A special town meeting was called for when it became clear the the town governance was not listening to community input about the proposed Haggetts Pond Trail. Three articles were introduced in an attempt to strenghen and enforce existing rulemaking. 

The proposed amendments to Article 1 addressed resident and town concerns about “unintended consequences” that might prevent maintenance in the watershed area. After its amendment on the floor, Article 1 was revised to address a scrivener error and to remove the reference to sub-section 5.

The amendment added the word “non-asphaltic” to the existing By-Law 8.8.6 item 21 while excluding parking lots from that prohibition. That was to ensure that no asphalt paving took place immediately adjacent to our drinking water supply while still allowing construction of a parking lot near Haggetts Pond as part of future enhancement to accessibility.  At the same time, it permits an alternate hard surface like stone dust to allow accessibility for wheelchairs and strollers.

Only the areas in “Priority 1” of the Watershed Protection Overlay District would have been affected by the Article if adopted. These areas cover very little residential land. They had already been subject to stringent approval requirements – this change was simply to add a prohibition on paving to protect our water supply that existing constructed lots would be exempted from anyway. The areas are indicated in green in the map below.