The corridor is located on the north side of the Town of Harvard approximately 4 miles west of Interstate 495, approximately 19 miles from Route 128, and approximately 34 miles to the center of Boston. Harvard is also 10 miles to Leominster, MA, 20 miles to Nashua, NH, and 29 miles to Worcester, MA.
The project area, corresponding to the commercially zoned area (C-District) is approximately 344.5 acres along a +/-1.2 mile stretch of Ayer Road (Route 110/111) extending from the Route 2 interchange to 1/3 mile south of the Ayer Rotary. There are a variety of land uses within the corridor area. They include retailing, general office, medical office, over-55 rental residential, single-family residential, personal services, heavy commercial uses, manufacturing, institutional, and indoor recreation.
This variety of commercial, industrial, and residential buildings in the corridor are in varying conditions and quality. There is no overall character or design theme or pattern of the development currently in the project area other than it is very low density and ranges from metal and wood buildings in relatively poor condition to more recent brick buildings with a good design and upkeep. In summary, there is no design theme nor much consideration to New England architecture in most cases. Finally, the low density and deep setbacks in some cases give the corridor a sprawl-like character.
There are 58 parcels of land in the corridor. Twenty-nine of the parcels totaling 116 acres, are currently in commercial use. Ownership of these commercial parcels is diverse and there is no entity that owns more than three (3) properties. Property assemblage for larger scale developments would be challenging but likely necessary. The EDAT Report included a table of property ownership in an appendix. The Planning Division of the Land Use Boards has updated this list in an Excel spreadsheet and is available for review as a public document.
Since 2018 when the Director of Community and Economic Development position was filled, the Planning Board or the ZBA have approved several site plans and special permits in the corridor. These include two landscaping storage and retail facilities, an indoor batting cage, several signs, and a residential project (Craftsman's Village). More illuminating are what kinds of inquiries have been made to this office since that time. These include a gas station/convenience store, three locations considered for multifamily residential over 200 units each, a self-storage warehouse, auto repair, warehousing, another indoor recreation facility, and another landscaping operation.
What is important to note is that our zoning would have permitted (or at least not defended against) several of these uses, but they reflect the scale and type of project that currently solicits interest by developers. So what exactly is the zoning that covers this district? The current zoning in the corridor is Commercial (C) with the option for an Ayer Road Village Special Permit (ARV-SP) that allows mixed-use development. The "C" zoning allows a density of 0.1 FAR or up to 10% of the area of the lot. Two things emanate from this scale of development. First, very few good developers would be interested in this density. Only low value, low investment uses would consider it--thus reflected in many of the existing uses and structures out there now. Second, this dimensional limitation naturally facilitates the worst kind of suburban sprawl--again, exactly what you are seeing emerge there.
The aforementioned ARV-SP encourages a more village-like development pattern in exchange for allowing some residential uses within a mixed-use project. It also doubles the permitted density to an FAR of 0.20 or 20% of the area of the lot. While well meaning and better than the underlying base zoning, it still is not prescriptive enough to ensure the type of development that Harvard clearly has expressed a desire for. Note also that the district includes a set of commercial design guidelines intended to guide developers into using better designs for buildings and landscapes. Yet, guidelines do not carry the weight of a requirement but can be negotiated as part of a special permit.
The ultimate point of this piece is that the Ayer Road corridor has some nice uses and buildings, a range of not-so-nice buildings and landscapes, and that our current zoning has directly facilitated this. Furthermore, the ARV-SP and design guidelines, while better than before, have not elicited much development activity--likely because they are still not very feasible, so at this point they are not particularly relevant.
So what should be done? Clearly, past planning efforts and current municipal fiscal deliberations have clearly articulated the need to increase non-residential tax revenue. The Ayer Road Corridor is the ideal, and at present, the only option to pursue this locally. Small steps have been taken in this direction, but the test of time has not borne fruit. Which brings us to the present...the work that the Planning Board has done recently to articulate a path and strategy for the corridor is bold and Harvard-appropriate. Part 3 of this series will go into detail about this project. In the meantime, check out the path we are proposing HERE.
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