AMHERST — Amherst officials are being asked to decide whether to purchase a large tract of farmland in North Amherst that could be developed for commercial uses.
Due to a request to remove the land on the east side of Route 116/Sunderland Road from the chapter 61A tax classification, which protects agricultural land by allowing the owner to pay lower taxes, the town has the right of first refusal to acquire the 38-acre property from the Szala Realty Trust.
Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek said the property is zoned for a professional research park, but only 9 to 10 acres are buildable, based on a preliminary delineation of wetlands.
Ziomek said the council has until March 6, the end of the 120-day notice period, to decide how to proceed. Officials were first notified in November by Amelia Sirum, a successor trustee for the trust, that a $400,000 purchase-and-sale agreement was in place with a corporation called Sunderland Road North.
“I would very much appreciate your advising me whether the town desires to exercise its right of first refusal prior to the expiration of their right to do so,” Sirum wrote.
Sunderland Road North’s managers are Amherst developer Barry Roberts and Jerome Gagliarducci, who runs Gagliarducci Construction of Indian Orchard.
No project has yet been identified for the site, which is just south of an Eversource substation and immediately north of a 60-acre parcel that a decade ago was seen as the possible future site of a large corporate research and development facility, and in 1999 was subject to a proposal from University of Massachusetts officials for a hotel and conference center. Neither project moved forward, and that adjacent land has since become the site of 4.2-megawatt solar array.
Professional and research park zoning, according to the town’s zoning bylaws, is to “provide an open and attractive environment for office, research and low-intensity industrial activities.”
The Planning Board has already recommended that the Town Council not exercise its right of first refusal.
Ziomek said the land, which to the east borders Old Montague Road, was never identified in the town’s open space and recreation plan as a priority, and town leaders have always looked at the property as developable.
That is different than another parcel the Szala family owned on the opposite side of Sunderland Road. Those 25 acres were preserved last year due to being situated between the existing Podick and Katherine Cole conservation areas. The Noah Webster Trail, which is popular with hikers, is at the Podick sanctuary.
In addition, Kestrel Land Trust worked with the town of Hadley in 2019 to permanently preserve an additional 170 acres owned by the Szala family between Comins and Shattuck roads.
District 2 Councilor Pat DeAngelis said she would likely support relinquishing the town’s right of first refusal, observing there might be potential for industrial uses on the property that would enhance the town’s tax base.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
