We are the assessment team from the Consensus Building Institute, a not-for-profit facilitation/mediation firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The City of Somerville has asked us to initiate a conflict assessment on the issues surrounding the future of Assembly Square.
Ultimately, the City would like to determine whether a facilitated dialogue among diverse and committed stakeholders on the future of Assembly Square would be useful and productive.
We are specifically interested in learning what you think are the current challenges, opportunities, as well as limitations regarding the future of Assembly Square, and your view about how the issues could be addressed.
The purpose of the conflict assessment is to:
· Help stakeholders better understand each other's concerns;
· Provide stakeholders with a road map for moving forward if a consensus-building process is appropriate.
Through this assessment, stakeholders such as the City of Somerville, Mystic View Task Force, Assembly Square Limited Partnership, Ikea, and other relevant agencies, businesses, landowners, and citizens, should be able to accomplish the following goals:
· Identify all the stakeholders and clarify the issues regarding the future of Assembly Square;
· Explore and specify the interests and concerns of each stakeholder group and consider the breadth of the differences among the parties;
· Investigate stakeholders' willingness and capacity to participate in a collaborative problem-solving dialogue; and,
· Assess the feasibility of designing a consensus building process that would be acceptable to the stakeholders and would effectively address all the key issues of concern.
THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
As non-partisan neutrals, the way we conduct an assessment is to confidentially interview a diverse range of stakeholders to learn more about their views, questions and concerns and to explore ways they might be addressed. We will conduct approximately 45 interviews with stakeholders.
We will summarize what we hear from stakeholders in the form of a draft report and list the people we've talked to in a “List of Interviewees.” Specific comments will not be attributed to any stakeholder by name or organization. We maintain this confidentiality to protect your views and concerns, and to ensure that interviewees can be as honest and direct as possible. Everyone we speak with will have an opportunity to review and comment on the draft report before we finalize it.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Following are the questions we will be using to guide the interview process.
You and your organization
Please tell us about yourself and / or your organization. How long have you been with this organization? In what ways does your work and / or interests relate to the future of Assembly Square?
View of the Current Situation
What are your interests, thoughts and concerns regarding the future of Assembly Square?
What goals do you have for development in the Assembly Square area?
What is your specific vision for Assembly Square? What is your understanding of other stakeholders' visions for Assembly Square?
What is your view of the current planning and decision-making process for the future of this area?
Do you think that Somerville and surrounding cities and towns should coordinate their planning efforts in at least some ways? If so, how? If not, why not?
Have the development proposals so far raised thoughts, ideas, or concerns regarding broader city and regional land, transportation, economic, and environmental planning? If so, how?
What will be necessary to plan for future growth in the region?
What are the constraints for developing dense mixed-use development in Assembly Square / Metro Boston?
Regarding transportation and traffic, what are the existing conditions, constraints, and desired improvements? What is your understanding of traffic analyses to date?
What are the design challenges (landscape, structures, infrastructure, etc.)?
What potential changes can be made to current plans to alleviate concerns? What elements of current plans cannot or should not change?
Under what conditions should development go forward? When should it be abandoned?
Do you believe that both the city and the region as a whole can coordinate planning efforts for this area in at least some ways? If so, how? If not, why not?
What additional information, if any, would you like to share with other stakeholders to help them understand your perspective?
Are there other concerns related to Assembly Square that we have not yet addressed?
Improving the Current Situation
How can the current dialogue and decision-making process around the future of Assembly Square be improved?
Suppose a diverse group of stakeholders from the area were convened to negotiate on issues raised by the future of Assembly Square:
What topics might such a group address? What should the key goals and objectives of such a negotiation be?
How could it be coordinated with existing planning efforts?
What form should such a negotiation take? (Informal, or more structured and formalized with groundrules, a work plan, a chair, membership, and so forth? Facilitated?)
Which stakeholder groups would need to be represented (do they have authority to commit from their constituents)?
Would such a process add value to current local, regional, and state efforts?
What would be the necessary conditions for your organization to want to participate?
What would be a reasonable timeframe for such a process?
What would be the desired product / outcome from such a process?
Thank you for considering these questions. We are aiming to prepare our draft of initial findings by mid-June. When we have completed this draft, we will forward it to you for your review. Our draft conflict assessment we aim to finalize by early July, which we will again forward to you for your review before it is finalized. We would appreciate an e-mail, fax and mailing address to do so. Thank you for your time.