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Participating remotely in the Winchester Select Board’s Nov. 2 meeting, member Michael Bettencourt said he had questions about Forest Ridge “that I don’t think can be answered by anybody but the developer.”
Select Board Chair Anthea Brady replied the developer was always welcome at public comment.
“We’re not negotiating with the developer,” she said.
The exchange ended without a board recommendation on Article 26, the proposed eminent domain taking of Forest Ridge. Instead, Brady agreed to put discussion of Bell Point LLC’s Sept. 29 memo explicitly on the agenda for the board’s 6 p.m. meeting Thursday, Nov. 5, an hour before Fall Town Meeting opens at Winchester High School.
No one moved to invite Bell Point, and no company appearance was scheduled.
Article 26, brought by the Conservation Commission with Bettencourt as an individual co-proponent, would authorize a taking of roughly 13 acres of woods and wetland off Forest Circle, bordering the Middlesex Fells, and needs a two-thirds vote.
In May, Town Meeting rejected a voluntary purchase of the land 105-59.
Bell Point, a Glastonbury, Conn., developer that calls itself the buyer under agreement, wants the board to recommend no action and weigh a negotiated mix of housing and preserved land.
Disputed agenda
When Brady opened Article 26, Select Board member Michelle Prior said the board had asked at its Oct. 19 meeting to have the developer on the Nov. 2 agenda.
Brady corrected her: The request was to discuss the developer’s requests, and she and town administrators had decided those could be taken up under Article 26 rather than as a separate item. The posted agenda listed only a general item on warrant article recommendations.
Bettencourt said he had asked for a standalone item and emailed Town Manager Christopher Senior without a reply.
“I don’t know how anybody would know that, and I didn’t know that,” he said, of the letter’s inclusion, adding he did not think it was “properly noticed on our agenda.”
Senior later said the most recent email he could find from Bettencourt was dated Oct. 9 and concerned a banner at the high school.
Brady offered to walk through the memo’s five requested actions or to vote the board’s position on the spot. She also offered to table the matter and consult town counsel if Bettencourt believed discussing it would violate the Open Meeting Law.
He asked it be tabled and brought back as its own agenda item, with the developer present.
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Invitation or agenda item
The sharper split was over bringing Bell Point before the board. Brady told Bettencourt he could make a motion to invite the developer. He replied the board does not typically make motions on agenda items and said requiring one amounted to “gatekeeping of information.”
The Select Board is not asking Town Meeting to act on Article 26, she said; the Conservation Commission and Bettencourt, as an individual, are.
The board is only taking a position, and if Town Meeting grants the authority, carrying out a taking would be a separate board decision requiring its own due diligence.
Bell Point, she added, does not own the land and is not a proponent. To the best of her understanding, something “may be in negotiations, but it’s not been settled.”
Bettencourt countered that he believed the developer has rights to the land and noted that the Finance Committee had heard from Bell Point.
Vice Chair Bill McGonigle pulled the two questions apart.
“I consider the letter to be completely separate from my position on this article,” he said, adding his view turns on eminent domain.
Hearing from the developer “would be nice,” McGonigle said, but “it’s not necessary for me.” He did not say how he would vote.
Bettencourt agreed the board should wait on its recommendation until Nov. 5.
Petition and pressure
During public comment, ecologist Prassede Calabi told the board that a Change.org petition for people who favor town acquisition of the land had reached 600 signatures that day. The count has not been independently verified, and the petition has no official standing.
Calabi said Bell Point had contacted neighbors about buying their homes, which created a sense of urgency.
Bell Point’s memo asks for a chance to answer questions before the Select Board and Finance Committee settle their positions. It commits to no unit count, access plan or development program.
The board’s recommendation is advisory. Town Meeting decides whether to grant taking authority, and Brady said she expected Article 26 to reach the floor on the second or third night, Nov. 9 or 12.
Will Dowd is a Massachusetts journalist who covers municipal government and community life for Winchester News. He is also the founder and editor of The Marblehead Independent, a reader-funded digital newsroom.
