Sharon Update
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--- News from the Source---
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After several Town Meeting initiatives, two debt exclusion votes and countless hours of discussion, it would appear that the efforts to resolve the issue of Rattlesnake Hill may becoming to fruition. The Board of Selectmen held an informational session on Tuesday evening, July19th to review the status of the Town’s efforts to acquire and/or preserve the 330 acres on the highest point in Town. The journey has been long, spanning over 20 years of effort. The latest path, and hopefully the one that leads to success, will forge a cooperative solution between the Town and a developer that will culminate in 89 units on 25 acres bordering Mountain Street. Chairman Grasfield summarized the latest efforts by the Town, indicating that the most recent attempt to buy all the property outright from the owners failed when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts indicated it would not fulfill its tentative commitment to fund half of the purchase price. Town Meeting and a Town Election had authorized the Town to contribute $7.5 million ($6 million of which would be a debt exclusion). A subsequent Town Meeting modified the language of the initiative to state that the Town could still proceed with acquiring the property as long as a substantial portion of the property was preserved. It was with this direction that the Board of Selectmen proceeded to work with other boards to formulate a new approach. The preferred solution is a collaboration with a developer that would build 45 free standing units and 44 attached townhouses, all of which would be age qualified. Overall, the development would create 178 additional bedrooms. The proposed housing would average $500,000 in price and none would qualify as “affordable”. A preliminary financial analysis performed by the Finance Committee estimates a positive cash flow for the Town on the scale of $500,000 per year. Overall, over 92% of the 330 acres would be preserved with a conservation restriction and would be owned by the Town. In attendance at the open forum were many board members and several abutters. Judging by the tone and content of the questions, it would appear the Board of Selectmen have done a commendable job of reaching out to the interested parties to gather input as this solution was formulated. Abutter Richard Mandell summed up the mood of the crowd when he stated that the solution “wasn’t ideal” but that it was very good. That would appear to be the case, as the owners of the property had been hoping to gain approval for a development of 250 homes on 230 acres. Against that backdrop, 89 homes on 25 acres seems like a drop in the bucket. Mandell, along with abutters Stephen and Leslie Koval raised concerns regarding environmental issues and Chairman Grasfield promised to follow up on all points raised. Planning Board member Eli Hauser suggested that the townhouses might better serve the Town as rental units which could then be counted as part of the affordable units in Town. Grasfield promised to follow up on this suggestion as well. Although most of the news and comments were very positive, there is a long journey still to be traveled. The owners of the property have agreed in principle to allow the Town until June of 2006 to finalize their efforts before they feel the need to take another course. So the clock is ticking and much work still needs to be accomplished, but the outlook is promising. -Paul Pietal- |
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