The Planning Board is working on a rural life preservation (RLP) bylaw that would protect rural and agricultural properties from development by offering owners the chance to engage in commercial activity in exchange for preserving the property’s unique features. Director of Community and Economic Development Chris Ryan led the Planning Board’s review of the draft bylaw at its Aug. 5 meeting, as it prepared the proposal for the upcoming fall Special Town Meeting.
“There are some properties that are special in the community, that are farms, that are rural homesteads, that have beautiful rolling fields and stone walls. They are the essential character of Harvard, and we would like to see those views forever. But how do we protect them without taking someone’s property? We do it by incentive instead,” said Ryan as he presented the Planning Board with the latest draft of the bylaw.
The scale of commercial activity the RLP bylaw would allow depends on the size of the property in question and the road on which it is located. Properties under 10 acres would be completely ineligible, while eligible properties would be divided into small, medium, and large categories. Small would be 10 to 30 acres, allowing up to 8,000 square feet of floor space across three buildings; medium would be 30 to 50 acres, allowing 25,000 square feet of floor space across six buildings; and large would be 50 or more acres, allowing 45,000 square feet of floor space across eight buildings.
Examples of suggested uses in a small property include rural tourism, a bed-and-breakfast, an art gallery, or a sit-down restaurant. Examples of medium uses include outdoor recreation, a conference center, or artisan manufacturing, while a large property might support an outdoor performance stage. All these uses would be allowed only by special permit, not by right.
“It’s a game of swapsies: What do you have and what can we give you for that?” said Planning Board member Stacia Donahue, explaining the quid-pro-quo nature of the proposed bylaw. Ryan agreed, stating that the goal of the bylaw is to allow the town and the property owner to come to an arrangement that leaves both happier than they would be if the land were subdivided.
To initiate the RLP process, a property owner would have to meet with the Historical Commission, Conservation Commission, or Cultural Council and acquire a letter to the Planning Board recommending certain features of the property as worthy of preservation. The applicant would also need to carry out a traffic study and a project impact assessment to identify and mitigate the proposal’s likely effects on neighbors. The special permit application process would also include detailed descriptions and images of both the new business and the conservation-worthy features, which would be preserved using either a conservation or deed restriction.
The bylaw would cap the total number of RLP permits active at one time at five and the total number issued in one year at two. It would also prevent an RLP permit from being issued to a property within 3,000 feet of another property with an RLP permit.
According to Ryan, the special permit process gives the Planning Board a lot of influence over the final design of any new buildings and improvements. The proposed bylaw includes design guidelines requiring any new buildings to conform to the appearance of existing ones, parking to be hidden from public view, landscaping to complement the natural environment, and others. It also requires setbacks of 125 to 150 feet and a lot coverage ratio of 7.5-10%, depending on the lot size.
If the RLP business contained a restaurant, 25% of food served between May and September would need to be sourced from farms in New England.
The RLP special permit would be transferable from one owner of the property to the next with the approval of the Planning Board. If the commercial use of the property were to fail, the special permit would be invalidated and would need to be reissued in the future if a new commercial use were proposed.
Ryan said the proposed RLP bylaw was inspired by the Ipswich Great Estate bylaw, which preserves the town’s Gilded Age manors by offering owners the opportunity to monetize the properties in their current state rather than subdividing them.
The Planning Board aims to have the RLP bylaw ready for the fall 2019 Special Town Meeting. Upcoming Planning Board meetings will include public hearings on the proposed bylaw.
