Another piece has fallen into place in the city's drive to redevelop the Assembly Square Mall site. Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Leila R. Kern ruled Aug. 12 in favor of allowing the city to take 1.7 acres of land belonging to Central Steel Supply Co., which has resisted selling the property. The land is in the Yard 21 section of Assembly Square, which borders the MBTA's Orange Line tracks. James Masterman, a part ner at Masterman, Culbert & Tully, which represents Central Steel, said the company would most likely appeal the court's decision.

     In 2002 the city approved an amendment to its 1980 Assembly Square urban renewal plan, designating Central Steel's property and several other industrial parcels as land that would need to be acquired for the redevelopment. Central Steel filed suit, arguing the city had in effect created an entirely new urban renewal plan with its amendment.

     Masterman said he doesn't think a new urban renewal plan could have met the seven prerequisite requirements needed for a plan to be approved by the city's aldermen and the state. He said he thinks this is why the city went the amendment route.

     "The original plan was hatched when urban renewal was a hot is sue in the 1950s or 1960s, and you're obviously going to see changes over that period of time," he said. "I think that the city made a calculated judgment that they could not prove that Assembly Square was in need of urban renewal, so they decided to rely upon 30-year-old findings, which I think were unsubstantial back then and have no bearing now."

     But the Superior Court decided in the city's favor.

     "This is just one major hurdle we've overcome," said Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. "The urban renewal plan is the very core of the policies and vision, and to have that plan affirmed by the court is critical."

     Curtatone said the legal victory would add certainty to the process to approve plans for the Yard 21 section of the project. Developers Assembly Square Limited Partners recently held its first public meet ing on that plan.

     "This allows us to begin moving forward on the Orange Line section of the development, which will ultimately be the most exciting part of the project," said Curta tone.

     William Shelton, president of the Mystic View Task Force, a Somerville community group which has long opposed city's plans for the site, said the idea of taking Central Steel by eminent domain is "all part of an ill-con ceived plan which will produce more loss to the city than gain."

     The task force, along with a Somerville homeowner, recently filed a complaint against the city for approving a zoning ordinance amendment in April that could bring Swedish home furnishings store IKEA to the Assembly Square Mall.

     In criticizing the IKEA idea, Shelton cited Mass. Chief of Com monwealth Development Douglas Foy's statement that the state would not pay for an Orange Line stop unless the city can generate foot traffic of 8,000 people on and off the train each day.

     "Since people don't usually go shopping for a couch or Sheetrock on the Orange Line, the present plan can't do that," he said.

     Curtatone said Somerville's most recent court victory is a sig nal of things to come.

     "One by one, we'll see these le gal challenges decided in favor of moving forward and creating eco nomic growth at the site," he said.