SOUTHWICK — The Select Board will conduct an informational session at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 11, to gather feedback on protocols to protect the town’s agricultural, recreational and historic properties.
“We want to get the relevant stakeholders involved and hear the people’s perspective,” said Select Board member Doug Moglin about the goal of the meeting in the Town Hall Land Use Room. He said he’ll be interested to hear how residents think what the board should consider when making “first-refusal” decisions on whether to acquire properties that receive tax breaks under chapters 61, 61A and 61B of state law.
Those three chapters give owners of conservation, farm and outdoor recreation land a break on their property taxes in exchange for not developing it. But properties that take a tax break under chapters 61, 61A or 61B must be offered to the town for purchase at a fair market value before they can be sold to anyone else, said former Agricultural Commission member Maryssa Cook-Obregon.
“I hope people understand what’s at stake,” said Cook-Obregon, who wrote a proposed protocol for handling these decisions.
There have been times in the past when the Select Board learned a “chapter land” parcel was available only days before the town’s 120-day “right of first refusal” was set to expire.
“The town should have an opportunity to pursue a property,” Moglin said.
He said the town has always had protocols designed to notify relevant officials of the pending sale of chapter lands, but it’s been difficult to distribute those notices and get every board’s and department’s response in a reasonable amount of time.
That can leave town officials scrambling to decide on whether it should pursue purchasing the property. It’s often not an easy decision, because the local tax dollars that might be involved can be significant.
The protocols proposed by Cook-Obregon would create a clear and detailed path for following the state guidelines, enforcing shorter deadlines on town boards so that the Select Board has enough time to consider its decision and host a public hearing before the 120-day state-mandated deadline closes.
“Hopefully, the protocols are easy to follow, and no balls are dropped in the future,” she said.
Since drafting the protocols, several boards and committees have already supported her initiative, including Parks and Recreation, the Conservation Commission, the Agricultural Commission, and the Community Preservation Committee.
Members of those boards and commissions have been invited to the July 11 information session, as are members of the Select Board, Board of Assessors, Planning Board and Historical Society.
