Land Entitlement Director Ed Starzec of MassDevelopment got more than he bargained for last week when he came to an election-night Board of Selectmen meeting to set a time and place for presenting four zoning changes the agency would like to make within the Devens Regional Economic Zone (DREZ). Those changes to the Devens bylaw—Chapter 498 of the Massachusetts General Laws—will require the simultaneous approval of Ayer, Shirley, and Harvard town meetings, as well as the state Legislature.
Among the proposals is one that would allow up to 120 units of senior housing to be built on 35 acres of land that lies within Shirley’s historical boundaries. The proposal has the support of the town of Shirley, its Economic Development Committee, and its Council on Aging, so why is it, asked Selectman Ron Ricci, that Shirley has to seek the approval of Harvard, Ayer, and MassDevelopment to develop land that lies in the heart of its own town center? And why is it necessary for MassDevelopment to be the middleman behind the land sale and permitting that will follow if the proposal is approved? Maybe it’s time, Ricci said, for Shirley to ask for jurisdiction over that parcel as well as the rest of the Village Growth District that lies within its historical boundaries.
We think that those are reasonable questions and that with a potential 2015 Super Town Meeting in the works to decide MassDevelopment’s requests, the time is right to raise them. But the time is also right to ask the question that Harvard has never been able to answer for itself: What do we want from Devens? Years of study have yet to produce an answer. And coincidentally, the Master Plan Steering Committee-sponsored forum on Devens that was to have been held this weekend has been postponed, just as the selectmen prepare to meet with the boards of Ayer and Shirley.
Shirley has decided what it wants. Isn’t it time for Harvard to decide?
