By Mhairi Paget
In a strongly worded letter to Robert Durand, of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, the Board of Selectmen expressed its objections to a "Notice of Project Change" filed last month by Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. on behalf of Cisco Systems. Two major changes to the original plan are being proposed. First, the company wants to almost double the size of the buildings � from 900,000 square feet to 1.4 million. Then, if the project is approved, Cisco would eliminate the golf course planned for the site.
The 500,000-square-foot expansion would be divided among three buildings, Scott Ross, Cisco's site development agent, told the Post, and would serve as office space and labs for research and development.
To respond to the project change notification, the selectmen hired (at Cisco's expense) Earth Tech, a consulting firm based in Concord, to review the proposed changes and assess the resulting effect of traffic on Harvard roads. According to the Earth Tech report, three intersections on Route 111 in Harvard � Old Littleton Road, Woodchuck Hill Road, and Littleton County Road � would all operate under "deficient" conditions during the morning and evening rush hours.
In their letter to Durand, the selectmen also raise concerns that the heavy traffic at the 495-111 intersection will create ripple effects on Swanson Road, Beaver Brook and Littleton County Road. In addition, they mention the 100-unit housing development proposed for Littleton County Road adjacent to the Cisco site. This development would be built under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40B, which allows waivers to local zoning ordinances under certain conditions.
In addition, the letter to Durand mentions the effects of MassDevelopment at Devens. The potential for 8.5 million square feet of development at the former military base will add considerable commuter pressure from the north at the same time that the Cisco project will be bringing traffic from the south. The selectmen propose pursuing other alternatives, such as improved train service, in order to mitigate the cumulative effects on the town.
While Cisco has offered the town $350,000 to deal with the traffic effects of the project, the selectmen argue that this is not adequate to address the significant adverse effects of the likely increase in traffic. The board states that, since Cisco has already announced that it will not be moving into the building as quickly as originally planned, it is possible that the company will either sell the buildings or lease out space to other companies. Under this scenario, the board argues that "in calculating traffic loads. . . stipulate that loads be calculated assuming a complex of fully independent functioning structures occupied at their fullest capacity."
In addition to the concerns about traffic, the selectmen also protest the abandonment of the planned golf course. The selectmen note that "many years of negotiating" went into the development of the agreement (with Towermarc, the previous owner of the property) relative to the building of the golf course. If the course is not built, the selectmen are asking that "the land that was to be utilized for the golf course be maintained in a natural and open state."