$300,000 state infusion aims to chart new course for former Devens army base

Toward that end, Governor Maura Healey’s administration just allocated $300,000 for Devens planning through a program that combines several different grants administered by Healey’s economic development and housing offices. The money would be used to hire a consultant to solicit public feedback and provide recommendations for zoning changes at the property and ultimately how to come up with a governance plan for the Devens area.

The grant comes as the three towns — Shirley, Ayer, and Harvard — await passage on Beacon Hill this fall of an economic development bill that includes a provision eliminating the Devens housing cap entirely, and another measure calling for a commission to study what to do with Vicksburg Square, a boarded-up former barracks at Devens that has vexed local officials for years.

State Senator Jamie Eldridge, who represents Ayer and Harvard and has been asking for state financial assistance for several years, said the planning grant and the economic development legislation have put Devens at an important inflection point.

“The communities have been saying, ‘OK, if you want us to allow more housing, well, what do we get for it?’” Eldridge said. “We’re trying to say, ‘You’ve got to help these towns out.’”

Local officials said they envision both a short-term and long-term plan to emerge: one that would pave the way for more housing, particularly multifamily housing, at Devens as soon as possible, and the other focused on establishing a permanent future for the former base.

Harvard select board member Rich Maiore said it’s still unclear how easily an outside consultant will come up with a consensus around the future of Devens: Many Devens residents, he said, want to break off and finally form their own municipality, while Harvard residents would like to broaden the town’s commercial tax base, for example, and Ayer officials want to see more housing built.

Then, even if a consensus is reached about the long-term future, the governor and Legislature would need to be persuaded as well.

State Senator John Cronin, whose district includes the town of Shirley, has been pushing for legislation to eliminate the housing cap, saying it’s probably the single most important thing state officials can do to stoke economic development in North Central Massachusetts.

“There are 900 engineers who go to work at Commonwealth Fusion every day [and] most of them don’t live in North Central Massachusetts,” Cronin said. “What’s really important is that this grant not become a reason for the state to not thoughtfully pursue housing development [in the near future] on Devens. ... We can think thoughtfully about the future, but we need to pursue the future of Devens today.”