenge).

Why not? It'll add 126 affordable/below-market units, which will pretty
directly help with that (as context, from Beland's 1/8 23:03 email,
"Developers note Somerville produced 42 affordable and 219 total housing
units per year, 2011-2020, so this would be 2-3 years of production in
one building"). It'll also add 376 new market-rate units, which probably
won't directly help with affordability (they'll be new and therefore
probably expensive), but research shows
(https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2025/07/31/new-housing-slows-rent-growth-most-for-older-more-affordable-units)
that metros adding the most units see rental prices drop most for class
C (older) buildings (and conversely, it's lower-income zip codes where
prices tend to be increasing fastest with the US's limited production).

Also, what's the alternative? Building new housing spread over the city?
Mayor Wilson has expressed in the past
(https://www.jakeforsomerville.org/august_20_campaign_newsletter) that
this will result in displacement, as "naturally affordable" housing
(e.g. older triple deckers) is replaced with newer, more expensive
units. Copper Mill has the virtue that there's (essentially?) no
existing housing where it's being built, so while there will be some
(hopefully short-lived) disruption of existing retail tenants, it
doesn't involve demolishing nearly as much housing (or retail) as
shorter buildings would to get the same capacity.

> We need growth in the inner suburbs

Doesn't that mean Somerville (and a couple others)?

> Cambridge is about to undertake massive upscaling all along our border
> (they are truly short housing), we need to see how that plays out.

One virtue of massive upscalings is that I don't think there's enough
developers to build it all at once, so we (and Cambridge) will have some
time before change is really extensive to be sure it's going well.

~~Alex

On 1/10/26 10:02, Alex P wrote:
> Please stop comparing Somerville to Paris.
> We are part of greater Boston,  the 30th largest city in the US.
> We need growth in the inner suburbs,  and our transformation zones where
> the towers belong. Protect and enhance our historic squares with mid
> rise structures.
> Our narrow streets are not well served by an out of scale tower. The
> union square tower is well outside of the central district.
> People should move to the Seaport if that is the vibe they want.
> Somerville is vibrant because of its arts culture, these developments
> all diminish the opportunity for those who made Somerville Somerville...
> this tower will not help our affordability crisis (distinct from the
> housing challenge).
> Cambridge is about to undertake massive upscaling all along our border
> (they are truly short housing), we need to see how that plays out.
> Stick to improving our tax base!
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 7:14 AM 'Christopher Beland' via Davis Square
> Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com

> <https://DavisSquareNC.org> · https://linktr.ee/DavisSquareNC

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[Rachel Rosenberg]

Hi Christopher,

I think that occupancy is only one variable here (though if we’re focusing on occupancy, I think we need to distinguish between standing and seated occupancy. I believe the Burren Backroom is 100 seated; 150 standing. The number for Toad, below, must be 70 standing - it is a tiny room).

Other important variables that determine the kind of music that can happen are: size of stage, sound system, and green room access.  Toad has a tiny stage (can fit 3, maybe 4 musicians) where the bands have to do their own sound. I’m less familiar with McCarthy’s upstairs, but know that stage is also very small compared to the Burren Backroom’s, which fits my band of 6 (including drums) with a professional sound person and a formal soundcheck before each show. The Backroom also has two green rooms which are needed for bands to prepare to perform. Toad does not have any. 

I’d encourage everyone to go to a show in the Burren Backroom and then visit Toad to better understand - you can see the differences for yourself quite clearly when you visit. 

Best,

Rachel 

[Jim Gallagher]

When I purchased my 2 family house in Somerville 32 years ago Somerville was affordable and I could walk to Johnny D's. There was no Burren and Mike's was the only current restaurant that was there then. The Somerville Theater was a dump that hosted an occasional concert. Eventually the Somerville Theater got nicer and some good restarants opened. I was there on the day the Burren opened and have been there hundreds of times since. When Johnny D's closed they took up some (not all) of the Davis music scene. Almost everything has changed in the square and mostly for the better.

And I think the Cooper Mill building will be another change for the better. Others on this thread have made the case "for" very well. Somerville is no longer affordable and this will help, sooner rather than later. And the disruption will be much shorter than any other way of adding 100+ homes. A perfect location to access the T and not add to traffic. I don't understand the human-scale criticisms but I do know that my daily walks in Davis will be better and safer. And more customers for our local businesses.

I will miss the Burren while it's closed and look forward to it's new and improved reopening. I can cope with the construction impacts to get a better Davis Square and Somerville. I think we have someone who wants to help us and I think we should let him. One way or another I plan to stick around.

Jim G

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[Kevin McIntosh]

Dear Erik et al,

The good news is: We are not "stuck with the tower." Given Somerville's previously stated GLAM status (see Meredith's email), we are likely eligible for Safe Harbor designation. We must convince our city council to act quickly and decisively if Davis Square's destiny is to be in our hands, subject to our own thoughtful, balanced, well-conceived development plan, and not Copper Mill's, with its profit-margin imperatives and sudden 40B filing.

Forcing out-of-scale development in Somerville with a 40B is an abuse of the statute, which was surely intended to make the Newtons and Miltons do their fair share vis a vis the housing needs of Greater Boston. The densest city in Massachusetts needn't shoulder this burden, allowing a developer to serve his own needs and damaging forever the character of a beloved square. And beyond Davis, Somerville rolling over for a hostile 40B would set the worst sort of precedent, putting a giant For Sale sign in the middle of our city, declaring open season for the most unprincipled development, local zoning laws be damned.

Neighbors, there is still time to keep Davis Square development our choice and our plan, but the clock is ticking, and we must act together, with determination and urgency.

Yours,

Kevin

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[Jayne Goethe]

As millennial Somervillians who have been impacted by high rents in the area in the recent past and who desire to remain as car-independent as possible, we and everyone else in our friend group wholeheartedly support this development and the promise of reactivating Davis with transit-oriented development.  A cursory review of historical photos of Davis and Union squares show greater density than what is now present.  Objections to the scale of this proposed development can be fixed!  By approving greater scales in this transit-rich environment across the board!  Currently Davis and Union are UNDER-SCALED compared to their past urban fabrics.  Let's bring back true density with height where it once was the norm.  Newton and Milton are further afield suburbs, but we're on both green and red lines and biking distance from Boston, so yes, it is incumbent upon us to welcome new neighbors.  

Build the project already!  #YIMBY

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[John Wilde]

Thank you Kevin, Elizabeth, Michael and the others who are stating a case for sensibly scaled development that can improve and respect the character of Davis Square.

As I was at the Republic Gym this morning and staring out the window envisioning where a 25-story tower could very possibly be looming over the neighborhood, the reality of what this would mean really hit home even more. 

This is an insane proposal.  This height is completely preposterous in Davis.

I for one will continue to voice my objections.  Any developer that would seriously propose this should not be trusted.

I often work with developers and was the OPM on the relatively recently completed friendly 40B Artemis project in Arlington. The developers on this were genuinely interested in making a positive contribution to the community and respecting the people who live there. I have been involved with many other housing projects including many 40B projects, I can’t think of one proposal that was so disrespectful to the character of the existing context.

Somerville is filled with untapped opportunities for housing such as around Gilman Square, Union and the Inner Belt.  Indeed, there are already many housing buildings going up now such as those along the bike path.  So progress is being made. The character of Davis does not need to be destroyed when the whole city should be considered as a whole.

This will be shouted down by the tower-happy-maximize-housing-immediately-consequences-be-damned folks who dominate this group but I really don’t care, and this group’s position I find very dangerous.

John Wilde

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 10, 2026, at 3:56 PM, Kevin McIntosh <kevinmc...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[David Booth]

On 1/9/26 22:11, 'Christopher Beland' via Davis Square Neighborhood
Council wrote:
> . . .

> In a binding legal sense, the community lost its right to require a
> smaller project by saying "no" to housing too many times in recent
> years, including saying "no" to a 6-story building on this site that was
> proposed in the 2010s. That is why Somerville is below the 10% city-wide
> affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's anti-NIMBY
> provisions.

Great point. If Somerville is not proactive enough about creating more
in-scale housing stock, we will be forced by Chapter 40B to accept
out-of-scale buildings.

Somerville *does* need to grow taller, because that is the only way we
can add housing without reducing green space -- but hopefully at a more
reasonable height scale.

As a rough starting point, I think a zoning change to allow by-right
construction of about 10-15 stories at major public transport centers
(such as Davis Square), and 5-6 story wood construction everywhere else
might be sensible.

David Booth

[Frank Mals]

Chris Beland and David Booth: 

It is flatly incorrect to state that "in a binding legal sense, the community lost its right to require a smaller project by saying 'no' to housing too many times" and "that is why Somerville is below the 10% city-wide affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's anti-NIMBY provisions". The city is below the 10% threshold, however that is merely one of three Safe Harbor provisions in 40B, and the city has established that we qualify for one of those provisions not once, but twice in the last six years, most recently in 2023.  

The provision that the city has established qualification for is GLAM. (General Land Area Minimum) in which safe harbor is achieved if SHI-eligible housing exists on sites comprising more than 1.5% of the total land area in the city or town that is zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial use. T

In the 2020 during the Clarendon Hill process GLAM Safe Harbor assertion was submitted by the city to DHCD on June 24, 2020. In the submission, the City asserts that 3.8% of the General Land Area is dedicated to affordable housing; this exceeds the 1.5% minimum required to achieve safe harbor. On July 10, 2020, DHCD responded to the City's submission and noted that the Applicant did not challenge the City's safe harbor assertion.

In February 2023 (https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema-live/s3fs-public/2023-02/Decision299Broadway.pdf), the calculation was that properties listed on the most recent SHI (excluding group homes and those with unlisted addresses) accounted for over 2.5% of the City's General Land Area. 

In the 2023 decision, it doesn't appear that there was a Safe Harbor assertion. The GLAM calculation was only used to establish that the decision was "Consistent with Local Needs" under CMR 760 56.02. (The calculation can also be used for that purpose, and that was also done in the 2020 decision, along with the use of it for the Safe Harbor assertion).

It is incredibly important that we make assertions that reflect the full scope of 40B Safe Harbor provisions. 

Regards,

Frank  

[Meredith Porter]

The comment below about a community preference for the location of the tallest buildings doesn't reflect sentiment for anything like a 25-story building. In the graphic, which is on p. 94 of the 2019 draft Davis Square Neighborhood Plan (https://drive.google.com/open?id=10k7kLv9L1OJHYy3wRVwNt6ZnZt7w6GDV), light color indicated "Existing Neighborhoods" and darker colors indicated "Mid-Rise Buildings including Commercial, Apartment, and General Buildings." "Height in the middle of the square on the ‘islands’ that include Middlesex Federal and Mike’s were better received throughout the community process than properties that directly abutted houses. In absense of a zoning map, this conveys the sentiments of the process where height is focused in the center of the square and decreases around the perimeter and streets leading into the Square."

Community members gave feedback in 2017, expressing preferences for 4-, 5-, or 6- story development, not 25 stories! (p. 88, DEVELOP IN CONTEXT - DETERMINING APPROPRIATE HEIGHT & MASSING) This site (233-239 Elm St) was considered suitable for all three heights, With a preference in the center block for 5-stories with an upper story step-back (p. 91).

The graphic on p. 68 may also be of interest, with a cluster of green dots saround the area of The Burren showing that it was an area that participants 'liked.'

On Fri, 2026-01-09 at 11:35 PM, Christopher Beland wrote:

> Aggregated community input shows a preference for concentrating the tallest buildings in Davis Square on two blocks abutting the central intersection: the first block between Elm and Highland (which includes the Copper Mill site), and the first block between Highland and the MBTA busway. (See attached map from the pre-COVID draft Davis Square Neighborhood Plan.)

Best regards,

Meredith ("Merit," he/him)

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From: "Davis Square Neighborhood Council" <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
To: "Heidi Lewis" <hlws...@gmail.com>
Cc: "Davis Square Neighborhood Council" <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 9, 2026 11:35:16 PM
Subject: [DSNC] Comparison with Central and Union towers

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[Meredith Porter]

The claim that the community said "no" to a 6-story building on this site that was proposed in the 2010s is misleading. The 2019 proposal came from developer Andrew Flynn representing Scape Davis Square, LLC (before his current Copper Mill). In 2018, the U.K. student-housing developer Scape Student Housing Ltd. was said to have planned to open 20,000 beds throughout the United States, with Scape USA headquarters in Boston. In the face of opposition in 2019, Scape Boylston, LLC scrapped a plan to build 500 dorm rooms in Boston's Fenway district. It appeared that the proposed Davis Square development would be primarily student housing too, and this was understandably unpopular. In 2021, Scape Davis Square, LLC proposed instead a four-story lab building for the site, and the Planning Board approved this in 2022. However, Scape never proceeded with development of that project, presumably because of the decline in demand for lab buildings.

The claim that the community lost its right of require a smaller project also appears to be incorrect. As others have noted, the MGL 40B 10% affordable housing threshold is only one of the criteria laid out in 760 CMR 56.03(3), and Somerville has submitted calculations in recent years showing that it is far in excess of the 1.5% General Land Area Minimum that would qualify it for Safe Harbor.

On Fri, 2026-01-09 at 10:11 PM, Christopher Beland wrote:
> In a binding legal sense, the community lost its right to require a smaller project by saying "no" to housing too many times in recent years, including saying "no" to a 6-story building on this site that was proposed in the 2010s. That is why Somerville is below the 10% city-wide affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's anti-NIMBY provisions.

Best regards,
Meredith ("Merit," he/him)

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[Elizabeth Merrick]

Meredith's description of the height range discussed back when community input was sought for  Davis Square planning purposes really rang a bell for me. I participated in at least one of those sessions. My recollection was that the highest building height option in center of Davis was not even remotely close to a skyscraper!!!! Honestly I don't think that would have ever occurred to someone participating in that process. That previous community preference data should in no way be misunderstood as any endorsement of the 26 story tower now being proposed.  

Elizabeth Merrick 

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From: daviss...@googlegroups.com <daviss...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Meredith Porter <art...@rcn.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2026 11:02:03 PM
To: Christopher Beland <bel...@alum.mit.edu>
Cc: Heidi Lewis <hlws...@gmail.com>; Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [DSNC] Comparison with Central and Union towers

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[David]

Considering nearly a decade and a global pandemic have passed since that previous process, it would probably be worth revisiting. We live in a much different world than we did then, and there are a lot of new people and fresh perspectives in Somerville. I would be very interested to see where sentiments are now.

Best,

David Tatarakis

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[hu...@comcast.net]

Hello Meredith,

This is a fascinating discussion. I have no insight on the questions relating to 40B compliance, and whether issues relating to that might moot the entire Davis Square tower project.

As for the proposed project itself, as described, several writers have ably offered pros and cons. From the outset, I have leaned towards the pro side, feeling that as a transportation hub Davis Square lends itself well to significant participation in a badly needed effort to increase the regional housing supply. And, I believe a well-designed project, even if it introduces a new scale to the neighborhood, can be an asset to the community.

That said, I do have concerns, which I would hope the leaders of our group might raise in a meeting with Copper Mill.

First of all, who and what is Copper Mill? Their website remains a shockingly spare cipher, even a year after this question was raised directly to Copper Mill's CEO Andrew Flynn in a Davis Square community meeting.

https://coppermill.com/

I put together a list of questions a year ago that I circulated to the then mayor, Lance Davis, Jake Wilson, Jack Connolly, and Denise Provost, in the wake of a community meeting:

I.      Finance and organization

1.)     Andrew Flynn seems to be running a surprisingly small organization for one with such ambitious plans

a.      In addition to the proposed Davis Square tower, Copper Mill seeks to build projects of similar scope in Dorchester and the North End [and I believe Brockton]

2.)     Copper Mill itself is only a year old [now two years]—

a.      What is Andrew Flynn’s track record with similar projects prior to Copper Mill?

b.      Is there a single example of a project of similar scope that Andrew Flynn successfully completed?

3.)     Where will Copper Mill find the staff to oversee multiple simultaneous complex projects?

4.)     What does Copper Mill’s balance sheet look like?

a.      Where do they get financing?

i.      Who are POB Capital?

b.      Do they have a letter(s) of credit?

i.      For how much?

ii.     What are the terms?

5.)     One of the participants in the meeting raised a question of a bond to protect the city against a partially completed tower

a.      That seems very pertinent (viz. the trio of abandoned towers in downtown LA)

b.      Better would be in addition to have guarantees from stronger, more established partners

6.)     Is Copper Mill a stalking horse for someone else to begin with?

a.      Who, and if this is true, could they pocket a permit to build by right and put up something altogether different from the project as currently described?

II.     Planning

1.)     Meeting participants pointed out the need for Copper Mill to supply among other things

i.      Detailed parking plan

1.      I would note that, even if 25% of Somerville residents have no car, that doesn’t mean only households from this population will reside in the proposed tower—some will inevitably have cars.

a.      How many?

b.      We need a plan showing additional pressure on parking around the square.

ii.     Detailed traffic plan

iii.    Annualized shadow distribution over surrounding properties

III.    Logistics of Construction

1.)     Mr. Flynn stated that cranes for construction would be contained within the boundaries of the property

i.      This must be stipulated in any construction permit.

2.)     Where will construction material be staged for the project?

i.      Steel girders

ii.     Bags of cement

iii.    Wall studs

iv.     Plasterboard

v.      Plate Glass

vi.     Etc., etc.

3.)     How will dust, dirt, debris, etc. be managed to minimize impact on the neighborhood?

4.)     There will be a large number of work vehicles associated with construction; pickups, tradesmen’s vans, etc.

i.      Where will they park?

ii.     This needs careful attention, possibly involving a shuttle of some sort.

5.)     What guarantees can Copper Mill offer for timely completion of the project?

(As a side-note, I don’t understand the interest in scaling the proposed project down to eleven stories from twenty-five. What does that achieve, apart from making the economics more difficult? Eleven stories is already out of scale with the neighborhood, if that is the concern.)

-Hume

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[David Booth]

Frank and Meredith,

On 1/10/26 19:34, Frank Mals wrote:
> Chris Beland and David Booth:
>

> It is flatly incorrect to state that "in a *binding legal sense,* the

> community lost its right to require a smaller project by saying 'no' to
> housing too many times" and "that is why Somerville is below the 10%
> city-wide affordable housing threshold that triggers Chapter 40B's
> anti-NIMBY provisions". The city is below the 10% threshold, however
> that is merely one of three Safe Harbor provisions in 40B, and the city
> has established that we qualify for one of those provisions not once,
> but twice in the last six years, most recently in 2023.

Thanks very much for the correction. But I am puzzled about the "Safe
Harbor provisions in 40B" that you cite, because I do not see the term
"Safe Harbor" mentioned anywhere in Chapter 40B:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22harbor%22+site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fmalegislature.gov%2FLaws%2FGeneralLaws%2FPartI%2FTitleVII%2FChapter40B&num=10&sca_esv=78d783ca4d51d4ce&sxsrf=ANbL-n7BP8BHyiBDGNCNP_6Myy47MZ3G3w%3A1768146103417&ei=t8RjafiVGfugiLMPtObeEQ&ved=0ahUKEwi4zZ7D6YOSAxV7EGIAHTSzNwIQ4dUDCBE&uact=5&oq=%22harbor%22+site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fmalegislature.gov%2FLaws%2FGeneralLaws%2FPartI%2FTitleVII%2FChapter40B&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiUiJoYXJib3IiIHNpdGU6aHR0cHM6Ly9tYWxlZ2lzbGF0dXJlLmdvdi9MYXdzL0dlbmVyYWxMYXdzL1BhcnRJL1RpdGxlVklJL0NoYXB0ZXI0MEJI1w9QsgdYsQ1wAngAkAEAmAHjAaAB0QaqAQUyLjMuMbgBA8gBAPgBAZgCAKACAJgDAIgGAZIHAKAHjgKyBwC4BwDCBwDIBwCACAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#cobssid=s

I found this page describing 40B Safe Harbor, but I do not know how
accurate it is:
https://communityscale.io/what-is-40b-safe-harbor/
It would be nice to have an authoritative reference.

Am I correct to understand that, even though Somerville does NOT meet
the requirement for 10% affordable housing, the Safe Harbor loophole
that you cited means that the City would NOT be forced to accept the
currently proposed 26-story Copper Mill development under Chapter 40B?
If so, that means that some negotiation with the developer may still be
possible.

However, it does not change my opinion that Somerville urgently needs to
be more proactive in allowing and encouraging more housing development
with increased, but not totally out-of-scale, heights.

>
> The provision that the city has established qualification for is *GLAM*.

> (General Land Area Minimum) in which safe harbor is achieved if
> SHI-eligible housing exists on sites comprising more than 1.5% of the

> total land areain the city or town that is zoned for residential,

> commercial, or industrial use. T

I assume that "SHI" stands for "Subsidized Housing Inventory":
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/subsidized-housing-inventory-shi

Thanks,
David Booth

>
> In the 2020 during the Clarendon Hill process GLAM Safe Harbor assertion
> was submitted by the city to DHCD on June 24, 2020. In the submission,
> the City asserts that 3.8% of the General Land Area is dedicated to

> affordable housing; *t**his exceeds the 1.5% minimum required to achieve
> safe harbor.*On July 10, 2020, DHCD responded to the City's submission
> and noted that *the Applicant did not challenge the City's safe harbor
> assertion.*
>
> In February 2023
> (https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema-live/s3fs-public/2023-02/Decision299Broadway.pdf <https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema-live/s3fs-public/2023-02/Decision299Broadway.pdf>), the calculation was that properties listed on the most recent SHI (excluding group homes and those with unlisted addresses) accounted for over 2.5% of the City's General Land Area.

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[Jeff Byrnes]

The 40B Safe Harbor only matters if a municipality decides to block or deny a 40B proposal.

That’s referred to as a “traditional” or “unfriendly” 40B.

Somerville has a history of not blocking 40B proposals, and this style is called a “friendly” 40B.

The 299 Broadway project is one such example of this, as is (I think) Clarendon Hill’s rebuild.

Cambridge has a similar history of being welcoming to 40B projects.

So even if Somerville satisfies the requirements to claim Safe Harbor, those requirements are only relevant if the City decides to block a proposal, either directly, or via our ZBA deciding to deny approval.

If the City doesn’t oppose the proposal, Safe Harbor is irrelevant because the proponent does not need to appeal to the state level to have that opposition overruled.

-- 
Jeff Byrnes
he/him

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[Meredith Porter]

Hi David and everyone,

Yes, this can be a bit confusing because the Safe Harbor criteria aren't called out in MGL Chapter 40B itself. As with other laws, the details of implementation are only found in the regulations, in this case 760 CMR 56.03 (https://www.mass.gov/doc/760-cmr-56-comprehensive-permit-low-or-moderate-income-housing/download). The term "Safe Harbor" is commonly used, but I don't believe it appears in the law or the regulations. The thresholds that we're discussing are called "Statutory Minima" in the regulations, and they're spelled out in the definition of "Consistent with Local Needs" in MGL Chapter 40B Section 20. This is all quite technical, and the reference you cited describing Safe Harbor seems to be a good one.

You're correct that "SHI" stands for "Subsidized Housing Inventory."

Somerville's 2023 General Land Area Minimum (GLAM) calculation in the 2023 Star Market (299 Broadway) decision that Frank cited below is helpful.

The 2020 ZBA decision on the Clarendon Hill project that Frank mentioned below sheds a lot of light on 40B and Safe Harbor:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/somervillema-live/s3fs-public/Clarendon%20Hill%2040B%20-%20Decision%20Filed%20with%20City%20Clerk.pdf

Here are some more details:
Clarendon Hill submitted a Comprehensive Permit and the application was deemed complete on May 1, 2020. The ZBA opened the public hearing on June 10, 2020. At that meeting, they voted that OSPCD staff submit a General Land Area Minimum (GLAM) Safe Harbor assertion to the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The GLAM Safe Harbor assertion was submitted to DHCD on June 24, 2020, within the 15 days required by MGL 40B. In the submission, the City asserts that 3.8% of the General Land Area is dedicated to affordable housing; this exceeds the 1.5% minimum required to achieve safe harbor. On July 10, 2020, DHCD responded to the City's submission and noted that the Applicant did not challenge the City's safe harbor assertion.

The ZBA heard public comments on June 10, June 24, July 15, and August 5, 2020. City staff presented draft conditions on September 2. On September 30, the ZBA closed the public hearing, deliberated and approved the Comprehensive Permit with conditions.

Best regards,
Meredith ("Merit," he/him)

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Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2026 12:06:01 PM
Subject: Re: [DSNC] Financial analysis of 11-story tower alternative

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[Denise Provost]

First rate letter, Kevin 

Not that I’m surprised 

I love the rallying cry ending !

D

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[Mieke Citroen]

It sounds like there is not a lot of common ground between those of us who want it built and those of you who don't. It's unfortunate, but often how these things end up getting stuck and neither side getting what we want. 

--Mieke.

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[Carol]

Thank you.

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[Ann Camara]

Hi it Ann Camara from USNC.

Sorry you’re going thru this. We went thru it in Union Square when they were designing the building at.the corner of Somerville Ave and Proapect. Developer USq. We wanted Union Square to remain Union Sq. Smaller houses, no chain stores, nothing blocking shade or sky, not more traffic, and certainly not blocking the view from the Castle where one of our first US Flags were flown down to the Harbor in Boston where our soldiers could see the British ships coming in the Revolutionary war. We went to the Historic Board, had other Architects show designs that would fit our area and help with bigger sidewalks, help limit wind that is so bad now at our green line station, and so much more. 

As you know City Council grants Zoning Permits. 

Take a petition out, get , I think, 50 signatures and all of us go in front off the Council and try to put a stop to this in Somerville. Or things like talking to Wilson at open hours. Push for the right issues, at least you know you did. Good luck. I’d like to be with you where ever you go, City Council…….

617-780-8767

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[Mieke Citroen]

I think it's more important to have more housing than to preserve a sightline for an event that happened in the revolutionary war. 

Maybe it's time to think about the future. 

--Mieke