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Select Board delays decision on Mary Drive land sale after extensive neighbor concerns about stormwater and access
Summary
The Select Board declined to vote on conveying Lot K off Mary Drive, asking staff and engineers to review stormwater permit implications, assess whether additional impervious surface would tip the area over a 3-acre threshold, and provide valuation and permitting answers before any sale.
The Select Board on July 6 deferred action on whether to convey a town-owned strip of land (Lot K) off Mary Drive after extensive public comment and technical questions about access, stormwater permitting and long-term maintenance.
Board members and residents discussed competing offers and an alternate proposal from a nearby landowner (Danny Pete) to upgrade roughly 350 feet of private driveway to rural-road standards, assume long-term maintenance, and thereby unlock Lot 12 for a potential house lot. Advocates for selling to Pete argued that his proposal creates ongoing tax revenue and value. Opponents, including neighbors and some board members, said the town must avoid creating new liabilities: widening the right-of-way would increase impervious surface and could push the Mary Drive area into a 3-acre stormwater permit threshold, shifting significant long-term obligations to the town.
Chelsea Brooks and other residents asked the board to obtain definitive answers from Watershed Consulting and the state about current permit boundaries and whether the proposed work would create a 3-acre regulated site. The board directed staff to gather stormwater-permit details and an updated assessor valuation, and asked that engineers review and report back before any conveyance or sale is scheduled.
What happens next: Staff will collect plan and permit documents, consult Watershed Consulting and the state as needed, request an assessor valuation for Lot K and potential value changes to Lot 12 if access is improved, and bring findings to a future board meeting. No transfer or sale occurred on July 6.
