As part of the master plan process, we on the Master Plan Steering Committee (MPSC) are now visiting with boards and committees who help manage town resources. We want to solicit their input and enlist their help in implementing the plan once it’s written. These meetings offer a vital opportunity, not only for our boards to contribute directly to the Master Plan vision, but also to define and scope their roles in implementing the Master Plan tasks that relate to their respective missions.
At the kickoff meeting with the Board of Selectmen on Jan. 21, for example, the Board of Selectmen cited the direction and nature of development of the town center as a priority, especially as it relates to infrastructure plans to improve traffic, parking, and pedestrian safety. Similarly, the MPSC will converse with the other organizations who give shape and direction to Harvard, including the Historical Commission, the Conservation Commission, the Board of Health, the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, and others. In these discussions, the MPSC hopes to understand how and to what extent the following five priority areas impact each organization’s mission:
- Ayer Road Commercial District: achieving balance between the development of commercial services and maintaining the sense of place and community that the town desires;
- Housing: increasing the diversity of our town’s housing stock;
- Town center: maintaining the center as the town’s primary gathering place;
- Conservation: preserving our natural, historical and cultural resources; and
- Devens: understanding Devens’ impact on Harvard and working to set a direction that allows the town to make decisions about Devens when such decisions are required.
Of course, these discussions are only part of a program to engage the community at large. We plan to begin townwide conversations on these important issues very shortly; each of these issues will impact the way our town works, looks, and grows over the next 10 years. Planning is already underway for a series of public roundtable discussions on these topics. Insights from these discussions will inform a series of working papers that the MPSC will draft with our master planning consultant, RKG Associates. These working papers—once drafted, debated, and held up for public scrutiny by you, the Harvard community—will form the chapters of our next Master Plan.
To this end, we’d like to invite you to reflect on the following questions:
- Which of the five priority areas most concern you over the next 10 years?
- In an ideal scenario, how would you like to see these areas evolve in that time?
- What undesirable scenarios would you hope that we avoid?
- How should we balance growth and development with conservation of our historical, cultural and natural resources?
- What other topics do you feel an effective Harvard Master Plan should address?
Please keep an eye out for announcements about these roundtable discussions, as well as about other opportunities to share your views on the future of our beautiful town.
If you haven’t already, we encourage you to read the excellent essay by Elaine Lazarus of the Economic Development Committee and Joe Hutchinson of the MSPC, “Why do we need a Master Plan?” published in the Jan. 17, 2014, edition of the Harvard Press’s “Consider This” column.
Thank you in advance. We look forward to giving you a voice as we plan for Harvard’s next 10 years.
Didi Chadran is the Community Preservation Committee liaison to the MPSC. Joe Theriault is the Historical Commission liaison to the MPSC.
