Two MassDevelopment officials appeared at the Harvard Select Board’s Tuesday, May 15, meeting to discuss the agency’s wish to rezone Vicksburg Square at Devens for residential development.
Ed Starzec, MassDevelopment’s director of land planning and permitting, and Richard Henderson, executive vice president, told the board that efforts to attract commercial development had failed and that redeveloping the historical cluster of four-story brick buildings in the heart of Devens as multifamily dwellings was the agency’s “best shot” at preserving them. Such a project would provide badly needed housing for younger employees among the 5,000 who work at the former Army base, Starzec said, and would add units to the affordable housing inventories of Ayer and Harvard. An influx of new residents would also contribute to Ayer’s plan to revitalize its West Main Street retail district, the west end of which abuts Devens. But, he said, MassDevelopment did not want to repeat past mistakes.
In 2012, the towns of Ayer and Harvard rejected a similar proposal by Trinity Financial that would have converted the Vicksburg Square buildings to 246 housing units, 80 percent of them set aside for income-eligible tenants, especially military veterans and the elderly. Following the 2012 vote, the buildings have remained unoccupied, a target of break-ins and vandalism, though MassDevelopment has recently tightened security and sealed the buildings against further weather damage.
Starzec told the board that the 80 percent affordable number had not been popular and that this time MassDevelopment would limit affordable units to 25 percent of the total and aim for two-bedroom rental units more suitable to young families. To proceed, the towns of Shirley, Ayer, and Harvard would have to agree to rezone the buildings for residential use and to raise the current Devens housing cap of 282 units by 250 to 300 units. Starzec said MassDevelopment was open to mixed-use zoning, which would allow for a coffee shop and other amenities at that location. Vicksburg Square is currently zoned for commercial or “innovative technology” offices.
Before developing a specific proposal, Starzec said, MassDevelopment wanted to first hear from the three towns. “I don’t want to bring something to town meeting that’s DOA,” he said. He and Henderson have met with the Devens Committee, an advisory group of Devens residents, and will be visiting the select and planning boards of the three towns over the next two weeks. Once he has drafted a proposal, Starzec said he plans at least three hearings, one as early as mid-June before school lets out. A final plan and vote would come at a fall “Super Town Meeting,” a simultaneous meeting of all three towns at a set date and time.
