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MassDevelopment In The News
Talk of a Town
October 22, 2006: Lowell Sun, by Jack Minch
Bob Culver sounds as if he's channeling Patrick Henry. "When we're all gone, what happens here and the way we did it stands for something," says Culver, president and CEO of MassDevelopment.
For years, MassDevelopment has laid the groundwork for the transformation of the former Fort Devens into the state's 352nd community. Culver argues that the state agency is using sound public policy to create a new town that can stand on its own, with businesses, housing, schools and recreation areas.
And if Culver appears to be the revolutionary, the plan that will go before voters Tuesday has a modern tinge, as a political dirty bomb that some residents say will destroy their towns.
Some people in Ayer, Shirley and Harvard say the state is taking advantage, with an unsound plan that gives the towns little in return.
Under "Scenario 2B," MassDevelopment, the quasi-public entity charged with redeveloping the former Army base, would keep about 3,000 acres for Devens. Ayer would receive 519 acres on North Post, Shirley would get 692 acres west of the Nashua River, and Harvard would take back 214 acres along Barnum Road. In exchange, MassDevelopment would cap housing units within Devens at 1,800 over 20 years, instead of the original plan of 3,000.
The new town of Devens would be incorporated by July 1, 2010. The state has not created a new town since 1920, when it incorporated the village of East Brookfield, the birthplace of Hall of Fame baseball manager Connie Mack.
The closing of the base in 1996 damaged the economy of the surrounding towns, which had relied on the military population for steady business income.
The scenario is based on "smart growth." Residents work, live and play in a small, environmentally friendly area. Housing is mixed. Mass transportation is nearby.
"This will look different from other communities in a good sense," Culver said. "The hope is what 2B, if it passes, is for all of us ... to in fact create what we in the state of Massachusetts think a town in the 21st century should look like."
The cries of protest against have been as loud as the artillery barrages that once reported across the open acres.
Frank Maxant, an Ayer selectman, says MassDevelopment has been a renegade developer that ignored input from the towns. Ask Maxant, and he will rattle off a list of perceived violations, including retail and commercial mistakes.
"My concerns are that MassDevelopment has not honored any of the commitments they made to us under the current reuse plan or any of its related documents or discussions," Maxant said last week. "So I'm convinced it's completely pointless to enter into any new agreements with them because they will ignore them too."
MassDevelopment should have brought more heavy industry to Devens, but instead tore up railroad tracks and attracted warehouses, he said.
And, Maxant said, the Devens Common business district was built despite a promise to prevent competition against Ayer and Shirley retailers.
Harvard residents have voted twice on a proposal similar to Scenario 2B, with mixed results. At their March 25 Town Meeting, residents rejected the proposal, 201 to 187.
Then, during the March 28 Harvard elections, voters approved a nonbinding referendum, 918 to 845. At the same election, a referendum asking whether to take back all of its Devens land failed 1,076 to 660.
Citizens for Harvard's Future haven't taken an official stand against Scenario 2B, but its members have complained often. Paul Green, a spokesman for the group, said one problem is that 61 percent of the new Devens would come from Harvard land, while Harvard will receive little or no economic return.
All six parties - MassDevelopment and the Devens Enterprise Commission, residents of the three towns and Devens - will vote on Tuesday. Commission and MassDevelopment officials believe the Legislature will approve any plan supported by five of the six parties.
But Green said Harvard gains the least and loses the most, and he thinks lawmakers will not support a plan that Harvard does not want.
Sylvia Shipton, a former Shirley selectman and recently retired town clerk, supports the incorporation of Devens as a town, but doesn't like the settlement.
"I am not for MassDevelopment doing up to - and that's the key word - doing up to 300 units on Shirley land," she said.
Shirley Selectman Chip Guercio said hard feelings are to be expected when a plan must consider six parties.
"It's complicated, multilayered, comprehensive. It does its best as humanly possibly to incorporate the concerns of six stakeholders," he said.
In the unincorporated Devens, the area's newest residents are afraid their neighborhoods will be cut up willy-nilly if the proposed town lines are enforced.
Devens residents David Winters, Michael Boucher and Phillip Crosby all say they are strongly loyal to their community of about 250, rather than to Harvard, where their homes would be located after 2010. They pay their taxes to the state for services.
They can't get to Harvard from Devens without going through Ayer.
"For the past several years we've built a strong community there," Boucher said.
What is there are large fields edged by trees and long roads that will soon have ornamental curbing and lighting.
The old housing for enlisted families has been torn down. The officers' brick houses are still up along what is called Colonels Row, and are owned by civilian families.
The fort exchange is gone. Devens Common, off MacArthur Avenue, features a SpringHill Suites by Marriott hotel and a small retail center. One of the biggest complaints - there was no good place to get a cup of coffee - was solved when Dunkin' Donuts moved in last year.
Devens residents have made compromises on what they want for their community. They originally wanted all 4,400 acres as part of the town, including Barnum Road, which is the only commercial tax base in the outlying parcels.
"Out of the block that's revenue you're giving up," Boucher said. "Existing revenues was one of the hardest decisions we had to give up."
© Copyright 2006 Lowell Sun.
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