by John Osborn
The Zoning Board of Appeals this morning denied the town’s request for the variances and the special permit it needs to begin its renovation of Town Hall.
The votes of the three-member board were unanimous.
In January, acting on behalf of the Board of Selectmen, the Town Hall Building Committee had asked the board to grant two variances from Harvard’s Protective Bylaw in order to build a planned addition that would be closer to Ayer Road and higher than permitted. The committee had also asked for the special permit required to modify any “existing nonconforming structure.”
In their deliberations Thursday morning, Chairman Christopher Tracey and members Stephen Moeser and Robert Capobianco were unanimous in concluding that the building committee, represented by Town Counsel Mark Lanza, had failed to show that a denial of the variances would be a special hardship to the town.
Although the committee had presented estimates that alternative designs would have cost 16 to 17 percent more, board members concurred with Tracey’s assessment that for a municipal building to exceed its estimated cost by 15 to 20% was not an unusual circumstance.
“Would I be shocked?” asked Moeser. “It happens all the time.”
Having dispensed with the case for financial hardship, the board discussed whether soil or other conditions at the Town Hall site made other designs impossible, a second hardship that must be demonstrated to win a variance. Unfortunately, when, at the request of the ZBA, the building committee had developed two alternative designs to show the cost of other renovation schemes, it demonstrated to the ZBA that other designs were, in fact, possible, although not, perhaps, desirable.
Once the board had voted to deny the two variances, there was no choice but to also deny the special permit, which requires that any work on existing municipal buildings in town center conform to the bylaw or have been granted the necessary variances.
“The right word for me is ‘unfortunate,’” Tracey told his fellow board members. “Common sense says that the people of Harvard have spoken.”
But, he continued, “This is a request that is looking for forgiveness, rather than permission.” But he urged the town to consider the changes to the bylaw that have been proposed to town meeting.
“Politics trumps facts,” building committee chair Pete Jackson told the Press.
But Stu Sklar, principal proponent of the citizen petition to exempt town-center municipal buildings from the bylaw, said he was glad the ZBA had made its decision. “The citizen petition is more compelling than ever,” he said.