Somernova benefits agreement arrives at a vote, question of tech growth, neighborhood factors

The entrance to The Dojo, a youth community center in a tech startup complex called Somernova, is covered with signs imploring visitors and passersby to “vote yes on June 4” on a community benefits agreement for its development.

“Somerville needs these community benefits,” reads one.

Not all are convinced the tradeoffs are worth it, but developer Rafi Properties, led by founder Collin Yip, has wanted for years to redevelop Somernova’s 7.4 acres to make more space for its tech startup tenants. Following two failed zoning petitions filed by Rafi, which were shot down by the neighborhood on complaints of density and lack of community benefits, the Union Square Neighborhood Council began a lengthy process of creating an agreement with the developer in 2023.

The process involved at least 15,000 flyers and three large community meetings, according to negotiating team member Emily Doran. The team and Rafi, working largely behind closed doors between official community meetings, announced a finalized community benefits package on May 22 and held a meeting to present it last week.

The package is now up for a public vote Wednesday, a week after that presentation. Community members will decide whether to accept a 25 percent increase in developable square footage and twice-as-tall buildings in exchange for a slew of benefits.

They include the continuation of a fully funded Dojo, affordable arts spaces and music venues, a project labor agreement and some financial contributions to housing and local businesses by the developer. The vote will require a two-thirds majority of voters who are eligible based on whether they live, work or volunteer in a defined “catchment area.”

Ami Bennitt, who founded the anti-arts displacement group Art Stays Here, spoke in support of the agreement Wednesday, calling it “unprecedented for arts infrastructure in Somerville,” with an estimated $55 million of value going into the arts side of the agreement.

The Dojo, which Somernova funds and is one of the only youth centers in Somerville, is another highlight of the agreement. A city-run youth center has been a Somerville goal since the 1990s, with no success yet, said J. Brandon Wilson, a semiretired city staff member.

Wilson, who formerly directed the Planning Board and Historical Commission, has no confidence in Somerville being able to pull together a youth center.

Her son, Blake Evitt, runs a parkour program at the Somernova-funded Dojo and grew up in Somerville. In an interview, Evitt spoke to the continuing need for a youth center, as well as his positive experience working with Rafi.

“This is one of the few places that this resource exists in the city, and Somernova has proven that they are in it for the long haul,” Evitt said.

Though the summary of the agreement refers to 150 units of housing, the negotiating team clarified on Wednesday that no housing is actually required under the agreement. The community benefits agreement document can be read in full on Somernova’s website.

“Weird vortex” of a zoning process

In the meantime, the city’s planning department is conducting a rezoning process for Somernova, dubbed Central Somerville Avenue. Somernova falls under Fabrication District zoning, a district that limits heights with the intention to “protect buildings that are key assets to the creative economy of Somerville from residential conversion,” according to the zoning code.

The intention of the zoning amendments, which allow for greater base density and increased requirements for arts and creative enterprise uses, is to “allow the preservation, enhancement and growth of two of Somerville’s most important business clusters: the arts and the climate tech industry,” said director of economic development Tom Galligani in a March city committee meeting.

The two processes – community benefits through the neighborhood and zoning through the city – are technically separate, but undeniably linked. For example, the terms of the community benefits agreement are valid only if the zoning change that Rafi wants is voted on by two-thirds of Somerville’s city councilors.

Both councilors who spoke at the meeting, Ben Ewen-Campen and J.T. Scott, expressed gratitude and support for the neighborhood council’s work. Ewen-Campen called the agreement a “historic precedent-setting I’m proud of.”

“As currently constituted, my impression is that the City Council is fully supportive of the neighborhood council,” said Scott, Ward 2 councilor, in an interview.

Ewen-Campen, the Ward 3 councilor, acknowledged that the process is a “weird timing vortex that you’re all in, where you guys have to be in the hot seat before the zoning.” The phrase “chicken-egg” was also used during the Wednesday meeting for the community benefits and zoning processes.

For example, a land use meeting addressing traffic concerns will be held Thursday after the community benefits vote Wednesday, despite traffic being a major issue for several voters attending the previous Wednesday’s meeting.

Cashing in on climate tech

Though Somernova is known in the community for Aeronaut Brewery, the Boston Bouldering Project gym and The Dojo, it’s fueled by a blossoming sustainable technology industry, rebranded as “climate tech” and “tough tech” from “clean tech,” which is seeing renewed interest from investors following a collapse in the early 2010s.

Somernova houses two business incubators, Greentown Labs and MIT’s The Engine, which spawn major players in the industry and raised $4 million and $400 million in their most recent funding rounds, respectively.

Greentown Labs and The Engine support early stage companies focused on prototyping and commercializing sustainable technology. Form Energy, started at Greentown Labs and now based at Somernova, develops rust-powered batteries and has raised significant funding – more than $1.2 billion as of 2024 – from investors to do so.

Given the considerable amount of money involved, the developer and city are looking to attract climate tech and tough tech companies. For Somerville, the startups have and would continue to boost local economic development and commercial tax revenue. Funding raised by Greentown Labs, which bills itself as “the largest climate tech startup incubator in North America,” includes a $500,000 loan from Somerville, The Boston Globe reported in December.

Scott, the councilor for Somernova’s ward, attested to the benefits of expanding the climate tech industry, which include increasing job opportunities in a city with a relatively low local employment rate.

Furthermore, increasing commercial tax revenue is “the single biggest way that we can impact how many resources we have locally, which is more important than ever now as federal and state resources are drying up,” Scott said. 

At $10.91 per $1,000 of property value for 2025, Somerville’s residential property tax rate is nearly twice as much as the $6.35 rate in neighboring Cambridge. The residential rate can be lower in Cambridge in part because the city intentionally developed Kendall Square into a hub for life sciences and draws significant commercial tax revenue from its biotech towers.

Promoting “new commercial growth/development goals to reduce the residential tax liability and bring other community benefits” is an explicit long-term strategy of Somerville’s current administration, according to a city flyer announcing the 2025 tax rates.

As pandemic-driven biotech hype slows and leads to a surplus of lab spaces locally, Somerville is looking instead to bolster climate tech by allowing more buildings friendly to prototyping infrastructural technologies.

In practice, this translates to allowing taller buildings with taller ceilings to accommodate forklifts and other machinery, which, as Galligani expressly clarified in a March joint committee meeting, differ from lab space buildings.

Some neighbors say no

Whatever the need for the industry, some attendees of last Wednesday’s meeting felt the agreement and zoning proposal overly concede city planning to Rafi.

Adaline Lining, who left the Union Square Neighborhood Council after years of involvement and lives in the residential area bordered on two sides by Somernova, says the Somernova benefits agreement will serve primarily to benefit investors and not residents.

“Somerville should be focused on improving the lives of the residents who live here, not on chasing after short-term commercial ventures,” Lining said in an interview.

Massachusetts state Sen. Pat Jehlen lives down the street from Somernova and, along with seven neighbors, published notes detailing specific concerns about the community benefits and associated zoning. The notes cite concerns around increased traffic from commuters in an area that already sees frequent backups, such as at the intersection of Park Street and Somerville Avenue, wish there was more green and open space in the plan and take issue with the increase of building height to 200 feet from 60 feet.

“We are in full support of the creation of a community center and expanding artist space (though Rafi’s record has not preserved artist space in the past),” the notes read, referring to Artisan’s Asylum’s move from Somernova, “but we do not believe that we need to concede such scale to Rafi Properties.”

Kirk Etherton, another neighbor, spoke at Wednesday’s meeting and summarized the sentiment of those wary of zoning changes initiated by the developer: “We live in Somerville, not Rafi-ville.”

What voting no means

A handout given to attendees at Wednesday’s community meeting, provided by the Union Square Neighborhood Council, promises dire outcomes for voters who agree with Lining, Jehlen and Etherton. A no vote on the benefits agreement, according to the flyer, will lead to “no community benefits” and “no funding for a community center and The Dojo will shut down.”

It’s unclear what will happen to the zoning proposal or benefits agreement if the current benefits agreement, which requires a two-thirds majority of voters, is voted down Wednesday.

The neighborhood council is open to continuing negotiations; the question of whether Rafi, which has said that taller buildings are needed to accommodate startup growth, would also keep negotiating is less clear. Rafi could redevelop the 300,000-square-foot complex by-right, which would allow Somernova to expand to 1.2 million square feet with a 60-foot height limit instead of 1.5 million square feet with a 200-foot height limit.

Kristin Phelan, the vice president of real estate for Rafi and Somernova, wrote that “Rafi will need to evaluate appropriate next steps should the CBA vote not pass.”

A public vote for those who live, work and volunteer in the catchment area will be held in-person from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Anthony’s School, 480 Somerville Ave., Ward 2, Somerville. Details on voting eligibility can be found here. Online voters must register using the virtual vote request form by noon Tuesday.

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