The committee charged with exploring options for the future governance of Devens seemed ready to return to its core mission last week but unwilling to let go of its recent preoccupation with Vicksburg Square, the historic but abandoned U.S. Army barracks located next to Rogers Field in the heart of Devens.
Last month, the Devens Jurisdiction Framework Committee circulated a draft warrant article among its members that if approved by simultaneous town meetings of Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley—known as a Super Town Meeting—would rezone the area’s buildings and grounds for housing. Its passage would allow up to 400 units to be built, with a fixed percentage reserved for rental and defined as affordable.
The draft is now being reviewed by each of the stakeholder groups represented by the committee, which include the select boards of the three towns, the Devens Enterprise Commission, and the residents and businesses of Devens. Harvard’s Select Board will discuss the measure at its Jan. 23 meeting. The framework committee plans to hear reports from the representatives of those constituencies in February. What happens after that remains to be seen, a question debated at length at the committee’s most recent meeting on Jan. 10 in Ayer Town Hall.
At that meeting, Neil Angus, the DEC’s director, argued, as he has done previously, that the task of drafting a Super Town Meeting warrant should be delegated to a subcommittee so the framework committee can get on with the work of exploring options for the future governance of Devens.
But Victor Normand, co-chair of the framework committee, said the job could be done more efficiently by a less formal working group of committee members. An appointed subcommittee, he noted, would be subject to Open Meeting Law and required to post agendas, keep minutes, and allow public access. He also worried that appointment of a formal subcommittee would create expectations beyond its abilities.
“I don’t think it makes any sense to establish a subcommittee without MassDevelopment at the table,” Normand said. MassDevelopment owns the land at Vicksburg Square and has the developer contacts and financial and engineering resources needed to build housing there, as it has done at Emerson Green. He said that while the framework committee has the expertise to prepare a rezoning article that represents a consensus of its members and clears the way for housing at Vicksburg Square, the committee is in no position to take responsibility for a project of that magnitude. If there is to be a subcommittee devoted to a buildout of the site, MassDevelopment needs to create and staff it, Normand said.
The absent stakeholder
Ironically, MassDevelopment is a founding member of the framework committee, which was created in 2018 at the suggestion of then-MassDevelopment CEO Lauren Liss. But in March 2022 the agency withdrew from the committee and said it would not return until 2030, when MassDevelopment is required to join the towns to study options for the future governance of Devens. However, the law that empowers the towns of Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley to alter the current zoning at Devens also requires that the language of such proposals be approved by MassDevelopment. Without the agency’s support, a Super Town Meeting cannot be convened.
Although the committee’s attention to Vicksburg Square has been motivated by the need for more housing in Central Massachusetts and a genuine concern for the fate of its historic buildings, there is also an expectation that by presenting MassDevelopment with a rezoning article endorsed by the towns and other stakeholders, the agency will be forced to reengage with the committee it has ignored for so many months.
Back to the table
For Shirley Town Administrator and committee member Mike McGovern, that’s a goal. “I think it’s very clear we have gotten people’s attention … over the last two or three months,” he said. “I think if it stays here at the [framework committee’s] table and we have these discussions, I think it could be a way to get MassDevelopment back to the table. I’m not saying that’s going to happen in the next six months. But let me tell you, they’re very well aware of our discussions.”
Jannice Livingston, Ayer Select Board vice chair and framework committee co-chair, added that with a draft Super Town Meeting warrant, “We can go to MassDevelopment and say, hey, you know something needs to be done. And we’ve gotten the consensus for you. We’ve done all the work. So now put the money forward and make a Super Town Meeting [happen.]”
The framework committee will meet next on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, at 3 p.m. in Ayer Town Hall to hear feedback from its stakeholder members and attempt a consensus on the language and provisions of a warrant to rezone Vicksburg Square. Members seem to agree that preparation of a final draft should be done by a working group that includes Normand and Ayer Town Manager Robert Pontbriand—and perhaps others—and brought to the entire committee for final wordsmithing and approval.
The committee has already determined that one provision of the current draft should be dropped. It’s the one that reads: “It is the choice of the towns that the land and buildings collectively known as Vicksburg Square shall be entirely and permanently within the jurisdiction of the town of Ayer.” Both the Devens Enterprise Commission and representatives of Devens residents objected vigorously to its inclusion, saying it was premature. Livingston, the provision’s original advocate, was ready to delete it. It had upset too many people, she said last week. “That’s not a sword I intend to die on.”
