To the Editor:
Nearly lost in the hubbub at Mattapoisett’s Annual Town Meeting on May 9th was the excellent report provided by the Community Preservation Committee (CPC). That report, printed on yellow paper, details CPC awards totaling $2.356 million from 2009 through 2021. We calculate that $0.707 million of these awards have been spent on open space, or about 30% of total awards. This is appropriate, since open space is one of three categories (along with housing and historic preservation) that require an allocation of CPC funds each year.
We further calculate that $0.536 million of these open space awards have been to the Town itself, to protect land overlying municipal drinking water wells in the Mattapoisett River valley. Surely it is prudent to protect the source of drinking water used by four towns, rather than to spend more money later to purify ground water from the inevitable contamination caused by housing development near wells (e.g. lawn chemicals, driveway runoff, septic discharge). Organizations like Mattapoisett Land Trust (MLT) and Buzzards Bay Coalition (BBC) have received only $171,000 in CPC funds over this 12- year period to acquire conservation lands to protect wildlife habitats, scenic views and enhance public outdoor recreation. Funds awarded to MLT and BBC account for only 24% of all open space funds awarded and 7% of total awards. We note that both MLT and BBC are able to leverage Town funds received many times over with much larger state and federal land conservation grants, and with private donations. In short, we believe past CPC awards for open space have been prudent and effective investments to improve the Town, and should continue.
Citizens sometimes express concern that conservation lands don’t pay property taxes, and are limiting residential development. We disagree for several reasons. First, nearly half of all conservation lands in Mattapoisett are owned by the state (Haskell Swamp and Nasketucket Bay) and the state makes payments to the Town in lieu of taxes. Municipal and MLT/BBC lands do not pay taxes, but return value to taxpayers in the form of drinking water protection, wildlife habitat, scenic views, and public recreation outdoors. Second, a large part of conservation lands are wetlands, salt marshes, and priority wildlife habitat areas that are not suitable for development. Third, the steady rate of new home construction throughout town suggests that land is still available to meet market demands for housing. Open space conservation and new residential development are compatible in Mattapoisett.
We support Mattapoisett’s strong fiscal management approach that has resulted in our AAA bond rating, carefully reviewed budgets, development of new revenue sources and judicious use of debt. There is no silver bullet to ease the financial strains on the town. Protection of open space will continue to be an important factor in keeping Mattapoisett Special, and is not in conflict with prudent financial management of the Town.
Gary P. Johnson
Mike Huguenin, Mattapoisett
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