Update from Copper Mill call today
Christopher Beland
To give everyone time to digest it before tomorrow's Zoom meeting and in keeping with the DSNC Secretary's standing request to email written versions of meeting reports in advance, here's my summary of what happened on today's call between the DSNC Board and Copper Mill. I invite corrections and additions from other folks who were on the call.
Project status:
- MassHousing initiated the review pause unrelated to the DSNC request, because they have additional questions for Copper Mill not answered by their Chapter 40 project eligibility application.
- When asked when construction might start, Copper Mill said they have a business need to obtain major approvals on this project by the end of 2026, but city and state approvals and their "organic conversation" with the community will drive the timeline. They said they do not want anyone to feel there is a time-limited period for public comment that is meant to exclude anyone or get approval "under cover of darkness".
- We presented the DSNC request to withdraw the 40B application until the Davis Square Neighborhood Plan is complete. The Board added a request to our letter that if they decide not to withdraw, they cooperate with the ZBA to hold the public comment period open at the Zoning Board of Appeals until the neighborhood plan is complete and the DSNC holds a vote on a Community Benefits Agreement, passage of which would be necessary for our endorsement of the project. Copper Mill was not confident that the neighborhood plan would be done by the end of the year and could not commit to an indefinite delay. They reiterated their commitment to take time for public discussion.
Public conversations:
- Copper Mill hopes to schedule a public meeting in March at the Crystal Ballroom, with 2-3 weeks notice. We gave them the results of our poll which favor weekend daytimes or Thursday nights. We recommended finding a neutral moderator and they asked us to help find candidates.
- Copper Mill plans to open 235 Elm Street (formerly Caramel) for office hours, hopefully by March 1. Members of the public should be able to talk to Copper Mill directly and learn about the project.
- We gave Copper Mill our consolidated list of questions received so far from DSNC membership. They expressed interest in responding in person at the February 23 DSNC general meeting.
Popups and site status:
- Copper Mill performed further cleanup on storefronts in the past week, especially the former Family Dollar / McDonald's site.
- A pop-up will be opened in the former Family Dollar space; Copper Mill is waiting on city inspectional services to authorize occupancy. They are OK with either a non-profit or a commercial business, but want the city to advise them on the selection process. (They don't want to be responsible for doing the selection.)
- Copper Mill are willing to put art in the windows in the remaining vacant space, the former Sligo, but for various physical reasons including lack of ADA compliance it's not suitable for occupation. We referred them to the Somerville Arts Council to do the selection process, since they already have a window display at CVS.
- There may be some additional pop-up space on the 2nd floor above The Burren.
- Construction timeline is very uncertain due to the need for city and state approval, but pop-ups can expect to have the space until at least November 15, 2026.
The 40B withdrawal request letter is now posted here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CSv1Gi2iPHliBF_u_HRaRldJK_rhSvnW
It also formally makes the request, as per Frank's suggestion, to keep the DSNC updated with status changes.
-B.
Frank Mals
Christopher Beland
Sure! You can see the letter of questions we sent to Copper Mill here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CSv1Gi2iPHliBF_u_HRaRldJK_rhSvnW
What you see is not just a list of the raw questions as they came in to our Google form, though some of those were more or less copied-and-pasted. We organized by topic, then consolidated and tried to focus overlapping questions on digging for facts and future plans. Then Board members added in questions of their own and what they've received in person and elsewhere online.
Some questions were answered on the call today. Others are already answered in our Copper Mill FAQ (which might be worth reading if you are new to the project), but I think we ended up asking for an update or more detail on all of those. If you're looking for the FAQ, it's here:
-B.
Edward Woll
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Rachel Rosenberg
Hello,Edit: I see that Chris beat me to it.Please disregard my previous message.Best,ZevOn Thursday, February 12, 2026 at 10:04:33 AM UTC-5 Zev Pogrebin wrote:Hello Ed,Thanks for your question. We are still working on compiling a full Q&A document, but here is a copy of the letter that we sent Copper Mill.Best,Zev
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Elizabeth Merrick
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2026 12:44:35 PM
To: Zev Pogrebin <zpogre...@gmail.com>
Cc: Davis Square Neighborhood Council <daviss...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [DSNC] Update from Copper Mill call today
Edward Woll
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Christopher Beland
Just my personal take on this feedback...
Our bylaws empower the DSNC Board to speak on behalf of the entire group without consulting the general membership. Speaking as one of the framers of the bylaws, I can say this was an intentional choice, with two justifications. One is to advocate more effectively for the interests of the neighborhood by having a small group that can quickly make complex decisions, dealing as we are with bureaucracies that require skilled navigation, and a mayor and department heads and CEOs who can as individuals take official positions on the spot. The other is that the Board election process features proportional representation, meaning that all major points of view in the neighborhood should be represented, to the degree that people show up and vote for people who share their views.
In this case, the Board combined a request from the general membership and requests from the Board made under its own authority in a single letter, and as you can read in the letter clearly indicated which request originated with our membership. We also repeated that nuance on our call with Copper Mill, even though as far as the bylaws are concerned all the requests are equally official. (That call was not "off the record"; otherwise, I wouldn't have posted a detailed summary of everything that happened.)
The objection raised was about process, but I'm curious if there is also a difference of opinion on the substance of the request? The Board already voted to form the Community Benefits Agreement negotiating committee as called for under the DSNC bylaws, and is recruiting for it. If someone disapproves of that course of action, I would expect them to - and they should - object in a DSNC membership meeting and ask for a vote against doing this.
The purpose of asking the Zoning Board of Appeals not to vote until after our Community Benefits Agreement is finalized (and asking Copper Mill to cooperate with that) is to maintain the best bargaining position for the DSNC. Once the ZBA approves the project, it is essentially a done deal, and Copper Mill would no longer have anything to gain from negotiating the CBA.
As the DSNC currently has no official position on whether to support or oppose the Copper Mill project, while revising this letter we (I and at least one other board member) considered what would happen if it suddenly adopts one. For example, the membership might decide to oppose this project completely and not try to negotiate a CBA, or endorse this project without a CBA as we did for the 363 Highland Ave project. In either case, the DSNC could simply send representatives or another letter to the ZBA asking them to vote a certain way, and withdraw our previous request to wait for our CBA vote. Not asking the ZBA to wait for us risks them going ahead without our input (whatever that might be), making our official position moot.
I hope you find this explanation satisfactory, but if there are any lingering issues of trust between the Board and the DSNC membership, I look forward to discussing them in person.
-B.
Edward Woll
Questions as to DSNC Voting Membership:
1. How many DSNC approved voting members are there at this time?
2. How many DSNC approved voting members were there at the time of the last election of the board?
3. How many members actually voted at the last election of the board?
4. What is your best estimate of the number of persons who are within the half mile distance from Davis Square as delineated in the DSNC bylaws and eligible to become DSNC voting members?
5. How many persons are currently on the DSCN list serve?
6. Of the persons on the current DSNC list serve, how many are DSNC approved voting members?
7. Of those persons on the DSNC list serve, how many are DSNC members because they live within the half mile distance from Davis Square as delineated in the DSNC bylaws?
8. How many people have actually been accepted as members since the January 26 meeting at Rockwell?
9. What is the current plan to solicit and increase membership before any attempt is made to certify DSNC as a Neighborhood Council is scheduled before the City Council?
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Christopher Beland
On Mon, 2026-02-16 at 07:43 -0500, Edward Woll wrote:
1. How many DSNC approved voting members are there at this time?
6. Of the persons on the current DSNC list serve, how many are DSNC approved voting members?
7. Of those persons on the DSNC list serve, how many are DSNC members because they live within the half mile distance from Davis Square as delineated in the DSNC bylaws?
8. How many people have actually been accepted as members since the January 26 meeting at Rockwell?
If you are asking how many people have completed the verification process, right now I see 8, all after the Rockwell meeting which started the process. I assume all of them are on our e-mail list. All 8 are listed as residents, and one is also listed as a business owner.
A small number of people have been granted "genuine local interest" status by vote of the Board; we recently decided that those folks also need to verify their identity so we can make sure no one votes in their name, so they aren't included in the 8.
Lots of people are eligible to vote and have done so over time, and there are lists of people who have filled out forms asserting eligibility in various meetings or have started the verification process but not finished it. We have not done a reconciliation to see how many people in the world have ever voted in a DSNC meeting or election. Not even all Board members have completed the verification process, so we know we have had homeowners, renters, business owners, and employees as active eligible voters, and I know at least one unhoused person voted in our board and officer election.
2. How many DSNC approved voting members were there at the time of the last election of the board?
The current verification process was not in place at the time of the first Board election.
The 2025 Nomination/Election Committee (which did not include any of the Board candidates) decided to accept voters' written assertions of identity and eligibility on the spot, with poll workers on hand to explain the eligibility rules and check if potential voters were unsure if an address was inside the applicable boundary. The number of voters in each category was not reported with the election result spreadsheet, and I don't know if those numbers were retained.
3. How many members actually voted at the last election of the board?
The physical ballots were unfortunately recycled, but it looks like the most-voted race was for the Board in general, where 165 voters had at least one candidate ranked.
I was curious how this compared to municipal elections. It's hard to say because Ward and Precinct boundaries don't align well with the DSNC boundary, but combining W7P1, W6P4, and W6P2, I'd estimate about 2000 voters turned out in our jurisdiction for the September 2025 preliminary mayoral election.
For further comparison, the USNC reported (preliminary tally) 2,208 ballots in their June 2025 vote on the Somernova CBA, including a substantial number of construction workers.
4. What is your best estimate of the number of persons who are within the half mile distance from Davis Square as delineated in the DSNC bylaws and eligible to become DSNC voting members?
To be clear, there are two boundaries, as shown on our official map:
https://map.davissquarenc.org/
The inner blue boundary shows the official Davis Square Neighborhood Boundary as defined by the City of Somerville. This is the jurisdiction where we will have official recognition for negotiating Community Benefits Agreements.
The outer red boundary shows the distance of one-half mile - not from the central Davis Square intersection, but from the blue Neighborhood Boundary. This includes Porter, Teele, Ball, and Magoun Squares, and parts of North Cambridge, South Medford, and a wee slice of Arlington.
Which boundary applies depends on the category: the outer red boundary applies to residents. The inner blue boundary applies to business owners, employees, real estate owners, volunteers, and people receiving social services. No boundary applies to people approved by the Board as having a "genuine local interest".
It sounds like you are asking about the outer red boundary, for which I have only very approximate data. The stats I found for the 02144 ZIP code are 25,497 people in 11,805 households. There are additional eligible residents in parts of North Cambridge, South Medford, Somerville 02143, and East Arlington.
Using USPS postal routes (which spill out of our jurisdiction to some degree), I estimate in the inner blue boundary there are fewer than 8000 residents in 3700 households, and fewer than 300 businesses.
I have not attempted to quantify the number of employees, non-resident landlords, volunteers, or people receiving social services.
5. How many persons are currently on the DSCN list serve?
I don't have access to that, but I believe Elaine said it is now over 500. There is no eligibility restriction to get on the list, so some people on it live outside the eligibility area, some are local press, etc.
9. What is the current plan to solicit and increase membership before any attempt is made to certify DSNC as a Neighborhood Council is scheduled before the City Council?
We should discuss this as a group.
Somerville city ordinance 7-221(a)(5) only requires us to hold one general membership meeting per year and to "make good faith efforts to provide notice of all meetings two weeks in advance to all households and businesses within its boundaries, to encourage the fullest participation reasonably possible. Notice may be accomplished through two or more of the following:
a. U.S. Mail;
b. Delivered or posted flyers;
c. Website or social media posting; or,
d. E-mail, text message, direct message through social media, or other form of electronic messages delivered to the last known contact address of each member."
So technically, we could comply just by emailing our list and putting a meeting notice up on our web site. Based on the discussions we had while drafting the bylaws, I think there's a desire for a much more aggressive outreach campaign.
For monthly meetings, Section 6.4 of the DSNC bylaws requires us to put up posters on every street in the inner blue zone, every other month, which we've done with full coverage twice and other times with partial coverage. I found out the other day that postering poles in streets and parks violates Somerville city ordinance 9-48. It also hasn't been particularly effective, so we need to come up with a new plan for monthly meetings.
To answer the question our bylaws asked the Outreach Committee to research: based on the USPS web site, I estimate we can send a piece of paper to every residential and business address in the inner blue zone (with some overspill) for about $1000. We could also get free printing from the Somerville Community Corporation and use volunteer labor to do the equivalent without spending money.
If we do a big expensive mailing like this, it might be wise to time it with something that people are actually interested in participating in, such as our annual board and officer election, or an important CBA vote. Or Elaine suggested that we do it in early September when there are a lot of new residents. Another option (especially if we are using volunteer labor) would be to do it incrementally throughout the year, so which meeting you get a paper flyer for depends what street you live or work on, but all addresses are contacted once a year. I don't think it's necessary to do a big membership push timed with City Council recognition, as I don't expect any problems getting unanimously approved there. But if there's any question about how we intend to do outreach, it would be good to have an agreed-upon plan.
The Outreach Committee is obligated to produce a public report on our efforts every 6 months; I'll try to have the first one ready at our next general meeting.
BTW, if anyone would like to take over leading our outreach efforts, that would be more than welcome. I was initially expecting to just help research our population. I'm happy to continue doing graphic design work (I have experience with newspapers, magazines, and web sites) but I'm sure there are other people who would be better at coming up with content and doing the social medias and meeting people in the community.
-B.