Font ResizeDEVENS -- In a not-so-veiled threat directed at MassDevelopment, Joint Boards of Selectmen Chairman Enrico Cappucci expressed anger at the Devens developer for not sending a representative to address the board on the two entities pitching housing proposals for the vacant four-building quadrangle historically known as Vicksburg Square.
"We need to be satisfied that the information you're trying to give your constituents is good information," said Cappucci, adding that MassDevelopment is again putting the Ayer, Harvard and Shirley selectmen in the position of having to "sell a program they want us to sell."
Last June, simultaneous town meetings in the three communities failed to yield a three-town consensus for rezoning Vicksburg Square to permit residential uses. Ayer was the hold-out town, though critics, including later JBOS members, faulted the initiative as lacking critical pieces of information and failing to produce the developer and the designs for evaluation.
In November, MassDevelopment moved ahead with one piece -- seeking to locate an interested developer via a Request for Proposals. Two developers remain of the three that submitted proposals. Acton-based CSM & Company proposes 275 housing units and first-floor retail use. Boston-based Trinity Vicksburg Square Limited Partnership proposes a housing only, 246-unit plan.
MassDevelopment's Director for Land Entitlements Edward Starzec was to have attended an early January JBOS meeting to
In December, a small JBOS contingency did just that. Ayer Selectman Jim Fay and Harvard Selectman Ron Ricci signed confidentiality agreements before the presentations, but not Shirley Selectman Andy Deveau for the third town, or Harvard selectman Tim Clark, who, though not invited, sat through the presentation nonetheless. Last week, MassDevelopment forwarded another limited JBOS invitation, permitting one selectman per town to attend site visits at the dueling developers' latest projects in Lowell and in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood. This time around, there were no takers.
Interim Devens Operations manager Meg Delorier was invited to attend the JBOS' Jan. 28 meeting where this discussion broke out. Delorier declined the invitation.
"Obviously, she's not here tonight and I'm not sure if she'll discuss it at a subsequent meeting," said Ricci. "Any (JBOS) request for further sanitized information is not forthcoming for a variety of reasons that I don't understand," he said. He feared talking openly about the two projects due to the confidentiality agreements in place. Deveau expressed his support clearly for CSM's residential/commercial mix plan.
"I think we're in a mode of 'there's not much we can do unless we're engaged,'" said Ricci, which sparked an angry reaction from Cappucci.
"They're really putting the cart before the horse. They can't get up and sell anything ... We have to play a more integral role in that process. And if they don't catch on to that, good luck to them."
When Clark suggested a written request to MassDevelopment for a live, open session presentation, Ricci responded, "I believe we sent a letter asking for a human being to show up, Tim, and that was never answered."
"I remember JBOS and members of the communities would have some role in the selection process," Clark recalled after the failed summer Super Town Meeting vote.
"I'd like to see if we can have that role defined a little more clearly" in writing, Clark suggested.
Responding to the negative turn, Devens resident Tom Kinch said, "I hear the inferences that MassDevelopment is not cooperating. I think in a situation like that it would be very helpful to have the communication formalized so it's not hearsay or filtered."
Of any confidentiality agreements, Kinch theorized it might have been necessary to protect financial blueprints between the competing developers.
But, Cappucci said, this is a municipal venue. "MassDevelopment is acting as a developer, not a town. They're interested in making money off the Vicksburg Square deal."
Harvard Selectman Lucy Wallace said, "This is a zoning issue. This should be an open issue. I think it's very disturbing. ... People want to know 'where are you going?'" She suggested it would "behoove" MassDevelopment to release the developers' proposals, redacting sensitive financial data, if necessary.
Ayer Selectman Rick Gilles agreed. "It feels like the cart is before the horse. There's great acrimony in Ayer" over a "long list of issues we haven't resolved yet."
"Even if these people come up with a humdinger of a presentation, we haven't resolved these things yet," said Gilles.
Among the many issues raised were concerns over impacts on local businesses and schools, and whether Middlesex or Worcester county affordable housing median income standards would control at the project, which straddles the historic Ayer/Harvard town lines, and hence, county boundaries.
"Don't you get it?" Ricci quipped wryly to Gilles. "That's why we're selectmen and they're MassDevelopment."
Cappucci suggested the JBOS flex its legislative powers in response. Under Mass. General Law Chapter 498, changes to the Devens Reuse Plan and zoning requires the unanimous vote of the three Town Meetings.
In recent months, Cappucci has asked his peers to brainstorm a possible shift to a popular vote instead of relying on simultaneous successful tri-Town Meetings. Cappucci and others wonder if an averaged vote would have yielded a different turnout last summer when Harvard and Shirley Town Meeting voters overwhelmingly approved of permitting housing at Vicksburg Square but Ayer Town Meeting nixed the notion.
In any event, Town Meeting warrants are set through the selectmen. "We have the pen and that's the key," Cappucci said. "This time around if we don't have the questions answered to our satisfaction, it won't be on the warrant."
None of the eight selectmen present opposed Cappucci's war cry.
Delorier is scheduled to attend the next JBOS meeting on Feb. 11. She's to talk on the topic "What the DREZ (Devens Regional Enterprise Zone) will do for the towns," said JBOS Administrative Assistant Liz Garner. Garner added that Delorier is not expected to weigh-in on either Vicksburg Square or the JBOS's ongoing efforts to tease-out the municipal costs associated with running Devens.
