Devens goes back to the drawing board
After last month’s "no" vote on the proposal to grant independent municipality status to Devens, the Devens Disposition Executive Board voted to suspend its operations until getting guidance from the Joint Boards of Selectmen, which represent the towns of Shirley, Ayer and Harvard.
The defeated proposal, called 2B, would have created Devens as the state’s 352nd municipality, retaining about 3,000 acres. But it would also have given back parcels of Devens land to the three towns - Ayer receiving 519 acres, Shirley getting 692 acres, and Harvard getting 214 acres along Barnum Rd. MassDevelopment would cap housing units within Devens at 1,800 over 20 years instead of the previous target of 3,000.
The towns have expressed various concerns and dissatisfactions about the 2B proposal. Among them are worries about the upkeep on land they’d get back under the defeated legislation as well as the potential of uncontrolled development on the land. An Ayer selectman has been vocal about the mix of commercial businesses within Devens, saying it has drawn business away from retailers in Shirley and Ayer, and that it has attracted more warehouses than the heavy industry it set out to target. Meanwhile, Devens residents had expressed concern about their community’s future if the land given back to Harvard along Barnum Road stunted planned commercial development.
It’s ironic that 10 years ago, when the base was decommissioned, the worry was that its closure would devastate the local economy. MassDevelopment invested $140 million to help turn part of Devens into an industrial park. It has since attracted 80 companies employing more than 4,200 people, and its wages and taxes indirectly support another 3,100 jobs.
Over the course of a decade, the former base has gone from an economic liability to an economic asset, with a tax base that is more commercial than residential, exactly the reverse of the scenario in the neighboring towns. With the pending arrival of a Bristol Myers Squibb plant that will represent a $1.1 billion investment when fully built out, Devens is about to become even more of an economic powerhouse, one in which the cost of services for residents will be increasingly be supported by the business growth.
With the proposal for a new town failing at the regional level, the jury remains out on Devens’ future. The worries have shifted from the liabilities of a decommissioned base to the many implications of its success.
Let’s hope that after a time out, that the parties can get back at the table and re-draw the proposal to more effectively address the concerns of the towns who voted it down - namely Harvard and Ayer. Also, lets hope that the new state administration can help the region strike the right balance - with the right incentives and policies – between home rule, commercial development and environmentally-sound growth that works for all the constituents with a stake in the final outcome.
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