At the Aug. 26 Board of Selectmen meeting, the board made plans to present a draft of Harvard’s Devens disposition success criteria at the Aug. 28 meeting of the Joint Boards of Selectmen (JBOS). Developed by Tim Clark and Ron Ricci from working documents previously discussed by the board, the draft was reviewed and fine-tuned. Three different scenarios are defined in the document, characterized as “some, none, or all,” i.e., Harvard assuming jurisdiction over some, none, or all of Devens within Harvard’s historical boundaries. The major criteria categories are community, economics, education, environment, and administration/transition.
After presentation to JBOS, the selectmen plan to discuss and receive input on the criteria at an all-boards meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2, and to hold a public forum on Saturday, Sept. 27, to discuss and ratify Harvard’s success criteria. On Saturday, Sept. 6, Devens residents will meet to discuss and codify their success criteria.
In October 2006 the disposition scenario known as “2B” was defeated by Town Meeting votes in Ayer and Harvard. The other four stakeholders (town of Shirley, MassDevelopment, Devens Enterprise Commission, and Devens residents) voted in favor of 2B, but approval required a positive vote from five of six stakeholders. Under 2B, a new town of Devens would have been formed, and jurisdiction over portions of Devens would have returned to the three towns. Harvard would have taken jurisdiction of a portion of Barnum Road, including some commercially zoned parcels but no residential parcels.
After the defeat of 2B, there was little discussion of disposition for more than a year. In January of this year, Harvard officials asked MassDevelopment for information about potential tax revenue from existing and planned commercial development. A few months ago, a detailed revenue model was presented, first to JBOS, and then to individual towns. At the conclusion of those presentations, Harvard officials asked MassDevelopment for comparable information about operating expenses, explaining that such revenue and expense information would be critical to determining feasibility of jurisdiction options.
Meanwhile JBOS discussions about disposition became more urgent, fueled in part by an assertion that Ayer might be interested in taking jurisdiction of all of Devens. At its July 15 meeting, held at Devens, the Harvard Board of Selectmen declared that Harvard would bring forward “success criteria” for various disposition scenarios, and would present such criteria at the Aug. 28 JBOS meeting.
