by John Osborn ·
Friday, April 4, 2025
The Devens housing working group heard recommendations this week that the zoning bylaw for Vicksburg Square and other areas within the central Innovation and Technology Center district of Devens be amended to allow construction of several hundred new units of housing.
The recommendations were presented in a preliminary report delivered at the group’s third meeting, April 1, where the eight-member panel reviewed strategies for increased housing at Devens. The report is a draft and will be revised and presented for final approval by the group in May before being sent to the Legislature.
Late last year the Legislature removed the 30-year-old cap that limited the amount of new housing that could be built on the former U.S. Army base to 282 units. Devens currently has 256 units of residential and senior housing and approximately 950 residents, according to MassDevelopment, the state agency overseeing the area’s redevelopment. Since the establishment of Devens, 136 new units of housing have been constructed.
Although the housing cap is gone, no new housing can be constructed within the ITC district until the 90-acre area is rezoned to allow residential uses. The current bylaw allows for a variety of commercial uses—but not housing.
Permitting housing in the ITC district would allow the long-sought reuse of the historical quadrangle of buildings in Vicksburg Square, though whether such reuse is feasible will require a structural study.
But the report suggests an additional 100 to 200 units, with a range of densities, could be built on the remaining 40-plus developable acres (see map below).
The report recommends that the ITC district be designed as a village center, to capitalize on its “classic neo-traditional neighborhood design” and zoned to allow both commercial and residential development. Achieving that outcome will be largely the responsibility of the Devens Enterprise Commission, the area’s permitting agency. Once the ITC is rezoned, the report observes, the DEC “will have authority to promulgate more detailed regulations to minimize or mitigate any adverse impacts of proposed housing developments, and to facilitate innovative residential development in the district.” The DEC’s authority, the report suggests, offers a means of ensuring development meets the expectations of residents and neighboring towns.
None of the outcomes envisioned by the report, however, are possible without rezoning the ITC district to permit residential housing. Such a change can be done by either a super town meeting held in the towns of Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley, with the approval of MassDevelopment, at the same time on the same date—or by a special act of the Legislature.
To assure passage at a super town meeting, the report recommends that, before issuing their final report and recommendations, the working group include a model zoning amendment in their final report. That amendment would need to, at minimum:
- Add residential uses (single or two-family dwelling, multifamily dwelling, and senior housing) as permitted uses in the ITC District.
- Add a new multifamily category to allow apartment buildings with three to eight units.
- Prescribe the applicable density limitations, height, and other dimensional limitations or requirements.
The report recommends the amendment “not be overly prescriptive or detailed.” For example, it states, “the zoning amendment should permit but not require specific housing types.” Affordability requirements should likewise be reasonable, it states, “and not make actual development financially unfeasible.”
The report acknowledges that for a zoning bylaw to pass at a super town meeting of Ayer, Harvard, and Shirley, voters will need to be convinced of the benefits of new housing in the area to their communities. It recommends the towns and MassDevelopment hire a planning consultant to assess the condition of existing buildings in the district, including Vicksburg Square and former bachelor officers quarters, and to study the impact on schools, traffic, and parking.
Money is available for that purpose, Chris Kluchman of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities told the group. Earlier this year her office awarded a $300,000 grant to the town of Ayer, with the intent that Ayer use the money to study housing and administer the grant as fiscal host for the three towns. But she also made clear that a super town meeting is not the only path to a zoning change; action by the Legislature to amend the bylaw is also an option, she said. “We just want to make sure that people understand that those two things exist. … We’re talking about a super town meeting and education [to prepare voters] for super town meeting, but there are two [paths].”
The working group will hold its final two meetings May 8 at 2 p.m. and May 14 at 1 p.m. Residents of Devens and the three towns are urged to read and submit comments on the draft plan by April 21. Comments may be made through the Devens Housing Production Working Group web page at mass.gov/orgs/devens-working-group. The final report must be submitted to the Legislature by May 20.