All-Electric Fueling Station in Maryland

An all-electric fueling station is in the works in Maryland. Sounds like a great idea for Massachusetts as well. Maybe some entrepreneurial spirit could devise a version of it in our area.

Article: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/us/maryland-electric-vehicle-charging-trnd/index.html

And check out this update here...

Climate Change, Risk Management, and Our Future Prosperity

Yesterday's post about the MVP program and Harvard's participation makes a plea for volunteers to join the Town in executing the next phase of the project when Harvard can pursue action grant money for actual projects. The two MVP plans that were adopted and accepted by the state has led to our designation as an MVP Community last month. Some facets of the MVP plans that were developed relate to Harvard's local economy, particularly the agricultural sector. However, the documents do not consider macroeconomic and related sociopolitical risks.

This New York Times article, "Climate Change Will Cost Us Even More Than We Think," is an eye-opening reminder that our economic system has a fragility that isn't often considered since more or less we are constantly on a growth trajectory. Certainly there are perturbations that impact the markets, employment, interest rates, and the like, but in general, the system and its components must have growth or they/it fails. We haven't seen hints of this vulnerability for over a decade but from time to time they remind us of all of the things that must go right in order to keep the ship sailing in a direction that facilitates this growth.

I've written extensively about the philosophy of perpetual growth that the global economy rests upon so I won't repeat those thoughts here, but one of two interesting concepts that emerge from this article relate to risk management.  One point of emphasis that I sought from the consulting team that developed Harvard's plans was this lens of risk management that is applied to so many elements of our lives such as life insurance, automobile insurance (mandatory), health care, investments, and so on. If we are concerned enough about minute short-term risks such as premature death, then certainly a threat that could impact global and local economies, local safety and security, and emergency management scenarios is worth at least talking about from that perspective.

Consider the following related to climate change:

1. Large insurance companies like Zurich and many others are taking climate change very seriously and when such a conservative and cautious industry sector assumes leadership in this area, it's a pretty strong indicator not only of the validity of the issue but the seriousness  
2. Department of Defense,  Intelligence Officials, and Financial and other entities 
3. First Responders and their concerns

Harvard residents, businesses, and local officials should all be cognizant of the potential for climate change to impact things of importance. I could give examples of what these impacts might be, but the list might be incomplete, might overstate it, and surely will miss things that are wholly unanticipated at this point, precisely because of the cascading effects that the authors discuss in the article.

"...they will not occur in isolation, but will reinforce one another in damaging ways. In some cases, they may produce a sequence of serious, and perhaps irreversible, damage."

Some may throw up their hands in frustration suggesting that if there is so much uncertainty related to impacts and their interactions, why even try?  I'd perhaps liken it to when you're very sick and need to take a half-dozen or more medications. While pharmacology researchers seek to do the best they can to estimate interactions, there is no way to be certain, particularly the more in tandem are prescribed. So, when sick, do we just say no to the prescribed medications or do we usually steel ourselves to try?

But the bottom line for the issue of climate change and how it might impact us individually or collectively; locally or regionally, is that we need to at least pay attention. Get involved if you can, but at the very minimum, invest in learning about the issue and, if you are so inclined, hold discussions with friends, neighbors, family, and, most risky of all, co-workers.

Don't forget that we need volunteers to help us with MVP, so drop me an email - cryan@harvard.ma.us -  if you want to help us out!

Recent Happenings in the Harvard Planning World

It's late October and like much of 2019, there are a number of interesting projects going on in the community that relate to planning and economic development. Here we go with a few!

• Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) - Harvard received its formal notice of designation as an MVP Community in September. This makes the Town eligible for action grants. A new grant cycle opened two weeks ago and the Town anticipates making a grant application for the highest priority in our MVP plan, a Climate Action Plan that will provide more detail and specific actions such as culverts and dams to address, an agricultural action plan, a forestry plan, and much more. If you are interested in participating in the implementation phase of MVP and work with us to identify specific projects and funding opportunities, please contact me, Chris Ryan, at cryan@harvard.ma.us or 978.456.4100 x.323 and thanks to all of those of you who participated the first time around.
  
• Special Town Meeting Zoning Articles - There are six sections proposed to be amended within four warrant articles and I'll summarize them below. Note that the Planning Board has published a Frequently Asked Questions document that hopefully answers most questions about the articles. It can be found here or request a newer version from cryan@harvard.ma.us.

1. Article 19: Amend the Protective Bylaw Section 125-39, Site Standards. This article ensures that fire protection ponds for development projects must be located within the town's boundaries and not in another town.
2. Article 20: Amend the Protective Bylaw Section 125-02. Definitions. This Section is amended by adding a series of definitions specifically related to other proposed bylaws below. Should those articles fail, the related definitions would be sought to be removed by floor amendment prior to voting.
3. Article 21: Amend the Protective Bylaw Section 125-52, Ayer Road Village Special Permit. This seeks the amendment of a section of the bylaw that has been in existence since 2004 intended to encourage higher quality development in the C Commercial zoning district. However, due to a few issues with the bylaw, this has largely not happened. The key amendment is to increase development density from 0.2 (20% of lot area) to 0.3 (30% of lot area).
4. Article 22: Amend the Protective Bylaw Sections 125-12, 13, and 14, Small-Scale, Medium-Scale, and Large-Scale Commercial Uses. This proposed amendment seeks to add a few uses and examples of other uses.

• Please feel free to download the FAQ for additional detail.
  
• Workshop for Open Space Residential Design - Harvard is in the process of revising its current Open Space and Conservation - Planned Residential Development (OSC-PRD) bylaw that also has shortcomings that make it unattractive to use by developers. We are trying to put together a January workshop with guest speakers to make the concept more clear and for citizens and board members to ask questions.
  
• Form-Based Code Resources - Recently I had the opportunity to facilitate a panel discussion at the Southern New England APA Conference in Springfield, MA on the concept of form-based codes, which is a more appropriate alternative zoning methodology in many cases. I have posted the different slide shows that were used in the panel. I will also be adding additional FBC resources to this page so please bookmark.