The selectmen voted unanimously on Tuesday to reappoint Bruce Nickerson and Manny Lindo to the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust, one week after suggesting that they might instead fill one of two vacancies on the seven-member trust with Selectman Ken Swanton. The vote was taken on a motion from Swanton, who voiced reservations about displacing the volunteers. Selectmen are in charge of appointing members to most of the unelected, volunteer committees in town, including the trust. Selectmen trust members are Leo Blair, Lucy Wallace, and Ron Ricci. The other trustees are Greg Schmidt, Evelyn Neuberger, and the newly reappointed trustees, Nickerson and Lindo.
An Affordable Housing Trust controlled by selectmen was not possible until last summer, when the Board of Selectmen—at Blair’s suggestion—voted to lift the cap limiting selectmen to one position on the trust. This week, Blair said that a greater complement of selectmen on the trust could avoid the kind of conflict engendered by previous projects that the trust had been involved with, such as a 2008 proposal for apartments at 361 Ayer Road and a 2014 initiative for apartments at 166 Littleton Road. Both projects were dropped in response to fierce opposition from neighbors—including threats of litigation—and Blair said he’d drawn several conclusions from those and other experiences over the years.
“First, people do not want affordable housing in Harvard,” said Blair, “and second, as a practical matter, the idea that the trust can initiate affordable housing projects is probably unrealistic.” Blair suggested that the trust was now more likely to respond to proposals generated not by the trust but by outside groups or developers, and he argued that having more selectmen on the trust would result in “greater visibility” for any proposal and an enhanced ability for the trust to “coordinate with other boards and the town administrator.”
Current activities of the trust include consideration of senior housing on Hildreth House land and a proposed condominium development at 361 Ayer Road for 13 market-rate and five affordable units. The trust is also engaged in selling 166 Littleton Road, a site purchased in 2013 for the development of affordable and mixed-use housing. Plans there were abandoned in December 2014 after neighborhood opposition.
