City Council

Recording in progress.

All right, good evening, everyone. I'm going to call this meeting to order. It is Thursday, October 23rd. My name is Lance Davis, presiding. I use he, him pronouns. Pursuant to Chapter 2 of the Act of 2025, this meeting of the City Council is being conducted. Sorry, it may be recorded. That was my committee spiel, and it's just in my head. Sorry. It's being recorded, and it may be shown live on local government access channels and on the City of Somerville website and will be available for future review. Will the clerk please call the roll?

Thank you.

This is roll call. Councillor Wilson.

Present.

Councillor Ewen Campin.

Here.

Councillor Scott.

Present.

Councillor McLaughlin. Yes. Councillor Burnley.

Here.

Councillor Sait. Here. Councillor Strezo. Present. Councillor Clingan.

Present.

Councillor Mbah.

Present.

Councillor Davis.

Here.

With all councillors present, we have a quorum.

Excellent. All right. Pursuant to our Rule 32, let it be known that this City Council salutes the flag of the United States of America, and let us recall our oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth to the best of our abilities and understanding. We begin our meetings with a moment of silence. Are there any councillors who wish to say a few words about members of our community? Councillor Ewen Campin.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm sorry to say I have two moments of silence tonight. Both of these are very personal for me. These are people who passed away recently who I really looked up to and admired. Longtime Ward 3 residents. Very widely beloved. Robin Dash. passed away peacefully at home on October 18th. Robin was the beloved wife of Stuart Dash. They were married for 45 years. Robin taught art and education at the New England Conservatory, at Brandeis, and at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She was a painter herself. You can visit her website to see her extremely wonderful paintings. One of her sons, David, and his family moved here a few years back, lived on Prospect Hill near their parents, and they themselves were really active members of the community. Robin was just an unbelievably kind and warm and loving person, someone who really embraced the younger generation. This might be a silly story to bring up, but over the last eight years, I send a newsletter to my constituents every couple of weeks or months. and it's updates on stuff the council is working on. Almost without fail, Robin would respond to every single newsletter with just some incredibly sweet and kind words of encouragement and support, lots of emojis. This may sound like a small thing, but you just get the sense that Robin did this to everyone that she knew and just kind of was such an incredibly beloved warm person who really made a point to go kind of above and beyond letting people know how much she cared about them. So I wanted to send our condolences to the Dash family, let them know that we're thinking of them. And we also lost Ellen Davidson, who passed away at the age of 77 on October 15th. So until very recently, when Ellen moved into a facility as her Parkinson's disease was advancing, Ellen lived right around the corner from my family. And what immediately strikes you when you meet Ellen is that she lives in this giant intergenerational communal house. for many years, and she lives cooperatively with a kind of rotating group of people of all ages, sharing meals, common space, welcoming neighbors in. Her and her husband raised both of their daughters in this setting. In her obituary, the family wrote that this house There were years were full of lively parties, annual Thanksgiving seders, and technically edible April Fool's dinners. I know many of us on the council knew Van Hardy, a longtime Union Square activist who passed away a few years back. He was living at Ellen's house at the time. So when he needed a place to live, it was Ellen's house that he moved into. this unbelievable, amazing, vibrant community. It really was like a manifestation of who she was as a person. Her car was just covered in bumper stickers about anti-war and embracing children. She also, unbelievably to me, was a long-time counselor at a summer camp that I attended that was a huge part of my childhood. She was there a decade before doing arts and crafts, and so I always felt connected to her. She had an incredibly rich life full of travel and friendship and activism. She attended the March on Washington, At college, she got very into anti-war activism, kind of lefty politics, and throughout it all, her focus was always on education and young children. She was a special ed teacher, did Quaker justice work in women's prisons. She authored a very widely read education book called Open Minds to Equality that's gone now through four reissues. So I'm just one of many, many people who is mourning Ellen's death and celebrating how much joy she brought to the world. I wanted to send our thoughts to her family.

Thank you. Councillor McLaughlin.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'm sad to report the death of Marilyn Contreras, who played a pivotal role in the Somerville City Charter and many charters in the city. It's sad that on the cusp of the charter movement in Somerville that she was not able to see this moment. She recently passed away while visiting her family in Connecticut. She was a Melrose resident and dedicated and served senior program and policy analyst for the Massachusetts Department of Housing, as well as community development for 35 years. She worked on many charter commissions, municipal government study committees, and other local officials, Mass Municipal Association and local League of Women Voters. A very involved person who her legacy is going to be secured in Somerville. I just want to give her thoughts for her family and thank her for her service to this community.

Thank you. Would everyone in the chamber please rise however you are able to for a moment of silence for the aforementioned individuals. Thank you. All right, Madam Clerk, first item.

Item 1.3 is approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of September 25th, 2025.

Seeing no discussion, that item is approved.

Item 3.1 is a grant of location from Eversource to install a total of seven feet of conduit in White Street from the Cambridge Somerville line to a point of pickup at White Street Place.

All right, I hereby declare this public hearing to be open. Is there anyone here to speak on the item? Jackie Duffy.

Hi, Jackie Duffy, Eversource. How are you tonight?

Well, thanks.

How are you? I'm excellent, thank you. We'd like to install seven feet of conduit in White Street. This work is necessary to provide electric service to 14 White Street Place, which will be a 25-unit building.

All right. Is there anyone else here to speak on this item? See none of declare the public hearing closed any discussion I'd say none that item is approved.

Thank you. Have a good night everybody The next item will be item 4.1 a resolution by councillor Mbah in support of public higher education in Massachusetts Thank You mr. President this resolution

affirms our city council's strong support for Governor Haley's Drive Act. a $400 million investment in Massachusetts public higher education system, including $200 million from fair share amendment funds specifically dedicated to offsetting recent federal funding reductions. The DRIVE Act represents a bold commitment to stabilizing and strengthening our state's community colleges, state universities, and the University of Massachusetts system. institutions that serve a powerful engine of social and economic mobility, equity, and civic engagement. Massachusetts public colleges and universities play a vital role in reducing inequality, fostering innovation, and building a skilled workforce that supports local and regional economies. Since the Commonwealth established free access to community colleges and expanded financial assistance programs, enrollment has increased across all sectors of public higher education. Nearly 78% of graduates remain in Massachusetts, contributing to the prosperity and vitality of communities across the state. Yet, ongoing funding challenges, including federal cuts, growing reliance on student debt, threaten to undermine this progress. In alignment with the will of the Massachusetts voters who approved the fair share suit tax, This council calls on the legislature to dedicate at least $200 million annually towards stabilizing public higher education funding and to continue expanding long-term investment to reduce dependence on tuition, fees, and privatization. So at this point, I will sponsor, you know, three of our community members, you know, to speak to this resolution, and I will begin with Dan Rock.

Seeing no objection, please set forward your name and address for the record, please.

Yeah, thank you for having me tonight. My name is Dan Roark. I'm a Somerville resident and a graduate worker at UMass Lowell, where I'm a member of UAW Local 1596. And I'm also the chair of the UAW Massachusetts CAP Council, our statewide political committee, so here to speak on behalf of the UAW. The vast majority of fundamental research, whether that's for vaccines and cures for cancer or for energy storage solutions for decarbonization like what I work on, is done at universities and is funded by grants from government agencies like NSF, NIH, DOE. And the slashing of this funding by the Trump administration is an all-hands-on-deck emergency for higher ed. I have seen my coworkers' grants get canceled well after they've been awarded, and I've seen emails getting sent out earlier this year saying that we cannot admit any more PhD students for the coming year, which essentially freezes all research going forward. This not only jeopardizes the jobs of UMass Lowell workers, but tens of thousands of jobs that ripple out from there in the sectors of higher ed. This, sorry, in Massachusetts especially with its meds and its economy, it's an incredibly worthy and necessary investment to make sure that this research continues and we can blimp the damage being done. I'll close by saying that over the last few months, whenever I've been talking to coworkers who are stressing out about this, not able to find new funding, worrying how they're gonna finish their degrees, and they feel like they can't pressure the Trump administration to change anything. I've told them almost word for word that if Governor Healey and the state legislature wanted to fix this, they could. We have the tax base to backfill this funding. And I was really glad to see Governor Healey put forward the DRIVE Act and to do exactly what I'd been hoping that they would, which, as Councilor Mbah said, put $200 million in fair share surtax revenue to go towards filling this gap in funding. This money will save jobs, it will help crucial research continue to advance, and it will broadly benefit Massachusetts' economy. We need the state legislature to pass this bill, and I would greatly appreciate the City Council's support in standing with us. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. I will also call to you Joy Saloon.

see no objection. Council bar calls for it. Can you I didn't catch your name. Please say your name friend. I just record please.

Good evening. My name is Joy salon. Lower. Hello. Okay, hi, good evening. My name is Joy Salon. I am the program manager for the graduate programs at UMass Boston in the sociology department. And I'm here to testify in support of this resolution that on public higher education, urging the state legislator to allocate $200 million from the fair share surplus to stabilize the public higher education. institutions to help fill federal cuts due to cuts to research and staff positions. As the program manager, I work closely with graduate students and faculty members who have been directly affected by these federal cuts to research. And I have students who have lost their assistantships funding because they work for research institutes that have lost grants. And that means that they have lost their stipend as well as their tuition waivers that they receive and this jeopardizes their education. These funds will preserve or create funding for the students in public higher education. And UMass Boston is actually the third most diverse university in the country. And most of our students or many of our students are first generation college students and non-traditional students, which strengthens our social and economic justice. Notably, these students that attend public higher ed educations usually stay in Massachusetts and contribute back to the local community. So this resolution would help strengthen our communities. And I am grateful for the council for taking the time to hear my testimony and for your service to our community. And thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Mr. President, I would like to welcome Marissa Frye to the podium. I see no objection. Please step forward, state your name for the record.

Hello, my name is Marissa Fried, she, hers. I live at 50 Prospect Street and I'm a proud public educator, a fourth grade power professional and student teacher in the Cambridge Public School District. I'm also a Masters of Elementary Education 1-6 graduate student and a Cambridge cohort at Lesley University, as well as a Masters of Labor Studies graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I recognize and will be forever grateful for the privilege I have with the Cambridge Public Schools District paying the balance of tuition for the forum program, as well as my state union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, for providing the opportunity to apply for an annual scholarship for the latter program. Not everyone is as fortunate as me, though, and I'm here to lift up the importance of ensuring that access to free and affordable higher education is provided for all members of our community. I would not be leading by the example I set for my fourth-grade students who have recently begun learning about civic responsibility if I was not here to fight for those without my privilege. At the same time, we must raise up the importance of providing for my higher education colleagues, because without them, higher education students such as myself would not have access to the resources necessary to ensure that our studies lead us on a pathway to a lifetime of success. Since the Commonwealth of Massachusetts created free access to public higher education and additional financial assistance programs in community colleges, enrollment in public higher education is up in all sectors. Sorry, excuse me. About 78% of graduates stay in Massachusetts to the benefit of communities across the state. However, the Trump administration is sowing chaos in our state's public higher education system by freezing and canceling federal funding used to support research and other academic programs. So hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake. But we could lead the way and make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to address the Trump administration's politically motivated attacks on higher education by supporting Governor Moore Healey's proposed DRIVE Act. DRIVE is a $400 million investment, $200 million from fair share amendment funds specifically earmarked to backfill the federal cuts made to public colleges and universities. Voting in favor of our higher education resolution will support this continued and expanded access to higher education for all. By lifting others up, together we rise. Thank you.

thank you mr president i want to thank you know dan joy and marissa just want to you know let you know that we all reaffirm our vision for debt-free public higher education that ensures affordable access to all students while providing fair compensation and professional support for faculty and staff Supporting this higher education resolution expresses our collective commitment to maintaining strong, equitable, and inclusive public higher education in the commonwealth. Because just like Marissa said, by lifting others together, we rise. So I would like a copy of this resolution to be sent to our state delegation and to the governor's office. Any discussion?

Councillor Sait would like to sign on, Councillor Burnley would like to sign on, Councillor Wilson, Scott, and Councillor Campen, the whole council would like to sign on. Councillor Campen, you have something to say?

Thank you, Mr. President.

True, I just want to thank our colleague and the speakers here tonight. The UMass system, the public universities in Massachusetts are just one of the crown jewels of the state. And the idea that we have a federal government that is attacking them, as was said, for political reasons, but also they're doing it to give a tax cut to the richest people in the world. It is just disgusting beyond comprehension. And I'm incredibly thankful that this is being has risen up as a priority for the governor, and I'm certainly happy that the council is here tonight to support it. So thank you all.

Okay, that item is approved. I think, yes, actually, you're right. The next item is, so we're gonna take a few items out of order. The next one is just a couple down, but that's what caught me. So the next item will be section four, item 4.7. I know there's some folks here. to be here to speak and also just to be here for that item. And we wanna make sure that we recognize those folks. And then we got three topics that are gonna take up a bit of time. So after 4.7, we will take up 7.1 and then 8.3 along with 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 and 8.2.

all right items 4.7 please yes indeed mr president that makes the next item item 4.7 a resolution by councillor mclaughlin that this city council commends the members of the charter review committee on their years of volunteer service to the community

Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to recognize the women here who did the lion's share of all the work to get a new city charter, which will be on the ballot this year. It has been endorsed by every elected official in the city, every city councilor, every state representative, every school committee member, and many former elected officials and other people in the community. This has been a century in the making, so I wanted to take the time to recognize people for that. And I did, before I turn over to our fearless leader, Bev Schwartz, want to look back a blast in the past. And I just found an interesting article from the Somerville Journal on September 5th, 1899, which was the last time the city passed a city charter. And there's a lot of insights. Some things never change in the city and in the world, and it's just interesting. I wanted to read this excerpt. Hmm. If the question of accepting the proposed new city charter were left to the more intelligent voters of Somerville, or to be more explicit, the voters who take the pains to examine the matter for themselves, there would be no doubt of its overwhelming adaptation. Not but what are there some able and learned citizens who conscientiously oppose the new charter and are able to state their reasons, but that the large majority of those who have studied it stand strongly in its favor. The chance of defeat of the charter lies principally in the danger that its friends will not rally sufficiently to secure its adaptation, and that the misrepresentations and misconceptions of the charter will work too strongly against it. Men of all branches of life and degrees of experience in municipal government have expressed themselves as warmly favoring the proposed new city charter. Some of them are as follows. I wanted to read that for a few reasons. One, in the parlance of our times, hate is going to hate. You can't please everybody, but the overwhelming majority of people who have started this charter stand in favor of it. If people didn't understand a word I said, that's understandable because no one speaks like this anymore, which is the exact reason why we need a new charter in plain speech so that everyone can understand it. A regular person can come off the street and read the charter and understand it completely. But the final line is possibly the most important and the most interesting. Men in all branches of life. Which shows that, in case we've already studied this, a century ago we did not even recognize women as voters. and did not recognize them when it comes to the census. And I wanted to highlight this because that is one of the many changes we've made. And it was made by a committee overwhelmingly of women. There were a few men such as myself and a couple of other people, but it was almost exclusively women. And the women are the ones who followed through and made sure this happened. We passed the charter. We got it done at the city level. They made sure we got it done with the city council. They followed up with the mayor. They followed up at the state house. Bev made a website. Kat made a meme, awesome Golden Girls meme, to let everybody know about this charter. So they've taken it upon themselves to see this across the finish line. I wanted to recognize them, and I definitely want to recognize our leader, Bev, but I want to give her a round of applause, and thank you all for your hard work on this.

Councillor McLaughlin would like to sponsor Bev English to speak.

So at the end of 2020, Mary Jo Rossetti sent me an email saying, would you be interested in this? And it was mayor wants to form a committee to study the charter. I'm like, yes. So I've been at this for five years now because that's when I started was when I applied. I want to say that this has been the most incredible group of people to work with. And to give you an idea of the dedication of the 12 of us who worked on this, seven of us are still working on this campaign. One person can't be here because she's got childcare duties. Seven of us are still putting our butts out there getting this done. I also want to thank the city council because for six months every other week you met and engaged with this material in depth and seriousness and I really appreciated that. So it's been a team effort and just wanna thank everybody who has brought us to this day. And look at my website, it's very cool.

Thank you. So I will note, I was at the Summer Hall Museum event just before this, and somebody who is relatively plugged in came up to me and said, so question one, how should we vote on that? And of course, I said yes. But just to remind folks that not everyone is fully plugged in on this even yet. So send them to Bev's website. And if you have a view on it, please do share that. Get the word out and let folks know. Any discussion? Go ahead.

The website is yes-on-charter.info.

Any discussion? All right. That item is approved. Thank you very much, everyone.

right so that will take us to item 7.1 yes indeed item 7.1 a request of the mayor requesting authorization to enter into a tax increment financing agreement with a full building occupant of a lab building all right i understand the mayor would like to speak on this item is the mayor present i see somebody hopefully going to collect the mayor we'll

Do anyone have any jokes, song and dance requests? Grab some candy going around the chambers. It'll be a long night. Get that sugar while you can. All right. I see Madam Mayor in the chamber. Madam Mayor.

Good evening, honorable members of the city council and to our guests who are here in the chamber with us today. Hi there. and also to the viewers online. Tonight I am here to ask for you to authorize me to sign a tax increment financing agreement that represents one of the most significant economic development opportunities our city has seen in recent years. Somerville is making a strong play to bring one of Massachusetts' most dynamic med tech companies here to grow with us. Transmedic Group, a fast-growing global leader in organ transplant technology, currently based in Andover, is considering Somerville's Assembly Innovation District as their new headquarters. I want to emphasize their search is still underway, but this proposal is a vital milestone to advance our prospects. This proposal represents a genuine win-win supporting good jobs and tax revenue, cutting-edge innovation, and opportunity to forge a community partnership that will strengthen both Somerville's future economy and the Commonwealth as a whole. Let me be clear about the context. We are bucking market trends at a time when we need it most. Commercial real estate interest for large office buildings has slowed significantly. Our city is also facing challenging economic headwinds and a deficit in the coming year amid a turbulent federal climate. We need to take action now to continue building revenue that will allow us to continue to deliver quality services to our residents and fund our shared priorities and values. This is our responsibility to our community. This TIF would help us secure a thriving, homegrown Massachusetts company's expansion within the Commonwealth. This would ensure the Transmedic's continued growth fuels local innovation, creates hundreds of high-quality jobs at all levels, and strengthens our region's reputation as a global center for life science. And there is a broader ripple effect. This will fill an entire large life science building that currently sits vacant, bringing vital daytime business to our local shops and restaurants and energy to our neighborhoods. The economic impact cannot be overstated. This would be the largest new life sciences move in the region during the current downturn. It will generate millions in future tax revenues for Somerville and build critical economic momentum, drawing attention to our many advantages our city offers as a location for innovation and growth. Transmedic is exactly the kind of employer we want in Somerville. Their organ care system is revolutionizing organ transplantation and dramatically increasing the number of patients who can receive life-saving care. They employ everyone from highly skilled technicians and manufacturing staff to PhD level scientists and clinicians. They exemplify next-generation life sciences, manufacturing, and importantly, they share our community's values around creating and investing in jobs, innovation, and opportunity. This project would mark the first life science presence in Assembly Square, opening a new gateway for innovation along I-93 corridor and expanding the greater Boston life science ecosystem. Transmedic would join recent Somerville arrivals like Ultragenyx, Foresight Institute, Bristol-Myers Squibbs, and Flagship Pioneering, continuing the momentum we've strategically built. The structure of this incentive package is sound. We're looking to repeat the success we built together with my administration's successful incentives and funding efforts approved by the Council for 299 Broadway, known as the former Star Market site on Winter Hill. which is set to break ground this fall and ultimately deliver 288 rental units including 50% affordable units, retail space, and community arts gatherings in open space. This TIF, too, is designed to yield significant returns through job creation, tax revenue, and direct community investment. Should transmedics select Somerville, they are committed to becoming a valued and collaborative community partner. I want to be transparent. Nothing is finalized. so we need to act. Somerville is one possibility in a broader search for TransMedic, but we're proud to be competing at that level. The company has not yet signed a lease in Somerville. But should they choose to do so, they need this commitment from the City to move forward. And we're operating under tight time constraints with multiple stakeholders. This aligns directly with our community's pursuit of smart, inclusive growth that builds financial resilience and opportunity. Tonight, I'm asking you to authorize me, as Mayor, to sign the Tax Increment Financing Agreement to secure an extraordinary opportunity for jobs, revenue, and long-term economic stability for Somerville. Thank you. I'd like to invite up Tom Gallaghani, Executive Director of OSPCD.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Director Galgani.

Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to do a little bit of table setting. You know how important this item is this evening, and we want you to be as prepared as possible to make the decision tonight. First up, we're going to hear from the executive leadership team from Transmedics. They're going to walk you through what they do, what they're all about. Then there'll be ample time for questions. next our director of economic development rachel ned carney will walk you through all the details of the tax increment financing deal as we've shared it with you we'll also have a chance to answer any questions you might have and we've got other folks in the room as well who can including myself including our outside counsel who can answer any questions you have we'll get right to it and invite up the leadership team is nick you're going to talk first oh Oh, perfect. Come on up. Thank you.

Please introduce yourself, name and address or company affiliation, I guess, for the record. Whatever it is. That'll do, Madam Clerk. Sorry. Name and affiliation.

Perfect. Perfect. Good. All right. Go right ahead. Good evening. My name is Gerardo Hernandez. I'm Transmedic CFO. I'm a company with a couple of colleagues.

Good evening, everybody, and thank you for having us. I'm Nick Corcoran, SVP for Supply Chain Operations at Transmedics.

Good evening. I'm Farhan Zafar. I'm the Chief of Cardiothoracic Programs at Transmedics.

Before we start, I would like to first share a couple of words from our CEO, Walid Hassanin. He sends his apologies for not being here today. He's in a business trip that was previously scheduled. So he really would have loved to be on this night, such an important night. But at the same time, he asked me to extend his huge thanks for welcoming us here and continue with the partnership that we have seen so far. So with that said, I think we can talk about what Transmedics is. But before we're doing that, I think it's probably better just to sit down a little bit and see the video that we're going to show. I hope you enjoy it. It really shows what we are, what we do, and we'll be back. It's around nine minutes long. Just stay with us. Oh, do we have volume? No volume?

Okay.

Take just a moment to make sure that everyone can hear it, both in the chambers and online.

If there is no audio, we can just play it and we can voiceover, so no worries about that.

Give us a minute. Sometimes it takes us just a minute to get all the right buttons, all the right toggles in place.

All right, so we can let it run.

I think your suggestion to narrate the video sounds like an excellent one at this time. So we'll let it play and tell us what we need to know.

Now, before we start, you're going to hear today three different accents and that's just part of what we are it's a very diverse company i have a very spanish strong accent you'll hear a very strong irish accent and pakistan yes so if if something is not well understood please let us know mr president we will repeat well here in somerville you're very at home different different actions from around the world So we'll let the video run, but the Transmedic has been working to transform the organ transplantation field for the last 25, more than 25 years. And our vision is to increase the number of organ transplant, but not only that, increase or improve the outcomes of those transplants. I'm gonna let the video run a little bit so that you can read what we have there.

If you don't mind, keep commenting.

So for those that don't know Transmedics, Transmedics was founded in Andover. So pretty local, obviously, by Dr. Waleed Hassanine, our CEO, which Gerardo had referenced previously as well. Maybe we talk about the model.

Yeah, we'll... Can we post the video there?

Thank you.

So the way we operate is we, our CEO invented the OCS technology, the organ care system. And it's a system that actually replicates physiology. It keeps organs alive outside of the human body. That was launched a few years ago, but then we saw that it was not enough because the number of transplants were increasing so much and there was not enough capabilities to drive all those or to run all those missions. Then, Transmedics came up with, we launched our NOP. That's what we're gonna see right now. It's our National OCS Program. It basically, what it has, it's a network of 18 different hubs across the U.S., and each of the different networks, we have clinical specialists, we have surgeons, we have inventory, and from there, we deploy resources to the different transplant either centers or we deploy resources also to where we procure the organs. Can we put play, please? That is our NOP program. And we are able to do that because a key attribute of the OCS system is that it's portable. We can actually take the device and put it in an airplane, or we can put it in a car, and we can move around. You can see we have a fleet of around 22 jets so far, and that's exactly what helped us to increase to increase the number of transplants in the U.S. Transparency is important, and what you can see in the video, it's an app that we have developed. It's an app that allows us and the stakeholders to track every single organ from donor to recipient. uh and that app always allows to see and to measure and to assess the organ condition at any and function at any point in time once an organ is placed in the ocs around 98 of the organs are actually transplanted so we have a very high utilization of the organs that we actually use all that is controlled from from our command center can we pause there please Our command center, it's basically the heart of the coordination of this logistic effort. That's located in Andover, and from that room, you actually visited, and Tom, you guys visited, and it's impressive, that place. From that room, we run 30% of the transplants of the U.S., We're planning to increase that number from 5,000 to 20,000, 30,000, which basically means we're going to need to increase that capability by four or five times, and the building that we're looking in, the option that we have in Somerville, it really allows us to do that. It will allow us to do that. That's also an area that works 24-7, 365, and that's... because at any point in time, there can be a donor, and any point in time, we need to be ready. At any point in time, we need to go, search the organ, and then take it to offer a second chance at life in the transplant center. Can we play, please? There we go. We can go and see, get organs from everywhere. The way it works is we have incoming calls. We advise there is a donor and the organ, it will be ready. So we capture all of the details of the mission, the cases submitted. We go to the, with that in hand, we have a logistics specialist that actually defines or selects what the best logistics route to go get the organ and then take it to the transplant center. So that could be either in airplane or that could be on a ground transportation system. Once, yeah.

So as Gerardo mentioned, and we've seen it a few times being mentioned, transforming the field of transplantation. And that's what we really did. And actually the case in the video that shows it, prior to transmedics, organs were kept local, going to nearby recipients. With the move towards national allocation, organs were traveling across the country and that's where this transformational technology enabled people getting organs from Seattle to Boston. And that's why Transmedics delivered that promise.

So once the mission is agreed and the plan is accepted, we have our group, our team travels from our different hubs to the donor center, to wherever the donor is located. We will source the, procure the organ, put it in the OCS, and then we'll take it to the donor center as we are seeing in the video. At every point in time, every single point in time, we are connecting with the transplant surgeon so that the transplant surgeon knows exactly the condition of the organ. And that's very important because transplant surgeons need to know the health of each organ before they accept or not the organ. You're going to see some strong images here, or hopefully you don't mind, but that's exactly what we see and what happens in our osseous. You can see how the surgeon is taking, is sourcing one of the organs. It's preparing. By the way, Farhan knows that perfectly as cardiothoracic surgeon. The surgeon is preparing the organ, in this case a heart, connecting the heart into the system, assessing or start the assessment, and then the organ comes alive. That's how we try to replicate physiology within the OCS system, and Farhan is going to talk a little bit more about that. We have lungs breathing. We have, you can see the heart beating, and that's a liver producing virus. It's metabolically active. We put it in the, you know, in the ground transportation. I said that it was a long video, so with audio it was going to be easier, but all right. Then, as I mentioned before, as part of this effort two years ago, it became clear that we have to build our integrated logistics network. Two, three years ago, Transmedics was missing around 20% of emissions because there was planes have island to run them and that it became clear that's with the volumes of two three years ago it became clear that was the moment in which we have to invest in our aviation fleet today as i mentioned before we operate we own 22 jets that allows that are located in different areas of the u.s and allows to be in any place of the continental u.s within two hours The device is in the jet. In this case, we have full Wi-Fi connectivity, and that's important because, as I said before, at any point in time, we need to be communicating with the transplant surgeon to continue to assess the health of the organ. Here we go. I think this is a case that is going to land in Massachusetts. key benefits of the OCS system is that it allows to assess the function of the organ at any point in time. And with that, we can make, let's say, Farhan, you can help me here, but corrections.

And manage the organ optimally to keep it in more physiological healthy state as it is inside the body until it gets to the recipient to be transplanted.

He gets to the destination, a crew from Transmedic is waiting there, and then we take that organ to the transplant center. the device, the organ arrives to the transplant center. The surgeon, the transplant surgeon, assesses and sees how the condition of the organ and accepts or not the organ. As I said before, in the case of transmedics, 98% or more, plus 98% of the organs are accepted once they are in our system. We're not only increasing the number of transplants in the U.S., but we're improving the outcomes. Multiple times you hear why that after a transplant there are always complications. That is reduced, and that's basically what was shown right now. It's reduced when the organ is treated with the OCS system. I think that's the end of the video. We're gonna go through some slides, and then I will pass the microphone to Nick and Farhan. As Nick mentioned before, Transmedic's a company founded in 1998, and now we're headquartered in Andover. Our CEO, Walid Hassanein, was the inventor, the founder, and our current CEO. We are listed in NASDAQ. Up to today, I think we're around $4.3 billion company market cap, and we certainly are transforming the organ transplantation therapy globally. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but in 2024, this is public information, in 2024, in the U.S., we have approximately 17,000 donors. That is people that die in a way that can donate the organs, which technically means that you have 17,000 lungs, 17,000 hearts, and 17,000 livers potentially available for transplantation. In the case of lungs, Only 20% of those 17,000 lungs were actually transplanted. The rest were wasted. In the case of heart, 25%. In the case of liver, 60%. If we take the average of that, I could say that we could do approximately three times more the transplant that happened today with the current number of donors. So right now, the opportunity, the way we see it is, yes, increasing the donors is important, but right now, increasing the organ utilization, it's certainly much more important because we have more than 50%, in this case, close to 60% or 70 organs that are wasted in average from what we've seen. So far... Can I make a comment?

Yes, absolutely. So I mean we had a long video, so thank you for your patience with that. If we could go back one just for a sec please. I think if you want to encapsulate what Transmedics is, who we are, and the importance of the program and project that we're here to speak about tonight, this is the slide to look at. This is the reason we invest in aviation. This is the reason we're looking for a world-class destination and facility for our future. It's because of our commitment to advancing organ transplant because We're obviously a publicly traded company. We talk about our financials a lot. We talk about numbers. The most important number for us is the lives that we save and help save as part of the transplant community. And we're very proud to be part of that. And just something I think we wanted to double click on a little bit for tonight.

Thanks.

Thank you. We move to the next slide. Traditionally, the standard of care for transporting or preserving organs was a cooler. So typically even in movies, right, when you have a movie, when you have an organ that is going to transplant, typically they get a cooler, put ice, and then the organ is on top of the ice. But really what happens, the moment the organ stops having the flow of oxygenated blood, it starts to decay. And that's why that was one of the main limitations of why that organ utilization had been so low throughout the time. We are changing that. Today, we have organs in the case of liver, for instance, that can be up to 24 hours in the device, and they're perfect for transplantation. We're planning to run some clinical programs that will We're extending the time that also hearts and lungs are in the device from currently.

10 hours to 24 hours.

10 hours, approximately 24 hours, which will allow to increase the number of transplantations, right, of transplant. That's a game changer. So if we move to the next one, I'm gonna pass it now to Nick.

So one very important part of the campus for the future and a very important part of what we do today is our manufacturing. So you can run the video, please, Kimberly. This is an insight, a bird's eye view, if you like, of our manufacturing facility today in Andover. We take this very seriously in keeping and maintaining control of our supply chain because of the nature of what it is we do as a business. is something that's really first and foremost. So our intention is to maintain internal manufacturing for our products. Our quality is first in everything we do for obvious reasons when you think about, again, our role in life-saving therapy and technology. Our people driving innovation, so we have and we will continue to invest in the latest and greatest of technology and robotics. and machine learning and AI, as everybody is talking about today, but we see great application for that, both in our manufacturing processes and in our floor as well. And the last point that the video, God bless you, that the video mentioned is probably the most important one from a manufacturing standpoint, or really for you guys to think about as well into the future, and that's the importance of our people, the people that are part of Transmedics, which the video showed as well. Next slide, please.

All right, as Gerardo covered, a lot of this OCS, the organ care system, allows these organs that used to be traveling on ice and metabolically inactive now can travel as near physiologic as they are alive inside the body. Heart beating, lungs are breathing, you can see liver producing bile and kidneys producing urine. to allow organs to be assessed and to kept in the most optimal condition until they are ready to be transplanted in a recipient to give them another life, another chance. Next. And this is a very important slide, and I think we've touched on this in the video, But really, we've demonstrated this impact of organ care system on the number of transplants nationally. This company in Massachusetts have allowed 20% growth in organ transplantation for the three organs we talked about from 2022 to 2024. Without transmedics, that growth is only 2%. And you can see the numbers for yourself. In 2024, transmedics was part of nearly 4,000 transplants. That's 4,000 lives that were saved and organs added to the donor pool or to the organ pool for the country out of this state. Thank you. And not just that, we strongly believe that this is just the beginning of what our mission was set to. We continue to innovate. We have new platforms that are in development right now. We're expanding outside of U.S. to other geographies to have the similar impact on other countries. and coming out with innovative programs to continue this momentum and this growth. And this is all possible because of our unique position, unique capability of having this state-of-the-art technology, end-to-end service with clinical expertise and the most efficient logistics infrastructure. Removes all the barriers within the system and allows the utilization of these organs that were otherwise discarded or wasted.

Thank you, Farhan. Let's zoom in for the next couple of slides. To the Mayor's point, if Somerville becomes our home, it's probably not an example of organ transplant facilities on the globe, on the planet. Also, I would say unparalleled variety in terms of the breadth of operations and the things that will be housed in such a building. Obviously, from an administrative standpoint between human resource, finance, IT, your typical operational functions, command centers you saw on the video, such an important part of what we do today and certainly to Gerardo's point into the future. Our Viverium clinical lab is thinking about the next generation of products. In a second I'll ask Farhan to maybe paint a little bit more detail about the activities that we have in our labs today. I mentioned manufacturing, we're talking about As I said, a commitment to U.S. manufacturing, a commitment to keeping near and dear to us the most important part of what we do in many ways being our technology on top of the people that build our products as well. Our research and development to keep us at the leading edge of technology in this space. And then certainly sounds really fun. We look forward to seeing it, but our flight simulator, which is a really important part. It's cool, but it's also a necessary oxygen in terms of the talent and the people that we will need to sustain our aviation business now and into the future. That will be part and housed in our location as well. In addition to our, if all goes to plan, our leadership for the aviation business and the conference center. Today, in the next couple of weeks, in fact, we will bring in world leaders in the transplant space for a meeting. It's something we do on an annual basis. That, today, we outsource. But in the future, we want to be able to do that within the four walls of Transmedics HQ and are very excited by that proposition. But let me just give Farhan a moment just to talk about our vivarium and the activities there, if you don't mind. Thanks.

Thank you, Nick. So as Nick pointed out, the vivarium space serves a very important function in transmedics today, which is it allows us to fulfill all the FDA required preclinical testing using farm Yorkshire pigs, no other animal model, but just pig models. This facility is USDA inspected, AAALAC certified, keeps all the animals in best health possible. We have solid enrichment programs for these animals. and they are very essential to the development of our device and technology as the requirement by the FDA to prove efficacy and safety before these devices go out to serve patients. So that's very critical for us to have this vivarium space and again, it follows all the USDA regulations, it's certified, it's been monitored by an independent veterinarian that serves on the ICA committee for the organization as well.

Okay, so this next slide talks about why the City of Somerville. We're preaching to the choir here, I suppose. But the things that are really important for us, many of them are listed here. What comes to the top? You know, we, as the Mayor mentioned earlier, We've searched the area. We look at things that differentiate. Talent is really at the top of our requirement, and that's when you think about the breadth and diversity of where we're going as a business. We think about our talent needs today, but also how those will evolve and adapt over time. The other thing I would say is, and Gerardo mentioned it, is the tremendous partnership. And I do want to add my voice to, as he mentioned, really high class, highly professional involvement from the MIRIN team and the broader team as well in getting us to this point. Really no stone has been left unturned. They've spent time with us in Andover and have been super accessible since that point as well. And that bodes really well, I think, for the future should Somerville be our destination for HQ. So I do want to echo and thank the team for all their support. One more, please. Okay, and then we obviously feel like we have a lot to bring to Somerville as well. And some of those points are listed here. We buy in completely to the vision, this vision for mixed use development and life sciences being part of that. And we love that concept and we look forward to playing our part in any way to foster and enable more companies like Transmedics to come, the next Transmedics perhaps. We're very much, we love the fact that this represents for us the opportunity to, it's a two-way street. We talked about access to talent, but talent needs somewhere to go, and we have committed, as you guys will have heard about previously, we've committed to, as we scale, more and more opportunities at all levels, really, in terms of, I'll talk about it on the next slide, but high school partnerships, university partnerships in the district, internships, etc. That's, as I said, a two-way street. We will need that to sustain us into the future and of course it's important as corporate citizens that we're providing that level of partnership and collaboration as well. And then, finally, probably no surprises here for those that have seen these documents. This, I would say, is the starting point. We're very specific with some of the numbers here, you know, characterizing I mentioned about our commitments to the school district. We think about the fire department and the police department as well. We're in the life-saving business, and so we love to reciprocate. for those that are like-minded and maybe share in the same motivators that we have as well. But again, I would stress this is the start. This is the start of our commitment to Somerville should things work out. I think that brings us to our last video, which unfortunately doesn't have sound again. I won't be able to do the, but I think it speaks for itself. It talks to the one minute mile, the first flight and landing on the moon. And certainly we believe that our technology has been proven and probably you would agree from the figures and numbers that you've seen so far, but also our commitment to the future. We've done something that few thought possible. It's part of our values actually. And that's our commitment for the future as well. That's what we want to do. Sure.

Mayor just reminded me of one thing that was not in the slide but because we talked about that recently. But we learned that robotics is very important in the town and we know that they're typically three, in a very high number. So we're committed also to donate $30,000 a year to the robotics program. So that I will be happy to do so.

Sorry.

I think that's our final slide. So there's one placeholder slide at the end, Kimberly, if you can. Yeah, I mean, we'll certainly pause for questions, but I do want to, Mr. President, to thank you and the Council as well for your time. The video ran a little bit long for us at the start, but thank you for your attention and welcome any questions.

Well, thank you for that, and thank you for speaking through the video. I apologize for the technical difficulties. I will note that these slides, for folks especially in the Chamber, if you want to take a look at them afterwards, or folks at home, the slides are available on the City Council website in this agenda on this item, so you can take a look yourselves. I assume the videos are probably available on the company website, or just to some extent.

Some are, and if they're not, we'll see to it that the others are.

Very good. Well, I'm sure folks can get more information, anyways, if they want to dig a little deeper. But thank you for that. Questions? Councillor Scott?

Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you for the presentation. I'm really excited at this possibility and hope you do find your way to Somerville. If you do, I can guarantee you'll have more nice places to eat than just the Chateau. No comment. That's all right. I'm allowed to cache it on other communities. But that said, you know, in researching about your company, I know you bought Summit Aviation a few years back and you operate your own network of planes. Is that a high utilization plane network right now? Is that entirely in-house flights?

Yeah, we actually typically announce that in our earnings call every quarter. So I cannot talk about the latest number, but I can talk about last quarter, right? And it's typically close 80%. So our network is typically used at around 80% utilization.

Okay. And just through you, Mr. President, Do you also lease out your planes or take on charter for any other outside entities, businesses, or government?

No. 100% of our planes are only used for organ transplantation. Wonderful.

That is exactly the answer I was hoping to hear, Mr. President. Boy, I hate that I have to ask that question.

No worries. We know exactly. You know what I'm talking about. Transmedic has been disrupting years of transportation. maybe monopolies, if you will, right? And as you, when you disrupt those processes, typically you will receive some punches back, and that's one of the typical, but no. All of our, 100% of our plant utilization is for transport of organs.

Well, I appreciate it. One of the values of Somerville is absolutely about protecting our neighbors and keeping them here, so I'm glad you wouldn't be a part of anything like that.

Through you, President, just one more point to that is the reason why we got into aviation is, as Gerardo was saying, there was a day of Kentucky Derby that there were organs could not fly on any charter plane not available because these are not dedicated to transplant. So that is one primary reason when we decided, yes, we have to solve this problem so that any life-saving organ does not have to be affected by an availability of a charter plane.

Thank you, sir.

Council, you and Kevin. Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, thank you all so much. This is obviously just completely extraordinary work. I think this is a very exciting opportunity. You know, I'll just say that for me, what matters on this decision, of course, has nothing to do with how extraordinary the company is. It's whether this is a good deal for Somerville. So from my perspective, you know, most extraordinary company in the universe. If you're proposing something that's a terrible deal for Somerville, obviously not gonna support that. Having reviewed this, I do not think that's the case, but I think what I'm most interested in is discussing the details of the TIF proposal. And I just wanna thank you for this incredible presentation. Other questions, discussion?

I saw Council Burnley and then Council McLaughlin.

thank you through you uh thanks for being here tonight um this was an incredible uh presentation i think the technology that you you've all worked to create and disseminate is really incredible and i can imagine the future uses of it that are expand the market for this company greatly i mean Being able to operate organs outside of the human body opens up a lot of possibilities. And some of which, frankly, are scary for the lay person as myself. I guess I'm curious because this is, what we've seen is very incredible and positive and I think life-saving, but I always have to play the cynic and the skeptic as a counselor. Is there any worry about, I don't wanna put this, Any external existential threats for the company moving forward? I did notice that there was a class lawsuit that had been filed this year against Transmatics with various complaints involved. How do you guys see your path forward as you want to deepen your roots in a community like Somerville?

Thank you for the question. I think what you've seen is what typically publicly listed companies have and publicly listed companies face, right? There is nothing special that affect transmedics in that case. The future, the way we see it today is bright. As I said before, there are multiple areas of growth. One is to increase the organ utilization. We saw this slide that I shared. We have a huge opportunity to increase. We have a huge opportunity to increase even our market share or the OCS utilization as well. We have opportunity to grow outside the US and that's why our CEO is actually not with us today. There is a very important day for us, right? So we are confident and we have plenty conviction that there is plenty of runway to grow. That's why we are actually looking for a larger space.

And just as a quick follow-up on that, in terms of the international market, I was really impressed by the increase in terms of the life of the organ outside the body. And I'm curious, you know, if I'm, if you get a request somewhere in Massachusetts and there's, I know there's work being done in Italy as well and needs to go to Italy. Is a U.S. organ viable over there? What kind of protections do you all have to ensure that these organs are kept safe, not only in terms of their own natural life, but in terms of being taken by someone?

There is no organ from the U.S. that goes to Europe or from Europe in case of our organs. What we are developing in Europe is specifically for Europe, and we have its own resources, its own infrastructure network. It's completely, let's say, separated from the U.S. In the case of the U.S., from time to time, we actually have donors in Canada. We have from time to time and we are able to go to Canada and bring those organs into the U.S. Now what is important is the transparency. Each transplant has a code and it's publicly controlled or federally controlled. By looking into the app that I showed in the video before, we can have close track of every single transplant, every single organ that transmedics touches. That gives a level of transparency that it can get better than that.

If I could, you know, I really welcome the question as well, as I think as Gerardo said, but know that ethics for us and our value of integrity is not optional at Transmedics. And hopefully as the team has got to know us, and hopefully if things work out as you get to know us in the future, you will see that. It's in everything that we do. It's in how we conduct ourselves in a search like this process. It's the level of attention and seriousness and responsibility that we feel for and take for every organ that we transport. That's who we are. So I really thank you for giving us the opportunity just to zoom in on that a little bit because it's near and dear to us.

Thanks.

Councillor McLaughlin and then Councillor Burnley. I'm sorry, Councillor Bhat.

thank you mr president i'm very excited to dive into this and thank you all for coming um i'm very excited as a representative of east somerville to see this happen i thank the mayor for seeing this through and all the city staff i just want to thank the decades of people who worked on assembly row as well going back to our previous mayor i see representatives of the mystic few task force here councillor bill white who now lives in assembly who fought to make sure things like this would happen so it wouldn't be just big box retail and we'd have mixed use development with a huge project like this coming in so this is not something that has just happened overnight it's been decades of work from other people to see this moment through and i'm excited about it i'm ready to support what's necessary to make this happen and i do want to add you know for anybody out there who's thinking you know you're giving a tax deal to a major business, a multi-million dollar, billion dollar corporation. I see a headline today from Cambridge Day that close to a quarter of Cambridge lab spaces are vacant right now. And Somerville has, I believe, three or four vacant lab spaces, soon to be one fewer, hopefully. And in the long term, this is gonna be a huge deal for Somerville. And we'll hopefully draw other lab spaces into the region, which will only contribute to our tax base. I have one request today from all of you is to please come and eat in East Somerville. On East Broadway, we have a number of immigrant-owned businesses. It's 70% immigrant-owned small businesses in our community who are all struggling to survive right now. And as immigrants and non-Americans yourselves, I hope you can come down and enjoy our many restaurants here. Don't think about just assembly. Think about East Somerville as well. I'm excited for this, and I'm ready to support it.

Thank you. Councillor Bhat, all set? Other questions?

No?

Okay. Thank you, gentlemen, very much. Appreciate it. We have details on the numbers to come next. Director?

So good evening everyone, my name is Rachel Ned Carney for folks in the audience and I am the director of economic development for the city I am going to walk us through the TIF agreement And and the details of it We have a 10 page legal document that is available if anyone wants to read the full language. It's available attached to the item. But for the slides, what I'm going to do is really walk you through graphically what is a TIF agreement and the details of the specific one. So the image you see here is going to be the basis for this whole conversation tonight. This is a graphic from the Massachusetts Office of Business Development outlining the structure of how a TIF works. Tax increment financing is, at the end of the day, it is a tax incentive specifically tied to the investment made by a company that is making both a capital investment and adding jobs. There are specific standards that are written into the agreement around the commitment to that investment in the capital side, as well as in the job growth. And so the way it works is that you build your area of play, the amount of the tax increment off of the capital investment, and then the commitment is tied to the job growth. And so if the company fails to meet their job, commitments, there is a clawback provision that is standard for a TIF agreement. So let's talk through, we'll break this down. So staying on this slide, sorry, staying on this slide for one minute, I wanna walk you through the elements of it and then we'll build for our specific agreement that we're talking about tonight. On the base axis here, you have years. A TIF agreement is specifically for a number of years. Typically in Massachusetts, that's five to 20 years. And during the time that the TIP agreement is in place, taxes are continuing to be paid on the base value of the building. So whatever the property was in its state before the company comes in and makes investments, the expectation is during the life of the agreement, taxes are still paid as if it was before. There is a, that's number one, that's the blue box at the bottom. Number two on this graph is the baseline growth. There's always an assumed baseline growth that the taxes also is paid on that as well. So we'll get to the details for Somerville in a moment. Number three, the green all the way on the left, that's the actual investment made by the company. And number four, that light gray at the top that angles up, that's our area of play. That's the taxes that are paid specific to the investment made by the company, linked to that investment in the change in the value of the property. At the end of the TIF agreement, The full assessed value of the property is used to generate the taxes going forward. So the TIP agreement is only for that period of years. After that, the full assessed value is utilized again to generate the taxes. And that's number five all the way on the right. So we're going to break this down again going for the specific agreement. The agreement we've been negotiating with Transmedics is a 10-year tax increment financing agreement. Again, taxes are paid on the base value of the building. The building here is 188 Assembly Park Drive. And then there's the background growth. We've modeled this with a 3% background growth. 3% has been our 10-year average for background growth in our taxes. So what we are estimating for the taxes that will continue to be paid throughout the period is a total of $51.28 million. So over the 10 years, we'll receive $51.28 million on the base value of the property. Transmedics is intending to make a substantial investment in this building. Our empty lab buildings look done from the outside. On the inside, they are not. When you get into one of our vacant lab buildings, it is a concrete floor and a grid, no ceiling. Open space, not a single wall. That's what this 188 Assembly Park Drive looks like today. Transmedics is doing a very intensive build-out. They're going to be building those clean room manufacturing spaces, the flight simulator. There's a lot of specialized investment that they are going to be making into this property. They're anticipating that their added value to the property is $175 million to $225 million. So we've been modeling right in the middle of that at $200 million of anticipated investment. Next. What that would generate is an additional $41.28 million of taxes before the TIF. So our area of play, the increment that is generated by their investment, is that $41.28 million. That tenant fit-out that they'll be doing represents 45% of the total taxes generated from the building overall. That's pretty typical for our lab buildings. So for each and every single one of our vacant lab buildings, 808 Windsor, 495 Columbia, 74 Middlesex Next Door, each of those is in a similar position. They are all fairly similar in size. So think about this breakdown. Each of them is underperforming right now by 40 to 60%. what we're looking at here is attack what we've been negotiating is a tiff value a total value to the company of 18 million dollars 18 million dollars is approximately 44 percent of that increment meaning that should this all proceed the city is still generating above the base another 23.28 million over the course of the 10 years that was important as we've been negotiating this to counselor ewing campen's point um making sure that the city is generating more than um than we are giving in in the deal total revenue to the city over the 10-year period is 74.56 million that's the two gray and uh and the blue combined At the end of the 10 years, again, they would be paying the full taxes on the assessed value of the building. That starts in year 11 at $11 million and goes up about 3% again after that. So on an annual basis, this location would be generating $11 million each and every year from their 10-year mark forward. I want to break down what this looks like in the document. So what is agreed to in a TIF agreement is a number of years and a tax exemption for each of those years. That's what's written into the agreement are these first three columns. And then to help everyone understand the details of this, we've added here the column of what are the actual taxes that we're expecting the city to collect in each of those years and the value to the company. The last column is the value to the company. So let's go through this chart one by one. I'm going to take it sort of two years at a time. In years one and two, that's fiscal year 27 and 28, we would be giving a tax exemption of 1%. So that means we are reducing their tax bill by 1%. That's only $20,000 in the first year. Where that comes from is that actually a TIF agreement is a three-party agreement. It's an agreement between the city, the company, and the property owner. So in this case, the property owner is Biomed Realty. They are the owners of 188 Assembly Park Drive. The other two parties, Transmedics and Biomed, have agreed that Biomed will be paying the tax bill during the first two years. Those first two years are when transmedics is going to be doing their fit out. They're going to be doing lots and lots of construction. They won't be 100% occupying the building until year three. They'll be in the building before then for sure, but that's when they're at 100% occupancy. So that is also the time that the tax relief really comes in. So years three and four, it's 85% reduction in their tax bill. Years five and six, it ratchets down to 75% reduction. Year seven, 55%. Year eight, 45%. I want to call out on the very bottom that we actually didn't meet $18 million in our math here. We're only at $17,999. And those years 9 and 10, 1 percents are important. So what we've written into the agreement is a provision that is that this is a deal for $18 million, not a penny less and not a penny more. And how we will get there is in playing with the percentages in years 9 and 10. Everything works out and we have achieved $18 million before year nine or at any point in those years. Once they've reached 18 million in relief, it drops to zero from that point forward. If we have not reached 18 million, the 1% in years nine and 10 ratchets up a little bit. So that's what's written into our agreement. Before I shift into questions, I do want to take a couple minutes to talk about the what ifs. The if not this now, then what? And that's really the opportunity costs. We do see... a real challenge in the lab market in Greater Boston right now. It's been mentioned a couple of times tonight. There is approximately 10 years of available lab space for what we're expecting the market to produce for companies. Companies are going to need space going forward in Greater Boston for labs for sure. But we've produced a lot in the last few years. And there's 10 years of supply available right now. If we were to forego this and wait for another opportunity, the next time we would expect an opportunity of this scale again is several years in the future. So let's assume it's five years out. There's five years of lost tax revenue to the city. Realistically, though, what we truly would expect is that these are rare circumstances where a company is really looking for a whole building. More typically, and all the developers are anticipating this, the buildings are designed to be able to handle one tenant or many tenants. And so what we would expect instead is a smaller series of smaller tenants moving in over time that further reduces the value during that 10 years. And then the last slide here really represents the true circumstance that we're in. Each and every year that a lab building sits vacant, its assessed value is going to go down. We are going to start to see that point happen fairly soon, where we're going to start to see assessed values of our lab buildings start to diminish. And so again, when you combine that, we're really seeing here that the potential for revenue to the city starts to drop off. And then to conclude, and there's no more slides for this, I want to go back to what the mayor was saying, and Councilor McLaughlin as well. There's a lot of momentum that this brings. Moving a full building tenant in takes 500,000 square feet of available lab space off the market. It also is a really strong signal to the rest of the world that Somerville is part of the life science ecosystem. This is a place you absolutely want to bring your business. That's a great thing for 74 Middlesex next door. It's a great thing for all of our other lab buildings as well. um it's also a fantastic thing for all of our smaller businesses in assembly square in somerville our hotels um our restaurants um again there are three three 365 day a year 24 7 operation a really diverse team they're bringing their commitment here is 900 employees coming in that's 900 People going out, buying lunch, getting a birthday card, going to the gym. That's what our businesses and our business directors have been clamoring for. And so we're really thrilled from an economic development standpoint. I often talk about the fact that our work covers three different streams of activity. We are engaged on real estate development and thinking about the commercial tax base for the city. Obviously, this is core to that effort. We also are involved in small business development. Those 900 people out and about, that's part of our small business development goals. And then we're really focused on workforce development, too. That's the third stream of our work. They are going to be growing by 600 employees. That's 600 new jobs. Some of those are going to be high school diploma only necessary assembly jobs. Some of those are PhDs. There's an opportunity really here to work and grow in our community. They've committed in the TIF agreement to taking a pool of six high school interns from Somerville High and our other high schools here in the community every year. That's six high school interns that are going to be able to grow with this company each and every year that they're here. So from an economic development perspective, worth it all.

Thank you, Director. Council, you and Kevin.

Thank you, Mr. President. Through you, thank you, Director. So I just wanted to ask two questions from the perspective of, you know, members of the public who they hear tax break, they're skeptical. I totally understand that. So through you, my understanding is this is extremely similar to the TIF that we did for the 299 Broadway. I think this was mentioned, right? The abandoned star market. Can you just confirm that?

Yes, so the TIF that we, the total TIF package for the UCTIF is the program that that is under, that is a $17 million deal.

okay and i think that you know the reason i think that that's important for folks to keep in mind um so when you think about a tax incentive you're you're trying to make something that otherwise wouldn't happen we're trying to make it happen um you know the abandoned star market that's uh 50 affordable development and we don't we don't need to ask ourselves was that going to happen because we have the counterfactual in real life which was it was abandoned for over a decade right it was It's the same thing in this situation. We have these vacant buildings. We don't need to ask whether people are clamoring to get in them. We live in reality right now where they're vacant. None of us like vacant buildings. I also understand this is my second question from our assessor that the vacant lab buildings we could expect are going to start to go down in their appraised value like as soon as upcoming year is that correct?

Yes one of the stipulations in this agreement is there is to hold steady their 2025 assessed value and carry that into 2026 and so it's stabilizing it's not going to go down at all it would stabilize and then go up.

excellent so thank you mr president through you i i think you know i want to congratulate your team and the mayor um i think this makes a lot of sense even just holding the appraisal steady that that's a huge thing and you know based on the numbers we were shown tonight basically for the next 10 years we'll be looking at something like seven and a half million dollars in tax revenue foregoing 1.8 million that we otherwise could have gotten. And the question is, is that worth it to make this happen? From my perspective, it clearly is. I'm excited to support this, and I want to thank you for all the work that went into it.

Councilor Wilson and Mbah.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank our colleague from Ward 3 for laying out for the public very clearly, you know, I'll say how I look at this as well when making this sort of determination. We're looking at what we're going to get in terms of the benefits from this, weighing that up against the opportunity cost, what we're giving up. in terms of what we might get otherwise. It seems to me very clear that those benefits outweigh what we're leaving on the table. For that reason, I think this is a smart deal for the city. I do worry about what we see on that chart there in front of us. from the city's uh financial uh perspective that uh three million dollar hit coming in year three in 2029 uh of our estimated taxes collected that's gonna be a challenge we're gonna have to to try to figure out uh but certainly not a reason to uh to say no to this i'm fully supportive of this

Councilor Mbah. Thank you, Mr. President. I also share the sentiment of my colleagues. I guess I have two questions. Is this going to be like a template, you know, that we're going to use for other empty buildings around the city?

Our approach has been that it's truly a custom conversation each time. We have to get to know the company, get to know what they're all about, what they're trying to do, if it's a match. But we have started to have other conversations with other property owners to say, hey, we're willing to talk to you. If you have somebody who's live that's considering becoming a tenant, Let's talk. Let's see if we can help with the package to fill a space. No one else has taken us up on those conversations yet, but we have introduced that as a concept to other property owners as well.

It would be nice for the city to you know, like calculate the impact of this tax revenue based on this, on the other properties so we can see, you know, if at all they actually had the same deal, what would that look like?

I'm thinking about how that would work. But yes, I've been in touch with, throughout this entire process, we've been working very closely with Ed Bean, the city CFO, and Frank Gold, the city's assessor. And they both feel really confident about this approach. Again, one of the key things that we did throughout this negotiation and development of this TIF was really thinking about you know, what does this look like relative to the city's budget? And finding that and tuning to a line that really says, does this work for us and our long-term financial goals?

Council Burnley and then Clinton.

Thank you. Through the president, my question is also on the benefits. We heard from the representatives of the company that they are going to be offering $30,000 to robotics per year. Uh, we heard from you another benefit. Could you just talk to us a bit about all the benefits that are in the uptiff beyond just the tax revenue?

Sure. So the, the TIF is, um, the TIF does not include everything that they, that they talked about tonight. So the TIF outlines, and this is, again, this comes from mass general law. There's, there is a standard, uh, clawback, that's tied to the employment. The commitment in a TIF on the company side is to, one, make a capital investment, and to add new jobs. It can't be a job that's moved. So somebody like Bristol-Myers Squibb, when they moved to Somerville, they were not eligible to have a TIF conversation because they were consolidating from other locations. They weren't adding new jobs. With this organization, they are adding 600 new jobs. at a minimum, right? And so what they've written into this is a commitment to bring in total 900 jobs, 300 of which are their current employees, and they are committing to to those goals. If they don't meet 70% of their goal, they have to report every year what their employment growth is and there's target dates. If they don't meet their target goal of at least 70%, the city can actually reduce our tax relief. Does that make sense?

through the chair, it does make sense. Is that 70%, is that on just the new jobs or is that on the overall 900?

I believe it's actually on the 900.

I'm double checking it. So that.

So I believe it's the 600. Am I reading this right? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Yes. So it's the 900 is the commitment. So the 70% line is 600. And then you were asking about other benefits that are listed in the document. So in the document, what is listed is a commitment to host a minimum of six high school interns for each of the years that the TIF is in place, and then to have conversations really with my team as well as the public schools, specifically the Career and Technical Education Program to really be thinking about how we can align our workforce development initiatives to support folks who might want to take a job at Transmedics in the 600 new job pool. And then the third item here is really thinking about training programs. When we're building out those training programs, that we're really working in tandem to make sure that Somerville residents have the best chance of participating. So let's say they produce a training program specifically targeted around their manufacturing. And so maybe it's a collaboration with Bunker Hill. Let's use them as an example. How do we work to make sure that some of the residents are most represented and to have the opportunity to take advantage of that?

Thank You mr. President through you yeah, I look forward to supporting this deal. Um, thank you for my colleagues who Laid it out so plainly for the public the position we find ourself in you know this in a perfect world. I mean, we know Sunwell's cool. I mean, everyone knows Sunwell's cool in a perfect world. You know, people would be knocking down the door to get in these buildings. But as things stand now, I think this deal that the city has worked on, I want to thank the mayor and her team for working out this deal. I want to thank the team for coming up this evening to come before us. I like what I hear in terms of the company ethics and so on as far as it's a publicly traded company, it's a big company, but it feels very personal to all of you and very hands-on. And so that's important. So I like what I'm hearing as far as the company goes. I do think that I don't know what the competition looks like in terms of what other people are offering, but I can tell you that Somerville is by far the best in terms of the competition. We lead the way. We're number one in everything, and we have the coolest city. So I'm happy to be in the running, and I'm happy to support this deal. I would just say one thing. I know that you all are in the business of transporting organs. but I don't know how much experience you have in the business of building and build outs. In Andover, I'm not sure what the situation was when you all first moved into that building, but being that you did talk about ethics and integrity, I would just ask that whoever you're using for your build out have the same community standards that we have here in Somerville in terms of labor practices and also the same standards that you all espouse too. So with that said though, I'm happy to support this deal this evening. Thank you very much for all coming up. Thank you to the mayor and her team again for getting us here.

Councilor Sait.

Through you, Mr. President. First, I would like to thank the team and the mayor and city staff. I'm also going to be supporting this. I really like the mission. And I did have a question. Thank you for sharing the benefits again with us and summarizing that. I think Councillor Bernie asked a similar question. i just like want you to explain if possible what is the process for amending like the benefits part of the tiff or if it's something i you know right now it's where every initial phase and it sounds like a tiff can be amended if both parties can agree to that but I'm just wondering about, as the company is growing and putting roots here in Somerville, these partnerships with the district, is this something we can do?

Yeah, so as Gerardo was mentioning, in the transmedic slides, Wherever they go they know they were going to be a strong corporate partner, and they've committed Some numbers right to ways that they could be they would intend to be a corporate partner in Somerville We are we specifically actually did not include that in the TIF agreement because the clawback of a TIF agreement is specifically tied to the employment goal and so if they let's say One year they only were able to find You know budgets are real tight one year and they only find 90,000 and not 100,000 that they can contribute to the schools that moment. We wouldn't want to sink the whole TIF around something that is not core to the TIF legislation that exists at the state level. So we are specifically putting that in a separate conversation and a separate agreement that would not live with the TIF but would live separately.

Other questions? Nope? Okay.

yes sorry one that we also forgot to mention that it's in here but it's not on the slides um part of the package that we have here as well has been um that we've offered with transmit we've negotiated with transmedics as a partial reduction in their building permit fee their building permit fee is going to be north of four million dollars for this build out um we have um we have offered a we've negotiated here is a two point i believe it's 2.275 million reduction in the building permit fee now that still means most likely two million dollars in building permit fee additional coming into the city on top of the two million dollar building permit fee associated with the building that exists as it is today so i want to make sure that we didn't forget about that because that is a detail in here um that is not you know typically a quarter a tiff but is we did include that in this document

Can you talk just in terms of structures a little bit more about the other agreement? You said that the, just what is that? When will it, what's the status? What'll it be called? When can people understand what's in it?

Yeah, that'll probably be some sort of, it'll be some form of a covenant. Private covenant, maybe Tom, anyone add anything to this? But we have not yet, we have not actually gotten to that point yet in all those details.

If I may, this is kind of snowballed. Every time we talk to these folks, they're like, this is what we mean by planting our roots. And they keep adding more to the tally. So we haven't sat down and actually put pen to paper on the contributions that they're excited to make if they choose this location. So more to come.

just just so we understand so that so that's something once if and when the decision is made then pen to paper on everything that's been discussed okay just so folks so we can answer that question when it invariably comes other questions or discussion counselor scott uh thank you mr president i've reviewed the document that's before us tonight um i really appreciate the work that our team and their team obviously has done to put the agreement together

It's been responsive to some of the concerns I had earlier, and I'm fully prepared to support this. I'm wondering if a motion to approve would be in order. You have the floor.

Let's do it. Motion to approve, sir. Councillor Scott moves to approve. Any discussion on the motion?

on the motion to authorize the mayor to enter into a tax increment financing agreement with a full building occupant of a laboratory building. Councillor Wilson?

Yes.

Councillor Ewen Campin?

Yes.

Councillor Scott?

Yes.

Councillor McLaughlin?

Yes.

Councillor Burnley?

Aye.

Councillor Sait? Yes. Councillor Strezo? Yes. Councillor Clingan? Yes. Councillor Mbah? Yes. Councillor Davis? Yes. With all councillors in favor, that motion is approved.

Councillor McLaughlin? Councillor McLaughlin.

I've had second thoughts, Mr. President, and I would like to make a motion for reconsideration in the hopes that reconsideration fails.

Councillor McLaughlin moves for reconsideration in the hopes that reconsideration fails. Anybody wish to change the vote? Seeing none, reconsideration fails. Now let's clap. take about a four minute recess just so we can all catch our breath.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, I'll call this meeting back to order. One, two, three, four, yes, we have a quorum. Madam Clerk, next item.

The next item will be item 8.3, an officer's communication from the Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management, conveying the draft combined sewer overflow plan.

Director Raish. Thank you. For your record, Richard Raish, Director of Infrastructure and Asset Management. It'll come as a surprise to no one that I have slides. So the slides that are attached to the item and were distributed out to counselors earlier this week are sort of broken into two pieces. This is a very important topic, and I think it bears all of our attention. I want to be able to convey a lot of information to you, but realize that tonight was a very busy night. So I split it into two parts. pieces i will present here formally and then there are a number of supplemental slides that we can use to facilitate questions here either tonight or if it seems as though we want to drill down even more we could refer to committee and and go into a little bit more depth there or i'm as always happy to meet one-on-one with anyone who wants to take an even deeper dive into this So with that sort of preamble, what is it that we're talking about? We are currently in a formal regulatory process to develop an extension of the long-term control plan for combined sewer overflows. This is an extension of work that was started in the 80s. It is a formal process that was envisioned back in the 1990s and formalized in variances for water quality for the Charles and Mystic. One back, not quite yet. That process named three parties, City of Somerville, City of Cambridge, and MWRA as the formal entities responsible for drafting and executing the plan. And by executing, I mean paying for the plan. DEP, Massachusetts DEP and federal EPA review it. and we've had input and comments from the Charles River Watershed Association, Mystic River Watershed Association, Save the Alewife Brook, our neighboring cities and towns, and a number of other bodies. The process also defined a schedule for us. We've been working away at this since 22. We have to submit the draft report by the end of this year. And it is very likely that the technical teams will be typing away furiously until about midnight on December 31st to hit that deadline. That then will put us into a public review on this draft recommended plan. That's essentially 2026, and that will finalize the plan. DEP and EPA will then issue a formal administrative order based on that final plan, and we'll have to start design and construction right then in 2027. So what does it mean for some? Well, clearly, we have a legal and one would also say a moral obligation to mitigate CSOs. And it will result in a federal and state administrative order that will essentially bind our sewer CIP for a generation. A lot of these projects are quite expensive. And since we have a limited pool of resources within the city, it will have impacts on our future capital investments across the whole suite of assets. And because today's capital project becomes tomorrow's debt, and the first thing you have to pay is debt, it will also have implications for our future operating budgets. So if you're all suitably scared, the council item that is before you tonight, what is that the action? Formally, there is no action that needs to be taken by the city council for us to submit this draft plan. That is what it is, I guess, under our charter. We didn't get that into charter reform. But that's where we are. However, this CIP will drive the rates for decades. And therefore, it will essentially influence future council actions on the rates. So what I'm hoping for either tonight or refer to committee and coming out of committee within two or so weeks is a sense of the council's position on this issue and on the draft recommended plan so that we can incorporate that as sort of Somerville's position, not just sort of the director of infrastructure and asset management submitting this plan. So from a high level, what are we talking about? The mechanics of drafting the plan has a few components. As with everything, we had a community engagement process, we have monthly meetings with TEP, we had six community meetings, four workshops with stakeholder groups, two presentations to the city council, to the Somerville City Council, one hearing with the Cambridge City Council. We had been tabling at events, and we also have asynchronous engagement through our website. We've leveraged computer models that we built to understand how our sewer system works, and just a quick thank you to the Curtatone and Ballantyne administrations, as well as the Board of Aldermen and past city councils over the past nine years who have funded that. Without that funding, without growing that capability within the engineering division, we would not be on par with our partners, Cambridge and MWRA, and we would not have been able to sort of look out for Somerville's interests as we prepared this plan. We also used MWRA's receiving water quality model that takes those CSU lows as well as stormwater pollution lows and predicts changes to water quality in the river. Those models are used over a range of rainfall events, so there are a couple of vocabulary terms that are good to understand. The first is typical year. When doing a long-term control plan like this, EPA guidance requires us to evaluate what's called a typical year. That has always been, in the history of the Republic, a backwards-looking statistical analysis. You look back through the historical record of rainfall, look at the number of storms, the intensity of storms, the total number of rainfall in that year, pick the most average year, and use that as your baseline. This long-term control plan update is the first in the nation to actually look forward and incorporate climate change into that typical year. So we call it the 2050 typical year because we're projecting out to a 2050 time horizon looking at increasing rainfall trends and essentially simulated what the trends indicate will be the future rainfall conditions. That then brings us to the next sort of term of art here is level of control. We don't just look at that typical year. We also look at larger storms than that typical year. So a five and a 25 year storm. So a 25 year storm happens once every 25 years or four times in a century. Those are very much larger storms and we assess the impacts of that. There is also what almost every long-term control plan that the technical team is aware of typically allows for a small number of outfalls per year. The rest of the MWRA system and all that work that happened in the 90s through 2015 does allow for outfalls in other parts of Massachusetts Bay that everything else Narragansett Bay Haverhill Springfield they all have a certain number of spills per year and So to get there, the team evaluated 39 different alternative projects, things that we could do to the system to reduce those CSOs. We rated those against a number of criteria, including cost, risk, timeline, construction impacts, co-benefits, all trying to incorporate stakeholder impact into that. All of that will be documented in the draft plan that goes in. I'm happy to discuss it with anyone, but I won't get into the details of those mechanics tonight for part of this presentation. But I will highlight a few of our high-level conclusions. The first is that while on the face of it, a sewer separation might appear to be an obvious solution to a combined sewer problem. But full-scale sewer separation is not the recommended plan from the technical team. There's a number of reasons for that. Keeping stormwater out of a separate sanitary sewer system is a very difficult thing. Stormwater gets in there, so our upstream neighbors like Belmont and Arlington and Medford, who are ostensibly separate systems, do have quite a bit of stormwater that gets into their system, and that flows into the MWRA system. The second piece is that there are downstream constraints in the MWRA system. Deer Island can't be much bigger than it is because it's on an island and there isn't much more land to expand it. There are a number of pump stations between here and there that are also limiting factors, the Delory Pump Station, the Chelsea Headworks. All of those are space constrained, particularly given where they are in Chelsea, so that the capability to upgrade those systems is minimal or expensive. So if you look at those upstream stormwater contributions and the downstream constraints, even if we fully separate, we still have the net result that the MWRA system gets overwhelmed and our local systems get overwhelmed. And we have essentially sanitary sewer overflows that then make their way into the river anyway. So sewer separation does not solve the problem of keeping sanitary waste out of the receiving water bodies. The other problem is that full sewer separation is a very difficult, really expensive thing to do. Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston were built around pipes from the 19th century, and we simply cannot build pipes large enough in those narrow streets that can accommodate these larger storms that we see with climate change. what we would need to do is build some additional facilities we would need to have a decent amount of land taking to build the capacity within our dense city systems to accommodate that those range of flows so essentially that adds up to a prohibitively expensive solution that doesn't solve the root problem now that's not to say that sewer separation isn't in our toolbox and we're not pursuing it it indeed is but it's in targeted locations where we see cso benefits or in targeted locations like especially in war ii where it helps us alleviate flooding um so so sewer separation is in the mix but full-scale sewer separation for the nine square miles of combined and cambridge summer in boston is not a recommended solution So the next high-level conclusion shared by the technical team is that a 25-year level control can't be achieved by this variance waters CSO plan. In most basic terms, that storm, almost eight inches of rain over 24 hours, causes widespread system failures coincident with flooding. So that combination, again, sort of like the sewer separation story, because the systems are completely overwhelmed, we have sanitary sewage coming up out of the manholes in the street, we have flooding in the street, then those two combined get back into the catch basins and make their way out to the rivers. So again, even if we try to achieve that level of control, we have an indirect routing of sanitary to the rivers. The other thing to remember is that stormwater itself contains a whole host of contaminants, including bacteria. So the MWRA receiving water body model was run and indicated that if you only remove CSO and ignored the stormwater component of the problem, you wouldn't have a significant increase in days that attain fishable and swimmable water standards, because the stormwater is such a large... Clearly, solving the CSO problem does a lot of good, and on the face of it, it's something that should happen. But you're not appreciably increasing aerial water quality unless you also look at stormwater, which is not part of the CSO plan. Now that brings me to sort of an important point is the inherent limitation of this regulatory process that we're in, what we're talking about here. So again, what we're looking at is opportunities to improve the system in an area of about nine square miles between Somerville, Cambridge, and Boston. That's sort of the box in which we're operating. And if you also acknowledge that stormwater is the root of the problems, both in terms of water quality and stresses on the system that cause other overflows, Other regions in the country that have been able to do this successfully look at much larger areas and look at stormwater and flood control. If you look at Philadelphia, New York City, Milwaukee, Washington, those are all ones in the industry that are sort of cited as success stories. They're not looking at nine square miles. They're looking at 140, 300, 350, 980 square miles in their district. And they are in a unified way responsible for sewer and stormwater discharge. Here in Massachusetts on that land area for stormwater control, you're talking about 60, 70 different cities and towns for that same area. And each one of them has their own permit and is responsible for their own stormwater. So coordinating at that scale is very difficult in this region. Just a quick aside, by the way, the supplemental slides, we've got some really cool maps that Mike Hanley, our inside GIS guy, put together, along with some help from Gina Cortese and Stephanie Almeida, a couple of our project managers. I just want to highlight that, again, with the support of the two administrations and the city councils and being able to build out the faculty of the engineering department, we can do stuff like that in-house. I'm so excited about that and just want to thank the council again for its continued support on that front. Back to business. So we concluded that we can't achieve that higher level of control with the constraints on our system, but there are other things at foot that can help look at that larger regional goal. There are several bills currently in committee, mostly Christine Barber's committee, that look at or are requesting CSO elimination. There's also one put forward by the Charles River Watershed Association and a representative and a senator that looks at regional stormwater control and flooding. um those are avenues that i think somerville cambridge and mwra really need to focus on on working with the legislature and and sort of breaking this parochial paradigm that is putting us into this box on a more local level as you know we're moving forward with the stormwater fee uh that One of the primary motivators for that is so that private property will manage stormwater onsite. So the less stormwater gets off their site into our system, the less CSOs we have. So there's more to come on that. Again, that same in-house technical team is working on that and you'll be hearing more on that. The final high-level Conclusion that I do want to highlight In a second, we'll get into the into the details of what we are proposing You know, we are cognizant at least every May on concerns on the the water and sewer rates and you know would it be Would we want to put forward a plan with very minimal control? As I say, most plans are approved for a number of out overflows per year. EPA has given a strong indication and the watershed advocates are looking for a higher level of control than what we're seeing nationally or other places in the state. So we're not looking to minimize that, but we are trying to strike a balance between what's practical, as I say, sewer separation and 25-year level of control doesn't do what we need, but we're not looking for a bare-bones plan. So with that, we can now talk about what the recommended plan actually is. And first we'll sort of step through the projects on a watershed by watershed basis. The first is the Alewife Watershed. This plan is for some limited sewer separation, two storage tanks in Cambridge, And a nine-foot diameter, one mile long, what's called microtunnel, spanning from Mass Ave in Cambridge to Dillboy Stadium parking lot in Somerville. Those tanks and that tunnel provide what we call storage. So what would have otherwise overflowed into the Alewife Brook will instead go into those tanks during those storms. And then after the storm is over, that water will get pumped back out back into the MWRA system and sent out to Deer Island for treatment. We estimate the construction period for that to be 13 to 18 years to complete and cost for that program to be $340 million, which would be split primarily between Cambridge and Somerville with MWRA picking up part of that bill. Turning to the Mystic, the plan is for sewer separation in Winter Hill near Foss Park, which relies on the construction of the new drain and stormwater outfall in the Mystic River. I think a lot of people are familiar with the MROS project. That's this. Go back one slide. I'm going to get to that in three slides. So this is essentially MROS plus a storage tank in Assembly Square. We envisioned it largely to be in the parking lot of the Target, I'm sorry, not Target, Staples, the parking lot of Staples. And we have been working with OSPCD and the P&Z staff on the development plans down there. and preserving an area for that tank under roads, open space, or parking lots that will persist. So we're planning ahead for the capability to do that. The construction period for that is 5 to 10 years, largely because we have a head start with MRAS, and the cost for that is around $170 million, which would be split 50-50 between Somerville and MWRA. finally for the charles doesn't really sort of directly impact us we don't have any projects in somerville that contribute to this but the plan is for targeted sewer separation in both cambridge and boston plus storage in both those uh cities uh you know given the extent of that work and their lack of a head start uh the completion time for that is 38 is up to 38 years, estimated cost is 360 million, and the cost for that is split between MWRA and Cambridge. And I will also point out that any cost that MWRA pick up indirectly filter to us because we get wholesale bills from MWRA. So to Council Member Baez's question, what does that mean in terms of CSO elimination? So for the Upper Mystic, that does still keep us in the category of limited CSOs. In a typical year, we go from eight under current conditions to two, and from a total discharge of about 30 million gallons per year to about 7 million gallons per year. I will also highlight that that is a treated discharge. MWRA currently has a facility under 93 that screens and disinfects that. They hit it with chlorine, dechlorine, screen it. So it is a treated discharge. In the alewife, we get to that level of control, which means zero discharges in the typical year. So for that future 2050 typical year, we would expect to have no discharges from any of the outfalls in the alewife. over in the Charles, that is also a limited CSOs in the typical year. The number doesn't dramatically change in terms of the number of spills or the volume, but what it does do, it focuses on reducing the untreated discharges. So the majority of that large number that remains is a treated discharge from MWRA's cottage farm facility. So what it means is that in a typical or average year, there would be no discharge to the Alewife Brook. But what it does mean is that in those big storms, which frankly, we're having problems system-wide anyway, and we're gonna have sanitary sewer flows in the streets. In those big storms, there is still sanitary component that makes its way to Alewife. now i understand that this concept of a typical year is a difficult one and and i i didn't set up council or mubata ask these questions but the next two slides help help um sort of give a better sense right um so this isn't something that we typically have to do but i asked our consultant dewberry to run the actual rainfall record um for this new plan and compare it to what has actually happened. It takes a very long time for this model to run. So the computer's been chugging away for about two and a half weeks and we have a decade worth of, he's gonna continue cranking out some more data for us. So by December, we'll have more. But if you look back at the past decade, which we've had some very wet years and some very big storms in these years, The reduction, so for Alewife Brook, we go from 109 events in that 10-year period down to nine spills. So that's like a 92% reduction in activity. And if you look at the volume, it goes from 107 to 35 million gallons. Again, about an 80% reduction. So you can see that the red bars were the historical what happened And the blue bars are what we predict will happen with the new system. So you see there's a good number of years where there are zero discharges, a couple of years with one, and a couple of years with two or three. Looking over at the mystic, the performance is actually surprisingly better than I was expected. Again, we go from 102 events to six over that 10 year period, and from 240 down to about nine or 10 million gallons in that 10 year period. So it's decent performance. um so that then brings us to well that's great what will it cost um now the counselors might remember some of my past uh discussions about this uh and around rates epa has uh guidance and guidelines around financial capability um so we we've run these through and and the numbers that i'm showing today are provisional We're still refining some costs, plus we need MWRA to run their rates first and give us what their rate projections are, and then we can do ours. We did some estimation. I don't think that the numbers are going to change radically, so I think we're in the right ballpark, but these numbers are going to change by the time you see them in December and then again in May. But the upshot is that that EPA methodology states that Somerville has the financial capacity to undertake this plan on this schedule. And while they don't like to use the term affordable, they say that it is not a burden on our rate payers. So we don't have any relief to go to anything lower than this, essentially. but what does that actually mean again you should recognize this dashboard from our our rate discussions uh one of the things to that you know ed bean and i have have repeatedly said is we don't just look at next year's operating budget when doing the rate increases we have to look forward at the capital plan And there are a number of key indicators that we need to keep positive so that our bond rating stays where it is that we can, you know, afford to borrow money. You know, the debt to service ratio, you know, the total debt. And given the magnitude of the projects ahead of us, what we need to do is start building up cash so that these projects that we're talking about aren't exclusively debt funded. We can use a combination, a strategic combination of cash funding and debt funding. So what that means, and again, we're gonna be working on these numbers and refining them by the end of the year and again by May when we come with the rate request. we can expect that the requested rate increases for the next five years will be in the 20 to 15 per year range and then starting to level off and then after after we build up the rates and build up our capability to bring in cash we can then lower it down to like the five to two percent per year So what are our next steps? So next week, my counterparts at MWRA will be presenting to their board. Their board actually does have to vote to authorize them to submit it. So the MWRA board presentation will be next week and their vote will be at the subsequent meeting. We'll be finalizing and producing this report and submit it by that deadline at the end of the year. 2026 is the sort of public review process. We'll then take in all those comments, refine the plan as needed, resubmit it by January, and then following that, DEP and EPA, if there still is one at that point, will issue an administrative order and the clock will start ticking for us on executing these projects. So again, you're just thinking about what our next steps are. We want to discuss the council's reactions to this, get that in there. You will then see probably me again in the May timeframe for the 27 rate. And as I say, we're thinking is probably going to be in the 15 to 20% for that rate adjustment. So, thank you for bearing with me through this after already a long night and then a huge information dump. I'm happy to take some questions and we can jump to the supplemental slides if wanted.

Thank you, Mr. President. I guess just fundamentally, like, MWRA communities, they're like a million communities?

There's 61 communities in the MWRA service area.

Yeah, so, like, how much does MWRA, you know, how much are they contributing to this project?

So the negotiation of the cost sharing has been tricky. The initial position of the authority at the end of the last long-term control plan and knowing that this next step was coming up in the late 2020s and mid-2020s Their position had always been it's going to be the community's problem. It's going to be Cambridge and Somerville. Somehow Boston outmaneuvered them. I'm not quite sure how they managed to do that, but Boston got free of it and all of Boston's combined sewer area was assigned to MWRA. So it's taken some negotiation to get MWRA to own some of the costs associated with the Alewife and the Mystic. Largely, it's tied to permit ownership of specific outfalls. Philosophically, I don't think that's a great thing, but it is what it is. What MWRA has agreed to pay for as an authority are mitigating flows associated with specific outfalls that are in their permit. So, they have a number of outfalls on the Charles all on the Boston side that somehow got assigned to them. The outfalls essentially on the Cambridge side were assigned to Cambridge, so that Cambridge's responsibility. The Mystic is named to both of us, so that's why we're splitting that one 50-50. The Alewife has a Somerville outfall that spills quite a bit, a number of Cambridge outfalls that spill less, more frequently but less volume, and then a very small MWRA one. So their contributions to the Alewife side are lower, at least as we've negotiated it thus far. um you know that which is also why i bring it back to the the larger regional effort and that the bills that are in committee um i think that we need to look at this more as a larger regional problem um and and not necessarily a cambridge somerville mwra problem within the small box And if we can raise revenue through another mechanism to fund these things, all the better. Because as everyone on the council well knows, when we're talking about affordability for us, we're under a constraint under Massachusetts law, the same utility laws that regulate you know eversource and national grid for electricity and gas that utility bills can only be based on your use of that utility and there is no income means based for the utility bills that allow for adjustment on that and that holds true for somerville it holds true for all the mwra communities So when you talk about affordability and impacts to low-income people, there is no relief if we look at this solely as a sewer utility problem. If we look at it from a regional benefit problem and, you know, Mystic River Watershed Association and Charles River Watershed Association are very articulately making the point that the success of the CSO mitigation program through the 80s into the 90s into the 2000s radically transformed Boston Harbor and the Charles River from what was something that was toxic that you had to stay away from to the fact that they have open beaches. urban beaches in boston now that was unfathomable in the 80s there's an economic development component that goes along with this that isn't necessarily tied to to sewer rate payers um it's it's a it's a regional economic uh growth uh element that has to be considered

I mean like because one thing that is clear is that the MWRA is using, you know, as an overflow, you know, sewage for the undersized in original sewer system. So and if you look, if you think about it, you know, they created you mentioned that was created by the state legislature for the express purpose of fixing this problem of must largely fund the elimination of sewer pollution. So I really think that with a million households in their sewer communities, they can afford it. Don't you think?

yes um but or and uh when you go deeper into mwra's enabling legislation um it it specifically they're not technically in the stormwater business um for all the communities and and that's really part of the the mechanical problem here um And I think that it's certainly worth some conversations, and particularly at the state level, at what is MWRA's charter. And I do have to admit, I am the chair of the MWRA Advisory Board. So I hear from my counterparts in the other 61 communities about cost impacts for these, and we have to be cognizant of that. There certainly has to be more discussion around how these costs are shared, because I'm very much of the position that Somerville and Cambridge shouldn't be doing this all on their own, and I am sympathetic towards MWRA's desire to keep its rates low, knowing the pressure it has from the other 59 communities.

No, but I would just conclude by saying that the CSO was why MWRA was created. So he has to fix it.

Mr. President, can I ask a question on this point? On that point, Council Ewen-Campen and then Council Burnley. Thank you, Mr. President.

Through you, when you say that the UMWRA was assigned the outflows in Boston or, you know, who is doing the assigning?

Essentially DEP and EPA, and this is why philosophically I have a problem with this. The named assignments were essentially generated in the 80s when a permit writer was writing a permit and needed a throat to choke for each one of the pipes um and really there's a because particularly on the alewife there's so much symbiosis on those on those outfalls what you do at one affects the other and we've seen this as a matter of fact and once Once Cambridge was done with their sewer separation, Somerville's outfall had deliberately been choked off and was spilling more frequently than it needed to. And we had to fight MWRA to increase the size of that input into it. to correct for the fact that camp four had now been closed. There's so much interrelation that from a philosophical standpoint, I have a difficulty with it, especially since it was just an administrative way for a permit writer to have someone responsible for a thing.

Okay and so through you and when we're talking now about in these negotiations is that pursuant to EPA and DEP who pays what or is it like you're as you write this plan you're kind of negotiating as you go?

We've been negotiating it as we go. DEP and EPA have wanted us to sort it out. I mean honestly at one point in time it was going to be three separate plans And it took Cambridge and Somerville insisting that that was absolute folly, that it would be three entities writing three plans not coordinating with each other and got everyone to agree that it had to be one plan. Which, you know, honestly, I should give some shout outs that this has been an amazing process. And I think to the strength of the plan that we have three parties with their own army of consultants all working on this. And particularly in the past year, we've spent a lot of time together, often disagreeing and then coming to consensus on a lot of these things. Almost there, Mr. President. Mr. Bradley?

Thank you, through the President. Can we go back a slide? I have some questions on the previous. Let's keep going. It's slide 20, actually. So, a few clarifying questions. Firstly, up top, provisional bill impacts, 208% increase from FY26 to FY55, is that accurate?

Yeah, and again, this provisional, the numbers are going to change, but not radically. So, you know, a 200% is a threefold increase. because like 100 percent doubles so it you know what what it's looking like is is a three-fold increase a tripling of of the the bills over the the next 30 years and it's provisional partially because we don't know what the mr mwra is

inputting there.

Yeah, and we're still massaging some of the cost estimates and the funding plan. We sort of very quickly went through it, knowing we had to do it again, but the balance of cash fund versus debt, we've got a lot of refinement on this to do, but I think the general ballpark that we're talking about is accurate.

And I think I saw on another slide through the chair that part of the decision making in terms of which level of increase per year happens is we're trying to front load some of these costs so that we can plan out for expenses in the future. Is that right?

Correct. Yeah. Essentially, as Director Bean would say, what we need to do is maintain the health of the enterprise fund so that we can keep that positive bond rating. So if these financial indicators get out of whack, then the bond companies will downgrade our bonding capability, which will make it more expensive. So we have to be forward-looking on a number of financial indicators. So essentially, we have to jack up the rates early, start bringing in cash, and then strategically fund through debt and cash.

in so don't know what's going on over there and so The argument against that, so for example, next year, FY27, that 20% usage rate increase, the argument against making that 15% and then having that other 5% basically spread among, for example, like FY32, FY33, FY34, would be if we don't increase it that much next year, What what we don't we're not gonna be able to get this work done We're gonna we risk our bond rating going down to double a yeah It's good questions.

We don't have all the data. We haven't played with all the numbers yet I think we'll play out with some of those scenarios, but but the general gist is yes It puts us in worse positions in later years in just a

Beyond the numbers, which I do think are very important, and this council's talked quite a lot about the impact on rate holders previously, but in terms of the combined sewer separation, this is something that this administration and previous administrations has put considerable amount of investment into. particularly around this area, around Highland, Ave. Do we have a sense of where we're thinking about for where that separation needs to happen moving forward for this plan?

Yeah, so through the president, the MROS is the project that's currently in design. We're going to have a community meeting after the election. Councilor Strezo had the brilliant idea of delaying that for us. That's about 90 acres in Winter Hill that will be fast tracked. We also have some sewer separation targeted for Dane and Perry and Boynton Yards. There may also, we're also looking at some localized stuff in sort of the Capuano neighborhood, because there's some problems over in the Capuano neighborhood that sewer separation will help. So it's really targeted and strategic, just not wholesale.

I'll hold my fire for now, thanks.

I saw a hand over here earlier, Councilor Kling and Councilor Strezo, did I, no?

There are a lot of things I wish to say, but I will speak off. We will, Mr. President, through you too, our director, let's talk. I am not. Let's talk.

Councillor Scott, and I will note that it is my inclination to send this to finance for a deeper discussion in committee and then an opportunity for us to follow up when it comes back in hopefully three weeks. What do you think is the next council meeting? But by all means, continue. Councillor Scott.

Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to thank Director Raish and his team, the very thorough supplemental materials. There's some great stuff on page 54. And I'm very glad that you did not present all those slides to us. i always love a good stormwater conversation i think my bottom line takeaway is that a lot of different approaches to mitigating this were evaluated and yes we're looking at a 3x increase in bills over a 30-year time stretch but the actual full sewer separation wouldn't solve our problems and would result in a roughly 8x bill increase so i appreciate the deeply technical work that's gone into this i sure we'll have a very long discussion in finance about it but in general my my historical opposition to raising the water and sewer rates have had more to do with the management of the department than the realities of the ongoing billion dollar infrastructure problem we're facing and i'm hopeful that we'll be able to move forward in a different manner in a few months thank you

Director Raish, you and I spoke this week about this, and I asked you a question about the makeup of that increase and sort of a little bit of nuance there. Can you speak to that just so folks, in terms of the pervious surface billing plan and how that plays into how an individual homeowner might look at the numbers that are up here and make sure the folks are looking at this?

Thank you, Mr. President. as i alluded to we're moving forward with the stormwater fee currently all the sewer bills are are based on water use we are adding a factor part of it will be based on water use part of it will be based on impervious area so that's an important thing to remember as as we move forward while the cumulative you know sort of city-wide revenue generation needs to to increase by threefold because we're shifting to that impervious area, it won't be the same across the board. And in addition to incentivizing property owners to handle stormwater onsite, the other reason why we're doing that is to bring fairness to it. So the targets, the areas that the properties with large, impervious area will actually be bearing more of that increase than your typical two or three family home will. So certainly the two or three family home bill will be going up, but not by that threefold number. And by the time we're talking about rates next year, we'll have those use cases for you so that you can see exactly how that breaks down.

Thank you. Any further questions or discussion at this point? No. All right. Let's send this to finance for discussion. Say that again. Placed on file with a copy to finance. Thank you. Thank you, Director. All right. Next group of items that we're going to take up together out of order. Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Mr. President. The next items that we will take out of order are 7.2, 3, 4, and 8.2. And those are a request of the mayor requesting approval of the amended 90 Washington Street demonstration project plan. A request of the mayor requesting approval of an amendment to the memorandum of agreement between the city council and the redevelopment authority regarding the redevelopment of 90 Washington Street. A request of the mayor requesting approval of the development objectives for the redevelopment of 90 Washington Street. And an officer's communication from the executive director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development conveying a summary of the 90 Washington process review and development objectives.

All right, excellent. We have members of the administration here to speak on this. I want you to introduce yourself for the record and you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. President. My name is Ben Demers. I'm a senior planner with the Economic Development Division of OSPCD. And if you'll give me just one second to bring up slides. Mr. President, so as I said, my name is Ben Demers. I'm here to talk tonight about a few different items related to the 90 Washington Street development. I am a senior planner with Economic Development. I also do a lot of our coordinating work around Redevelopment Authority projects, so a lot of projects related to urban renewal and any properties that the Redevelopment Authority owns, including 90 Washington Street. So tonight I'm going to talk about a few items related to this project. First, I'm going to be revisiting the guiding documents for this project that lay out the high-level goals as well as the process for development, and I'll talk through a couple of small changes that we'd like to make to clean up the documents while leaving the process essentially the same. And then second, I'm going to preview the next step in that process by presenting the development objectives and the program of uses that we would like to include in an RFP. to select a development partner. So first part, buttoning up the documents. Second part, sort of moving forward in that process. I'd like to be clear up top, we're not asking for any votes tonight. There will be a council approval necessary for confirming any changes to the documents and also for confirming any development goals and a program of uses for the RFP. But we're going to ask for that at a later time. Tonight, we're really just looking for feedback to kind of get the conversation started, answer any questions. We're also intending to host a public hearing at the Land Use Committee on November 6th. So there'll be no votes requested until we've had that public conversation and then we'll come back to the council. I'll also try to move quickly through some of this context given the time. But just to walk through the agenda, so I'll do some quick context. I'll talk about the first item that I referenced, so the guiding documents. And then I will talk about the development objectives and the program of uses for an RFP. And then I'll talk about some next steps. Any questions up top?

OK.

So this is the part that I'll try to move fairly quickly through. As a reminder for anyone tuning in, this is 90 Washington Street. This is a four acre parcel that the Somerville Redevelopment Authority owns on the border of East Somerville and the Interbelt neighborhoods at the intersection of Washington Street and New Washington Street. As you can see, it's kind of an interestingly shaped parcel. It's triangular back from the intersection of Washington and New Washington. And then it also has what we call this sort of tail section down in the southeast corner of the parcel that wraps around a few different buildings at the adjacent Cobble Hill Apartments. So the SRA took this property back in 2019 to serve as the site of a new public safety building, along with complementary transformative development, and also to remove the existing Cobble Hill Plaza, which was a vacant commercial plaza at the time. So without getting too deep into the finances, again, for those who probably know this history, the SRA and the city have paid a total of $39 million towards this site. This is a combination of the initial $9 million that were spent at the taking, and then the SRA was successfully sued by the former owner, and the resulting judgment required a payment of about $30 million between land value and interest. Obviously, this Unexpected expense impacts the city's ability to offer other key services and pursue vital capital projects. So for this reason, in January 2025, the city announced a bit of a shift in direction that it would focus on the sale of the property for private redevelopment without including the public safety component of the project to try to recoup more of the funds that were spent in this taking. So the goal tonight is really moving us more in this direction. So as we're talking about shifting direction, let's go back to the documents that lay out the process for 90 Washington Street, as well as the high level goals. These documents are the 90 Washington Street demonstration project plan. This was the basis for the original taking in 2019. And this really kind of lays out more of the detail of the process. And then there's also a memorandum of agreement from 2019, so signed at the same time that the demonstration project plan was moving forward. This includes some expectations that the SRA and the city council had for each other in this process, but it primarily includes the same process that's laid out in the demonstration project plan. So each of these two documents named the goal of developing a public safety complex, and then the complimentary transformative development as the goals for the project, and they lay out various project steps. So the DPP, the demonstration project plan names these process steps with a little bit more detail. So I'm just going to walk through them. The first is approving the demonstration project plan. So as we know, this is completed in 2019. The second is the acquisition of 90 Washington Street. So this also moved forward in 2019. The third phase of the development is project delineation and design. This is ongoing. This is related to the discussion later in the second half of this meeting. This was intended to include the work of the Public Safety Building Committee around the public safety component of the project. And then it was also the public engagement process to determine what people wanted to see from the private redevelopment portion of the project. And any of that would need to be approved by the council before moving forward. The fourth step that's laid out in that process is a request for proposals, so soliciting proposals for development on the site. There also was what was called a technical advisory committee that was gonna narrow down the responses to that RFP to two. The city council would then take those two responses, decide whether to finalize them or to, switch one of them out and then they would put those forward to the sra and the sra would then choose a finalist from those options from there the sra is meant to negotiate a land development agreement as they do with all development deals and then that land development agreement would also need to be approved by the council And then the last point that I'll talk about here is the fifth phase, so project implementation. In this phase, it's quite broad. This really just talks about SRA and staff working with a selected developer to implement the project. And it notes that any project needs to break ground within three years of the date of the land transfer. So for any changes in high level project goals and process that we just talked about, we need to amend the demonstration project plan and the MOA. So I wanna stress, we're keeping these changes very limited. It's really just about cleaning the documents up since we're largely looking to use that same process that we have just talked through. So the first thing that we are recommending to do, and I should note that there's more detail on this in the documents that were shared with the item and which will be discussed more at the November 6th Land Use Committee hearing. But the first step is that we would remove the high level goal of creating a public safety building. So just explicitly take that out of the plan and then add an explicit goal of recouping funds from the sale of the land. The second change, this is really also just a cleanup item. We would replace reference to the Technical Advisory Committee with the Civic Advisory Committee. So for those who do not know, the 90 Washington Street Civic Advisory Committee is a group of community stakeholders who are invested in this project, and they advise the SRA on implementation of the demonstration project plan. So they have already been meeting since, I believe, early 2023. This is, again, just changing the process that is in the plan to match what we were already doing. And this is the current standard for SRA projects that the council has helped finalize. And then the final note here is to lengthen the time in which a developer can break ground on a project when selected. So this is to allow for greater flexibility in developer discussions and negotiations that the SRA would lead. So the goal here, again, just making sure that we can have a successful negotiation that allows us to recoup as much value as possible from the parcel. So that is kind of the first half of what I wanted to talk about. As I said, we'll talk more about that at the November 6th meeting. I did want to leave time for any questions now before going into the development objectives.

Councillor McLaughlin and then Burnley. Councillor Burnley first.

Thank you. Through you. What happens if the ground isn't broken in three years?

So currently what is referenced in the demonstration project plan is that if ground is not broken within three years, the redevelopment authority retains what is called the right of reverter. So the right to take back the property for no cost. So it's a strong incentive that the redevelopment authority is able to use to make sure the projects happen within a time that people want to see them happen. So we definitely understand we still want to see this project moving. We understand that a major goal of this is to eliminate blight on that property. People want to see redevelopment happen there. It's really just to allow for a bit more flexibility in the negotiation process.

Just quick follow up. So I understand the lengthening of that time, but a provision of that sort would still be in this updated plan, yes?

So yes, we would still be able to keep the right of reverter, like the SRA would still be able to keep the right of reverter in the land development agreement that they could negotiate with that development partner. Thank you. Councillor McLaughlin. Other questions? Let's move to the second half of things. So the other substantive item I wanted to talk about this evening is previewing the development objectives and the program of uses. And again, I'm pulling this language from the demonstration project plan. So really, it's talking what is the more detailed description of what people want to see on the site and kind of what is the mix of uses that would be a part of the project. As I mentioned quickly, phase three of that process in the demonstration project plan notes that these objectives and program of uses need to be approved by the council. And I'm just going to say again, we're not asking for a vote tonight. We just want to introduce them ahead of future discussions. So these objectives and the uses reflect what staff heard in engagement between, primarily between 2022 and 2023. and then that have also been refined over the past few years with the 90 Washington Street Civic Advisory Committee. So that engagement asked people primarily what they want to see from the private redevelopment that was meant to complement the public safety complex. And so we have extrapolated to apply to the entire site now that we're focusing on private redevelopment for the full property. We also sought to also includes the financial priorities that the city has articulated given the increased value paid for the taking. So just to walk through these, and again, this is essentially language we're looking to include in the request for proposals. So the first is recouping a significant portion of funds paid for the taking of 90 Washington Street. We have this first because we want to be very explicit that this is a top goal and should factor in heavily to how a development team responds to this RFP. Again, the SRA has committed to repaying at least a portion of the funds paid for the taking. So they also have stressed that this is very important to them to be explicit about and to say explicitly in an RFP that this is something that they will weigh heavily. The next objective is to achieve some or all of the following land uses. So these are fairly straightforward. One is new housing. There's been a lot of discussion at the Civic Advisory Committee about wanting to see new housing on this site, including affordable options, a range of sizes, and then also new commercial space. We've especially heard about a desire for ground floor retail and more specifically for things like grocery stores and dining options and pharmacies. So this is really looking to replace some of the things that used to exist at the Cobble Hill Plaza on the site. We then also hear a desire for new civic space, and it's a little, civic space here is a phrase talking more about spaces for nonprofit organizations, community groups. I know we can talk about it in Somerville more as kind of a park, but that's really what it's getting at for the RFP, for a broader audience. And then also green space, so active and passive recreation and gathering areas. We've obviously heard the importance of that in this area, especially from the neighbors at Cobble Hill. And then the third point here is around various development objectives. And this gives a better sense to the kind of project that people really want to see. So as I mentioned, mixed use building formats, people want to see housing generally above ground floor retail. This is something that came up a lot in CAC conversations and from engagement. We also heard a desire for dense development on the site that introduces significant new housing. So we've given the guidance that this should match density in our two densest zoning districts. We also though wanna be respectful of the neighbors of this parcel. And so we're giving the direction that as much as possible, we want that density to be concentrated on the Western portion of the site, closer to the MBTA station. And so further away from the adjacent Cobble Hill apartment buildings. To this end, we also wanna see flexibility in form or massing. This is really to encourage respondents to think about, okay, if we're asking to see greater density on the site, are there ways in which you can push the building forms that we currently have available within the Somerville zoning code, especially given kind of the unique shape of this parcel, the tail that comes off of the main portion. So just thinking how that they can be creative in using that space. The fourth is sustainable design, so compliance with Somerville's stretch energy code and demonstrating leadership and resilient design. Fairly straightforward. The fifth, also fairly straightforward, no surface parking. So this is about complying with the Somerville zoning ordinance given the proximity to the transit station. The sixth is that we want to encourage a robust urban canopy and natural landscape. And the parts of this that I want to pull out, especially thinking about how we can use green space to create an appropriate buffer to the adjacent Cobble Hill apartments and also preserve viable existing trees where possible. This is something we heard a lot about from Cobble Hill residents. And then the final piece here is diversity, equity, and inclusion in the development process. So people want to see a high proportion of women and minority-owned business enterprises participating in various stages of the development. So I have one other point about implementation, but this probably makes sense as a... place to stop to ask if there are any questions about the development objectives and the program of uses as they're laid out in this language. And I should note, we've discussed this with the Civic Advisory Committee and we've also discussed it with the SRA ahead of this meeting this evening.

Questions or discussion on that section of the presentation?

Councillor Scott? Thank you, Mr. President. This all sounds great, and it sounds in the general form like what we should have been doing from the very start, so I appreciate this revisitation of it. I will say, though, after being downright gaslit based on the language of the last plan that we passed, I'll be giving this a very clear read and a very careful read while it's in land use. I look forward to the discussion there, and... i'll be sure to follow up with any any comments in writing uh to the planning department when it's or ospcd when it's time thank you other discussion questions council mclaughlin

No questions tonight, Mr. President, and I believe you're going to send this to the Land Use Committee. As was stated, we will have a public hearing on this on November 6th, 6.30. It's going to be a hybrid meeting, so we'll be meeting in person with a remote option. I will have a lot more questions after that public hearing, so I'm not going to spend time tonight asking questions.

Okay, nothing further this time.

I did just want to make one last note on implementation here, which is just related to the general plan for rezoning the parcel. So currently the site is zoned civic. This is going to need to be rezoned to allow for the type of transformative mixed-use development that we want to see on the site. So just want to articulate the current intention is to rezone the parcel in response to the So in partnership with the development partner that responds based on the proposal that they bring in and how they see fit to meet the goals that we have laid out in those objectives. There are strengths to both approaches to rezoning prior and also to rezoning in response to the proposals that we actually get in from the RFP. Ultimately, we felt that it made sense to have that flexibility in the process. Obviously, any proposal that comes forward for future rezoning needs to come before the council, so there will be many future discussions about zoning. Just want to articulate clearly that that's currently our approach to rezoning the parcel.

Other questions or discussion? Mr. Vice President, will you take the chair for a moment?

Chairman Davis.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for this, Mr. Demers. I concur with my good colleague from Ward 2 that this seems like an excellent reflection of what perhaps we might have done from the get-go had we not taken the detour that we took, but c'est la vie. On the question of zoning specifically, I just want to sort of acknowledge that I and others have frequently raised the sort of the specter of the sequencing with which, under which the city I think my prepositions are all twisted around here because the hour is late. And yes, I'm channeling Bill White intentionally because I believe he was famously characterized that Union Square zoning process as being bass-ackwards. And I share that view and I have said, a number of times over the years that i don't want to see that happen again i do agree that in this case this is the right sequence and the right approach for a number of reasons it's a much smaller parcel it's a way it's a single parcel could become multiple parcels but nothing at the scale that Union Square was. And we have the opportunity to, A, have learned from the lessons of Union Square. We have examples like the old Powder House School where the RFP process very clearly laid out what we want as a community we have the civic advisory committee that's put countless hours into you know informing the administration you know what they would like to see so i'm optimistic about this approach i will very much bear in mind the lessons learned in union square when we do get to the zoning stage i think you know if we While there is, and I'll say it an underlying goal, you presented it as sort of the top of the line to recoup the costs, I look at this as we are where we are, and we need to do what's best for the city going forward as a whole, and to me, serendipitously, those two things almost entirely overlap. Making the highest and best use of this parcel, which is Directly on top of a mass transit stop the Community has expressed a strong desire for dense housing. All of those things are the same things that we would do. To maximize the amount of money that we can recoup so I look at it from from you know what I see is the first point like let's do what's best here. I think that'll also help us recoup the money, but to me, that's not the number one goal. The number one goal is let's get it right this time. And so I look forward to that. Thank you for taking this approach. Thank you for the presentation. I'm excited to have this conversation in land use, and we'll get something good here finally. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further question or discussion at this point? Is that everything from your end, Mr. Demers?

Yes, that's everything for me.

So this will be referred to land use with a copy to the, is the planning board involved in that one too? Yeah, copy of the planning board and the SRA. As the good council from board one noted, the public hearing is already scheduled for November 6th. That is posted on the city's website. So folks can take a look at the call there. These slides are available on this item on the city council's agenda. Okay, so folks can catch up on those as well too. Very well, thank you.

Thank you for the time.

I am inclined to press forward, and if members need to take a quick break, then they can do that as we get going. But since we're about to start the night's business at 1013, let's press forward. Madam Clerk, back to the top of the agenda.

Yes, Mr. President.

Councillor McLaughlin. Mr. President, I would like to waive the readings of items number 4.2 to 4.6 and move for approval. These are all items that I hope the next mayor will take very seriously, whoever they may be.

All right. Those items are approved. Seeing no objection.

The next item then is item 6A, a report of the Committee on Finance meeting on October 21st, 2025.

As we discuss the reports, I remind the chairs that all of these meetings are on video, available to the public. The reports are available on the City Council's website in this agenda. And we have the opportunity tonight to hear any really important bits of information that you might feel necessary to share. Councillor Wilson.

Mr. President, on that note, the Finance Committee met on Tuesday, October 21st with all five members present. We took up a 10-hour agenda over the course of a 27-minute meeting, and we unanimously recommended that you approve tonight all the things listed on the agenda for the Finance Committee. I will ask the committee report be accepted as submitted.

All right, discussion on the report. Seeing none, the report is approved. That puts four items before us.

That's correct, Mr. President. And if the council is so inclined, you can take those all up together.

Why don't you give us a quick summary of those just in case anyone... Indeed.

It is appropriating $56,215.42 from the bike share stabilization fund for installation and startup costs of a blue bike station at the 495 Columbia street development site, appropriating $147,724.07 from the COVID-19 stabilization fund for the 2026 warming center. creating the brick bottom infrastructure stabilization fund and accepting a payment of $763,814.81 from offsite infrastructure and other contributions outlined in the brick bottom district project development covenants for the purpose of funding public infrastructure projects that mitigate the impact of large scale development in the brick bottom district. and creating the Boynton Yards Infrastructure Stabilization Fund and accepting a payment to the fund of $384,025 from off-site infrastructure and other contributions outlined in the Boynton Yards District Project Development Covenants for the purpose of funding public infrastructure projects that mitigate the impact of large-scale development in the Boynton Yards District.

Any discussion on any of those four items? Seeing none, then no objection to taking them up together. Madam Clerk, roll call.

On all four of those items, Councillor Wilson.

Yes.

Councillor Ewen Campin. Yes. Councillor Scott.

Yes.

Councillor McLaughlin. Yes. Councillor Burnley.

Aye.

with all counselors in favor those items are approved very good thank you the next item then is going to be item 6b a report of the committee on legislative matters meeting on october 20th 2025.

Thank you, Mr. President. We met for a brisk 10 minutes and just reviewed language that had been requested in previous that will put an item before us after this report is hopefully accepted, which is simply approval of a home rule petition which raises the thresholds by which the city can use an abbreviated or preferential purchasing process for small number jobs as long as the businesses awarded are disadvantaged, diverse, or small and local. So it's just a way following our procurement study that we long awaited to actually start to address some of those inequities.

Mr. Chair, how do we determine whether business meets those categories?

Well, it has to meet certification by the Supplier Diversity Office of the City of Boston or by virtue of another certification process approved by Somerville.

Thank you. Anything further? I ask that the report be accepted as submitted, sir. Any discussion on the report? All right, seeing none, the report is approved on the HRP.

And on the home rule petition to raise the sound business practices and written, quote, contract thresholds under Mass General Law Chapter 30B for city contracts with certified disadvantaged businesses. Councillor Wilson.

Yes.

Councillor Ewen Campin.

Yes.

Councillor Scott.

Yes.

Councillor McLaughlin. Yes. Councillor Burnley. Aye. Councillor Sait. Yes. Councillor Strezo. Yes. Councillor Clingan.

Yes.

Councillor Mbah.

Yes.

Councillor Davis. Yes. With all councillors in favor, that item is approved.

Very well. the next item then is the report of the committee on public utilities and public works meeting on october 15 2025. council clinton thank you mr president through you all members were present uh i think it was like a half an hour meeting just a couple of items in the box i'll just quickly say uh one because um it was kind of a pretty big deal in the lagoon square area with all of the uh power outages I'm good. The power outages in the lagoon square area, there was a really good memo attached from the utility company attached to the agenda. So I recommend the ward counselor and take a look at that. And then We had a discussion about MBTA furnishings and standardizing that. That was kept in committee. Yeah, so the video is online. I ask that this report be accepted as submitted.

Any discussion on the report? All right, seeing none, that is approved.

Mr. President, can I move to waive the readings of items 75 to 79, and ask those to be sent to Finance?

Seeing no objection, those items are sent to Finance.

That brings us to item 7.10, a request of the mayor requesting approval of the surveillance technology impact report for use of an unmanned aircraft system at the high school.

Mr. President, I request waive the readings of 7.10 through 7.13 and send those to legislative matters.

Those are all surveillance technology impact reports for new technology or well, new reports for technology. So folks can take a look at those. Those will all be sent to legislative matters. Thank you.

Item 8.1 is an officer's communication from the chief assessor requesting to appear at this council's November 13th, 2025 meeting for the tax classification public hearing and the determination and adoption of tax levy percentages for fiscal year 2026.

That item is approved.

Item 9.1 is a public communication from Tufts University conveying its fall 2025 accountability report.

That item is placed on file.

Item 9.2 is the public communication from Harvard University conveying its fall 2025 accountability report.

That item is placed on file.

Item 10.1 is an officer's communication from the city clerk conveying block party licenses issued.

Block parties. Block party. No, but block parties are awesome. And since there's only one in this list, if you don't have a block party, you should call the clerk's office and find out how to do it because they're great. That item is placed on file.

Council Brownlee? Item 10.2. Through this year, I'd like to waive the reading of item 10.2 through 10.5 and ask that these all be approved.

All right, seeing no objection, those items are approved.

Item 10.6 is a public communication from Bill Valletta, submitting comments regarding item 25-1557, requesting approval to create the Brick Bottom Infrastructure Stabilization Fund.

Council Wilson, do you want to send that one to finance?

Yes, Mr. President. Well, actually, that just came out.

On the item, Mr. President, I would recommend placing it on file. And I would recommend everybody actually read this. It is an absolutely withering indictment of a problem that many of us in this chamber have complained about. which is their stabilization funds. They have funds sitting unspent, and the tracking of all this has been woefully understated. So much as my colleague from Ward 1, I appreciate this. I hope everybody takes a look at it, and I hope the next mayoral administration will be cooperative in helping to address this. Thank you.

All right, very well. That item is placed on file.

And that brings us to the end of the agenda, Mr. President.

Are there any late items?

There are no further items before this council.

All right. Councillor Wilson moves to adjourn. We are adjourned.