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Council designates Crescent Lane lot as conservation land after neighborhood push
Summary
Council adopted an order directing the city solicitor to prepare documents to permanently protect an 11,868-square-foot city-owned lot on Crescent Lane as public open space and to pursue a conservation easement; the motion passed unanimously after public comment from a neighborhood resident who has led restoration efforts.
The Malden City Council unanimously adopted an order (Paper 170-325) directing the city solicitor to prepare the legal documents necessary to declare an 11,868-square-foot, city-owned lot on Crescent Lane as permanent public open space and conservation land.
Neighbors and volunteers have maintained and restored the parcel for several years, and resident Brent Roby (identified in the public record as living at 58 Crescent Lane) told the council the neighborhood has been working on the site since 2021 and used a Community Preservation Act grant to get a survey completed. "It's really quite a remarkable place," Roby said during public comment, describing steep topography, boulders, and volunteer-built steps and invasive-species removal work.
Councilor Winslow, who brought the order forward, said the directive will ask the city solicitor’s office to draft documents so the conservation committee or an appropriate entity can hold a conservation restriction in perpetuity and record it at the Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Winslow said the aim is to create a template for converting other undeveloped city parcels with unclear status into formally protected conservation or open-space land.
Council discussion highlighted the complexity of title and tax-title status on some city parcels and the legal pathways available for permanent protection. Councilor McDonald and others asked for a memo from the law department outlining different designations (for example, conservation land, conservation restriction/easement, or park) and the implications for public access, funding eligibility, and maintenance responsibilities. Winslow and members said surveys and title work completed through the neighborhood’s CPA-backed effort made this particular parcel a suitable first candidate.
The council voted in favor of the order with no recorded opposition. The solicitor’s office is now directed to draft the necessary documents and to work with the conservation committee or other appropriate entity to prepare a conservation restriction and file it at the registry of deeds upon council approval and mayoral signature.
