Town officials debate value of Master Plan
Harvard residents must wait until April 2—the day of Annual Town Meeting—to see how much the Planning Board (PB) wants residents to pay for a 10-year update to Harvard’s 2002 Master Plan.
“The motion is the Planning Board’s,” said Finance Committee (FinCom) Chairman Bob Thurston last week, after the committee’s conversation with PB Chairman Kara Minar failed to yield agreement on funding for the strategic planning document. A Monday session of the Planning Board also ended without agreement about how much to ask for, though the board talked about $50,000 to get a consultant started on the project now and then securing an extension from the state for the plan’s completion.
The 2002 plan cost $116,000, including a $30,000 state grant that is no longer available. Minar was skeptical of the $10,000 budget floated by FinCom but firmly advocated for the plan’s update and vowed to work with her board toward a reasonable number.
“We’re open to solutions, but this is also a known, budgeted expense that funds a vital planning tool,” Minar said. Profound changes to the town in the next several years require a top-notch Master Plan, she argued. Minar cited potentially significant changes resulting from Devens disposition (which could see Harvard regain some of its territory) and the soon-to-be-completed report from Harvard’s Economic Development Committee. That report, she explained, could propose dramatic changes. “The stakes are huge. We fail to plan, we can plan to fail,” she said.
To be sure, the Master Plan is required by law. But the mandate for a 10-year update is regulatory, so getting an extension—the only point that everyone immediately agreed upon—is a routine, bureaucratic matter.
The question of how much of the plan is itself routine and bureaucratic, and how much is truly useful, caused debate within FinCom and the PB, each at their separate meetings. For instance, FinCom members asked whether any of the plan’s 20-plus action items—such as revitalizing town center buildings and acquiring open space—had been achieved. In response, Minar cited the Master Plan’s prescription for a special zoning area meant to avoid sprawl by concentrating development in an already-busy section of Ayer Road. The zoning, known as Ayer Road Village Special Permit zoning, was adopted about five years ago by ATM and later allowed a 42-unit apartment building. The apartments, permitted last month, will usher Harvard into a two-year safe harbor period, during which the town can summarily deny any brand-new 40B project. The zoning, said Minar, “clearly benefits the town.”
Speaking to the question of the plan’s fundamental value, PB member Peter Brooks wondered whether it was right, in tough economic times, to ask people to “pay for a plan they’ve never read.” Fellow PB member Michelle Catalina countered that she and many others in town government refer to the Master Plan “all the time.” “If town leaders are using this to make decisions, it benefits everyone … including people who aren’t reading the plan,” Catalina said.
Questions about the Master Plan’s inherent value, and whether Master Plan fans were playing an insider’s game, were not settled by either board. However, Press readers can search for their own answers by visiting harvardpress.com and clicking through as follows: About Harvard, Harvard Wiki, Harvard By Design, Master Plan, Oct 9, 2009. Then, check back next week for a brand-new status report.
