'Internal Glitches' Blamed in Missed Chance to Perserve Land in Cedarville

Five acres of environmentally sensitive property on Little Herring Pond Road could perhaps have been saved from development by the Community Preservation Committee; but town management did not process its right of first refusal correctly.

At a recent Selectmen’s meeting, the board voted to give up first refusal rights on the parcel offered for sale by the Keese family, according to a report from WATD.

This property is called 61A by the state, meaning that a landowner receives tax benefits by keeping the land in agricultural use, in exchange for giving the town first refusal rights when the seller presents the town with a valid purchase and sale agreement. The town then has 120 days to decide whether it wants to buy the property. After that, they have an additional 90 days to close on the property.

The CPC had been working to acquire the property as the purchase and sales agreement was going forward with Mike Babini, a former Planning Board member for 30 years, ending in 1999.

Little Herring Pond is a 90-acre, shallow natural pond in Cedarville. The pond is located north of Great Herring Pond, west of Hedges Pond, southwest of Black Jimmy Pond (Hyles Pond), northeast of Island Pond and Triangle Pond, and east of Long Duck Pond. The pond has an average depth of three feet and a maximum depth of only four feet. The outflow is a stream that feeds Great Herring Pond, which in turn feeds the Herring River. Access to the pond is via a dirt road off Carters Bridge Road.

When the CPC put out a call for information to David Gould, director of the Marine and Environmental Affairs Department, the CPC learned that both he and Senior Town Planner Valerie Massard were unaware of this opportunity.

Town Manager Melissa Arrighi told WATD that management made "some internal glitches that will not happen again that are both embarrassing and disappointing but they occurred. For those reasons we are not able to purchase this property and 120 days has run out."