Additional housing at Devens was the main topic at last Thursday’s Joint Boards of Selectmen (JBOS) meeting. State Senator Pam Resor and Representative Jamie Eldridge came to the meeting to help move along a process which began Oct. 4 of last year, when representatives from the governor’s administration made a proposal for 400 units of work-force housing at Devens.
Referring to an upcoming meeting with the Undersecretary of Housing and Economic Development, Tina Brooks, Eldridge said he was seeking the consensus of the JBOS on the proposal and looking for specific feedback and questions to bring to that meeting. “We’re looking at getting into more details, unless there’s strong opposition,” Eldridge told the assembled selectmen and other officials from Ayer, Shirley, Harvard, and Devens.
Eldridge emphasized the need for housing in the state, and both he and Resor said they were concerned about the short period between now and the end of July for completing a legislative process that would be necessary to amend the number of housing units allowed at Devens.
Clearly frustrated at the lack of progress on a response to the proposal, Resor asked, “Is there a timeline?”
There appeared to be some confusion about who had been responsible for taking the next step.
“If the administration was waiting for us to respond to their invitation, we didn’t get the invitation,” said Harvard Selectman Tim Clark. Both Clark and Harvard BOS Chairwoman Lucy Wallace appeared uncomfortable with the urgency for a response on the proposal.
Wallace cited the need to inform the public of the proposal and to bring it before a Town Meeting.
“If we were supposed to be taking this back as a concrete proposal, I’m sorry, I missed that,” Wallace told Resor and Eldridge.
“We thought we were at simmer; now we’re told that this process is on boil,” said Clark. He expressed his concern about the ability of the surrounding towns to absorb new housing into an already flat housing market and about a need for certainty about the education of the children in the new housing.
To Clark’s concerns, Rich Montuori, senior vice president of MassDevelopment, the developer and provider of municipal services at Devens, responded that they expect to build only 85 units or less a year, and he expressed optimism about the housing market. “We want to be ready to hit the ground running when the market comes back,” he said.
The Devens representatives spoke strongly in support of the state’s proposal as a means to a better balance between residential and commercial properties and to supplying homes necessary for the developing industry at Devens.
Devens committee member Dave Winters expressed concern that decisions about Devens were being made by people who don’t live there. “The people that are most affected are strongly in favor of it,” he said.
Wallace expressed concern about high density if most or all of the proposed housing is slated for the Grant Road location, the site of 176 units of housing already approved to be built. Winters and Tom Kinch, another Devens committee member, assured her that the residents have already accepted a conceptual plan developed by Sasaki Associates that includes high-density housing surrounded by green space.
Ayer Selectman Frank Maxant worried about the impact the proposed housing might have on 600 new homes in the pipeline for his town, or vice versa, and advocated for Planning Board involvement. “Can we be sure that the administration is aware of what plans are in place already?” he asked.
After Guercio took a poll of the representatives present, which included a majority of the selectmen from each community, he reached the conclusion that the group would like to proceed with more discussions about the proposed housing. Resor offered to arrange for someone from the state to come to the next JBOS meeting with a plan addressing concerns heard at the meeting.
