This year’s review of capital requests got off to a rocky start on Sept. 21, when Capital Planning and Investment Committee members balked at the price tag and questioned the urgency of updating the town’s Master Plan. Town Planner Frank O’Connor came before the committee to present the request, and Chair Nate Finch asked him to return to the Planning Board to “nail down the scope” of the project.
Members first questioned what they perceived to be the high cost of the project. Member Charles Oliver said a lot of the elements in the existing Master Plan are being addressed by other committees in town, such as the Municipal Affordable Housing Trust. He also questioned whether the “facts on the ground” had changed much since 2016. Finch added that it has been only seven years since that plan came out, and the framework is likely “still sound.”
O’Connor said he received two estimates for the project. A $100,000 estimate came from one firm that had done a quick review of the existing plan. A second firm, which had assisted with the town’s 2016 plan, did not give a specific estimate, but said master plan updates currently cost between $150,000 and $350,000. When asked if the work could be done in-house, O’Connor said it could be if the town hired additional staff, but he thought outside help would keep “local politics from tainting the process.”
Finch mainly took issue with the lack of scope specified in the Planning Board’s request, which stated that the project’s scope would be aligned with the budget. “That’s not the way it works,” he said. “You can’t say we’ll do whatever we can with whatever money you give us.” O’Connor said he was only given a few days to put together a scope. Regardless of that, Finch said, the committee needs to see a concrete plan, and he asked O’Connor to communicate that message to the Planning Board.
2026 or later?
Member Mike Derse asked if the plan really needed to be updated by 2026. O’Connor said it was not a violation of any law, but he thought it should be done. Town Administrator Tim Bragan confirmed to the Press that Massachusetts General Law, which defines the parameters of master plans, does not require updates at specific time intervals. However, much of the information in the 2016 plan is out of date, and the plan itself states that it was written with a “10-year planning horizon” in mind.
Member Jeffrey Lin asked if the Ayer Road Vision Project should be included in the update. O’Connor said it could be, and consultants are currently working on the second phase of that project, which will get input from citizens to create a vision plan for the commercial corridor. The first phase, completed in January, included fiscal analysis and recommendations for small-scale development options. Lin said it might be better to wait for the completion of phase 2 before working on the Master Plan update, and O’Connor agreed.
The committee is currently reviewing requests; it will prioritize them and make its recommendations early next year.
The 2016 Master Plan
The most recent Master Plan update, done in 2016, took nearly four years and $250,000 to complete. In 2011, Town Meeting voted $30,000 for phase 1 of the project, which consisted of gathering ideas through public forums and surveys to set goals for the plan.
The following year, Town Meeting approved $100,000 more to do the actual update. Part of that money was spent on consultants who completed an analysis of how to incorporate Devens into the plan. A fifth of the money was used as a contribution toward the salary of a town planner to assist with updating the Master Plan. In late 2013, Bill Scanlan was hired as an independent contractor to fill that position. His contract was renewed for the following two years, at an annual salary of $60,000, which brought the total cost of the project to $250,000.
