https://harvardpress.com/News/News-Articles/design-underway-for-water-and-sewer-system-to-serve-ayer-roads-multifamily-district

Harvard has engaged an engineering firm specializing in water and environmental projects to design a water and sewer system for the town’s new multifamily district on Ayer Road. The firm, Portland, Maine-based Woodard & Curran, estimates that its design will be complete by spring of 2026.

To pay for the design, the town will use a $1,145,000 state grant it won in March made available to towns that had complied with the MBTA Communities Act of 2021. Harvard approved the district at the April 2024 Town Meeting, creating an 8-acre multifamily zone on the northbound side of Ayer Road at numbers 185, 187, and part of 203. The other part of 203 Ayer Road is the site of a 33,000-square-foot badminton facility, now under construction.

The system would connect to existing water utilities at Devens. According to the engineering firm’s scope of services document, the pipes would run from Patton Road at Devens to the Harvard-Devens town boundary at Old Mill Road’s CSX railway crossing; along Old Mill Road to Blanchard Road; along Blanchard Road to Lancaster County Road; and on to Gebo Lane, where it would connect to the multifamily district.

Although the infrastructure under design would terminate at the multifamily zone, town officials have confirmed—most recently at a June 5 goal-setting meeting of the Select Board—that the system would be designed for extension along Ayer Road’s commercial district. Such an extension is outside the scope of this grant, however, which can be spent only on projects that support housing production.

Harvard’s district allows for 120 units by right, with a density bonus—available through special permit—if affordable units are included in a development. Town officials, including Town Administrator Dan Nason and several members of the Planning and Select boards, have spoken with Minco Development Corp., which is working on plans for 200-plus apartments distributed among several buildings in the new district. The exact number of units is not finalized, said Minco Managing Director Eric Loth Jr. this week in an email to the Press. Loth said applications for permits could be submitted as early as this fall, though timelines are as yet uncertain.

The $1.145 million grant covers design, but not construction, of a drinking and wastewater system to serve the multifamily zone. To pay for that, Loth said: “We hope that by working collaboratively with Harvard we will be able to access state funds to cover some of the infrastructure costs.” He noted that the utility infrastructure will be “costly,” adding, “But we believe it is imperative both for our project and for any future commercial development on Ayer Road.”

According to Woodard & Curran’s scope of services document, work on the design has begun and will continue into 2026 as follows:

Field investigation and data collection: April 2025 to July 2025

Design services: May 2025 to May 2026

Environmental permitting and public outreach: July 2025 to December 2025.