If you live in Southampton, or just drive through once in a while, you know it’s a beautiful town, graced with mountain views, rolling farmland and wooded streams.
Naturally, people like to live in beautiful places, and as Southampton has grown, so has the challenge of preserving its beauty. Subdivisions spring up on the cornfields; big houses balloon on the hillsides.
Residents approved a master plan in 2013 to manage this growth, yet the building continues apace. Now, three significant land parcels totaling 152 acres have come on the market, and an increasing number of residents want to see the town act in its own interest.
The three parcels are enrolled under the state law known as Chapter 61, which gives landowners a major tax break on undeveloped property. In return, a municipality receives the right of first refusal when Chapter 61 land is being sold for conversion to residential, commercial or industrial use.
The town forgoes years of tax revenue, but it gets first dibs when the land exits Chapter 61. To buy the land, the town must match any bona fide offer the landowner has received. So the town’s right of first refusal poses no hardship for the landowner because a bona fide offer is a bona fide offer, whether from the town of Southampton or a developer. As long, of course, as all cards are on the table.
After the deaths of the landowners, the heirs are selling the three Southampton properties. One — whose ownership already has been transferred — is about 50 acres on College Highway, in an area the master plan designated a prime spot for a much-needed public safety complex and affordable housing. Two active farms, protected by agricultural restrictions, flank either side of the property.
The land also lies within the Barnes Aquifer Water Supply Protection Area and abuts the greenway, the future site of a bike path that Southampton residents have labored on for years. With careful, multi-use planning, including preservation of some open space, the parcel would undeniably be a big asset to Southampton.
Another parcel is 85 acres on Glendale Road, identified in the master plan as an “Open Space Protection Area.” This scenic property, crisscrossed by brooks and streams, is a critical patch in a wildlife corridor to Pomeroy Mountain. Heron, deer, owls, bobcats, foxes and more all live or pass by there.
In the quest to save at least some land for recreation, these acres rank high by any measure. In a 2011 statewide survey of ecological land values, the University of Massachusetts, using guidelines from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, put a priority on this area for conservation based on “various ecological communities” (such as forest, shrub swamp and headwater stream) and “important wildlife habitat” associated with wetlands.
And on Fomer Road, 17 acres contiguous with the popular Wolf Hill Sanctuary would be a natural addition to that protected land.
The master plan directs the town to “prioritize lands currently enrolled in Chapter 61/61A/61B status and determine if there are priority parcels the community should purchase if and when these lands become available.” Minutes of the Aug. 22, 2017, Select Board show that the board discussed the College Highway parcel in executive session that day.
Yet, the fate of these three properties was not revealed to the public until November, when the for-sale signs went up and the developers were already negotiating with the seller family. By Dec. 5, all three parcels were “under agreement.”
Why didn’t the Select Board immediately call together all commissions and committees to evaluate the importance of this land to the town? More broadly, why was each of these parcels let go to developers without discussion or public forum? At the very least, why wasn’t the Conservation Commission consulted early on?
The Select Board has not received written notice that the properties are leaving Chapter 61, as required by law. Indeed, after questions were raised before town officials about these sales, after the Conservation Commission did express interest in the parcels, and after representatives from land trusts and the Finance Board said the money could be found to acquire them, only then did town assessors receive an affidavit from one of the developers, stating that the land would remain in Chapter 61 status.
Yet the legal precedent, bolstered in a 2007 amendment of the law, is that evidence of intent to develop Chapter 61 land triggers a town’s right of first refusal. The Select Board solicited an opinion from town counsel, posted on the town web site, that said as much.
If executive sessions, perc tests, and discussions before the Planning Board of numbers of houses, their sites, and their prices do not signal intent, what does? No crystal ball is needed: The developers will develop the land, and the town will lose out. And with deadlines looming, the clock is ticking.
No one is arguing that all development is undesirable. People need homes, and wise building can benefit everyone. But the proliferation of new homes in Southampton puts a financial burden on the town when the added property taxes lag behind the cost of additional services.
How is growth good, for example, if we cannot afford to maintain the quality of the schools that people have come here for? An argument in good faith makes clear what is at stake, and who benefits, and how. We need to see that big picture in Southampton. The consequences of unchecked growth are serious, and self-defeating. It is time to change course.
As these properties are removed from Chapter 61, we call on the Select Board to put the prosperity of the town — both environmental and economic — above personal interest, and to demonstrate far-sighted stewardship. We call on the Select Board to exercise the town’s right of first refusal to allow time to evaluate these properties for purchase.
This is Southampton’s one-time opportunity to work carefully and creatively to make these lands a valuable asset to the beautiful town we all love.
Diana Federman, Kristina Madsen and Cindy Palmer are Southampton residents who are concerned about the town’s future. The column also was signed by 78 other Southampton residents. A public forum on the issue will be held at 6 p.m. April 5 at the Norris School.