The odds that Harvard’s selectmen will vote any time soon to call for a Super Town Meeting to decide the fate of four zoning changes proposed by MassDevelopment, the state agency overseeing the buildout of Devens, seemed less favorable this week.
The selectmen had expected MassDevelopment to provide a draft of the meeting warrant for discussion at their meeting Tuesday night, May 5, and had reserved time on their agenda for Ed Starzec, MassDevelopment’s director of land entitlements, to present it.
But the promised documents were not ready and Starzec did not appear, leaving board members to wonder whether the town would be prepared to vote by early June as MassDevelopment has requested, before the end of the school year when Harvard residents head elsewhere.
In an email Wednesday morning, MassDevelopment spokesman Mark Sternman said that although the proposed warrant would not be ready until May 15, the ideas behind each of the changes had been available and fully explained since April at an agency-sponsored website. A final public hearing on the changes was held last Thursday, April 30, at Devens. Any additional delay, he said, was unnecessary.
Zoning at Devens is governed by a state law, Chapter 498, agreed to by the towns of Harvard, Shirley, and Ayer in 1994. Any changes to that law, such as the four amendments proposed by MassDevelopment, must be approved by town meetings of the three towns, meeting on the same date at the same time, the so-called Super Town Meeting.
When asked last month to choose a time convenient for all three towns, the town administrators of Harvard, Shirley, and Ayer recommended June 8. But first, their boards of selectmen must sign and post a warrant for the meetings. For a June 8 meeting, that has to occur no later than May 19.
“In fairness,” newly elected Chairman Ron Ricci said Tuesday night, they should have the language of the amendments in hand and be able to discuss them before taking action. “Quite frankly, I’m not willing to act on something that’s been shoved down our throat at the last minute … It’s not like they haven’t had time for their legal department to review it,” Ricci said.
Selectwoman Lucy Wallace seemed prepared to keep an open mind. If MassDevelopment delivered a final draft of the Super Town Meeting warrant, she said, the Board of Selectmen could review the document at its May 19 meeting and sign it then. But the Planning Board and town counsel also needed time to review it, she added. Perhaps, she said, the vote could be moved to June 18 or 19, the last two days of school.
But Selectman Leo Blair said he thought early fall was a more reasonable time. “We don’t have to make that decision tonight and I’m not suggesting we do, but it would be pretty remarkable to pull it all together and present it in an organized way [by June],” he said. “It’s a bit of a long shot.
Ken Ashe of Walnut Street in Devens was the lone Harvard citizen present during the discussion. He said he had hoped to hear MassDevelopment’s presentation. Addressing the board during public comment, he said he was concerned that “the selectmen haven’t taken a stance on any of the issues.” He said it was time for them to let the public know what they were thinking.
Changes ‘good’ for towns
“I urge you in the next few weeks to pursue this to the point where maybe you can make a decision on each one of the zoning changes,” Ashe said. “We’ve had a long winter…. All we need is an 80-degree day on a Saturday, and people are going to find an excuse not to go to Town Meeting.”
On Wednesday morning, MassDevelopment’s Sternman said that the changes the agency was requesting were spelled out in great detail at a special agency website created more than a year ago. The language at the site, he wrote, “conveys the ideas behind the zoning changes, which need to be converted into more formal special town meeting warrant language and formatting.” He said the warrants will be completed and available by May 15.
“For almost an entire year, MassDevelopment staff have presented these zoning changes at numerous hearings and meetings,” Sternman stated. “Given that all four zoning changes would effect changes that would be good for Ayer, Devens, Harvard, and Shirley, delaying their implementation would simply forestall the time until important green space, health-care, office, and residential improvements could take place that would prove beneficial to the entire Nashoba Valley.”
Anticipating that a Super Town Meeting could convene 30 days hence on June 8, MassDevelopment’s Starzec presented the final versions of his agency’s proposed zoning changes at a hearing last Thursday, April 30, at Devens. The meeting was attended by a dozen Devens residents and a sprinkling of Shirley citizens. There were no Harvard selectmen or members of any other Harvard board present.
