Shrewsbury eyes purchasing Lake, Grove St. properties for open space

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Shrewsbury eyes purchasing Lake, Grove St. properties for open space
A look at 433 Lake Street while standing on the corner of Grove and Lake streets. (Photo/Laura Hayes)

SHREWSBURY – The Select Board plans to ask the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to contribute half of the funds needed to purchase 6.7 acres of land at the corner of Lake and Grove streets.

At its Feb. 14 meeting, the board voted, 4-1, to ask the Community Preservation Committee for $420,000 toward the purchase price of the property, with the intent of maintaining it as open space and linking it to other nearby town-owned land. 

“It ties into the connectivity of the land at Camp Wunnagan all the way over to the Lake Street Park,” said Chair Moe DePalo. “The owner of the land wants to sell it, and I’d like to see if the CPC would be willing to use funds to fund half the purchase price and see if Town Meeting is willing to buy it.”

The land is made up of three separate parcels, including a 4.07-acre parcel at 104 Grove St., a 1.23-acre site at 443 Lake Street and a lot at 457 Lake St. with 0.69 acres. All three have been owned by Howard Sears of Holly Ridge, N.C, since 2006, when all three were purchased for $100 each.

Town has had the properties appraised at a total of $840,000.

DePalo said he feels strongly about acquiring these parcels. He said the purchase would fit with the town’s priorities for purchased land laid out in the town’s existing master plan, as well as the open space acquisition guidelines presently being drafted.

“One of the things [the plan] says is to try and acquire land that works with connectivity, with other open space that the town owns, so that you can have passive recreation and trails, and this piece seems to fit into that. And it’s available now,” said DePalo.

According to Town Manager Kevin Mizikar, if the properties were to be developed they would likely be used for residential construction, potentially as three single-family homes.

Mizikar said there is also talk of getting an easement that would connect these properties to additional town-owned property at 10 Elliott Circle.

If approved by the CPC and then by Town Meeting, the town’s share of the purchase price at $420,000 could be taken from $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act money that the town has earmarked for land acquisition.

The dissenting vote was cast by board member Theresa Flynn. 

While Flynn said she doesn’t oppose the purchase on its merits, she said she believed that a purchase now would be premature given the work that still needs to be done on crafting an open space acquisition plan in cooperation with the CPC.

“I understand this is an opportunity but I think we still have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We talked in June about meeting with the CPC to review how we might align our efforts, and we have yet to do that.”

She said she would like to have conversations to determine where this property sits on a list of open space priorities. She also expressed concerns regarding the $840,000 purchase price.

“I think this application is premature,” she said.

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