At the Oct. 28 Special Town Meeting, warrant Article 21 proposes changes to the Ayer Road Village Special Permit bylaw that would make the bylaw more permissive, primarily by increasing the density of development allowed. Article 22 proposes changes to the allowed commercial uses, including a lot of wordsmithing, and it also adds two entirely new uses. Article 20 updates the bylaw’s definitions section to reflect the changes in the other two articles.
The Ayer Road Village Special Permit is a permitting process that developers interested in building in Harvard’s Ayer Road commercial district may opt into. In contrast to the regular, by-right zoning, the proposed permitting process allows the Planning Board significant input into the design process. Because the board can deny the permit, it has influence over the final design. As an incentive for developers to opt in, a development constructed under an Ayer Road Village Special Permit may include significantly higher density than a regular development, as well as some other allowances, such as the mixing of residential and commercial uses.
Harvard measures commercial density using a zoning metric called floor area ratio (FAR). FAR compares the square footage of all buildings on a lot (including multiple floors) to the total area of the lot. For example, a two-story building with 500 square feet on each floor in a 2,000-square-foot lot would have a FAR of 0.5. FAR is expressed using a decimal notation rather than as a percentage, with 0.5 being equivalent to 50%.
The regular zoning in Harvard’s commercial district allows a FAR of up to 0.1, while the existing Ayer Road Village Special Permit allows up to 0.2. The proposed changes would increase that to 0.3. They would also add a 0.1 density bonus for developments that include affordable housing, for a maximum total of 0.4.
The changes would also allow Ayer Road Village Special Permit developments to hook up to public wastewater systems, including those of other towns. (Harvard’s sewer system does not currently cover the commercial district.) They also include some wordsmithing and a call for designs to follow “the principles of smart growth and new urbanism.”
Director of Community and Economic Development Chris Ryan has championed these principles as a way to add commercial development to Harvard without sacrificing its rural character to suburban sprawl. They include such strategies as clustering high-density development rather than evenly spreading medium-density development, the construction of foot and bicycle paths as an alternative to car travel, and mixing residential with commercial uses.
First steps
Ryan has framed the changes to the Ayer Road Village Special Permit as the first of many steps in a long-term plan to improve Harvard’s commercial district. At meetings with the Planning Board and Select Board, Ryan laid out a multiyear project to overhaul the commercial district’s zoning, which itself would be undertaken side by side with improvements to the area’s infrastructure, such as the road itself, as well as developing a municipal water supply and sewer.
Ryan does not see the Ayer Road Village Special Permit as part of the district’s ultimate zoning plan, but has described it as a good short-term tool for the Planning Board to attract businesses and designs now that will complement the district in the future. He has stated that reaching a complete zoning plan for the commercial district may take years or even decades, and sees this permitting process as a way to take advantage of opportunities that arise in the interim.
The Planning Board has proposed increasing the allowed density because it views the current FAR limit of 0.2 as not economically viable. Ryan pointed out that, over the course of the permit’s years of existence, only a single development has actually used it (the complex located near the Route 2 interchange that includes Bowers Brook senior apartments, Dunkin’ Donuts, and offices). According to Ryan, the change has not been proposed to accommodate any specific new development.
Opponents of the change worry that greatly increasing the allowed density could harm the town. At a Sept. 9 public hearing, several citizens expressed concern that allowing denser commercial development would cause Harvard to lose its rural character. Others questioned whether Ayer Road could handle the increase in traffic that any additional development would bring.
Media production, adult day care
According to Ryan, the current bylaw sections outlining the uses allowed in the commercial district are often confusing, due to having been built up haphazardly as new uses were added over time to accommodate specific businesses. Most of the changes to the bylaw seek to improve its clarity by rewording these sections.
One newly allowed use is media production, which includes movies and recordings but not live entertainment. The Planning Board added this use in light of recent film projects in town, such as “Little Women.” The other is adult day care, which are businesses where elderly or disabled adults can receive care, supervision, and socialization during normal working hours.
The addition of adult day care would accommodate a specific business called Adult Day Health, which has petitioned the Planning Board multiple times to be allowed to open an office in Harvard, but has been denied due to not falling under any of the currently allowed uses. According to owner Joanne Saprapasan of Shirley, the proposed facility would be located at 16 Lancaster County Road. and would provide services to 30 to 40 patients.
