Welcome

The Town of Harvard has embarked on a new comprehensive community planning (Master Plan) project to set policies, directions, and strategies through the next decade for land use, infrastructure, capital outlays, municipal service priorities, and governance. The Town’s previous Master Plan was published 2002. The intent of this project is to build on the success of the existing Master Plan and engage the public to validate the policies and plans that have been developed since 2002 and continue a pro-active approach to community planning.

The new Master Plan is envisioned as a “living document”, meaning (1) it will persist over the next decade as a guide and measurement for policy and actions by town boards and (2) it should serve as a tool for better coordination and integration of town government toward goals defined by the community. The goal of our project team is to help our community with setting of priorities while identifying different and sometimes conflicting goals.

What We’ve Accomplished!

• Met all milestones (over 35 meetings, sometimes two and three per week) since August.
• Wrote RFP to focus on key decision points residents will be asked to vote on over the next years: Devens, C-District, Town Center, Conservation, Housing
• Hired Consultants
• Conducted 40 stakeholder interviews
• Held two well-attended public forums
• Managed and analyzed a town-wide survey: 684 responses

We are asking for funding of $100K to create the action plan (Phase II) that will enable us to build a model for making wise decisions,  especially about Devens and the C-District, and to align with state requirements that qualify us for federal and state grants and loans that require an updated Master Plan. Click on the links below to read the results of the town survey or the final report:

Town Survey Results

Open-Ended Responses

Final Report – April 17, 2012