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Open Space Committee reviews town property lists, flags Chapter 61 discrepancies and a 15.6-acre parcel of interest
Summary
Committee members reviewed new assessor-provided property lists, found roughly 90 town-owned open parcels and noted discrepancies in Chapter 61 status for several parcels including a 15.6-acre Dupree property that may have an expired Chapter 61 designation.
During its May 1 meeting the Town of Lakeville Open Space Committee reviewed assessor-provided property inventories and discussed next steps for maintaining accurate lists of town-owned land, vacant parcels and privately owned land eligible for conservation programs.
The committee received two new lists from the assessor—s office: a town-owned-land list covering many small parcels and a broader vacant-land PDF. Committee members said the combined datasets show roughly 90 town-owned open parcels and about 400 candidate private parcels after initial filtering for conserved or town/state-owned land.
Nut graf: Accurate property records are essential to identify candidates for conservation, apply Chapter 61 tax-incentive outreach, and to flag parcels approaching expiration of enrollment or ownership change. Committee members noted at least one parcel with a Chapter 61 expiration listing that appears outdated on the assessor—s card.
Key items discussed included a 15.6-acre parcel listed to Robert J. Dupree that the assessor indicated came out of Chapter 61 on 12/31/2021 but still appears in the assessor—s records as Chapter 61 property. Staff said the assessor may need to update the card. The committee also noted two parcels recently donated to local Wampanoag tribal entities; members asked whether special tax or trust status might affect Chapter 61 application requirements and agreed to follow up with the assessor and town counsel.
Members also discussed the Montgomery Street property the committee previously considered: it—s surrounded by residential parcels, not inside the PPA and unlikely to attract conservation-trust interest; the committee will not pursue it further after local investigation.
Next steps: the committee asked the assessor to provide an Excel version of the town-owned and vacant-land lists for easier tracking and to follow up on the Dupree card. Committee members will continue deduplicating the candidate mailing list and will monitor parcels with Chapter 61 expirations and ownership changes, especially those in priority protection areas.
Ending: the committee expects to refine its property datasets and report additional findings at future meetings; members said a new assessor starting soon should help make data more accessible.
