At Annual Town Meeting last May, a vote to purchase a 6-acre parcel on Old Mill Road from a private landowner, suitable for the potential development of a multipurpose athletic field, failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds vote by only three votes. The Select Board reintroduced the article in the Special Town Meeting warrant, citing the close vote in May and the possibility that the opportunity to purchase the land could disappear.
The land, a portion of a 27-acre parcel owned by Harvard residents Timothy and Sarah Arnold, is adjacent to Harvard Park on the northwest side with a small amount of frontage on Old Mill Road. The Arnolds agreed to accept the assessed value of the parcel, $415,000, last spring, and they will accept that amount if the article passes at Special Town Meeting. An additional $25,000 is included in the funding request, as it was last spring, to cover legal and surveying fees. The Capital Planning and Investment Committee approved the total amount of this request earlier this year, so it will once again be up to voters at Special Town Meeting to give it the thumbs-up or -down.
Select Board Chair Kara Minar speaks at a public forum about the proposed playing fields, Sept. 11. (Photo by Hannah Taylor)
Controversy over the purchase continues. Proponents, including the Park and Recreation Commission, point to a 2023 athletic field needs assessment by Gale Associates, which identified a field deficit in Harvard. The report found that “eight of the nine game-ready venues are currently overused (averaging greater than 250 uses per year).” It concluded that “additional fields are warranted to allow for expansion of youth leagues, more opportunity to rest fields, and more opportunity to limit schedule constraints.”
Gale recommended that Harvard add one full-size, multipurpose rectangular field; two youth-sized fields; and a ball field. The Park and Recreation Commission has since settled on a 60-foot diamond field and two full-size fields, which would allow one field to rest for at least a season to avoid deterioration from overuse. Park and Rec and the Open Space Commission conducted a search for suitable land for new fields, and the Arnold land was the only viable property that resulted from that search.
Development costs?
One of the concerns opponents have raised is the cost of developing the land into a field, should the town agree to purchase the land. The Select Board and the Park and Recreation Commission addressed that concern at a public forum held Sept. 11, saying that a private fundraising group, Harvard Home Field Project, had been created to raise money for the design and construction of the field. Park and Recreation Director Anne McWaters said field development would also be a candidate for Community Preservation Act funds, and that she would search for possible grant opportunities as well. Select Board Chair Kara Minar said that the town has a “back-of-the-envelope” estimate of around $2 million for building the field (which would be used primarily for soccer and lacrosse), driveway, and parking area for about 30 cars.
Conservation Commission approval?
A large portion of the discussion at last Thursday’s forum centered on the fact that the Conservation Commission cannot guarantee its approval for the field until the purchase is complete. The property intersects with “buffer zones,” areas within 100 feet of wetlands, in three places. The Conservation Commission has jurisdiction over what can be built in those buffer zones.
McWaters said the purchase and sale agreement includes a 45-day contingency period, during which the town would have an environmental assessment done on the property, and if it was found to be unsuitable for a field, the town could back out of the sale agreement. But Town Administrator Dan Nason and Select Board member Eve Wittenberg confirmed that the Conservation Commission would not get involved until it received a notice of intent from the town with a design plan. He said that step would not happen until after the 45-day contingency period had expired.
When asked what specific conditions would allow the town to back out of the agreement during the contingency period, no one on the Select Board or the Park and Rec Commission could answer. Select Board member Ahmet Corapcioglu said the board owed voters an answer to that question. When asked what would happen if it was determined after the contingency period had expired that a field couldn’t be built on the parcel, Nason said it would still have value, since it is adjacent to Harvard Park. Jim Lee, a member of the Open Space Committee, added that if the town owned it, it would be preserved forever. “The Arnolds could sell it for development,” he said. “Don’t lose sight of that.”
A few forum attendees questioned whether there really was a need for more fields. Slough Road resident and Select Board candidate Adam Wool asked if the town had ever rented fields at Devens and what the cost was to do so. McWaters said the town does rent them. The cost per field is $15,000 for a season, but renters must pay for two fields to cover the cost of resting one field, so the actual price is $30,000 per season. Peter Kelly-Joseph, co-president of Harvard Youth Lacrosse added that the Devens fields are difficult to schedule. He said two of the three field complexes there are used to host a lot of large tournaments, and the third is used by Parker Charter School in the fall.
Tax implications
Money to buy the land is coming from the Capital Stabilization and Investment Fund, so taxes would not directly increase. But Carbonell pointed out that CPIC money is still taxpayer money and using it for this purchase takes away money that could be used to fund other projects. The same is true, he said, for community preservation funds, which Park and Rec proposed using to help pay for development.
Stu Sklar, chair of the Community Preservation Committee, said should the land purchase go through, the CPC would use a multiyear bond to fund any additional town-approved development costs, the same method it is using to pay for the renovation of McCurdy Track. Park and Recreation member Marisa Steele cautioned that the state limits CPC bonding to 65% of its funds. “We need to have very impressive private funding to decrease the amount needed by the CPC,” she said, adding that grants might be available to offset field development costs. Minar reminded everyone that the town must vote on any use of community preservation funds.
What if the article fails again?
Minar said a rumor had spread that bringing this article back for a vote so quickly was not legal. That’s not true, she said. While state law imposes some constraints on reintroducing certain types of zoning articles at Town Meeting, town counsel had advised the board that articles to purchase land can be brought back at a subsequent meeting, and that can happen as many times as the town wants. But, she added, the board does not intend to continue bringing articles back. This one is on the warrant again because the vote was so close, CPIC already allocated the funds for this fiscal year, and the seller might not be willing to wait any longer, she said.
