“Super Town Meeting” is Monday. Will Harvard, Ayer, and Shirley give MassDevelopment the zoning changes they want, which will allow redevelopment of Vicksburg Square as a primarily residential community? Support is widespread, and includes Harvard selectmen and Planning Board members, the Joint Boards of Selectmen, and the Patrick administration. Nobody seems opposed to the idea of redevelopment as a way to save and protect historic buildings. Concerns center on the consequences of developing the area as housing (with the near certainty that tax revenues will not cover required municipal services) and the complexity of residential development that spans multiple towns, counties, and fair market rent areas.

It is likely that there are solutions to address concerns, but that solutions will not be found before the vote on June 8. There should be enough tax revenues available from commercial properties elsewhere on Devens to cover the cost of expanded municipal services, but no one can be sure until an analysis is done. The Joint Boards of Selectmen has financial analysis projects on the table and funding allocated for consulting help, but the work has not begun. The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) supports the project, and has the authority to solve the boundary complexities, but the specifics have yet to be defined. Even the issue of whether towns will get relief from Chapter 40B development beyond the boundaries of Devens may be solvable, but details are not known.

The decision boils down to a choice: do the towns give MassDevelopment what it says it needs, and trust that the outstanding issues will be resolved by good-faith bargaining among the towns, MassDevelopment, an unnamed developer(s), and DHCD; or do the towns say no, address the subsidiary concerns first, and then get the zoning changes?

We’re inclined to vote yes. Preserving the historic buildings is worth doing, and this is probably the only way to get viable development proposals. Massive work has been done to get to this point, the open issues seem to be well understood, and there appears to be commitment from those who have the power to solve the problems to do so. The consequences of saying no would likely be a major setback; after 2B was defeated in 2006, it took nearly two years to get back to the table to restart the planning process.