Attendees at next weekend’s Town Meeting will be presented with an eye-popping smorgasbord of appropriations and town legislation, ranging from purchase of an alternative senior center and new speed limits throughout town to revisions to several multipage bylaws.
These are among the 19 measures on the meeting’s 30-page warrant, which the Select Board approved by unanimous vote Tuesday night. (For a summary, see “Warrant For The 2021 Town Of Harvard Annual Town Meeting Second Session” on page 8.) But if citizens wish to know the details before Oct. 16, they won’t find them in their mailboxes.
The board deliberated for nearly an hour as members reviewed each article before voting to approve the document, with a smattering of edits to the items inserted by the board. Members were scheduled to sign the document Wednesday morning. The Harvard Charter requires that the document be posted at Town Hall and on the town website by Friday, seven days before the meeting, and by 10 a.m. Wednesday it was available (go to https://bit.ly/3oEcTD2).
Harvard’s legislature
Harvard’s Town Meeting is the town’s legislative body, open to every registered voter—a form of direct democracy with deep New England roots. It’s a house of representatives where every registrant is a self-appointed member.
This year, Annual Town Meeting has been split into two sessions. The first, held outdoors May 15, dealt largely with the budget and financial matters. The second, which convenes outdoors next Saturday, Oct. 16, at noon, is meant to focus on proposed changes to the town’s bylaws, but will also take up financial measures that can’t wait until 2022. The warrant also includes a citizen petition that asks Town Meeting to direct the Select Board to sell the Bromfield House and property to a private owner and for the Historical Commission to place both in a historic district.
Following their approval of the warrant Tuesday, Select Board members were left with the task of voting whether to support each of its 19 articles. With the exception of two articles on which the board took no position—Articles 15 (likely to be passed over) and 19 (the citizen petition)—members voted unanimously to support them all. In the case of two Planning Board articles, the board suggested minor edits, but these will need to be offered as amendments on the floor of Town Meeting.
The warrant next goes to the Finance Committee, which was scheduled to meet Wednesday night to make its own recommendations for or against the articles with a financial impact. FinCom’s recommendations, as well as those of the Select Board and the Capital Investment and Planning Committee, will appear in a booklet that will be printed next week and made available to Town Meeting attendees. It will not be mailed, but will be available at the town website. As this week’s Press was being prepared for publication, the contents of that booklet, beyond the articles themselves, had not yet been announced.
Warrant For The 2021 Town Of Harvard Annual Town Meeting Second Session
At the second session of the 2021 Annual Town Meeting, Saturday noon, Oct. 16, voters will be asked to approve 19 articles put forward by the Select Board and other town committees. Its agenda is devoted primarily to proposed changes in the town’s bylaws, as well as two pressing capital requests and a citizen petition. Two weeks later, at Town Election Tuesday, Nov. 2, voters will decide four ballot questions.
Here is a summary of the warrant. Look for more details in next week’s special pre-Town Meeting townwide edition of the Press and its “Warrant in Plain English.”
ARTICLE 1: Purchase senior service building – Council On Aging
Asks for money to purchase a building on Lancaster County Road for use as an alternative senior center.
ARTICLE 2: Purchase new fire truck – Fire Department
Asks for money to purchase a new combination tower and pumper truck.
ARTICLE 3: Amend Chapter 125 of the Protective Bylaw, Affordable Accessory Apartment
Deletes a section of the bylaws concerning affordable accessible apartments.
ARTICLE 4: Amend Chapter 125-21 of the Protective Bylaw, permitted uses in AR districts
Replaces term “in-law apartment” with “accessory dwelling unit” as a permitted use in an agricultural or residential district.
ARTICLE 5: Amend Chapter 125-57 of the Protective Bylaw Senior Residential Development, Continuing Care Retirement Community
Amends bylaws to permit Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC) in the commercial district.
ARTICLE 6: Amend Chapter 125-52 of the Protective Bylaw, Ayer Road Village Special Permit
Deletes “assisted living facility” as a permitted use in the Ayer Road commercial district.
ARTICLE 7: Amend Chapter 125-2 of the Protective Bylaw Definitions
Add definitions to bylaws relevant to continuing care retirement communities.
ARTICLE 8: Amend Chapter 125 of the Protective Bylaw, erosion control
Establishes minimum requirements and procedures to control the adverse effects of soil erosion and sedimentation, construction site runoff, increased post-development stormwater runoff, decreased groundwater recharge, and nonpoint source pollution associated with new development, redevelopment, and other land disturbance.
ARTICLE 9: Amend Scenic Roads Bylaw Chapter 90
Increases the diameter of trees covered by this bylaw from 1.5 to 4 inches, and establishes measures to enforce compliance with the bylaw’s restrictions on tree cutting and removal of stone walls.
ARTICLE 10: Adopt MGL Chapter 90, Section 17C – 25 mph speed limit in thickly settled areas or business districts
Establishes a townwide speed limit in areas determined to be thickly settled or or business districts, “unless otherwise posted.”
ARTICLE 11: Home Rule Petition – Speed limits
Establishes speed limits for 35 named roads in town. Requires passage by Legislature.
ARTICLE 12: Home Rule Legislation for an Additional Off Premises All-Alcohol License
Seeks an additional license to support potential business at Dunkin’ Donuts site on Ayer Road.
ARTICLE 13: Amend Charter – Move term start date of School Committee members to July 1
Sought by School Committee, this article allows the outgoing committee members to finish pending business of the current fiscal year.
ARTICLE 14: Town Commons – Parks and Rec
Asks Town Meeting to transfer responsibility for the Common to the Select Board.
ARTICLE 15: Town Commons alternate – Parks and Rec
Likely to be passed over.
ARTICLE 16: Pay a prior year bill
Pays unpaid fiscal 2021 bills.
ARTICLE 17: Ambulance retained earnings
Transfers money to an account that can be used to pay for fiscal 2022 operations of the Ambulance Service.
ARTICLE 18: Climate resolution
Asks town to commit to state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals; empowers Select Board to determine policies and procedures to reach them.
ARTICLE 19: Citizen petition – Bromfield House
Asks Town Meeting to instruct the Select Board to sell the Bromfield House and property to a private owner, and to request the Historical Commission to place both in a historic district.
