The debate over the two articles designed to lower speed limits in town was anything but speedy. Both measures passed easily by majority vote, but not before meeting attendees lined up at the microphone to challenge their effectiveness or extend their reach.
The first, Article 10, accepts a 2016 state law that empowers the Select Board to lower the speed limit for any “thickly settled” area or business district to 25 miles per hour. The second, Article 11, authorizes the Select Board to petition the Legislature for the right to set specific limits on 34 town roads. The two articles were conceived by the Select Board as a short- and a long-term means to deter speeding in town. Both require further action by the board, and Article 11 requires the approval of the Legislature, a thumbs-up by the Department of Transportation, and the signature of Gov. Charlie Baker.
Article 10: It’s complicated
To implement Article 10, the Select Board must first enact the Massachusetts general law (MGL Chapter 90 Section 17C) that Town Meeting accepted Saturday. The board’s vote will allow the Department of Public Works to erect signs at entry points to Harvard advising motorists that the speed limit in town is 25 mph, “unless otherwise posted.” Then the town must determine which areas qualify as “thickly settled” and submit its findings to the Department of Transportation. Only then can it mark those zones with signs and issue tickets to speeders.
Some roadways, however, such as Ayer, Littleton, and Still River roads, are already posted. Moreover, the law specifically excludes roads managed by the state, such as Mass. Ave., and state numbered roads, such as Route 110, also known as Still River Road. As for the town’s many unposted, undivided highways outside of a thickly settled or business district, the statutory speed limit remains 40 mph.
Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the Press Tuesday that the town has made no measurements that can be considered official. Once the town determines how the state Department of Transportation wants such measurements to be calculated, he said, Peter Dorward, chair of the Open Space Committee and a Still River Road resident, has volunteered his services as an experienced GIS (geographical information system) user to identify areas in town that meet the standard. Once the town has completed its studies, the Select Board will designate the areas that meet the state’s requirements and will notify DOT of its actions, says Bragan.
Last year, however, residents of Still River Depot Road took matters into their own hands and did their own GIS study, which found that their street did meet the state’s “thickly settled” criteria. They asked Harvard’s director of community and economic development, Chris Ryan, to confirm their results; he did, and later sent their data to the Department of Transportation for an opinion.
DOT weighs in
In a letter to a resident dated November 2020, Neil E. Boudreau, the department’s assistant administrator of traffic and safety, wrote, “based on a review of the average dwelling spacing on the northern side of Still River Depot Road (143.3 ft.) which is established over a distance of a quarter mile in length, this road would qualify for a designation of ‘thickly settled’ under the current definition established in the Massachusetts General Laws.”
In that same letter, Boudreau noted that Still River Road would not qualify, even if the spacing between dwellings there averages less than the required 200 feet and extends for more than a quarter of a mile. Because this roadway has a regulatory speed limit of 35 mph established through an official engineering speed study, the area is ineligible for a “thickly settled” designation.
Bourdreau cautioned the resident, however, that any request to make changes to how the “thickly settled” designation is applied in the town of Harvard is not something that MassDOT can initiate. “It has to be approved through the appropriate governing board within the Town,” he wrote. “Nevertheless, you have presented us with the justification needed to support the designation of ‘thickly settled’ for Still River Depot Road.”
Article 11: Exercising the constitutional right of home rule
A home-rule petition, such as the one authorized by Article 11 on Saturday, offers Harvard a way to set speed limits on roads that do not fall within a thickly settled or business district. But first the Select Board must draft and approve it. And then the petition must go to the Legislature, which has the power to pass and send the bill to Gov. Baker for signature—or reject it.
Because it deals with speed limits, the list of 34 roads will also be scrutinized by the Department of Transportation. If and when the petition is approved, the list of 34 roads cannot be amended. But the board in its Oct. 14 meeting promised to establish a process through which a resident could petition Harvard’s Transportation Advisory Committee for additional changes that could be incorporated into a supplementary home-rule petition to be put before Town Meeting once every two years.
At Tuesday night’s Select Board meeting, its first since Town Meeting, Bragan reported that he had asked Town Counsel Mark Lanza to draft a petition for the board’s approval, to be presented at a future meeting. Once approved, the town will rely on the efforts of state Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Dan Sena to move it through the House and Senate. “These [petitions] used to be more frequent prior to the passage of Chapter 90 Section 17C,” Bragan wrote the Press in an email. “The legislature will request input from DOT on our request, but we intend on making a very well-reasoned and impassioned argument for Harvard and believe it will pass.” A quick scan of home-rule petitions before the current session of the Legislature found none that dealt with speed limits in any Massachusetts town.
Challenges and friendly amendments
Discussion on the first proposal got underway shortly after 1 p.m. and ended 25 minutes later. Ben Guthro of Fairbank Street argued that the town already had 25 mph zones that were too often ignored. “This isn’t so much a problem of definition but a problem of enforcement.” A Still River resident praised the recently added 20 mph zone at Immaculate Heart of Mary School, but cited the small number of police stops reported each week in the Press as evidence that enforcement is lacking. “We can clutter up the scenic byways we love with traffic signs, but without enforcement … people are not going to self-enforce these speed limits.” Billy Salter of Elm Street offered a friendly amendment to express the wish that speed limits be more vigorously enforced. But the moderator ruled the amendment was beyond the scope of the article—the acceptance of a state law, MGL Chapter 90 Section 17C—and Salter withdrew his suggestion.
However, said board member Kara Minar, who had presented the article, “The Select Board is committed to making sure that greater enforcement takes place.” Acting Police Chief James Babu had already increased patrols to more than four hours per day, she said. “You might have seen more enforcement and more visibility in the past couple of months. You are absolutely right that without enforcement the signs are meaningless.”
Nick Browse, of Still River Road, said he and others in Still River village had worked to deal with speeding on his street and on Still River Depot Road, which he said had become “the vehicle entertainment district” in the past 18 months. “There is no one answer,” he said. Still River residents feel [Article 10] is “part of an answer” as is the Article 11 home-rule petition and enforcement. “We are strongly in support of this measure.” Jennifer Fraser of Ayer Road agreed. “For the life of me,” she said, “I can’t figure out one reason why anyone would not want to add the measure to the pot … it only helps. It doesn’t hurt.” Apparently Town Meeting agreed as well; a few moments later it passed Article 10 by an overwhelming majority, joining the more than 60 other Massachusetts towns—including Ayer and Boxborough—that have done the same.
Debate on Article 11 added 25 more minutes to the discussion of town speed limits. But this time, speakers came to the microphone not to object but to lobby for changes to the list of 34 streets and the speed limits that had been proposed in consultation with Babu.
Earlier in the week, on Oct. 14, the Select Board had met and decided to limit friendly amendments only to the streets already on the list, and it didn’t take long for such amendments to appear—at least a dozen—most of which were accepted by the Select Board as friendly ones. The final list will appear in the draft petition that the board will act on later this month. As with the preceding article, Article 11 passed by an overwhelming majority.
