04/05/1999 SELECT BOARD Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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• f if'1'jftr 1 �� Willo end DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION March 29, 1999 Dear Members of the Board of Selectmen: We understand that the warrant being finalized this evening includes an article granting the Town authority to acquire our recently purchased land on Shoestring Bay by eminent domain. For the record,we want to record our strong opposition to this article and the process by which it was put forward. We first learned that the Town was interested in this parcel through an article in the Mashpee Enterprise. During two subsequent meetings with the Town Planner on March 5"'and March 25"'we expressed our strong objections to the proposal. We stressed our opinion that the land involved, which the Town has proposed to acquire for S1,500,000.00,was worth in excess of $6,000,000.00. The Town has made no appraisal of the land. We subsequently learned that despite our strong objections and dispute as to value,neither the Open Space Committee nor the Board of Selectmen had this information available to them when the final decision to include this article on the warrant was made. While we support the goals of the Open Space Committee, and have even agreed to a below market acquisition of another piece of our land for open space,we remain very frustrated at the process which led to the inclusion of this article. The stated goal of the Open Space Committee is to work with"willing sellers"_ Unfortunately, we were never contacted by anyone prior to the introduction of this article and believe that if all the information had been available to the decision-makers,this unfortunate event could have been avoided. The lack of communication on this matter is disconcerting and we believe not helpful in advancing the worthy goals of the Open Space Committee. The scarce Land Bank monies available are better spent on targeting available properties rather than fighting with landowners over valuation of properties that are not for sale. We respectfully request that the Selectmen investigate the events leading up to this article and ask the Open Space Committee to look into its internal processes to determine how these events occurred. Si David C. Southworth 130 Willowbend Drive,Mashpee, Massachusetts 02649 Telephone:(508)539-5500 Facsimile: (508)539-5244 e-:mail: wdc©wdc-capecod.com • website: www.willowbendgolfcorn