Seekonk Concerned Citizens - Controlling Our Land

At the recent Seekonk Town Meeting warrant article number 15 asked residents to spend $312,500 of taxpayers money to purchase a parcel of land on Elm and Chestnut streets. Buying this parcel of land would place it on the shelf and most likely out of our control forever.

Protecting our land is a great idea and we should always exercise caution whenever our land is being considered for development. But the problem with our land being controlled by a small group is wrong. Wrong because when land is placed on the shelf through the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) means that we can only regain control of that land by an act of the Massachusetts State Legislature. And that could translate to never.

Also, how do we know that land being presented by the CPC for open space isn’t already protected because it contains wetlands, ledge, or some other reason making it already unusable. So are we paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for land already protected?

Seekonk residents need to have more facts presented in these cases. Information that contains: a topographic study, flow rates, geological samples, Satellite photos and information from our planning board, zoning board of appeals, tax assessors and any other information that will help residents make a decision based on facts and not on the opinion of one board.

In the case of the land on Elm and Chestnut streets we were told by the presenter that eight new houses could be built there, but information recently obtained from our tax assessor office states it would be difficult to build one house there.

If we were given wrong, or misleading information then Seekonk has the right to withdraw from purchasing this land.

Seekonk goes through great lengths to study and vette all requests for money and budgets yet we hardly even ask questions about land being purchased through the CPC. It’s time that Seekonk rethinks whether we need such a board, because any land purchased for open space should always remain in the control of the residents of Seekonk and not the state.

It could be possible that Seekonk just spent $312,500 on land we didn’t have to protect. That money could have been used for our schools, safety, or roads. It’s time to rethink how we’ve been doing business concerning our land purchases as we just may have bought property that was unusable to begin with and that’s bad business.

Seekonk Concerned Citizens