Harvard needs a full-time professional town planner. As Michelle Catalina, an experienced and knowledgeable Planning Board member, said in last week’s Harvard Press, “without a full-time planner, the Planning Board will have only a regulatory function, not a planning function.” Town planners expand the capacity of all volunteer land-use boards with expertise in community development, economic development, and grants management, and make the work of land-use volunteers, as well as many other town volunteers, especially the Board of Selectmen, easier and more effective. All of Harvard’s surrounding towns have professional planners.
The town planner acts as a consultant, adviser, and implementation expert. For example, Harvard’s last two Master Plans list the requirement for the development of smaller housing. We’ve not had much success toward achieving that goal (witness the recent Stow Road Pine Hill Village and Poor Farm projects) because the problem spans the need for available building sites, permitting across multiple land-use boards, and the ability to work in the long term with a development community willing to build the kind of housing that the town says it wants. I believe a professional town planner provides the only path that might enable the accomplishment of that town goal.
Likewise, a major responsibility of the town planner would be to help the town develop a vision for commercial development. Harvard’s town boards have tried to solve the problem of economic development in the commercial district for decades; applying the experience, training, knowledge, and skills of a professional would help us build a vision for the C-district that could include the kinds of services the town says it wants.
Lastly, a town planner can extend the funding resources for the town. A town planner can work with the Montachusett Regional Planning Commission and other state and federal agencies to coordinate funding for grants to improve town center, transportation and traffic, and parks and recreation, to name a few. The MassWorks program alone could provide up to $1 million for infrastructure projects that a town planner could pursue.
Over the next few years, the town will be facing significant decisions that will affect the character of the community in all the dimensions discussed above. A town planner can provide critical advice to help decision-makers achieve the best possible future for Harvard.
Joe Hutchinson
Westcott Road
