The Planning Board has requested that the Capital Planning and Investment Committee (CPIC) recommend that the town spend $300,000 for a zoning and development study for the Ayer Road commercial district. Director of Community and Economic Development Chris Ryan and Planning Board Chair Justin Brown discussed the project at the committee’s Oct 20 meeting. The Planning Board intends the study request to appear on the warrant of the 2021 Spring Town Meeting, where citizens will vote on it.
The project would progress in three stages. The first phase would be a market analysis and fiscal impact study. This study would determine which business types the corridor could support, in what numbers, and how doing so would affect the town fiscally. Ryan estimates that this phase would cost about $37,000 and would give the town the information necessary to set its preferred scale and composition of development.
The second phase would be a corridor vision plan, in which the public would determine—using the information collected in the first phase—what its goals are for the district’s architectural design, siting, density, traffic, transportation, and utilities. Ryan estimated this part to cost $75,000.
The third and final phase would create new zoning to implement the goals outlined in the second phase. The zoning would consist of a form-based code, a zoning tool in which the final appearance of the buildings is included in the bylaw, allowing citizens to see the buildings they will get before any developer actually proposes building them. This phase is estimated to cost $188,000.
CPIC Chair John Seeley questioned whether the project’s goal of stimulating development along Ayer Road is a practical one, pointing out that the area has seen minimal development in decades, and that Harvard’s low population density relative to nearby towns might prove to be a competitive disadvantage. However, according to Ryan, many successful new commercial developments are being built in a style that might suit Harvard well. He said, “People want something that takes them back to a vision of what America used to be: small towns and walkable communities and the ability to interact on the street instead of parking in a big mall lot.” Seeley agreed that he was familiar with such a development in Maynard.
Seeley also said he worried that the $300,000 price would be too high for voters to accept, especially given the financial strain imposed by the pandemic. He suggested that the proposal be scaled back to include only the first two phases, priced at $112,000, with the final phase to be requested later. Brown opposed this idea, saying that the quality of the results would be higher if the project were approved as a single unit, because a single contractor could be retained for the duration, creating a more cohesive product. Furthermore, according to Brown, the 2020 Spring Town Meeting rejected a request for funding for the first phase in part because citizens wanted to see the entire scope of the project before voting on an individual part.
Brown said that each of the first two phases would include an assessment of the project’s financial viability. If it was judged to be not financially viable, the town could cancel any additional phases and return the allocated funds to CPIC.
CPIC member Nathan Finch suggested that the project’s three stages not be referred to as “phases,” because in Harvard “phases” are often approved separately across multiple town meetings. Select Board member Alice von Loesecke suggested that the Planning Board should emphasize how this proposal would be different from the majority of studies that Harvard does. “We’re going to end up with a finished product that we can vote on and the town can build on,” she said.
Seeley asked whether the project could include connecting Ayer Road to Devens’ water and sewer system. Ryan said that while he has been attempting to get a response from MassDevelopment about whether that would be possible, they have not yet provided an answer. Ryan estimated that making such a connection would cost about $1 million if handled by a private company, and more if done by the public sector.
Seeley then asked whether the water and sewer hookup could be rolled into the ongoing Ayer Road repaving project. Ryan said that DPW director Tim Kilhart had opposed that inclusion, because it might push the cost of the project over the amount of funding currently available through the TIP grant system being used to fund the project, thus jeopardizing the entire endeavor. However, Ryan said that he remains hopeful that he may get it added to the project in the coming months, and Seeley promised to bring up the issue with Kilhart during the Nov. 3 CPIC meeting.
