The Massachusetts legislature is considering a bill that would change the way commissioners are appointed to the Devens Enterprise Commission (DEC). In so doing, they would be bypassing local approval provisions of Chapter 498 of the Acts of 1993 which established the Devens Regional Enterprise Zone (DREZ) and the DEC.
When Fort Devens was identified in 1991 for closure by the Department of Defense’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission, it triggered a process of planning for redevelopment. Taken by the Army from four towns (Harvard, Ayer, Shirley, Lancaster) nearly 80 years earlier, the land comprising the fort would have normally been returned to the towns’ jurisdiction. But the towns had neither the resources nor the management capacity to manage redevelopment, so the state stepped in, and via the Land Bank (now MassDevelopment), took ownership and development responsibility. Chapter 498 of the Acts of 1993 established the DREZ, the Devens Reuse Plan which laid out zoning and development plans, and the DEC to act as a fast-track, one-stop permitting and regulatory agency. These were interim actions, bridging to the time when jurisdiction could be returned to the towns. Recognizing “consent of the governed” as one of the most important principles of democracy, the legislation was passed subject to approval by simultaneous votes of the towns.
Knowing that the legislation, planning, and zoning might not be perfect, drafters of Chapter 498 included a procedure for making changes. That provision, which has come to be called “super town meeting,” requires that any change (beyond typographical error corrections) requires a simultaneous vote of town meetings in all three towns (the fourth town, Lancaster, was not included, because the Army kept the 4,000 acres in Lancaster, the Devens South Post).
The Sunset Act, with provisions to change the process of appointing commissioners to the Devens Enterprise Commission, would bypass consent of the towns. After 16 years, there may, indeed, need to be changes, but they should not be made without involvement and approval from the towns.