(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff, or publishers)

By Ben Orenstein
founder The Somerville Beacon

The failure of the Copper Mill project – which would have built a large tower in Davis Square – is a tremendous loss to housing affordability, economic well-being, and neighborhood character for the city.

The proposed tower would have been hugely beneficial:

1. It would have added 502 units of housing in a city that has legally declared a housing emergency.
2. 126 of those units would have been permanently price-restricted and offered via lottery to low- to moderate-income people.
3. Davis Square businesses would have gained approximately 1,000 nearby customers.
4. The city would have received more than $5 million in one-time permitting and review fees, as well as $2 million per year in new tax revenue.
5. The developer offered two retail spaces to the city at no cost, for small-business or community uses.
6. The developer pledged to sign a Project Labor Agreement ensuring they used local union labor for the project.
7. The developer agreed to go to substantial lengths to preserve The Burren: not just offering it a new location at its old rent(!), but even preserving and restoring its interior woodwork.

I was pleased to see that the proposed tower was ambitiously tall. Height is one of the only ways to build a lot of housing all at once. The 2016 Winter Hill Plan estimated we’d need to build 8,000–14,000 units by 2030 to keep up with demand. We have created just 3,500 units since then. If we wish to dig ourselves out of this hole, we will almost certainly have to build farther from the ground.

Yes, the project’s market-rate units would likely have been expensive. But newly built units keep people from bidding up the prices of older ones. If you don’t want to compete with a well-paid newcomer for part of a triple-decker, you need to build newer units for them to rent instead.

Some worried that the tower would change the character of the square. I agree: for the better! Today’s Davis has low foot traffic, many empty storefronts, and 82% more reported crime than in 2017. I think we all would have come to prefer a Davis with a beautiful tower, newly thriving businesses, and 1,000 prosperous residents.

I am dismayed at our elected officials’ lack of public support for the project. I yearn for leaders who would listen to constituents’ objections around height or aesthetics and say, “I hear you. There are plenty of things we could complain about here, but this is a huge win for the city and we desperately need more housing, so we’re going to try to make it happen.”

The next time we are given a chance to add hundreds of units of badly needed housing along with many other adjacent benefits, I hope the first words from City Hall are “How can we help?”