The state has given Harvard a $45,000 grant to determine what kinds of businesses the town could support in the Ayer Road commercial district and whether such development would generate new expenses or taxes. The study represents one part of a three-phase, $300,000 “Ayer Road Corridor Visioning Plan” that was rejected by voters at the Spring 2021 Town Meeting. Prevailing opinion at the Town Meeting said the corridor had been studied enough.
If it’s ready in time, this market analysis and fiscal impact study will be presented to voters at Spring Town Meeting in May 2022. The hope, according to Harvard’s director of community and economic development, Chris Ryan, is that the results will persuade taxpayers to fund the rest of the comprehensive study, a “vision plan” (phase 2) and a rewritten zoning code (phase 3) that would enable the envisioned development.
Ryan said the study will “give us the numbers related to how much development the corridor could support, especially if the necessary infrastructure (water and sewer) and zoning (form-based code) were in place.” The goal of the study—to be done by planning consultants TischlerBise—is to see if new development would generate tax revenue and thereby reduce the structural budget deficit, he said.
To complicate matters a bit, the $45,000 grant from the state duplicates the amount already allocated by the Select Board to fund a market analysis and fiscal impact study. The vote took place last summer, after Town Meeting had rejected the $300,000 study. In response, the Select Board voted to fund part of the study with money from the Rantoul Trust, a fund bequeathed to the town and used by the Select Board to maintain town assets. In explaining the vote last summer, board members cited increased interest by developers in the commercial district and a wish to avoid the “type of change nobody wants to see,” as Select Board member Kara Minar put it.
Ryan said the Rantoul money would either be returned to the trust, or would be applied to phase 2 of the comprehensive study. He expects the matter to be discussed at the Select Board’s next meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 21.
In other news of Ayer Road, Ryan said the state’s Department of Transportation is likely to present its so-called 25% plan for the renovation of Ayer Road (from the Dunkin’ Donuts driveway to the Harvard/Ayer line) this winter. By winter, about a quarter of the design for Ayer Road’s renovation will be ready for review at a public hearing. The plan calls for adding a 10-foot bicycle and pedestrian path, slightly narrowing vehicle lanes to slow traffic, and realigning the intersection at Ayer and Poor Farm roads, a common accident site, according to Mass DOT crash statistics. The plan also proposes closing off the Lancaster County Road access to Ayer Road and replacing it with access from a realigned point on Gebo Lane.
According to DPW Director Tim Kilhart, the renovation of Ayer Road is scheduled to begin in 2026.
