According to the February 28 version of the  Haggetts Pond project website maintained by the Town of Andover, planning and discussion of the project has been underway since 2015.  The town was motivated to pursue this project because of activism by groups that coalesced in the Andover Commission on Disability’s request to create an ADA accessible trail.   The town then engaged an outside advocacy group to run a study that involved disabled individuals in identifying candidates for the project.  The study group identified the Haggetts Pond rail trail as the ideal candidate. 

All of this culminated with Andover Facilities Department applying for a grant with Masstrails in 2022 to build a portion of the trail.  The town hired the BSC group to create a design that exceeded ADA requirements by including a 12′ wide shared use trail, a boardwalk, picnic areas and two substantial parking lots on what is currently wetlands.  The town ostensibly paid for the design services using ARPA funds.  

Masstrails awarded Andover $500,000 on June 14, 2023 to construct the trail.  More ARPA funds were used to pay the “matching” portion of the project required by Masstrails.  The Facilities department effort, led by Janet Nicosia, hired BSC Design group to create a plan to excavate and pave a 12′ swathe over the existing trail, build a boardwalk and two parking lots (including a large over 30 space lot that would have paved existing wetlands).

Once completed, the town submitted the design to both state agencies as well as the town’s Conservation Commission for approval.

The Town should be applauded for winning additional funding for its purposes, but there were two important problems with the order of operations it pursued.  First, without external, public input or discussion, the town’s Facilities department BSC Design together determined that they should create a plan and apply based on a “multi-use paved path,” whose definition is subject the Mass DOT and requires asphalt paving and 10′ width.  However, the town had the option to apply for a woodland trail which could accommodate a narrow 3′ width, stone dust materials, and would still meet ADA requirements.  These distinctions were never presented or discussed to a broader cross section of residents and interested parties.

Second, the Facilities department chose not to to review plans with Conservation Commission or appropriate State agencies such as the Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs  (See response to November 2023 NOI ) prior to the application.  Those and other stakeholders’ review is required and has delayed the project, putting the funding at risk.  

The town started to organize public meetings in August of 2023 believing that it could present the asphalt paved multi-used path as a fait accompli and assuming that necessary approvals would come in a timely manner.  The town publicly announced the intended contours of the project quite late – November 2, 2023 on the town web site  (click here to see original project page at Archive.org).

Contrast this with the planning process of the Shawsheen River Master Plan which was announced years in advance – in January, 2022 with presentations still underway this year  ( See Shawsheen River Master Plan web page ).  

Once the town announced its plans and held its first meeting which was aimed mainly at abutters, concerned residents spread word about the dramatic changes planned for the bucolic and serene environs surrounding Haggetts Pond that many have enjoyed for years.  Additional residents expressed concerns about the impact of excavating 10′ wide swathes of land, destroying tree roots and trees that line the path, as well as the risks of excavating an old rail bed harboring unknown contaminants.  The idea of paving thousands of square feet of asphalt within a few feet of our town’s drinking water supply animated many as well.  

Residents began to attend Conservation and Select Board meetings to express their concerns.  Concerned residents met with town officials in private on numerous occasions and participate en masse in social media groups focused on town issues.  While we concede that these concerns were “heard”, the town showed no interest in reopening the design process or conceiving of a more inclusive one.  What little feedback was provided indicated a dim view of water quality and conservation concerns.  

Several important events cast shadows on the aggressive timetable engineered by BSC and led by the Facilities Department of the town.  One was the negative reaction by Massachusetts’ Department of Energy and Environmental Affairs to the Notice of Intent filed for the project on behalf of the town.  The second was the review undertaken by Andover’s own Conservation Commission that has struggled to address obvious wetland protection requirements in our town bylaws and the state’s regulations with the enormous pressure of town officials and advocacy groups.  

It remains to be seen if the Planning Board takes this up as well, as it should by statute.  So far that process has not even started.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking…. Funding must be utilized by June 30, 2024, so the delays put the funding at risk.  This doesn’t please Friends of Haggetts Pond.  This funding which could been applied to an acceptable design utilizing stone dust or planned in a less sensitive area than the watershed.

The town could have engaged residents to obtain their feedback and develop plan acceptable for most groups.  It also could have submitted the designs for regulatory review with the Conservation Commission and the Commonwealth’s Dept. of Energy and Environmental affairs.  Had it done so, it might have saved precious time that has been lost waiting while the design goes through several layers of review.  

In spite of a range of unforced errors, the town has not moved closer to concerned resident’s positions on water safety, conservation and governance concerns stemming from the lack of inclusive involvement as compared to other projects.

By January of 2024, after many public comments and private engagements, residents realized the Town’s Managers, Facilities Department and Select Board had no intention of reopening the design process, creating a more inclusive focus group or modifying the highest impact aspects of the design such as reducing the width of the trail and replacing asphalt with a more sustainable surface like stone dust, all of which would comply with ADA accessibility while going a long way to preserving the natural setting and protecting our water supply.  

Public statements by town officials ranged from skepticism to stating that the trail was a “moral” issue.  Residents shared the observation that ADA compliance for a trail could be achieved as easily with other locations such as Pomps Pond, or with a less destructive design using stone dust or simply addressing the highest priority accessibility concerns – parking and the entrance to the trail from the south.  Select Board Members, the town managers and its employees remained unmoved.