Unique Partnership Places 12 Acres on Stony Brook into Conservation.
For years, Westford residents knew the eighteen acres on Stony Brook Road as Laughton’s Christmas tree farm. In 2005, Laughton informed the Town of Westford that the land was to be sold for development. As agricultural land, the property had been allowed to pay lower property taxes under a state-wide program to promote farming in Massachusetts. Known as Chapter 61A, in return for lower taxes, the program requires that when the land is no longer farmed, the town has the right of first refusal. Chapter 61A also allows the Town to assign its right of first refusal to another entity.
After public hearings in April 2005, the Selectmen chose not to ask Town Meeting to purchase the land. Instead, the board voted to transfer the right of first refusal to the non-profit Westford Land Preservation Foundation. Already known in the town for playing a major role in the campaign for the Town’s purchase of the 287 acre East Boston Camps just months before, and for raising close to half a million dollars toward that purchase, the Land Preservation Foundation presented an alternative for the eighteen acres. The Laughton parcel was under agreement to a developer who proposed a ten to eleven lot subdivsion.
The Land Preservation Foundation proposed to purchase the land through a partnership with a builder willing to reduce the number of houses from eleven to six, and to set aside twelve acres along Stony Brook. The 12 acres of open space would be put under a conservation restriction to be held by the Town’s Conservation Commission. The Foundation’s partner in the project, Westford resident Kirk Ware, president of Nagog Real Estate Consulting Corp., wrote in his proposal letter that he was excited “to partner with the Land Foundation on this significant, ground breaking project in town.” Kirk went on to describe the creation of “a ‘human scale’ neighborhood in a particularly beautiful parcel that is sensitive to the natural features, woods and wetlands that make this property unique.”
In December 2005, the last of the six houses of Gray Fox Lane was completed and sold. The Selectmen approved the conservation restriction in February 2006. At the Annual Meeting of the Land Preservation Foundation on March 31st , it was announced that Nagog Real Estate recently presented the Foundation with a check for $25,000.