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Date: 12/12/2023
SOUTHAMPTON — On Dec. 5 voters in Southampton convened for Town Meeting to vote on 20 warrant articles, broken into several different sections – budget and financial items, Community Preservation projects, general bylaws and the acceptance/rescission of Massachusetts general laws.
While most articles passed nearly unanimously, two articles that generated some further clarification and debate were Articles 16 and 17. Article 16 was a request to appropriate $97,588 from undesignated Community Preservation funds to acquire 177 acres of land across two parcels for conservation and recreation purposes. Article 17 was a request to appropriate $323,100 from Community Preservation funds to acquire six parcels of land, totaling 554 acres for conservation and recreation purposes.
Speaking about both requests, Open Space Committee Chair Cindy Palmer explained that the acquisition of the parcels would be a great way to conserve land in the town.
“This is a great day for Southampton, we have the opportunity to protect in perpetuity hundreds of acres of wild woodlands, agricultural lands and open space. These lands will be conserved for passive recreation, wildlife and drinking water protection, and will become part of a larger conservation initiative that stretches over multiple states and into Canada,” Palmer said. “Future generations will thank us for what we can achieve here.”
The Community Preservation funding will go hand in hand with additional funding from the state.
“Our ‘yes’ vote allows us to apply $420,688 of Southampton’s Community Preservation Act funds, presently available in the account, to unlock $2.3 million of state and private funding for the mountain waters landscape partnership project and still leave funds for other projects,” she said.
Palmer explained that much of the town’s government, including the Selectboard, Conservation Commission, the Open Space Committee and the Community Preservation Committee are all in favor of the mountain waters project.
She added that the land would have public access, while some recreational activities were still up in the air.
“The majority of these acres will still have public access. Discussion about hunting is an ongoing discussion, we don’t have the answer right now,” she said.
Palmer said approving the acquisitions would not lead to an increase in residents’ tax bills.
“We will achieve all this without increasing property taxes, in fact, except for the two parcels that are going to be owned by the town, taxes will continue to be collected on the other properties. So, it’s just the two and those acres are totaling about 200 acres,” she said.
Palmer added that the only difference on the other properties is that they will have conservation restrictions.
Community Preservation Committee member Mark Kassis said the appropriations were “a very effective use of our funding” and the town would only pay for 12% of the total cost of the conservation of the land.
“We felt it was very important to protect greenways, agricultural lands, vistas, water protection and we consider this an enormous opportunity for the town,” he said.
Kassis also thanked Kestrel Land Trust for their work on the project.
When asked about why certain properties would not have public access, Palmer explained that was because one was agricultural land that was meant to be preserved “for the beauty of the property.”
In response to a question of what entailed passive recreation, Bridget Likely with Kestrel Land Trust explained that it included hiking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and hunting, if it is decided to be allowed. Biking would also have to be discussed at a future date.
Speaking to the question about public access, Likely said the goal is to have public access to Pomeroy Mountain and more discussion needs to happen, but “that is the goal.”
Both appropriations were unanimously approved.
Articles 8 through 11, all of which were free cash transfers, were all required to have no action taken on them as Selectboard member Jon Lumbra explained that free cash was not certified at the time of the meeting.
The full town meeting warrant that was voted on is available for review here: https://tinyurl.com/4as3zryt.