The founder of development company Copper Mill told the Davis Square Neighborhood Council (DSNC) the developer will release four new options for its proposed residential development on Tuesday on its website.
“Tomorrow at noon we will be releasing our latest design plans,” said Andrew Flynn, Copper Mill’s CEO. “I guarantee you that none of them will be perfect. They are composites of various different elements of feedback that we’ve received.”
The prior Copper Mill proposal was for a 26-story building with more than 500 residential units, with 126 classified as affordable, as well as first-floor retail space. That project replaced a previous proposal of a building anchored by laboratory space. The outsized project is meant to help address the ongoing housing crunch in the region. But that proposal drew significant pushback at a packed meeting of the DSNC at the Crystal Ballroom on March 10. It also received a request for revision from MassHousing, a state agency whose Chapter 40B development clause allows developers to build above local restrictions in exchange for creating more affordable units. Davis Square is zoned for up to four stories.
Flynn said the new designs will show that Copper Mill had listened to community feedback and a request for alternate design options and incorporated their feedback, which would reflect “a spectrum and array of options.”
Flynn also promised “many forums in coming weeks and months” as well as rotating office hours at its project office at 235 Elm Street. Various project architects, structural engineers, and other professionals involved in the proposed development will be available to meet with residents, he said. Those hours will be posted in two-week segments starting on Thursday.
The project office schedule is supposed to help create a “more effective forum” than that charged DSNC meeting March 10, Flynn said, which featured a long line of public commenters, many of whom were critical of various aspects of the project. The Boston Globe described Flynn as getting “an earful” during the meeting. His remark on Monday that “as much as I enjoyed the March 10 meeting” drew laughs from the roughly 100 people attending the DSNC’s meeting in-person and online.
Flynn’s segment of the meeting was slotted for 10 minutes. He spoke for six minutes and then answered questions for what became nine more minutes, reflecting public interest in the project.
One question during that time was whether affordable units in the proposed development would have different layouts than were previously proposed.., “All of the units inherently have changed to some degree,” he said, though at this stage he said he is not yet ready to share specific details.
In response to another question ,Flynn said the four different designs “are at varied heights,” again reflecting a desire to show the community different options.
Frank Malsbenden, a Davis Square resident whose election to the DSNC board was announced later in the same meeting, asked if Copper Mill would give up its use of the state’s 40B provision for affordable housing, saying that by using the provision “you’re going around us and going to the state in a way.” He asked Flynn if Copper Mill would consider withdrawing from it.
Flynn said “I think it is something we would be willing to consider. I am not here to say we are withdrawing it by any means.” He disagreed that 40B was a loophole for the developer and noted that Copper Mill was “pushed by the previous administration [of Mayor Katjana Ballantyne] to pursue it.”
Flynn asked what the process of withdrawing from the 40B would be for Copper Mill, and what it would be for getting the development to move forward, past what he called “the purgatory we’ve been in for many years.”
Malsbenden said Copper Mill should work within the Davis Square area plan, an ongoing effort to reimagine Davis Square. Flynn responded that “We’d be open to it, but in good faith, if it’s not 40b what is it? Some of you in the room first saw me eight years ago having a very similar discussion,” though for a different proposal.
“If it’s not 40b it’s part of the area plan that we could work on together,” Malsbenden said.
Flynn responded that “we agree, but that’s what they told me back in 2018, too, and there’s still no area plan.”
Flynn promised to stay after the meeting, held at the Crystal Ballroom, to answer further questions. It was one he fulfilled: Flynn spent at least 45 minutes after the meeting talking with residents.
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