The Planning Board and Board of Selectmen took steps this week to facilitate the building of senior housing on land adjacent to Hildreth House, but not without a stumble or two. As a result of their actions, Special Town Meeting attendees will vote this October on a zoning change that would make such a development possible, while the selectmen agreed to form a committee to work on the process by which the development would unfold.
At a Monday night public hearing on a proposed Hildreth Housing Overlay District, the Planning Board heard comments from selectmen and Council on Aging members on a zoning change that would allow a developer to build up to 20 age-restricted units on land near the town’s senior center.
The dozen or so attendees disagreed on how best to word the proposed bylaw to ensure that a majority of future units be restricted to Harvard seniors wishing to downsize. Sewer commissioner Rick Maiore said that while his board had agreed to make 3,000 gallons per day of capacity available to such a project, there was no way of knowing how many units that would support, a statement that seemed to surprise the town’s contract planner and members of the board. Attendees were also divided on how to make sure that the units would come with a first-floor master bedroom, bathroom, and living space, as well as an attached garage.
Unfinished business
The 75-minute hearing left the Planning Board with plenty of work as it rushes to prepare its article for the Oct. 24 Special Town Meeting. But an absence of microphones made it difficult for participants to hear what was being said. Planning Board members Fran Nickerson and Don Graham were absent, leaving the committee with a bare quorum. And although Chairwoman Kara Minar had planned to continue the hearing to Wednesday evening, one day ahead of the Sept. 22 deadline for submitting warrant articles, the committee forgot to vote for a continuation. That oversight effectively closed the hearing, according to Town Counsel Mark Lanza. A new hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 17. As a result, the version of the proposed bylaw that appears in the October Special Town Meeting warrant will not be the one meeting attendees will be asked to vote on. The final version will be handed to voters as they enter the meeting hall to register.
Meanwhile, the selectmen agreed on Tuesday night to create a committee to investigate the feasibility of putting housing on that site. If their findings are encouraging, the seven-member committee would prepare a set of guidelines to specify what the town expects from such a development, and the selectmen would then ask the 2017 Annual Town Meeting for permission to sell or lease some or all of the available land, subject to the committee’s guidelines. Before such a sale could take place, however, the selectmen would have to declare the land to be surplus, a well-defined state procedure that is unlikely to be completed before fiscal 2018.
