Open Space & Recreation Committee - Regular Meeting

[Music] so let me call this meeting of the open space and Recreation committee to order at 6 minutes past 7 on January 15 2025 uh and I should actually look at my agenda here must have agenda must have an agenda somewhere all righty so first item on the agenda is the annual report for the osrc I sent out a draft of the annual report [Music] um it is I think complete except for the action item status numbers which I don't have all of those in yet I've received status reports from six out of the 12 committees and I have one from this committee that we can talk about I just want to make sure that what we're what we are reporting is what we all want to see reported but other than the status reports any other comments or thoughts on the annual report I read through and did not have any comments or changes same for me

okay so it's easy thank you and and what we did what we did last year for this was we withheld the committee's formal approval of the report until our February meeting when we had all the action item status numbers in unless someone wants to do things differently like approve it with a status numers site on scene um I is theoretically these are due January 31st but they always they give us some extra time if we need it so so this the the numbers that you're waiting for what does that mean exactly the the number of the action item yeah yeah so every year I'm I ask everybody who's responsible for an action I I want I asked them to tell us what their current status is yeah and so so I gather those all up and then I'm uh in the report I'm just we're just counting Counting the number of action items that are in each different status so like high priority ongoing items last year there were two where there was no action one was in progress and six were ongoing high priority shortterm no action two in progress two completed two and ongoing two so it's just you know the what what we what I'm out waiting to get is the the the latest status if oh so the red is the red the the numbers in red are last year's numbers okay okay I thought okay I thought you meant the number as in like action item 9.1.3 point2 okay so you're still waiting on those okay yeah got it yep

yes and then in addition do you expect do you expect to receive them by the end of January when the report is due yes yes I I when I sent out the request around the end of December I sent the request to every responsible agency asked them to respond by January 31st I got some I got a couple responses the very next day which was nice and since then I've I've received a total of six responses is and our committee is responsible we will finalize that in a moment I'm still waiting for economic development conservation agriculture Trails committee and police department I'm going to assume that Leah's working conservation report but I Center all that info just to make sure she had it I assumed you had already SE it if there's a a grace period Beyond I think people should adhere to the deadline so yes um yes I think a week or so before the or maybe next week what what the way the way I had did it last year was about halfway through January I sent out a reminder email to those who had not already submitted their data so yes I want to receive our data by January 31st that's a deadline I gave people and then the town administrator's office gets the final report they give us a little bit of they they they ask for the final report on January 31st but uh in our case here they've you they're always willing to give us a couple weeks grace period on

that so with that said where was I on the action names assigned to us there are four two of which we can now report I think last year we were able to report that create the trails committee was completed this year we can report that the partial prioritization has been completed and the evaluate tax title properties and seek to place under the jurisdiction cons Conservation Commission that's the work that we've started on back in the fall so that's now in progress the last the last one and this is something I want to U get a sense of where you guys want to go with this it says work to establish a committee to review town-owned land for updated uses related to open space and Recreation needs committee would specifically focus on lands emerging out of chapter lands programs and we have yet to think to talk about establishing a new committee here and what I put in my draft was no action which we haven't done anything with yet but then I said not clear that such a committee is needed and I'm not sure that's how we want to report it um I think perhaps a better way to report it is that we will work with slock board and other other Town appropriate Town boards and committees to determine whether a new committee needs to be established for this I know I back back before this committee was organized when we were completing the uh open space w plan I had proposed a town-owned land committee which would kind of sort of do this

might would have been part of it but after discussing with the SLU boarding Administration we decided that yeah didn't really we didn't really see any value in creating a new committee at that time so what what might be preferable for us to report on this action item is that we will sometime during 2025 we will e reassess the need for a new committee I'm not quite sure how best to put it because I'm thinking trying to think of the best way to put it whether we need a new committee for this or whether this can be can become this task can be undertaken by an existing board or committee it seems like that's what we're kind of doing as part of the the the previous task we're looking through town owned land to see so so so maybe the answer to this is and we that's that's you we we we should probably sort of figure this out but it's quite possible the answer to this is that we are that committee yeah that's seems to me that's what we're doing yeah so it would be land that's not currently in conservation but owned by the town yeah okay right because that's what we're doing right now we're going through the Dave printed out the list of the the parcel inventory that's not currently protected and we're going through that to determine if we need or if something should be done with those parcels that's what I was doing I hope that's what we were doing okay so that makes sense so that so then we could we could say that that we can consider this to be an in progress because it sort of combines with

the combines with the previous one 5.1 C we still have a so we're we're we're really sort of do we still have or is it Shannon sorry yeah the person that was on the call is she still on I don't see her oh Elizabeth okay Elizabeth yeah she she's back she disconnected for a moment but now she's back yeah Dave I I I agree with what you just said it seems like it could kind of be merged yes yeah yeah yeah and I am on the call sorry I thought I was unmuted but I do I do believe we should not um create another committee we our role is make a recommendation I'm still going to have to go to other committees for approval and select board and I don't I don't see the benefit of adding another committee when we can easily manage it yeah it's one of the things that we're kind of in a habit of doing around here is anytime we see something needs to be that we think needs to be done well let's make a new committee you know we have a lot of committees and yeah I was I was comfortable thinking that we don't need a new committee here but yeah now that you you know you know you mention it and I read you know sort of reread this that this really does sort of go together with the other one so we'll you know we'll basically effectively we'll combine we we'll say that these two action items are both being being we're taking care of them both with this this one activity yeah makes sense to me and so that will be and so I'll write the words in there and then will that will be our our committee's action item status report so that will make seven out of 12 that

we've got done that's great it's great so good good let me see what's next on the agenda okay and this is largely for informational purposes here um I have and I think I sent around to you guys the uh did I send that around the updated open space yeah the updated open space inventory you that's something i' something I've been doing about every year is uh updating the open space inventory which we first put together in back in 2020 for the open space and Rec plan but I've trying been trying to keep that up to date and uh I will be uh post posting that to our page on the website uh there's one sort of open issue on that and that among other things that you know I've got the open space inventory the complete inventory then I've separately produced an inventory of article 97 properties and I'm forwarded through Fiona to Town Council to have them review my understanding of article 97 because I want to make sure that I get this right and I'm not a land use lawyer so I I think I understood it right when I put this together but looking forward to be before I sort of consider this inventory complete I want to I want to I want to get make any updates that Town Council says yeah article article 97 is not quite what you thought Dave and here's the truth of it I would like to make sure that I've got it as accurate as possible before I sort of formalize it and and post it to the website I see if you want a nodding her head there yes I did forward that to council um just waiting to hear back yep from them um I think he did a good job from

my understanding of of article 97 again I'm also not a land use lawyer but um that it was a great document um and thanks thanks so much for doing that Dave yes when I was researching this I found that there's there's not a lot of case law not a lot of information out about article 97 it's it's rarely the subject of litigation that's one of the things I found and then then there's several different ways some pretty clear-cut and some maybe a little bit more obscure as to how something gets to be article 97 land but yeah once we get confirmation of that I think everything else that I've updated on the inventory is as up to dat as it can be as of the end of the year so let's see then again it seems that we've at least temporarily lost Elizabeth hopefully she'll be calling back in uh any questions or comments about the article 97 inventory no question or the open space inventory My Hope Is that when we when it comes time to update the open space and Rec plan we'll have an upto-date inventory already they're all for it so were we supposed to because I spent a good amount of time going through that open space inventory just to understand like where I I went through with the with the mindset of you know are there any others like uh 27 Milford Road that we should have our eye on to possibly permanently protect are we going to talk about that today or is that another well that the next agenda item is to talk about 27 Milford Road and uh whatever else we might want to do okay on that

topic so yeah the ultimately the objective is is there anything out that inventory that should be protected that's not right so with that um go back to my agenda here yeah think next yeah so the next agenda item consideration of protection for unprotected open space I sent you guys uh basically summary of the of what I the information I had on 20 the two 27 Milford Road Parcels invited fion here to talk about you know what she sees of that what she's done with that so far what what she and the office plan to do and we can sort of segue from that into what else we might want to consider or the direction that we want to go with this so did you guys have any first of all any questions about what I sent out about the status of 27 Milford if not I'll just sort of let Fiona talk about what she's been able to do with that so far sure so uh thanks Dave so combed through the doc documents that were in our files um there's a lot of there was a lot of information um luckily you did a lot of the leg work for me um so thank you for that um my understanding so some of the issues that were highlighted and I'll just um I guess Dave probably the best way to do it is for me to just explain very quickly like what the questions that remain to be answered are um which for

this is specifically pertaining to 27 Milford Road and Milford Road rear um if there was a specific land use plan submitted for the open space uh for those open space Parcels um which is a requirement in the in section five of our zoning bylaw and were the required restrictions um of that open space and any Associated dedications recorded as well so the short answer was that you know I I've kind of combed through this and although this may not be oh thank you it's it's right up on my screen I was reading from my email so thanks you thanks Dave so the minute we didn't have minutes going back that far um when this was finalized it was 1999 um we did have some minutes from 2000 but I couldn't really find anything substantive in those minutes um and then obviously um as I mentioned you know we didn't have anything going back further so we I have yet to um go down to the archive room and and sort through that we could have a little bit more information um I probably will have my assistant planner work work on that I just haven't we just haven't had a chance to do it just yet but my understanding of the way this played out um and just based on the electronic files is that the plan that's required by section five of the zoning bylaw that that the land use plan is the recorded plan that we are looking that that um was distributed um and that we that that is um recorded in the registry so it's the um plan titled um land use plan um plan of land and graft and

master showing parcel showing the showing the parcels for the um the uh protected Parcels for the subdivision I think that that's that is literally instead of having two separate plans they submit the definitive plan is serving the purpose as of that land use plan that's required in the zoning like it it accomplishes the same thing albeit the notations on the plan aren't totally clear I mean it's clearly States and Dave I don't know if you have that at your disposal it might be helpful to share but the it clearly states that the that the land is going to be going to the town of Grafton but there is a symbology there's like a crosshatch on one of them that um we could never figure out why it was symbolized like that but long story short is that I think that this is essentially done I think what needs to be done now is were is is going through the deed and having Town Council check the deed and just memorialize in writing that it's the the part two Parcels which are encompassed under the one deed goes uh you know the language is under the care and control of the Conservation Commission and I don't think that requires a town meeting Vote or anything extra because really the deed has the all of the restrictions the boundaries any sort of limitations on the land it it's a pretty it's pretty comprehensive and outlines clearly and references that plan of land um that I was just talking about before so long you know I don't want to uh there we go perfect so yeah a lot so the top um the top right and the top left Corners there like you can see under you know there's Parcels intended to be conveyed um to

the town of Grafton and that essentially was done in the deed but I think that the deed could just be rewarded to be more specific than it's going to be for conservation and I did talk to the Conservation Commission about um generally um what Parcels they were interested in for conservation purposes but their top priority was were these two so I think everybody's on the same page um and I think honestly the the marching orders would would be for me to just talk to council about changing the reding I guess or like specifying in the deed um what we're doing yep I it was sort of my impression that the land use planned that I wasn't sure existed was not so much a plan in this sense of a plan as it was a written document explaining you know how the land was going to be managed dedicated etc etc so that's that's something that you May yet find in the in the archives uh if not okay let me see if I can switch this going back going back to this one then um yeah if if we aren't able to dig up any additional information from our archives to clarify you know some going going back you know going back to whatever meeting minutes you can find whether there's a there's a file for this project that

exists somewhere in the archives that may have some documents in it but I think in the end if we don't find any additional documentation um then we are left with two Parcels of land here both of which are owned by the town neither of which are placed under the care and control of the Conservation Commission or in any other way protected and it's quite possible that the in the intent may have been let me see if I can ah let switch back to the plan again here while you're doing that Dave yeah I mean I think and not to put words in your mouth but I think that the the intention was to streamline because the section five of the zoning bylaw that those special permit Provisions as you well know are basically to tee up a developer so that they have their ducks in a row for when they file the definitive plan which is what we're looking at here so I think you know it's it's all I think we're saying you know that it makes it seem like there's multiple documents but I think that this was submitted to satisfy right that requirement I will check the archives to confirm that there is nothing extra but and I don't think there's any risk with proceeding with the deed and this plan as our basis for pursuing permanent protection yeah so I yeah right so we might I what what what I ended up thinking was it looks like maybe the the cross-hatched lot on this

land lot tg2 was originally intended to be conveyed to the Conservation Commission or otherwise permanently protected and the other lot tg1 was intended not to be permanent protected but at this point if we don't find any documentation that further clarifies that intent we're now in a position to say well maybe both of these Lots thought to be permanently protected and is there any reason not to and if they if we do decide that these are to be permanently protected I believe it's actually sufficient for town meeting to vote to place these two lots under the control of the Conservation Commission ideally you would then record that vote because you would like to have something on record at the registry of deeds it's possible but I'm not sure it's necessary for the town to formally deed these Lots over to the Conservation Commission that has been done and in in a few cases you know again in compiling the open space inventory I went to Great Lengths to find all documents that recorded to the register Deeds that had any bearing on the status the of these Lots some Lots the town actually deed them to the Conservation Commission in most cases though they may have been deeded to the town and then town meeting voted to place them under control of the Conservation Commission there's more than one way to skin that particular cat and obviously I would take Town council's advice as to what the the most appropriate means would be but if in the end we are comfortable concluding that both of these Lots ought to be permanently protected then by whatever means is most appropriate we can place them under

under control of conservation alternatively we could place a conservation restriction on them which we've done in some in some recent cases Town bought the land and put a CR on it and the CR is being held by the Land Trust yeah Dave I could just interject so two things so I'm reading through the deed as as you're explaining and there's nothing that differentiates in the deed at least the cross-hatched parcel of TG um uh tg-2 and tg-1 like it does it like I cannot see language in the deed that says tg-2 is specifically for conservation they both they're both yep and that's exactly what I saw in the lead too there's right there's there's nothing in any recorded documentation distinguish these two lots other than the cross-hatching on the plan but there's there's nothing in particular there's nothing recorded at the registry of deeds that even suggests that either one of these Lots is to be placed under control of conservation or permanently protected in any other way that's that's that's really what's missing here at this point is and I think the while the while the intent may have been there back in the day um it was at very least never recorded at the registry of deeds you haven't been able to find it Fiona in any any documentation you've reviewed so far yeah and at best at this point sounds like there may be some hints about that buried in some files somewhere but there may not be and I guess when I sort of when I when I put this together before I sent this to Yona I kind of reached the conclusion that if there is no additional documentation to be found expressing the intent we are basically free to decide

today what we think should be done with these two lots yeah I I think that that's I think that that's correct I mean I I'll confirm with you know obviously the lawyers but I think I'm not sure if there needs some additional um approval from select board or what have you but I think it's pretty you know because because if it's the language is it's to the town of Grafton and to and and by default I would think that that would be the select board so I think as long as the select board is is okay with um deing it reding to the Conservation Commission if that's the way we skin that cat um then I think that would be the only kind of additional approval and then and then maybe and then formalizing that through town meeting it seems like that's going to need to be formalized through town meeting I didn't think you needed to if you were just reding I didn't think you you needed to go back to town meeting and say oh yeah we're CL clarifying for conom but um I'll I'll ask Council about that too and then just to um before I the thought goes out of my head you can do a conservation restriction um conservation restrictions as this group probably knows a little bit more tricky because somebody needs to go out and do a baseline report and walk the site and um all of that jazz but and and it needs to be kind of a certified um con consultant and how you know how we pay for that and and what I I wouldn't I don't know how we would be compensating them for that time I don't think that there's any money left in this account from 1999 but just my point being is I think that the path of leas res istence is probably the best way to do it like we know that it's supposed to go to the town clearly it's ideal for conservation purposes because it's a buing

um um uh it's linking it's it's would link uh bro Brook Meadow Village um there that open space component of that subdivision to Hass a mess at woods so it's kind of a no-brainer and I think you know again I'll vet everything and I'll come back to the next committee meeting with all of these answers but yeah I think I think just I I'm happy to go to the select board on behalf of the open space and Rec committee and say that we've had this conversation and we're um we're trying to pursue this in Earnest and I think I'll just Loop in the Conservation Commission because obviously they're going to have to take um ownership of of of it and maintain those Parcels which they're which I theyve already expressed that that's a strong desire of theirs anyway so it's not going to be an issue but yeah I agree conom aren't we overseeing the rest of hesd yeah concom oversees a lot of a lot of open space already well no I mean hoses and this is all connected to hosman acid so I think so yeah this this it makes a lot of sense to me that and and again and like you say if you know the path of lece resistance here is simply for town meeting to place this under control of conservation yeah I don't see I don't see any value added by doing a conservation restriction it it it's more work and and I yeah I don't see a value add for that I think recently at least we've done gone the conservation restriction route for Parcels that were purchased with CPC money for which there is a requirement to do a CR that's not the case here there's there's absolutely I see no reason whatsoever to do a CR on these just tell

meeting vote hand him over to hand control over the Conservation Commission and unless Town Council sees a need to do it by way of a deed which I said like I said I've seen that done but more often than not town meeting simply votes to place the land under Conservation Commission and ideally that vote gets recorded at the registry in some cases it was not recorded I found the vote in town meeting records but no one ever recorded it there's a whole another question and EV Evan sort mention it something in pass to me once few months ago I think that kind of going through some of the some of the towns property Acquisitions and maybe filling in some gaps at the registry of deeds of which town meeting votes would be an example but I no need to get into that here simp simp what was done in the '90s and the early 2000s I always kind of joke like was like the wild west at the time you know like and trying to chase chase down all of that as is definitely um necessary but we'll take we'll take some time yeah what when whenever you get around of that getting touched to me I've got a lot of I've got a lot of Records relating to that so the rest of if I could the rest of hos Manet is in AR article 97 and there is a conservation restriction but this looks like the state has it so they must oversee the CR for the rest of yeah I think the state got connected to that somehow I don't remember off the top of my head but in any case yeah let's well that's good to know our our recommendation I think the consensus from this group is that you know we think the town should Place both of these proces under under conservation Comm Control Commission control

uh by the the the least painful process possible tell tell me and vote and whatever else might be viewed as necessary uh okay the other question the question that and one of the reasons why back in the day these two Parcels were drawn as separate Parcels is the larger portion what was tg1 on the map was at the time we thought it might be useful for other Municipal purposes I have kind of a vague memory of that a a more concrete memory of 20 or so years ago when we started planning a new high school we looked at that parcel that the larger 27 M Milford Road parcel the one that was not cross-hatched on the diagram on the plan we looked at that as a potential location for a high school and for various reasons probably not all of which I remember but one was topography it was determined to be unsuitable for a high school and since that time no one has proposed anything else to be built by the town on that property access to that property that parcel is difficult if not impractical so that but that that would be one topic to explore as we when we get to the point of discussing this with the SLU board and to and probably there I don't know if there are anybody if there's anybody else who would have an opinion about this possibly DPW but whether there is any reason today to reserve that lot for possible future municipal use I'm pretty sure that there you couldn't make a good argument for that anymore and like I said the one time I

know we did look at that we found it to be unsuitable for yeah can I say something um I did ask the land trust um president about it and his understanding was that it was always intended to be open space and he was surprised that it was not already on record um so I guess I wouldn't try to like solicit other people's input about whether it should be something else because it's kind of our understanding that it was supposed to be um open space not developed yeah well that you know that may have been a lot of people's understanding and it's best but it is it's still true though the best I recall we did we did see those those two lots identified separately and I think the reason for that was that the one of them was clearly intended to be conservation the other one the other part was it was thought that it might be useful for other Municipal purposes but in any case that was the last time we looked at it for non-conservation purposes was about 20 years ago right and at the time we found it to be unsuitable for any certainly unsuitable for a high school right and it's difficult to IM difficult for me at least to imagine any other potential use for it I like it I think it's good both of those Parcels ought to be conservation at this point yeah Dave if I could just interject as well um yeah I think that ship sailed for any other option at this stage of the game and I think that the consensus would be like when we're going through the town meeting should you know we Tee It Up for spring in time you know anybody who has who has any Comon to the country which I highly doubt you know they can there will be a hearings on on the Warren articles and that could be an

opportunity for them to to speak up at that time but I when I spoke to the conservation agent I mean this is has been like I think all her time in town and even before her said they've always it's it's it's been something that is on their radar specifically for conservation and and other folks that I've talked to kind of internally have have agreed so I I I yeah I I think you know I think it's it's always good to be cognizant of checking all the boxes but I think in this particular instance I don't I think we can probably move forward and and um yep go go forward with the proposal that these two Parcels be placed under under control of the Conservation Commission and uh yeah if if some other ideas come up well they come up and there may be a few people around who who remember what we what we were thinking back in the day but also hopefully who remember when we when we actually looked at this for the school we realized it was wasn't going to work and I think as I said I think I remember relevant is is that piece relevant where I mean his with the historical purpose versus kind of the jurisdiction today or is it just more intention I could probably respond to that I think that you know Dave Dave's point is basically just saying like like when the original considerations were made we we should be cognizant of that but I my counter point was just so much time has passed now and it's been on everybody's radar as conservation if anybody does have any addition like any comments that it shouldn't be

conservation for whatever reason there'll be public hearings associated with the waren article process where they can kind of voice those and if we need to go back to the drawing board if and when that occurs then we can but I highly doubt it's going to yeah what we might have been thinking what we were thinking for those of us who remember it at all well we were thinking 30 years ago or so when this project first first first came to the town things change what we were thinking 20 years ago when we looked at it and we realized it wasn't GNA you even at that point it was realized that yeah this doesn't look as good as maybe we thought it did 10 years before but in any case yeah what we were thinking 30 years ago 20 years ago that was then this is now circumstances change needs change our our our understanding of the value of this land for various purposes has has if anything become clearer over time so yeah I think what's important is how we how we look at it today and not understanding how it got to be where it was where it currently is is useful but we need not be bound by the thinking of 30 years ago right I I think yeah I think I think we have a I think we have a good plan here I mean I I I understand what I need to do I mean I'll check the as I said you know I'll check the archives and make sure there's nothing in there but if and if there if there is I'll report back if there's not then I'll just I'll reach out to council and say you know what's the best way to make sure that we're correctly um preserving this land and if we do do the can we reded and if we have to do a conservation restriction which

I'm pretty sure like really that's mandated if it's if it a private parcel which this is obviously not so um and and get just get confirmation from them and then report back and then we can we can start the town meeting process yep so just to just just to summarize sure what you have found so far in the records in the office you've not found anything that adds any useful information to what I had dug up in terms of the deeds and plans I didn't see anything no nothing that elaborated on what we needed that that's that that's kind of you know I got as far as as I could based on information I had including everything I could find at the registry of deeds and I saw some holes there and I was and I passed that on to you funa you've been you've been digging into the records and you've not found anything to fill those holes and if we don't find anything ultimately if we don't find anything that fills any of those gaps we have what's on the table before us and it from this point forward I think the path is clear that we can propose to place these two lots under Conservation Commission control I've I've seen and heard nothing to say that that would be inappropriate or inadvisable or impossible I would agree with that I also haven't seen anything I mean you know the zoning when that was drafted I mean it was a while ago but I think that the requirements of that zoning they were asking for some extra materials I think one could the argument that we do have that information albe it it's not probably in the exact format as and it doesn't tell us it it doesn't tell us clearly and un

unambiguously what land was supposed to be permanently protected but never did right but in the absence of any evidence to the contrary just to be a little bit redundant I think we are free to place both these particles under Conservation Commission control if town meeting approves yeah I'll work on that simple enough um honestly I think yeah I I see no no issues with getting started on that right well that's good I think it's that's that's that's kind of where I was hoping we'd end up with after after all the work you could do in the office you and if you're not finding anything if you if you don't find anything more than the paperwork we have is what we have to work with and I think I think yeah I mean unless Council has to do does some additional like vetting of you know add additional data analysis or some some vetting that they do on their side um and they find something um obviously we we can reserve the right to for things to come up at a later date but I I sure hope that that that wouldn't be the case so that's you know when we when we last met back in the fall you know we sort of quickly zeroed in on these two Parcels as being Parcels that we think very much deserve to be permanently protected and at this point sounds like we are we are in a position to move forward on that without a great deal of difficulty and uh beyond that I don't know that uh think I think we can we can start thinking about some of the other Parcels on our list and maybe uh pick another

candidate again I'm in no hurry I don't I I'm not I wasn't thinking that we would make any concrete recommendations tonight but just sort of find out where we're at with this one and then move forward and with with whatever we pick next um I'll do the same thing I did with these Milford Road parses I'll I'll gather up all the documentation I have I had I had most of this already on hand from my research into the open space inventory in the first place um but I'll I'll put together what I have Rel relative to whatever parts that we look you want to look at next I have a few suggestions I don't know if we're at that stage but I so just for everyone's just um know so I I've been I've been trying to keep concom you know very in in the loop about what's going on um because obviously they're going to be playing a role and and the conservation agent did send me um a very brief list and I'm happy to share it now or we can share it at a future meeing I think um the list that she did send is my my understanding is that they're generic this is It's the exact same situation as what we're dealing with with these Milford Road Parcels they're like generically dated to the town of Grafton without any further elaboration um it one and two Side putham Lane 46 Adams Road six Ferry Street and 268 Upton Street rear um all of those have been on you know um high of high interest to conservation um and appear to just need a a reding but I think we should go through this exercise with Milford to Milford Parcels to start and then we can

because then we'll know what to do and it'll be significantly easier than trying to tackle them all at once yeah I don't want to bite off bite off too much all at once but can you just you just so I can make a note of it can you mention the ones the sure I'll I'll read them out again so um they flagged obviously 27 and 27 Milford Road rear um one and two Side putam Lane that buts Hennessey y 46 Adams Road um I guess the process for that was initiated under the previous Town Council to deed to them uh because it and um as it already had um the access and trail head and parking to Hennessy but I but um Leah doesn't think think that that process was ever finalized I think it was but I'll check on that okay and then um 60 Ferry Street at a buts Maple uh Maple Veil Estates open space marel it's lower priority but it's something that they've been looking at and then lastly 268 Upton Street rear at a buts 240 Upton Street and um it would um Leah made a note that it would have a nice Contin ous Wetland system habitat if we were able to um get that um under our under care and control of conservation yeah and Dave I made a list of probably eight eight other ones out of that 16 page list that I thought would be high priority too so if you want me to take that list to the land trust

similar to what Fiona did with com comcon and see maybe they have like a short list too yeah I know I'll just note 60 Fairy Street was relatively recently acquired as tax title property along with there there was there's a there's a whole subdivision there off a Ferry Street that was approved but never built several Lots on Camp Hamot drive and two fery Street Lots I think they're all kind of connected to that but yeah I think 60 faery Street made you could could end up being a higher priority I that may not have been on the list that I circulated to the committee last fall because that was only recently added to the open space inventory it's on your new one yeah it's on the yeah it's on the new yeah yeah so anyway those you know that plus you know you know anything so any anything that you know be happy to get the land trust input on suggestions but you know this is the kind of thing that uh that I think we were driving at it here with this is starting with Milford Road but certainly there were there are others that you know Merit protection yeah and just just to just to be clear like those ones that I just listed like they are already deeded to the town they just need that they just need to be like like if one of them is more suitable you know those those ones have been flagged by conservation and already deed to the town but I think you know those ones we might want to get additional Buy in to make sure that um you know there's not like some like Recreation purpose that like I I don't think so I think I think it's kind of the same situation as Milford Road Parcels where it's kind of the Gen General understanding that they should be conservation land and that was the intent but y um again we can cross the bridge when when we come to start

talking about those it's going to have to be a c very it's every you know we're going to have to evaluate these things on a Case by case basis because they're all different yeah 46 Adams Road I just double checked it on it is on my article 97 inventory with the notation that there was a town meeting vote back in June of 21 that placed it under Conservation Commission control that okay great that yeah I didn't to I didn't have the time to cross reference all of them so that's that's good I'll let Leah know but to note that that is one of the votes that was never recorded at the registry of deeds oh okay to yeah you might want to sort of consult with Town Council on that one in particular because it may be advisable to record that town meeting vote at the registry of deeds mhm okay as far as I understand it the town meeting vote in and of itself is all you really need to place it under conservation control but it helps to have the vote recorded at the registry of deeds so that a record of that is generally available to the public yeah and it just kind of closes the loop on everything I I agree we can we can handle that well then that's well that's one off the list see how easy that is sometimes we can make things easy can I ask can I ask a question about the subdivision ones um these ones on the open space inventory um for example the writings Libby Lane it's owned by a private entity not deeded to the town it says it's open space but what needs to happen

for that to get actually protected as open space when the subdivision is the subdivision is currently under construction okay and that land has been set aside on the subdivision plan as open space ultimately it will be either deeded to the town or placed under conservation restriction most in most cases sub the subdivision developer will deed the land deed the open space to the town yeah so during the when they're ready once the construction is complete and we start talking about Road acceptance we always make sure that all of the you know easen uh um are deeded to the town Open Spaces any anything that is permitted to be Town property that those that deed paperwork is finalized as part of vote acceptance It's reviewed by the select board and then Tom meeting does does that vote and so once the roads accepted at Town Meeting those deeds are ALS those deeds and open space conveyances Etc are also accepted okay I've included on the inventory open space from a number of subdivisions that have not yet been completed but I I've included that open space in the inventory perhaps not clearly noting that this is a subdivision that is still under construction but what if it's a subdivision that's been there for a really long time well now that and there are a couple of cases yeah I noticed a couple of those yeah there are some older subdivisions that have open set aside open space and never got around to handing that open space over to the town right that's on that's those are on my list of things that we want to look at right because what theoretically would how would that go if it's it's an older subdivision like for example I saw that

there's Magnolia the Magnolia Road subdivision those are already built what would we need to do to get that open space I think that particular case there is a homeowners association that's controlling that open space okay in other cases whoever developed a subdivision still owns some entity owns that open space and if we wanted to get that open space protected we'd have to reach out to the current owner of that open space and work work work out basically convinced them that yeah this was supposed to be handed over to the town why you just actually do it so but eventually they have to it has to be hand it over to the town or CR one of those two yeah the options for protecting subdivision open space are there's two or three options okay I mean it it can be donated to the land trust it could be donated the town it could be be kept under private ownership of the CR I think there's there may be if I think there's a fourth option which I don't remember I I just want to be clear though I mean some of these subdivisions with the Open Open Spaces I mean uh not all of them I think were had like the very clear intention of donating to it I mean that's always like the goal but I think maybe like who knows like through the public hearing process or something you know the land that they were donating wasn't useful or whatever and and then the town may have said at the time you know the board like 20 years ago or whatever said oh it's not that's not viable for the town to have have a homeowners association take care of I mean it's it's all like Case by casee basis like sometimes like it's always it you know obviously we want to try and get access to the to the best open space but often you know sometimes you see

that it's you know the land isn't isn't great and there's the agreement between all parties like okay a HOA is going to handle it and then that's yeah I think mostly but is it record where the the intent again is that recorded anywhere the intent is usually recorded on a plan if not in the the older subdivisions in particular there may not be any documentation other than the plan that shows right um I think in one place in particular that off of Rose Lane there's a there's a parcel that on the plan was designated as a playground to be owned by the town but there was no nothing in writing in terms of the subdivision approval or anything else that committed them to doing that so the the fact that the plan shows it is evidence that there was some intent to hand that land over to the town but there was at the time and this is mostly long you know 30 40 50 years ago at the time there was really no sort of formal mechanism nothing was written in in any approval document that required that since the early 90s um we've had the flexible development bylaw which is a much more for a flexible development subdivision there's a much more you know much more detailed and formalized process and most of those I suspect haven't tried to verify this most of those probably have been properly handed over to the town or whatever other mechanism was agreed to for that it's some of the older ones where there may have been little or nothing in writing to formalize the intent to hand it over to the town where and and some of those are those older ones in particular are kind of on my

list of at some point we want to look at that uh if if there was a formal intent to hand it over and nobody really followed through on that well the process for that would be here we have in writing let's follow through on it yeah I think starting with the the parcels that are deed to the town because there's a good a chunk of those yep and then yeah because because it's going to involve more coordination with private parties and who knows if ownership's changed hands and that's going to take some time so yes I'm definitely on board um and think that's a great idea but I'm just thinking about you know what what can we what can we do in the more immediate sense um and to try and get get some of this stuff under official control yes the the loow hanging fruit principle yes yes yes some of those properties that are under private ownership but we think ought to be protected in some way that process could very well get rather involved not that we don't want to do it but it's you know let's let's take care of some of the things that are sort of higher on our priority list because if you know if a subdivision open space has gone 40 years nobody's done anything with it yeah it's just sitting there as open space and you know that's right it's the result we want it's just not formalized right and guaranteed in perpetuity yeah yeah I think we've got a we've got a we've got a got a good start on this exercise here and it can keep us busy for a while but uh yeah so we'll we'll follow up on this at our next meeting with some more some more ideas for for

what we want to pursue yeah and I think um I just I always want to be cautioning so I know Town Council like I I I I'm hoping that we'll be able to have um something to bring to the next meeting in a month but I do know the town council is spread is spread very thin between multiple parties so um and I'll just I'll just stay in the loop with everybody um about what how this is unfolding and then we can go from there hopefully it won't be that much that heavy of a lift we can yep well excellent thank you f I'm I'm I'm pleased with the progress we've made on this yeah I thanks Dave I mean you did a lot of the a lot a lot of the leg work I did like I I I searched on my end but you know really a lot of the information that I was Finding was already you already had pulled up so I think we have a good game plan and and uh yeah well I'll be in touch and we'll go from there excellent thanks Fiona thank you thank you all feel free to reach out at any time if you have questions or want to talk further or whatever you you know where to find me so yep all right Al righty thank you bye bye good night good night F all right and we have one more agenda item which is the minutes of the previous meeting he look good to me chair the chair would recognize a motion to approve the minutes as drafted with any corrections noted during

discussion I'll move to approve the minutes from October Elizabeth are you there I am oh hi um I had your name highlighted I I'm sorry I did not write down if you were at the last meeting in in October if you were on Zoom or if you were not there do you happen to remember I saw that um I was highlighted and I was like oh I have to go back and look at my calendar I don't remember I think I wasn't physically there but I do believe I was on Zoom okay that's what I the first one I was at I think it was just Steve and I that were in person along with Dave yeah and she and then Elizabeth was is usually on Zoom yeah okay yeah right so I have a motion on the floor do I have a second I don't know if I can second I wrote them oh I'll second all right is there any discussion of the motion so You' clear you've cleared up the one point you were asking about yeah well Trevor um he's not here to ask but I'm fairly confident that I don't think he was on Zoom I do not remember Trevor being at the last meeting all right with no further discussion then we'll call for a vote Travis yes Shannon yes Elizabeth yes and day votes yes motion carried unanimously the minutes are approved and with that we've reached the end of the agenda so a motion to adjourn would be an order I'll make a motion to adjourn I'll second move in second that this meeting be adjourned Travis yes Shannon yes Elizabeth yes and Dave votes yes motion carried unanimously we are adjourned

thank you very much for coming out this evening and we'll uh we'll get back together next month