Nearly everyone agrees the vast former Army base at Devens would be a perfect place to build more housing, in a region that desperately needs it.
Figuring out how and where to do it? That’s another story entirely.
The military base-turned-industrial park, about an hour’s drive northwest of Boston, still has dozens — if not hundreds — of acres left to build on. But the Devens reuse plan caps housing there at 282 units. And there’s not much room left under that cap. Twelve units to go, to be precise.
Lifting the cap can be done in one of two ways: by legislative fiat from the State House, or by an unusual “super” town meeting involving the three communities the base straddles — Harvard, Shirley, and Ayer — plus the endorsement of MassDevelopment, the quasi-public state agency that oversees Devens.
Source: Building housing at the old Fort Devens seems simple. It isn’t.
