Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 10/5/2021
EASTHAMPTON – On Sep. 22, the Easthampton City Council unanimously passed a series of motions that allows the city to purchase 5.5 acres of land at the end of Reservation Road for protection purposes.
One vote allowed $121,588 to be transferred from the Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding to be used as part of the purchase, while a $245,212 land grant was transferred from the General Fund for the rest of the purchase. The city applied for this land grant back in July, so according to Bagg, they did not expect to receive the land grant money until November of this year.
The Option Agreement that the city and current owners of the land signed gives Easthampton up to nine months to acquire the necessary funds for the $367,000 purchase – $350,000 for the land and $17,000 for due diligence – but with the money already approved and collected, Bagg said that the city could close on the property by January or February 2022. When the city does close on the parcel, they will seek reimbursement through the land grant.
Kestrel Land Trust, a local conservation organization, will prepare a conservation restriction document for the city as they are acquiring the land, thus preventing any kind of development on those acres, and officially designating the land as protected.
“They’ll walk the property and prepare a baseline documentation report,” said Bagg. “They’ll be doing some of that work over the next month or two right before it snows … that’s one of the documents we have to have before we close on the land.”
The restriction will regulate what activities are permitted on the property and it will maintain the city’s intentions of protecting the habitat. “We’re not going to do anything, it’ll stay as is,” said Bagg, when speaking on development.
The access road will stay open for pedestrians up through Mt. Tom, and the trail that runs along the back of the property will be available for hiking purposes and passive recreation.
The current owners of the lot, Suzanne Scallion and Rosemary LePage, claimed back in the winter that they wanted to develop five lots for housing development in an environmentally conscious manner at the base of Mt. Tom where the 5.5 acres are located. After considerable pushback from residents and the Pascommuck Conservation Trust, the city’s Planning Board conducted a meeting to reconsider a 2008 approval that allowed such a project to occur.
Gerrit Stover, a volunteer and land conservation advisor from Pascommuck, told Reminder Publishing that in the spring the area in question contained important core habitat that must be protected, a notion solidified by an inspection from the MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage of Endangered Species inspection. The organization found that a conservation restriction would be necessary since a portion of the land contained core habitat.
According to Stover, the commonwealth failed to act to preserve the Easthampton side of the Mt. Tom ridge. Instead, Pascommuck and the city of Easthampton have led negotiations with several cooperative landowners to accomplish the “modest yet important” conservation which has been achieved.
“However, this latest grant, won thanks to the hard work of City Planner Jeff Bagg on the application and negotiation with the landowners, adds to a couple of recent joint projects as encouraging signs that the Commonwealth is finally recognizing that all of Mount Tom deserves protection,” Stover said in a statement.
The owners of the 5.5 acres decided to withdraw housing plans after the pushback because there was uncertainty about whether the land was a public way. After some more confusion about whether a 1917 land deed specified whether the city owned the land, Easthampton and the owners renewed their conversations about “selling the land for conservation.” The city and owners entered the Option Agreement to allow the city additional time to complete an appraisal of the land and to secure grant funding. The owners commissioned the appraisal and agreed to the value of the land.
“We’re appreciative that the owners were willing to talk to us about trying to acquire the land,” said Bagg. “As a result of those discussions in the spring, the owners decided to go for conservation purchase.”
The conservation of these 5.5 acres was considered a top priority of the city’s Open Space and Recreation Plan updated earlier this year and represents the city’s initiative to protect other tracts of land across the city. According to the Project Funding Agreement signed in August, all work funded by the CPA grant must be completed by Aug. 18, 2022, unless an extension is granted. The first project update must be provided to the CPA by Dec. 16 of this year. Subsequent reports will be required every four months after that.
“I’m hopeful that future similar partnerships of the city, Pascommuck and Kestrel Land Trusts, and state natural resources agencies can make further progress in saving the scenic, habitat, and recreational gem that is Mount Tom,” added Stover.