The drive to get a question on the 2008 ballot that would repeal Chapter 40B has ended in rejection by the commonwealth’s secretary of state. Although more than 70,000 signatures were certified by the towns and cities and provided to the secretary, we were shocked when only 34,000 survived the review by his office. We needed 66,000 signatures for the question to be on the ballot.
We were not aware of the stringent rules followed by the secretary of state in his further certification of the petition documents. Apparently, an “extraneous mark” on a petition sheet, even a small, accidental pen mark, is enough to disqualify all of the signatures on the document. Unfortunately for us, the state workers were diligent in their job of finding these marks and throwing out more than half of the signatures collected.
This part of the referendum process is another example of how the deck is stacked by the state in favor of developers and against the towns who are being impacted by Chapter 40B. What it means is that we will have to continue to find ways to fight and defeat these developments on the local front. We citizens are becoming more educated in the 40B process and, while it is difficult, we can make developers think twice about coming to Harvard. It will take time, money, and perseverance, but it can be done.
As a town, we certainly don’t want to put out the welcome mat again, as was done in the case of MHOC. So we hope that the town officials involved in the 40B process support us from now on by making it as difficult as legally possible for developers to bring these types of projects to town.
Wade Holtzman, Bolton Road
Anthony Marolda, Jacob Gates Road
