Ten Things You Really Need to Know About the DIF Before Tonight's Public Hearing

1.     DIF is the next big development project proposed by the City for Somerville. If you think the Assembly Square project is big, you haven't met the DIF, or District Improvement Financing Plan.

2.     The DIF proposes a 30-year development plan for southeast Somerville, including Boynton Yards, Brickbottom, Inner Belt, Union Square, Twin City and the commercial corridor along Somerville Ave. running from Sullivan Square to Porter Square. That's an area totaling 445 acres or 16.5 percent of Somerville's area overall.

3.     Development would include infrastructure improvements, including replacing the narrow, 19^th century brick sewers under Union Square that are unable to handle heavy water runoff and therefore contributed to recent flooding.

4.     Other projects would improve roadway, public transportation, utilities infrastructure and streetscapes, and new parking garages, parks and open space would be built.

5.     Ultimately, the program hopes to provide the infrastructure to draw in new businesses into "underused" spaces.

6.     As it stands, the plan would require the purchase of 35 private properties. This could happen cooperatively or—and this is important—22 of those properties may be taken by eminent domain, where the city would force the sale of the property. Reliable Market, Ricky's Flower Market and John's Auto Sales are among the properties targeted for purchase. Let's just say this caused some consternation at the Sept. 15 meeting where the plan was unveiled.

7.     No changes to tax rates or billing would take place to fund the DIF. Rather, using a method in use in 49 states and created in the 1970s, the project would reserve certain tax receipts for reinvestment in the DIF areas. The idea is that as DIF projects raise property values and create new properties to tax, those new receipts—and only those new receipts—would be reinvested in the DIF area creating even more new properties to tax, and so on.

8.     In its first year, the DIF will require an estimated budget of $167,000. By 2017, the annual budget is estimated at $12.75M.

9.     The official period for public comment opened Sept. 15 and ended Sept. 28. But alderman Maryann Heuston arranged for tonight's public hearing nonetheless. See our Events Calendar for info, click here.

10. The Board of Alderman is scheduled to vote on the proposal on Oct. 28.

To read through the DIF proposal, click here.