Conservation restriction in city could produce a lot of revenue

The catch: 75 percent of money would be used for watershed management By Owen Boss GARDNER — City officials met with the president of the North County Land Trust and a land agent from the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game Monday night to discuss plans to place permanent conservation restrictions over portions of the land surrounding the municipal water supply. Brandon Kibbe, the land agent, said the proposal was similar to others he had worked with across the region, and was in accordance with the department’s two primary missions. “My department has two main missions, the permanent conservation of open space for habitat protection and the promotion of nonmotorized outdoor recreation,” said Mr. Kibbe. “Usually we buy these from a landowner, but in this instance the land belongs to the municipality of Gardner, so the city would continue to own it, continue to manage it and all the conservation restriction does is permanently extinguish development rights.” Mr. Kibbe said the department currently owns 39,000 acres of Worcester County and recent advancements in recent years have made conservation restrictions more common, especially around municipal water sources. “A lot of times water supply land is closed down entirely to public access and a lot of municipalities have been going toward doing different treatment plants and so shutting those off is becoming no longer necessary,” Mr. Kibbe. “And so our two missions of habitat protection and public access go very well hand-in-hand through this project.” Although the sale of the approximately 2,200 acres of city-owned land could generate a substantial amount of revenue for the city, 75 percent of that sum would be required to be spent toward developing the area as a source of “passive recreation.” “The white elephant that is in the room of course is the price. In recent years with other municipalities it has ranged between $400 and $500 an acre,” said Mr. Kibbe. “Seventy-five percent of those funds generated from the conservation restriction have to go into a dedicated fund for watershed management and future watershed protection so it doesn’t all just go into the general fund because we are trying to leverage future conservation.” Councilor David Boudreau said he was in favor of the conservation restriction because it would generate a new source revenue for the city. “Seventy-five percent of it will be controlled by them, but 25 percent will not and that is money that we don’t have,” said Mr. Boudreau. “And the area that they are looking at right now is space that we would never have done anything with anyway so actually we are protecting ourselves and getting some money for it.” Mayor Mark Hawke said he supported the idea and said the agreement would be flexible enough that the city could use some of the designated funding for urban projects, as long as the money was matched. Alan N. Rousseau, president of the North County Land Trust, said this agreement would provide the city with future opportunities. “We have to encourage access to the area,” said Mr. Rousseau. “I think this is very consistent with the direction that the city is moving to open this area up for recreation and I think it will present them with an opportunity to purchase other parcels on a select basis in the city that are of conservation interest. We have tried to view things in Gardner over the last couple of years but there hasn’t been any money. What this does is provide the engine for funding to do more purchasing. I really encourage everyone to give this a really good look.” The next step in the process was taken immediately following the forum at a formal council meeting where councilors unanimously voted to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the department. The conservation restriction would still allow fishing on the land, and Mr. Kibbe said he expected it could be enacted sometime in fiscal 2010. oboss@thegardnernews.com Appeared on Page 1 on 10/7/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 237)