After Enrico Cappucci, chairman of both the Shirley Board of Selectmen and Joint Boards of Selectmen (JBOS), said at a recent JBOS meeting, “I think that Vicksburg Square should have passed,” a discussion began that has carried across the last two JBOS meetings and raised the idea of fundamentally changing Chapter 498, the 1993 law that established zoning and governance for the Devens Regional Enterprise Zone (DREZ).
Currently, Chapter 498 specifies that changes to governance or zoning require a simultaneous vote of town meetings in Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley, and that all three town meetings must approve the change. A single town can defeat such a proposal, as happened when the town of Ayer voted against the rezoning of Vicksburg Square.
“What we’re looking for is a better way of making changes to [Ch.] 498,” Harvard Board of Selectmen Chairman Ron Ricci said at the Oct. 22 JBOS meeting.
One proposed method called for town meeting votes, but rather than treat each town as a single vote, the measure would pool all the votes in all three town to determine the success or failure of a proposal. Ricci stated, “The way Vicksburg Square was done, a lot of outreach was done, a lot of work was put into it, and it failed, and not necessarily by a majority.”
Devens Committee member Tom Kinch suggested that the change process begin with a letter from JBOS. Kinch said, “If we draft a letter of intent from JBOS, a letter of comfort, that [says] we are evaluating the process to consider an amendment to [Ch.] 498 to allow a majority vote as opposed to ‘super town meeting’,” that letter could be taken to either State Senator Jamie Eldridge or to State Representative Jennifer Benson. Kinch said, “Such a letter would allow them to tell us what we need to do.”
Harvard Selectwoman Lucy Wallace warned that “this is something each board of selectmen should vet very closely. In the ’90s, we came up with the ‘super town meeting’ [model] after looking at all the options. Before the JBOS goes off and writes a letter of intent, I’d feel a lot more comfortable if we had spoken in our own communities and heard from them. Each board of selectmen should have it on their agenda, solicit public input from meetings, get some guidance.”
Phil Crosby of the Devens Committee asked, “What are we changing it to, exactly?” Shirley Selectman Andy Deveau responded that the change being proposed would require votes of “a majority of all three communities.” Cappucci concluded the conversation with a request to all members present to “come back with some ideas.”
