Neighborhood group fails to raise funds for Pleasant Street property
A neighborhood’s attempt to stop the development of former farmland on Pleasant Street failed to meet the town’s deadline to raise $650,000 to purchase the 12.4 acre parcel.
The parcel at 59 Pleasant Street, now owned by Joseph, Walter, and Gary Wasiuk, falls under Chapter 61A, which offers preferential tax treatment for agricultural land. In return, the town is offered the right of first refusal if the land is offered for sale — in this case, if it matches the $650,000 the buyer has already offered.
About 40 residents of the adjoining Christopher Drive and other Pleasant Street offshoots signed a petition last month requesting that the Select Board give them time to raise funds to preserve the entire parcel as open space. This came after Temporary Town Administrator Carter Terenzini had negotiated with the buyer, which had offered to donate 6.5 acres adjoining conservation land to the town if it passed up its right of first refusal on the property.
In a letter to the Select Board, Wendy Pope, Ed Dinaro, Catherine Pisacane and Mark Tsombakos, who had led the group effort, said their efforts to raise the funding had fallen through.
“We thank you for the opportunity to investigate our options further,” they wrote. “We recognize that you had a choice, and we were happy to see that you considered our request and allowed us additional time.
“We have been in touch with several land and wildlife conservation groups. We had hoped that between them all we might be able to find the funding there. Unfortunately, with this tight timing and the sum being asked, this was not the case.
“Therefore, we are notifying you that there will be no proposal from us. We are thankful that you were able to secure agreement from the Buyer to agree to add language into the contract noting that the Town will be given the parcel of forested land in the back of the lot.
“We would like to also go on record that this was never about 40B/affordable housing. This was about land conservation. We are not against affordable housing.
“We hope in the future the board will consider the impact to the environment of utmost importance in all decision making. We are in a global climate crisis and our human footprint is affecting the watersheds, plants, and wildlife around us. We all need to figure out creative ways to live on this planet and keep it healthy. It is not an easy task and there are always tradeoffs, but opportunities to protect the environment should not be passed by without careful consideration.”
The Select Board will discuss the matter on Tuesday.
